The Long-Awaited Keyman64 Central States Show Report

keyman64

I'm so sorry to have kept everyone waiting but I hope it's worth it. Here it goes.

Day #1 Thursday

For ~$260, I flew from Tampa to Chicago (O'Hare, the closest airport to Schaumburg), landing at 8:05 AM Thursday morning. I left the mid-80s temps for what turned out to be a much more brisk air. Long sleeve shirts were in order! While going through security in Tampa, my carry-on bag was selected for search due to the 40-50 ounces of silver. That was close to a 20 minute delay because I had to wait for others to be inspected ahead of me. Good times.

After a short Uber ride, I found myself at the convention center. I purchased my tickets online days in advance so I could avoid the line and save $10. I picked up my Thursday & Friday passes/lanyard and wanted to do lot viewing prior to the open of the show. I headed to Heritage to check out 20 lots. Some were quite impressive! Others, like some blue toned patterns, were a little less impressive. The blue just wasn't nearly as nice in hand as it was in the photos. No biggie. The likelihood that I would have gone for one was very low but had the toning been truly impressive in hand I might have considered one. I enjoyed looking at some 1793 material and pretty gold pieces. It did not take very long to finish at Heritage. Everyone was very nice. I have never had a bad experience lot viewing.

With the show open time of 10:30AM getting closer, it was time to head to the show entrance and meet up with a friend. It is always so good to meet up with coin friends. The show opened promptly and everyone sprinted into the show like Black Friday shoppers at Best Buy...okay, maybe not, but that's the vision I have in my head.

I had to address my highest priority first so I visited Legend to lot view the one primary coin that I went to the show for. Legend was pleasant to work with and I viewed the one coin I went for and one other lot my friend suggested I look at. I obtained a bidder card for the 4PM festivities. I was pretty pumped to have all lot viewing out of the way and the winning bidder card I needed.

Besides the one auction item, my goals were as follows: sell a few pounds of silver so I didn't have to go through a super-extra-special-security-search check on the way back home, hunt for high grade toned Mercury Dimes, see if I could cherrypick any high grade Mercury Dime Varieties, sell one toned Mercury Dime that I had and did not quite fit my collection, submit a couple coins to PCGS (but not for show grading), socialize with friends, eat food, and see if I would pick up any other coins that fall into the category of distractions. Distractions can sometimes be healthy when it is difficult to fill the holes for the primary goals. You have to be careful to not let distractions prevent you from obtaining your primary goals. It can be a slippery slope.

Just prior to eating a small pizza for lunch, I was able to lighten the load in my backpack by getting rid of that silver. I am glad I didn't haul that around for two full days, not to mention the trip back to Florida! Lunch was enjoyed with a friend while he showed me a couple of the coolest coins on the planet. Wow, I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to hold them. Way above my pay-grade and super special. If he wants to chime in and share more about them then he can. It isn't my place other than to express the joy it brought me. This is what makes coin shows so special. Enjoying the hobby with friends is so cool and being happy for the accomplishments of others. This was a highlight of the show for me.

After lunch it was time to continue my sprint up and down the aisles. I wanted to cover most of the bourse prior to the 4PM Legend Auction start. The next cool moment was when I found a coin for one of my distractions. I believe it was in January when I obtained a double-sided blueberry toned 1962 Proof Franklin. Shortly thereafter, I was able to track down a wildly toned 1962 Proof Quarter I used to own. I was so happy to get that coin back. With those coins in place, I figured it wouldn't hurt to finish the proof set since the most difficult coins were already owned. I was able to locate a 1962 Proof Nickel that fit my need nicely. It is not PF70 DCAM or anything like that. My goal is not to have one of the higher graded sets, just a pretty wildly toned set. Here's the nickel, quarter and half. I just need to find a dime and cent that meet my needs but they should be the easiest. The nickel is Proof 67, Quarter is Proof 67 and Half is Proof 64.

Not long after that success, I was able to sell the toned 1945-D 10c in NGC MS67FB* that did not fit my needs and I had already upgraded. I wasn't trying too hard to get rid of it as I thought I would just turn it over to the auction house I got it from. I was turning to walk away from a table and the dealer asked if I had anything for sale. I figured, what the heck, I will give it a try. To my surprise, I was able to sell it.

Shortly thereafter, I was informed QA was at the show. I had my partial 1962 Proof Set and decided to submit the nickel and quarter I happened to have with me. After that was the continued sprinting up and down aisles and socializing. I also grabbed a couple PCGS submission forms for submitting on Friday.

