Early Bird + Day 1 Long Beach Report - June 2024

mattniss

As always, the dawn of yet another Long Beach Expo brings palpable excitement for many a West Coast-based collector and dealer alike, myself certainly included. On what amounted to be a perfectly sunny Southern California day, I took the drive down the coast to downtown Long Beach for Wednesday’s dealer day, as I was lucky enough to be offered an early bird pass from PCGS. (Thank you host overlords for quasi-sponsoring this post?) Every show is a crapshoot with regards to traffic down near the convention center, but Wednesday proved to be a breeze. Easy peasy on traffic and parking led to a very short walk over to the main entrance, in all its glory.

Now as a collector, getting to be at a show on dealer day was game changing for me. For anyone who might not know, usually the day before a larger show opens to the public there’s a setup day that functions as a dealer-to-dealer pre-show. As you could imagine, a lot of the exceptionally good stuff gets picked before it can even make it to the first day. In this environment and set of circumstances, I was able to get a ton of quality face time with a majority of the dealers on the bourse, both for viewing their inventory and them taking a thorough look at everything I had brought for sale. Great opportunity to ask questions, get opinions without anyone being in a rush, and of course, see more coins in hand. After breaking the ice by selling a couple cheaper type coins and an awesome 1847 Hawaiian cent in AU50 (sadly no pics), I had my first big sale of the day within the first hour of hitting the floor.

Now I’ve always been someone who likes to pick up some cool coins when I see them, even if sometimes they’re not exactly my area of expertise. Sometimes I’ve been known to have a weakness for really cool Americana or really cool Ancients, and so that’s how I ended up with a piece of Byzantine gold. A really great looking example, this Byzantine Solidus from Theodosius II’s reign shines like it was just struck yesterday. With the rarer military bust obverse, it also commanded a small premium over the normal Theo II Solidus obverse. This coin was certainly one that I was hoping to sell to fund more of the personal collection goals I had set for myself. Fortunately, the couple dealers who saw it who are knowledgeable on Ancients couldn’t believe it wasn’t in an AU holder. After a little back and forth, I was able to make a deal with Glenn Schinke and it was off to its new home with him.

Eastern Roman Empire AV Solidus, Theodosius II (402 - 450 AD), obv facing military bust
NGC Choice XF, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5

Within what felt like 90 seconds after closing that sale, I beelined over to an unnamed dealer’s table that had a coin I spotted from a mile away during my initial walkthrough. Without going into specifics on why I hustled over there so quickly, let’s say I was grateful to see it was still there given the price on the sticker. I asked to see it, spent a good couple minutes really examining it well to see if there was something I missed, and after trying to mentally poke holes in the thing, went into negotiation mode. Shortly thereafter, my first purchase of the day was secured, and yet another coin was added to my personal collection of Morgans in 66.

PCGS MS66 1883-CC Morgan Dollar

The rest of the afternoon flew by as I thoroughly enjoyed my early bird time with the dealers. My notable observations / learnings from the dealer day:

1) For the first time in several years of going to Long Beach shows, every single table on the bourse was claimed. They sold out! Normally there’s anywhere from 5 - 15% of the floor that doesn’t end up selling towards the back, but not this show. Dealers were representing in full force!

2) Once again, the notion that the card dealers are “taking over” Long Beach Expo couldn’t be more unfounded. There were the usual 7 - 10 card dealer tables plus PSA set up in the back, but everything else was coins, currency, and bullion dealers, albeit with the one lone stamp dealer table that sadly no one seemed to pay any attention to.

3) The general sense for the state of the market, so to speak, from what I gleaned from my conversations, was one of tempered optimism. Dealers seemed to be stocked well with solid inventory, yet all seemed to be buying graded coins low and high with frenzied interest. Bullion and raw common gold, on the other hand, was not received nearly as well. Prices on almost everything spotted in cases were set at strong retail. Common silver rounds were all around $33 - $35 and 90% was being offered for sale at 24x - 25x.

