ONA Show Report from Tornado Alley, apparently a verbose read.

SurfinxHI

Howdy all,

tl;dr -- good show on the wholesale side, light public traffic, someone maybe messing around at close of show, and tornados.

Thought I'd do a bit of a show report, as a few asked for it. The ONA (Oklahoma Numismatic Association) held a show in Moore, Ok over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I was fortunate enough to get a table (heard of at least one person who didn't). This show is comprised of a bunch of local dealers from the OK, TX, KS, AR areas, maybe a few further, and at least one fellar from Hawaii. They all pretty much know me know, as I've been doing shows in TX and OK for about 8-10 years now, off and on. So it is always good to see familiar faces.

Friday was a 1/2 for the public, but there was brisk trade going on across the floor well before then. If you didn't know, OKC is home to APMEX, and they had at least 6 folks buying on the floor on Friday, maybe 4-5 on Saturday. All day. If you wanted to sell to a major wholesaler and didn't want to ship, this was the show to do it at! I got to meet several people that work for them, hopefully made a few new friendships in the process. And you never know what they might need until you ask (or they ask you). I heard they made several people's shows, just in terms of purchasing.

At noon the doors opened to a massive crowd of...well...air. Some fresh air. And a few folks wandered in. But traffic was not strong to start with on Friday. By about 3 pm, there might have been a hundred or more of the public in and out. I saw a sheet with tallies, but didn't get a good look at it (on Saturday). I heard one dealer say he only sold 2 coins to the public (early on Sunday morning was the comment). I did much better than two, but I'd say the bulk of my sales were dealer to dealer and to APMEX.

Saturday was a bit better in terms of public traffic, and between APMEX, the public, and other dealers (plus me walking the floor a bit), I stayed pretty busy. I was supposed to go out for one of those super nice steak dinners with a few dealer friends, but by 3 pm, folks were getting nervous about the weather. Heck, I was nervous about it Friday night, and took my most valuable coins with me to the hotel, a thing I never do (just to split things up in case of a tornado). Friday night didn't hit OK really, but NE was hammered, as you all know. I have several friends in Omaha that said some places looked pretty bad.

So Saturday night was a bust for steak dinner, and I quickly went out for some Mexican food. Now, mind you, that was like at 430 pm, and the show closed at 6. I was hungry, without having had stopped for lunch, so an early dinner worked. And I might have been one of the last 1/3rd to leave....that's how worried folks were. And many, likely at least 50% of the bourse, packed up and was gone by 3 pm for the rest of the show. Crickets, man. I wasn't really worried, just hanging in my hotel room watching the weather reports doing the books from 530 till 8....then it got a bit more interesting. By 915, I was packed up, coins in my backpack and hunkered down in the hotel's laundry room as the tornado sirens were going off. That was lovely. Then the rain really picked up, and it got a bit windy. After about 10 min, I did what every good Okie does and went outside to check it out. I'm sure this is smart. Very smart. Not just a hat rack on top of my shoulders! Well, I liked seeing the rain bounce off the roofs of the nearby buildings, and several people ran in, completely soaked. The sirens stopped and I stayed downstairs watching the news for another 30 min or so before venturing back up. The cell passed Moore, but then clobbered a few counties to the north and east. Possibly a small tornado in Norman as well, just south of the show location. Again, I watched the news with a keen eye, and saw Marietta possibly get hit, and several other locations. I eventually got some sleep, between the huge, loud rumbles of thunder overhead. It was exciting, I'd say.

Sunday dawned cold and cloudy, a bit windy. I figure'd it would be a bust of a day, but things turned out ok. Not great, but again, I made enough to cover the table and some travel expenses on Sunday alone. At 11 am, I think the public count was like 7. Not a huge turnout, but what to you expect after a night full of tornados? I did a bunch of chatting with some dealers, made a few sales, bought a few items (a super sweet 1923 Peace in MS65 toned light blue with a CAC sticker), and some other stuff. Throughout the weekend, I was offered several gold deals. I turned one down flat (foreign gold and off brand stuff), bought 3 St. Gaudins (only kept one, sold the others), and bought some carded gold. I did sell several $2.5 Indians to the public and dealers, but nothing really else. There was a ton of gold on the floor, and you could have it at just about any price point. Common $20 libs and saints were selling at 99% of melt (wholesale) to about 101% of melt (if you could get it). I moved several pieces to APMEX just to get out of them (dead money) and put that money back to work in other areas.

