Charlotte Show Report

K6AZ

First of all, a warning, I am not as long winded on the keyboard as *some* people! )

As most of you know, I arrived in Charlotte Wednesday afternoon so I could attend the
Stuppler/ACG hearing. The 302 mile drive was uneventful until I got about 20 miles north
of Charlotte. The skies opened up and it began pouring rain, and the last 20 miles was
stop and go due to accidents. Thurday the hearing was held, which is being discussed
in another thread. Friday, my condition acted up and in combination with the fatigue of
the trip, I did not go to the show on Friday. I did make it today, and spent about four hours
browsing all the dealer's offerings.

Since my primary interest is Morgan Dollars, that is what I looked at first, and I had two dates
in particular on my list, a 1900-S and 1902-S. I quickly learned that the prices on the semi-keys
are very strong right now, at least at the show it was. I found several MS63 and MS64 1902-S
Morgans, but none of the dealers that had them would budge under $525. I didn't see the point
in paying $50-75 more than I could buy this coin online for from one of the several dealers I trust,
so the 02-S was a bust. I did find a very nice MS63 1900-S in a PCGS slab. It was marked $290,
and when I asked what he could do for me on it, he said $265 and I said sold. It is a very nice
coin, mostly white with a little violet tone on the lower reverse rim. I must say I was impressed
with this dealer, while I was looking over the Morgan he was also helping a YN (kid) pick out
cheap coins which totaled $4, and he gave him a 50% price break and said $2. I was happy to
see this with all the reports of dealers at shows not giving you the time of day unless you are
dropping significant amounts of C notes.

I have always had an interest in classic commemoratives, and since there seemed to be a lot of
them at this show, I looked at a lot. If I ever finish the Morgans, I will probably try to put
together a set of these. Two of the commemoratives that really stuck in my mind were a York
NGC MS68 with beautiful, well defined tab toning, and an off white, original Spanish Trail PCGS
MS67. I couldn't resist asking the price of the Spanish Trail: $2950.

The show seemed well attended, not dead but not super crowded either. I think most people are
seeing basically a repeat of Gulf War I and have lost the jitters.

Now for the most amusing part of the show. Sally and I were working the aisles, and we got to the
point of getting to the last aisle when we noticed ACG in the corner. Diane Hager was talking to
the reporter from Coin World. I was pretty sure she hadn't seen me, but I was wrong. We backtracked
trying to avoid a confrontation with the Hagers. Apparently Diane Hager saw me and alerted Alan
Hager who came up to me. Since I had never seen him before, I didn't know what he looked like.
He said my name, grabbed my hand and gave a quick shake, and then said "Alan Hager". He stood
there for a good 15 seconds staring at me and shaking, all the while I gave him a stare right back
without shaking. I am not sure what his purpose for this was, but if it was intimidation, it didn't
work.

That's about it. Had a very nice trip home, made the 300+ mile trip in less than four and a half
hours.

braddick

K6AZ- One of my favorite reads on this forum are show reports. Your's didn't disapoint! Thanks for the highlights (and the lowlights!).

K6AZ

I found it quiet amusing afterwards. As has been mentioned in the thread about the hearing, they are very bothered by my site. If they think it is bad now, just wait until I scan the 90+ pages of documents I have!

dpoole

Incredible move by the Hagars. It's always astounding to me how such people can live with themselves and talk themselves into believing they're "right." They seem to be bending over backwards to do everything except clean up their act. You'd think that cleaning up their act would be so much easier.

Great report, on both threads, K6AZ!

K6AZ

Dpoole, she just doesn't get it. She is convinced that my site and others are fronts for other dealers who want to destroy her business. She claims we are "boycotting" her product and that it is a violation of law. Perhaps someday she will be able to grasp the fact that we are not competitors, but concerned collectors.

airplanenut

<< <i>I found it quiet amusing afterwards. As has been mentioned in the thread about the hearing, they are very bothered by my site. If they think it is bad now, just wait until I scan the 90+ pages of documents I have! >>

Oh, pooey... Mr. K6AZ is so mean.... where's Lucy to scold you?



<< <i>She is convinced that my site and others are fronts for other dealers who want to destroy her business >>

And let ACG die, No!



<< <i>She claims we are "boycotting" her product and that it is a violation of law. >>

If that was the case, then we'd be run by the British right now...

Nice report!

Jeremy

Garneteye

Was at the show Friday and found the placement of their booth amusing, it was as far in the back as you could get with no others around, I wonder if this was a not so subtle message from the ANA. The three individuals in the booth had their backs to the bourse floor. I stood over next to the US Postal truck and watched the faces of the passing patrons as they saw the Accugrade booth, the look of disgust on many was very clear but I also saw many with a sly smile at the obvious isolation.

Dan

K6AZ

Dan, it is funny that you bring that up. Sally was with me today, and she is not into coins, but when she saw the ACG booth, that was the first thing she said, that it looked like they were put "in the back". I watched them for a while from a distance, and the only person I saw at their booth was the reporter for Coin World.

jdimmick

My quick report of my visit to the show on Friday.