By 6:30PM, everyone started to clear out for dinner, drinks, and post-show festivities. So that was my cue to call it a day and head home to the wife and kids. The next day (Thursday), I woke up as excited as a kid on Christmas morning to head back over to the show for the official Day 1. For Thursday, the traffic crapshoot that is downtown Long Beach couldn’t have been more different than the day before, as it was graduation day for several local high schools and colleges, which meant ceremonies, pictures, and a ton of backup. After fighting through what felt like an endless barrage of traffic to get into the main parking lot, we arrived unscathed but about 30 minutes later than I had hoped. Another wonderful privilege of being an Early Bird pass holder was walking right past everyone getting their Day 1 passes and just heading right into the show, which kinda made up for my traffic woes.

I happily wheeled and dealed for the next few hours, selling a few more lower-end Morgans and two of my goal coins to sell, a PCGS MS63+PL 1904 $20 to Greg Krill of North Bay Coins and a NGC MS68 1943-S steel cent to Tyler from Cowlitz Coins. With my last 30 minutes or so, I finally stopped over at one of my favorite dealers at every Long Beach show, Allen Guo from Coins x Collectibles. Allen is one of the nicest guys and together with his sister Stephanie, has such impressive inventory at every show. I’m always magnetized to their cases! After he picked a couple type coins for purchase out of my remaining selections, I returned the favor by spotting an impeccable coin with a gleaming gold bean tucked in the upper right corner of one of his cases. After a solid volley of back and forth numbers, we finally made a deal I just couldn’t say no to and my second and final purchase of the show was complete.

NGC MS65 Gold CAC 1887-P Morgan Dollar

My notable observations from Day 1:

1) The show was PACKED. I went from fighting vehicular traffic to fighting bourse traffic in every aisle. I know in recent years, many have commented on the lower attendance in Long Beach, but this one broke the mold. Everywhere you looked, tables were packed with lookie-loo’s, collectors, vest pocket dealers, and the usual crowd. Getting good, honest face time was very hard to come by comparative to dealer day, so you really had to time it right or hope that knowing someone behind the case would get you a little extra attention.

2) As expected, I learned that a ton of the public came in with generic silver and gold expecting to be paid top dollar. As mentioned above though, this was met with a somewhat terse response as no one was buying anything at or above spot. I visually observed several dealer-to-dealer transactions involving trading raw gold for slabbed coins, perhaps to get the most out of what they had purchased without melting it. As a final note on gold, I got verbal confirmation from several dealers that they have been sending common date, low UNC $20 Libs and Saints for melt lately due to the cratering in premiums.

3) At the Winter Long Beach show a few months ago, I commented how there didn’t seem to be a ton of CAC stickered material out on display. At this show, there was a bit more than the last, but still not as present as I expected. I did continue to see more and more CACG present in many dealer cases, and they were in high demand. Overall, there was way less raw material present at the show than I can remember, which was also a bit surprising. It seems like even novice collectors are focusing more and more on graded material vs. raw album filling.

4) YN dealers were out in force yet again, roving around in a couple smaller gangs throughout the day. I can’t get over how good some of these YN’s are! They really really know their stuff, they know how to grade very well on the fly, and they are often equipped with some incredible stuff. Once again, Seth Chandler and the Witter team of Ben and Brendan were supporting them as much as they could, even offering one of Witter’s tables as a YN dealer table for them. Kudos to those guys for their continued support for YN collectors / aspiring dealers.

That was quite the write up, but I certainly hope you enjoyed reading. I love going to the Long Beach Expo and absolutely encourage everyone who is on the fence about attending to make the trip, as it’s honestly one of the best larger shows out there for anyone on the West Coast.

Smudge

Nice report, thanks.

PeakRarities

Great, descriptive report and fantastic newps. Really helps give me insight to the one big show I have not attended. I too was told that the show picked up and got busy, which is promising. Im glad to hear the card tables were minimal, but I also saw several pictures on facebook of haircare/skincare/botox booths at the show, which was...interesting to say the least. Glad you were able to make there it and you had a good time.