Also Saturday, or shoot, maybe Friday, I got to meet @ldhair and one other forumite (I think it was @OKbustchaser. It was good to put names with faces. On Sunday, I met and looked at coins from @oih82w8, who had a nice, very nice selection of coins for sale, but we just didn't meet in the middle. No worries, hopefully next time!

In general, common date dollars (read, common coins) are moving about at bid to dealers (or maybe 10% back, depending on your relationship), and maybe $10-20 over bid for the public (or at least that was me. Maybe others were charging more, I don't know). Common silver bullion was $2-3 over spot, eagles were $4 over spot (though I saw some at $7 over). I had two rolls and didn't have a single customer ask about them. 90% was selling at 20-22x face, depending on what it was (dime vs halves, older vs newer). I really didn't have any great deals walk in from the public, and I didn't see a bunch of others doing that either. I did see a lot of dealers buying from each other tho. So that tells me there is some need to move inventory around. Slabs were fine, but raw was also moving very well. I always bring raw stuff to these shows, as some dealers and public only want raw stuff. I did see a lot of older holders (OGH), but not 2.1s (the ones lacking the PCGS on the top -- I think that is 2.1?). There were no real early ANACS holders, but I did pick up a gold embossed NGC holder at $10 over sheet, woot (but not a 2.1 holder with the gold inside). I also grabbed a few really nice no line fatties. There were two, count them, two NGC 2.1 holders on the floor at one dealer's table. But he knew exactly what he had and they were priced at 2k each. I think folks are repositioning right now, but how they are doing it, I don't know. I can say, gold is not being well received on the buy side, and cash is king right now. Large gold deals (unless to someone like APMEX) seem like they are drying up, but given the volatility, I'm not surprised. I stacked a bit of it, hoping it will stay strong, but it who knows. Large silver deals on the sell side did happen though.

The drive back to the in-laws was no trouble, except leaving the show....there was a likely incident brewing. A lady scoping out the show, hanging in her car during dealer loading out....she was reported to the undercover guy, who approached her and she left before he could ask what she was doing. Yes, very suspicious. Several dealers noticed her and were communicating that through the community. I did my usual walk around the vehicle, looking for tags or ways to mess with the tires, etc. Seemed ok. I didn't stop for the 3.5 hour drive home, and monitored the cars behind with a keen eye for the first 30 min or so. Apparently a show in Tyler Texas had trouble recently....ugh.

And on the way home, I got to see what tornado damage looks like. Like semis wrapped around telephone poles and warehouses decimated. The dollar tree distribution center in Marietta took a hit, as did several other places. It went right through I35...my brother tells me there was at least one fatality. Ugh. Here's a few snaps from the drive.

Cheers,
Surf

Rain

Damage

Moparmonster

Excellent report!! Great market insights and intriguing news on the weather. Glad you are safe and sound!

Zoins

@SurfinxHI said:
I got to see what tornado damage looks like. Like semis wrapped around telephone poles and warehouses decimated. The dollar tree distribution center in Marietta took a hit, as did several other places. It went right through I35...my brother tells me there was at least one fatality. Ugh. Here's a few snaps from the drive.

Great report! I'm glad you were able to focus on coins!

I've never seen a tornado up close. Hope everyone, other than the one report, safe!

This is from a day ago:

BLUEJAYWAY

A very complete rundown. Glad you made some money and came out of the bad weather safely.

PerryHall

Great show report as always. This is the kind of coin show that you'll remember for a very long time. Glad you made it out safely.

tcollects

bravo! a true numismatist risking life and limb to provide good deals on bullion to the coin-loving public

ldhair

Great report. Wish I could have stayed for more than one day but it was a long drive home. Many dealers were looking to buy. Lots of nice type coins in the cases.

I was looking for the APMEX table. Now I know why I could not find them. I was wanting to sell a monster box of Silver Eagles. Didn't think to look for them walking the show.

My timing was good and I missed all the crazy storms. Looks like they did a lot of damage.

OAKSTAR

Excellent report. Not coin related but people pay big money to chase those things!

lkenefic

Thanks for the excellent report!

Wasn't Moore, OK basically wiped off the map by a tornado some years ago?? I thought I saw a documentary on the event recently...

Glad you made it out ok...

WAYNEAS

Thanks for the report.
I am really glad that you are safe.
Mother Nature can be a real b.
Wayne

OKbustchaser

Nice report. It was great meeting you. Sadly, I didn't need any of those bust halves you had on consignment. They were among the nicest I saw at the show.