It was almost 4PM and time to get to the Legend auction. The auction started about 15 minutes late but that's okay. I settled in with water, cheese and crackers. This would be my first time participating in a live coin auction in person. I wanted to go to Roger Burdette's talk on research but it was from 4-5PM and I was on a mission. I heard from some people the next day that they enjoyed Roger's discussion very much. With the order of auction lots, I could have actually gone but I felt it was more important for me to stay focused, not get distracted and not mess up this opportunity. So, I sat there about 90 minutes until my lot made it to the big screen, When I got in the room, there might have been about a dozen bidders. When I finally left there were about half that. There was a person sitting near the back of the room, bidding on several lots. Whenever the person bid, they would play an air raid siren or tornado warning sound...something like that. When it came to my auction item of interest, sure enough, they bid. I do not know what made me want to record the auction of this lot but I did...now you can listen to this person bid. I uploaded the video to YouTube. Lol Maybe next time I bid live in an auction I will play Howler Monkey sounds?
https://youtu.be/RoJ38BHpaxk

Anyway, here's my auction win. It is an upgrade to my 67+FB (at PCGS for reconsideration right now).

PCGS MS68+FB CAC - Not perfect but it will work for now...or until someone gifts me a 69FB. HA HA.

About 5:40PM, I was outta there. Fortunately for me, I had about 20 minutes left to roam the bourse since it closed at 6:00PM, or so I thought. Security did not let me in! I wanted to go meet up with some people but nope, Central States decided to NOT allow people into the show after 5:30PM. There was no announcement about that when I got my passes, no sign at the entrance/exit of the bourse that I recall seeing, no announcements throughout the day, no announcement for the auction attendees. That's lame. It turns out there was an announcement made inside the bourse while I was out of the bourse in the auction...not that it would have made a difference. Still lame. I guess not as lame as the show organizers using a counterfeit coin on the cover of their show guide. I can understand 10 minutes but 30 seems unreasonable. /rant. I waited around for a friend to exit the bourse and we went to dinner.

We walked to the restaurant on the second level of the adjacent hotel out of convenience. It turns out they were not sufficiently staffed for the convention. There were lots of empty tables but they could not seat people. We were seated after a 30 minute wait or so. No big deal. Afterwards, I wasgiven a ride to my hotel (~$135 and included a breakfast buffet), less than a mile away. I checked in and passed out a couple hours later.

Day #2 Friday

I totally enjoyed that breakfast buffet to start my day. I inquired to see if they had a shuttle to take me to the convention center and they did not. I think the temp was about 50 degrees and I wore two shirts & pants. I made the 8 tenths of a mile walk to the convention center, The weather was fantastic! Nice crisp cool air and partly cloudy with some blue in the sky. Coming from Florida, the low humidity and cool air was so nice. The walk was also fantastic. This is not a typical downtown area. Besides the cars on the road, I did not see a single person. The really wide sidewalks were nice, the trees in bloom were nice, the birds were as well...there just wasn't anything bad about the walk. The nearby Zurich building is pretty cool as well.

I did not pay close attention to the time, when they were letting people in etc but saw people were walking in so I just followed. It wasn't until I got to the PCGS table that I noticed it was about 9:05AM and only dealers were supposed to be in. I kinda figured this made up for the prior day. HA! I sat down at an empty PCGS table and peacefully filled out my forms I was too lazy to fill out the night before. I then sat down with a PCGS rep (Dominique I believe) and she was very nice.

Legend was allowing for auction win pickup from 9AM-11AM so this was my next priority. I was of course interested in picking it up, if possible. This would save money for shipping and the risk from shipping. Well, with Jessica's help and I little while later, I was able to collect my prize! Thank you to everyone involved for making this a pleasant experience.

Shortly thereafter, I visited with QA to pick up my two coins (the 1962 Nickel and 1962 Quarter above). SWEET, they both passed and have pretty stickers on the slabs.

I revisited a number of tables throughout the day and hit about two rows I did not finish the day prior. Most everyone I encountered was very nice during the trip. I would definitely recommend the show. It is smaller than Winter FUN but still quite large. The area struck me as nice, clean and safe. I got to see a few forum members and I wish I would have met up with more but time was limited and there was a lot to accomplish.

I got an Uber about 2:45 and was off to the airport for my 5:30 flight back home. Since I was not the winner of a super-extra-special-search in security, I had the chance to get an early dinner before my flight. Shortly after 9PM, I was home! The next big shows I plan to attend are Summer FUN, Summer ANA (hopefully) and then Winter FUN. Thanks to everyone that made my trip enjoyable.

