Belated Early Bird + Day 1 September 2024 Long Beach Show Report
mattniss
Posts: 715 ✭✭✭✭
Another summer roars by, and along with it yet another Long Beach show for the 3rd time this year. Even though this is a familiar effort by now, I can’t act like I don’t get super excited every time I’m driving down the Southern California coast for the relatively quick drive down to Long Beach from the LA area where I live.
For Wednesday Dealer Day, I headed down to Long Beach with LCS owner and friend Ron Sannes from Palos Verdes Coin Exchange, where after grabbing my early bird Set Registry pass (thanks again PCGS!), we mostly split up as we each had our own goals for the afternoon. Heightened security was visibly noticed with TSA-style metal detectors and security personnel manning the Convention Center front doors. While I don’t know if they would have stopped any sleight-of-hand thievery, their presence was welcomed after what happened at the last show.
As I’ve now become a bit accustomed to since getting the Early Bird pass for Long Beach, I walked into a half set-up bourse floor, but one that was still milling with camaraderie for many of the dealers there, along with a smattering of collectors like me who were ready for some more personalized attention that one can command on dealer day. Refreshingly, there was not a Botox dealer in sight, and still only about 8 total tables selling trading cards (2 also sold coins) plus the one lone stamp table, the one high-end watch dealer table, and one table offering a plethora of antique firearms, which were very cool to check out.
After doing a lap and saying hello to a few dealer friends, I broke the ice by heading over to see @alefzero at his table. He had some really nice inventory and we enjoyed talking for a while about coins, the forums, and life in general. Eventually we made a fair deal for him to acquire my PCGS MS65 1921-D Morgan. When we parted ways, it dawned on me… for the first time in a long time, I had no graded 1921 P, D, or S Morgans in my possession. So at that moment, a fresh show hunt was born… I was determined to take home a nice graded 1921 P, D, or S Morgan!
Once the ice was broken, my sales success fortunately continued. I made my way over to see Allen Guo from Coins x Collectibles, one of my favorite local dealers who I’m glad to see is attending more and more shows outside of the west coast. Allen always has some fantastic inventory and I have been lucky to purchase a few gems from him over the years. This time he plucked three nice coins from my box all at prices I just couldn’t say no to, a PCGS VG10 1893-P Morgan, a PCGS MS66 1883-CC Morgan, and a PCGS MS64 1890-CC Morgan. Followed that up with a nice visit over to Larry Shapiro, who I always look forward to catching up with as he lived in my current neighborhood for many years before I lived there. Didn't pick up anything, but came close on some gold.
I joined back up with Ron for a few minutes where he shared some of what he had picked up – quite the assortment of Mexican silver. Some raw, some toned, some mint and proof sets, and a full type set. For anyone who loves collecting Mexican silver coins, Long Beach often has a few Mexican coin-specific dealers who often bring inventory procured directly from Mexico. Surely it was a hunt-and-pick dream scenario for Ron, of which he then promptly brought his best selections over to PCGS for grading.
As I browsed some of the smaller tables in the back of the bourse while Ron headed over to PCGS, I got to talking with a small-time dealer I had never seen before who was setting up adjacent to some of the Mexican coin dealers. I briefly mentioned what I was looking for and that I would be happy to come back when he was fully set up, but then, a nice surprise! He shared that he had just picked up a few freshly graded coins from PCGS not minutes ago and one of them was a 1921-S Morgan. I almost couldn’t believe my luck as he opened up a black slab box and sure enough, the first coin in front was a PCGS MS65 1921-S Morgan that was a bit nicer and slightly better struck than the typical weak, mushy strike you see on almost all 21-S’s. I asked him for his best price, and when he quoted me a number that was lower than what I expected to put out if he had asked me for my best offer, I immediately accepted and my short-lived 1921 Morgan absence was relieved.
The next morning I woke up and headed right over to the show to get in for Thursday’s Day 1 and play coins again for a day. This morning was a nice difference from dealer day afternoon – a fairly brisk flow of traffic buzzing around the bourse floor, the usual long lines of people dropping off submissions for PCGS to be graded, and the feeling of a nice regional show, which is frankly what Long Beach is turning into.
I started the day by heading over to see Noah and the @rarity7 table, which gets better and better every time I see it. Noah was incredibly gracious with his time, even taking some video of two amazing CACG Walkers (raw examples that had recently come back from grading) so Noah’s absent table mate @PeakRarities could take a look. While I didn’t buy or sell anything from Noah this go around, I have been thinking about several of his coins recently. If you haven’t checked out Rarity7’s inventory, I highly suggest you do (though I’m not going to share which I’ve been thinking about!) as it’s well curated and nicely assorted.
CACG MS67 1944-D Walking Liberty Half Dollar
CACG MS65+ 1945-S Walking Liberty Half Dollar
Somewhat nearby Noah’s table were the guys from World Numismatics, and since I didn’t get to see them on Dealer Day, I made sure to stop by with my one modern world coin I had brought in the box, a PCGS MS68 1994 ½ Onza Gold Libertad, which is a very tough date and is a pop 2 with only 5 higher at PCGS. Since there were barely any comps to go by for this conditional rarity, I put out a price that I thought was fair for everyone and they accepted. First sale of the day always feels good.