Tibor

So this is where the ANA wants to hold the WFoM in 2025.
This is a HARD PASS.

oih82w8

@Tibor said:
So this is where the ANA wants to hold the WFoM in 2025.
This is a HARD PASS.

The weather here in OKC calms down after June...for the most part, most tornadic activity is in April & May.

BStrauss3

The 2025 WFoM will be at the downtown Oklahoma City Convention Center, this show was at the Moore community center.

UpGrayedd

@SurfinxHI Thanks for the report, I couldn't make it this year due to other obligations. I'm glad you had a decent show and stayed safe.

I'm sorry you missed out on the steak dinner. The next time you are in OKC, I would recommend Cattlemens (if you are looking for a great steak at a reasonable price), and if you go to Cattlemens be sure to order the lamb fries as an appetizer. However, if money is no object Mahogany Prime can't be beat.

air4mdc

Great report! Your ‘23 Peace sounds very nice, feel free to post a picture of it if you wouldn’t mind. It’s too bad to hear about about a suspicious person in the lot. I doubt if she was working alone. And thank goodness you and everyone remained safe in a storm that caused so much devastation and loss of lives.

UpGrayedd

@Tibor said:
So this is where the ANA wants to hold the WFoM in 2025.
This is a HARD PASS.

As @oih82w8 mentioned, tornados shouldn't be an issue in June, however, it could be on the warm side during the summer. Accordingly, not to be a jerk, but lots of places have tornados, not just Oklahoma. Other parts of the country have earthquakes, extreme wildfires, and some have hurricanes. If you find the part of the country that is protected by a bubble please let me know.

Tibor

@UpGrayedd Here in N.E. Tenn. we are fortunate to miss each of those. Though we
did have a couple of tornados where 20 people tragically lost their lives. 10 years ago.
To my recollection, thankfully, nothing since. If you are ever this way, please let me know.
We'll sit on the front porch and drink some tea or 'shine. your choice.

UpGrayedd

@Tibor said:
@UpGrayedd Here in N.E. Tenn. we are fortunate to miss each of those. Though we
did have a couple of tornados where 20 people tragically lost their lives. 10 years ago.
To my recollection, thankfully, nothing since. If you are ever this way, please let me know.
We'll sit on the front porch and drink some tea or 'shine. your choice.

Sounds like a plan, but can't we have both?

edited for typo.

Tibor

@UpGrayedd It's your call.

SurfinxHI

@UpGrayedd said:
@SurfinxHI Thanks for the report, I couldn't make it this year due to other obligations. I'm glad you had a decent show and stayed safe.

I'm sorry you missed out on the steak dinner. The next time you are in OKC, I would recommend Cattlemens (if you are looking for a great steak at a reasonable price), and if you go to Cattlemens be sure to order the lamb fries as an appetizer. However, if money is no object Mahogany Prime can't be beat.

Good call. We tried cattlemens the night before, but it was 1:15 min wait. So we went catty-corner to McClintock's saloon. Also a worthy choice! I was looking forward to the compare and contrast....but alas....next time!

yspsales

Thank you for the market, coin show, and weather report.

coinhack

Thanks, @SurfinxHI for an excellent show report and even better market analysis. Nice photos too.

UpGrayedd

I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone that might be hesitant to visit Oklahoma for the 2025 WFoM or any other reason due to the recent tornados.

Coinscratch

Great report and sounded like a fun adventure.

Pnies20

Jk great read and hope you had fun at the show.

alohagary

Great report

lilolme

Just got back from CSNS and catching up on some threads.
Here is an average number of tornadoes per month per state from 1998 to 2022.
(From NAAO and national weather service.)
Note: ANA is in August and Oklahoma has an average of 1 for July, August and September.
Also when looking at numbers need to consider state size as a smaller/larger states can impact number per land area.

lermish

Note: ANA is in August and Oklahoma has an average of 1 for July, August and September.

I'm sure that OKC has its charms but zero direct flights in from my airport means I will not be attending. Same deal with Pittsburgh in 2026 - great city, I'm not doing the travel. Poor choices IMO by the ANA.

BStrauss3

Remember, ANA doesn't just pick show locations at random - they have to reach agreements with venues that are willing to have us. Since lots of people were whining about Schaumberg, Schaumberg, Schaumberg - the ANA was looking for alternatives and these are the cities that could host the show.