I actually bought a sweet ‘54 large date $20 in 58cac by proxy so the show was a success for me too 😂

mattniss

@DeplorableDan said:
Im glad to hear the card tables were minimal, but I also saw several pictures on facebook of haircare/skincare/botox booths at the show, which was...interesting to say the least. Glad you were able to make there it and you had a good time.

Thanks DD. I can confirm, there were two booths that were so out of place -- one was the aforementioned Botox booth (man, I would have loved to see some mustard-stained old timer get a couple CC's!), and the other was a weird booth selling phone cases that charged your phone for you. No idea how or why on both of these, but I and most others simply ignored them. Also congrats on your NEWP!

U1chicago

Great report and congrats on the buys/sales!

I wonder who did better, the stamp dealer, the phone case guy, or the Botox booth?

Copperindian

Great report - thanks! I often make this show but was tied up this time around.

Walkerguy21D

Great write up, very well detailed, and your newps look very solid!

lermish

Really nice report, thank you!

I missed the show this time but have spoken with the stamp guy at my dad's request. My dad had a couple of toughies he was looking for and the stamp guy there had them...at 3-4x FMV I suspect he is just there to buy and/or make contacts.

Jacques_Loungecoque

@mattniss said:
albeit with the one lone stamp dealer table that sadly no one seemed to pay any attention to.

Great report, so detailed. Thank you! It made me feel giddy with anticipation for Summer FUN!!! And yes, the stamp situation has been the same at our monthly local show. Last show I saw a tumble weed roll through the stamp area and smack the poor old timer right upside the head. 😱

Elcontador

Thanks for your detailed report. I had to give this one a miss because too much else is going on in my life right now. Sounds I missed an interesting show.

BLUEJAYWAY

Very well stated. Thanks for your time in posting.

DDR

Great report, thanks for posting.

Catbert

Really enjoyed your report, especially the early bird perspective that I’ve never done attending shows. Maybe I will someday.

jom

Great report! I said in another thread I thought the show was pretty well attended on Thursday....especially for a June show. Glad to hear I wasn't too far off. The last show I had attended in early 2023 was Dealer Day also and I was very disappointed. It sounds like things were very different this time...great to hear.

jom

Coin Finder

Thanks man great report. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Some wholesalers are below melt on pre 33 gold!

pointfivezero

Thank you for the report, @mattniss. I’m traveling so was not able to attend so really appreciated all the information. I watched the Coin Geek’s live stream last night and he echoed many of your comments.

Hope to see you there in September. I’m doing a Thursday day trip.

PS - jealous of the gold CAC Morgan!

Tim

golden

Thank you for your excellent report.

mattniss

@pointfivezero said:
Hope to see you there in September. I’m doing a Thursday day trip.

That would be great Tim! Definitely urge you to consider coming out Wednesday for Dealer Day, I'm still so blown away by how much it was worth it. Obviously still going on Day 1 too.

vplite99

Thanks for the report. I almost felt like I was there.

mattniss

BONUS CONTENT UPDATE!

Got a phone call this afternoon from a number I didn't recognize, so I let it go to voicemail. Turns out it was a SoCal dealer who was set up at the show that I met for the first time (I had not recognized him having a table before) calling about one of my coins.

Long story short, I had stopped by to check his cases and share a few of my coins I thought he might be interested in on Thursday Day 1, and learned he was relatively local in SoCal. I half jokingly mentioned that I make my best deals with local dealers. Well apparently, his one small regret from the show was not buying a specific coin of mine that I had shown him, my PCGS MS68 1881-S Morgan, one I hadn't really been thinking about letting go of just yet.

He also made sure to remind me that he remembered that I make my best deals with local dealers.

We did a little negotiation dancing, and needless to say, we didn't end up making a deal today. I have a feeling that the next local show I catch him at, we might close it in a way where we both win.

johnny010

Great report
Thanks for sharing