About an hour after closing that sale, I got a text from a local Socal dealer friend asking if one of the coins I had brought yesterday was still with me, a black-and-white PCGS MS64 1881-CC DMPL gold shield. I walked over to his table and showed it to him, with him asking me to remind him of my price once again. I gave him my number (not necessarily my absolute best) and he said, “if you still have it by the time you leave for the day, come by.” In a twist of fate, while walking back over towards Coins x Collectibles where I saw another friend looking at Allen’s coins, and while I was there shooting the breeze, Allen asked me, “Hey, was it you who showed me a nice 81-CC DMPL yesterday? I just had a potential customer come by looking for one.” Sure enough, two dealers in a short span who asked me without prompt about the same coin!
I pulled it out of the box and Allen took a long and educated look under his show lamps. I mentioned to him that I had another dealer friend (who he also knows) inquiring about the coin. He made me an offer on the spot that was a bit above the number I had left with the first dealer, so I turned into deal mode. “Give me 2 minutes” I said as I beelined back over to the first dealer. I honestly told him what had happened and told him the number I had just been offered. “I really like Allen, let him take it for his customer. I was just going to add it to my PC!” the first dealer shared. So after thanking him for his interest, I crossed the bourse floor back to Coins x Collectibles and sold them a fourth coin for the show at a price where I did well and Allen got to make a few bucks selling to his prospective customer.
After a late lunch and a bit more time hanging out with collector and dealer friends, I did a final loop before calling it a day and a show, and sure enough, I spotted a nicer "fugly" I sometimes love -- a common PCGS MS66 1880-S Morgan sitting in a display case with one of the dealers who was selling both coins and cards. Turns out there are dealers who do both and have some nice though fairly common stuff on both sides. I asked how things were going for the first day of the show and he said selling cards was better than selling coins for him so far. In the interest of paying it forward after some of my show wins, I asked how much he was asking for it, and after just a little back-and-forth, a deal was made making both sides happy.
Overall show observations:
1) Definitely was a slower Long Beach show than the most recent summer one, but I wouldn’t say it was a “slow” show. From what I heard re: retail spending foot traffic, Thursday was good but not great, Friday was quite slow, and then Saturday was surprisingly strong as the public came out with the weekdays being back-to-school. A few of the big dealer tables were notably missing, whether due to choosing to attend Tampa or in the case of Witter Coin, due to all their WitterBrick stuff.
2) Once again, gold proved to be really tough due to the cratering premiums. You couldn’t really sell any “normal” gold without accepting lower than what you want. I had two Type 1 $20 libs that I just couldn’t get biters on, even though one dealer said “if gold was about $300 less per ounce, I’d buy both at your asking price without question”. A lot of the public coming in with gold surely was encountered with offers less than they expected. Common silver was priced for sale around 23x - 24x face (silver was at ~$28.50), with buy prices for common silver dollars for about $25 - $28.
3) The YN contingent seemed a bit lower than what I’ve experienced at previous LB shows. Not sure if this was due to schools and colleges being back in session, or simply show fatigue, but their welcomed excitable presence was missing from Dealer Day + Day 1.
4) Overall, saw some exceptionally nice material, including but not limited to a NGC PF69 1909 $20 Saint, a NGC XF45 1855 Wass-Molitor $50, a PCGS 1907 High Relief Flat Edge, and one of the coolest notes I’ve ever seen in hand, a PCGS 67PPQ 2003 Serial Number 1 $1 Federal Reserve Note.
In summation, we’ve all heard that Long Beach “ain’t what it used to be”. Truth of the matter is, when you put the politics of it all aside, Long Beach has morphed into perhaps the best regional show out there. It’s clearly not the national bellwether show of yesteryear, and it’s still got plenty of kinks that deservedly could and should be worked out, but it’s always a highlight for me and many other west coast-based collectors and dealers alike.
Comments
Great report, thanks for posting it! I really liked your 1921-S Morgan, and also the 1945-S Walker, haven't seen many with that nice toning! But the most unusual thing you posted was the Serial #1 $1 FRN, very cool!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
Thanks for a really nice show report.
A complete rundown. Thanks. What was the price for the $1 note?
Super report, @mattniss. I’m pretty sure I saw you at Noah’s table on Thursday as I spent much of my day between his booth and the Coin X Collectible booth direct behind him. I did pick up this nice HR Peace dollar from Noah (and the commem is from Stacks):
Tim
It was purchased by my LCS owner friend, and he is asking $9.5K for it. And before the rules committee comes out, I'm just sharing info, not attempting to make this a BST post.
Would have liked to have met up -- fortunately there's always another LB to do that I guess. That '21 Peace is really really nice, but dang do I love an old fatty with a gold bean!
Thanks for the pricing info. Neat Bill.
Great report. I had a couple transactions with Coins x Collectibles at the Tampa show, they have an eye for high quality inventory, as does Noah at Rarity7.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
Thanks for your report.