TPRC

Awesome detailed rr! Thank you. Glad you got your big toner!

davewesen

nice report and pictures

I remember a few years ago buying a ziplock bad full of IKES there that got really heavy after the show and walk back to parking structure.

gumby1234

Nice looking Merc. Congrats

pcgscacgold

Great report. Thanks for taking so much time to give such great detail. That's an fabulous dime that you added to your collection.

ricko

@keyman64 .... Thank you for a very interesting report. Looks as if you accomplished your objectives for the show and had an enjoyable time as well. Cheers, RickO

MrEureka

Maybe a little late to be asking, but are you going to finish that pizza?

Proofmorgan

Great Report! I'm surprised that person was allowed to continue to signal with that noise. I feel like HA or Stack's would have politely asked them to signal with their card or hand....but money talks...

How were the silver buy prices? Over spot?

tokenpro

Every major show (ANA, FUN, CSNS, etc.) goes to one way traffic (usually) one half hour before the bourse closes which means you cannot re-enter the bourse room unless you have dealer credentials (i.e. the public can leave but cannot re-enter during the last half hour). This is done primarily for security reasons and to aid in clearing the bourse floor on time. Most shows list one-way traffic times on their show schedule board at the show and in the program and all announce it on the bourse floor before and at the cut off time. I have never heard it announced on a p.a. throughout a hotel or convention center.

keyman64

@Proofmorgan said:
Great Report! I'm surprised that person was allowed to continue to signal with that noise. I feel like HA or Stack's would have politely asked them to signal with their card or hand....but money talks...

How were the silver buy prices? Over spot?

Indeed, a little over spot.

kirkmink

That 62 Quarter of yours is gorgeous. Still sore about getting beat out on that Franklin at GC though.

lilolme

I believe that sound was the 'alarm' of a prior bid. That is the bid was at 4900 and then a floor bidder bid 5000. The alarm sounded and it was then noted that there was a prior (someones prebid or secret max bid) of the same 5000. So the floor bidder was actually outbid by the prebid. Then the floor bidder came back and bid again. Here is the screen shot of the bids from the video that show the floor bidder at 5000 but then follows with the prebid of 5000 (and then the floor bidders next bid).

keyman64

Ahh, so it might have been an automated sound and not someone bidding? Hmm, I’m not sure. Every time that would happen the auctioneer would point to the back recognizing someone.

divecchia

Great show report, detailed, but concise!!!

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

Donato

robec

Great report Greg! I love your new pickups, especially that glorious Mercury, WoWser.

PeakRarities

Awesome report, and congrats on your gorgeous merc! As a fellow Floridian, you and I have the exact same show schedule, I plan to attend summer fun and summer ANA, hopefully I can meet you at one of them.

lilolme

@keyman64 said:
Ahh, so it might have been an automated sound and not someone bidding? Hmm, I’m not sure. Every time that would happen the auctioneer would point to the back recognizing someone.

I am not 100% either.
So I think it is @BustDMs ???
Hopefully got it correct on the tag.

OldIndianNutKase

I really enjoyed your GREAT report. I especially like your video of the auction for the great 68+ toned merc. seemed like a very good price for a coin of that quality.

dhikewhitney

So well written !
A+

AZDAVY

Loved the show report! Great pictures, thank you

braddick

These reports are a favorite of this forum.
Thanks for sharing yours.

Smudge

Thanks for your report.

baseballjeff

Wonderful read, thank you! Another fellow Merc. collector! Cheers!

jt88

very nice report. thanks

joeykoins

Awesome report and self expressed experience time. Your patience really showed up. lol.
Your report makes me feel guilty! Like a student that was suppose to study over the weekend for a huge test. You really putting your heart into it by your lengthy report! Mine wasn't so precise.

Beautiful coins, dude.

1630Boston

@keyman64
Great well written report and pics.
thanks

Shurke

Those proofs are wild! Can’t wait to see the set when you’ve got it all put together.

That merc ain’t half bad either.

WAYNEAS

A fabulous show report.
Thanks for sharing.
Wayne

golden

Thanks for your super report! I sure wish that I could have been there. Darn, darn, darn.

littlebear

Thanks for the awesome report!

messydesk

Nice report, great newps! Glad you had a good time and the weather held out for you. Saturday was cooler and rainy on and off.

Next auction you go to bring a canned air horn to announce your bids.

keyman64

Thank you for the kind words, everyone.

@MrEureka I did finish the pizza.

@DeplorableDan Let’s plan on meeting up at Summer Fun. I will likely be there on Thursday and Friday. Looking forward to it.

remumc

Great report Greg, Hoping to make one of those shows someday!

Walkerfan

Thanks for taking the time to compose this excellent report. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.