My sole purpose for visiting this show in addition to having fun and it being close to me this time was to try and locate an upgrade 1901-s quarter. Sorry to say after stopping at every table, there was not one at the show. There were a couple of G-4's and a G-6's. The only vf-20 was a corroded segs. (I did find out that about 100 dealers said if you find one, that they would be intrested in my PCGS-10.)

Also, I carried my 09-s VDB 64 red to the show looking to find an upgrade to a 5, not much luck at the show, but did mange to find one through a dealer contact at the show. (Have seen the pictures and it looks nice, waiting for it to arrive to view in person) The few 65's at the show did not do to much for me. There was a fabulous 66 red that Andy from angel dee's had but it was out of my pricing range.

I also looked at a few 32-d Washington quarter's, there was a nice Flashy PCGS 64 for 5500.00 which I considered (little pricey) and a nice 65 for 26,500.00. Wow! I decided to pass on the 64 because it was not worth the extra 3000.00 to upgrade from the nice white PCGS 63 I currently have. However, ( I could have kicked my self for not spending the extra 500.00 a few years ago when the 63 and 64 were close in price)

I did get to hold and view a few nice power coins on this trip which was fun, Some super nice 56 FE and the recent 100,000+ 1926-s PCGS-65 Buffalo Nickel(Price now is 115K)

I am not much of a large cent buyer, but there did appear to be nice selection's of these at the show.

On Friday, I observed a lot of people selling to dealers and also a lot of dealer to dealer transactions. (dont know if this was the norm, but definitley on friday)

One thing was for sure, nice scarcer date coins were priced very strong??

jim dimmick

KlectorKid

So many key dates!

PhillyJoe

My guess is that if they are unsuccessful in their complaint, then they will file another complaint against the ANA for their poor show location. They will claim that their booth next to the storage area kept the multitudes of satisfied ACG customers from finding them. Because they had only one visitor the entire show, a reporter, they have suffered a financial hardship.

I doubt they attend many shows; and I can't believe it is profitable for them. Having a booth is like wearing a bullseye for complaints.

Because Accugrade is the coin world's Worldcom/Enron, look for the name to disappear after a class action suit is filed against them. Their name itself defies common sense, although it's the only service where the submitter gets to pick the grade.

I'll predict this was their last show.

Joe

Dog97

K6AZ I hope you washed your hands after you touched The Weasel.

nwcs

Yep, the show seemed to have good attendance. I enjoyed looking at the heritage auctions for 3 hours. Some of the coins were really cool. Especially the 1891 proof set and the 1794 dollar. Can't complain about those!

I found for me, after taking the grading class, I'm far more particular in what I get now. But I did pick up a few cool items. One has a chance at being a 1937 MS67 FB. I certainly think it's 67, though it may end up as a 66.

I walked by the accugrade table and no one was visiting it. They were in the back corner where no one goes. Once I saw DH talk to someone behind a curtain. I don't know what AH looks like, so I don't know if I saw him or not. Thought I wonder if he was the other person at the ACG table.

Eric, sorry I wasn't able to meet up with you. I tried to get to the trial but they were moving so slowly at the photo id table that the trial was already 40 minutes in before I even got finished. I did get to meet a number of board members, though. I enjoyed that part.

Harry Labstain had some great stuff at his table. An Au-55 1794 half dime, an AU-53 1795 half dime, a MS-66RD 1877 IHC, a 1909 S VDB in 64RB. Lots of 30s proofs. At other places saw awesome 1907 high relief saints and earlier gold. Overall, it was cool. I picked up, overall, quite a few nice pieces. I may post a picture or two of a couple. Though most of them are at NGC now.

Neil

oreville

One of the patterns I bid $3335 in the Heritage auction sold for $9750. Six months agao that pattern would have sold for no more than $3335!!!

Patterns seem very strong!

rkfish

K6AZ,

Thanks for the update!
Happy to see you met Alan and Diane!

Wish I could have made the show.....would
have liked to have met you and Neil!

Take care!

kranky

Thanks for the show report!

perfectstrike

The show was a great place for copper collectors! High grades, mid grades and raw, there was lots of it. By the time I arrived on Saturday, it seemed like dealers were willing to cut prices to sell. I found a NGC MS67RD 1984 Lincoln double die that'll fill a hole after a trip to NCS. I located a raw 1909-S IHC in XF, could go AU. My 2c collection now has a NGC 1864 Large Motto in MS64RD. Found some low grade Large Cents and Half Cents for circulated sets I'm finishing. Starting prices were all around bid, but the dealers were willing to meet my offers. Everything I examined with buying in mind, I bought. That's a rare show for me. I did spend about 15 minutes drooling over Rick's IHCs at the Eagle Eye table. With prices on Lincolns being so high, these IHCs are starting to look like better buys after each major show.

The major disappointment were the empty tables. I walked in about noon Saturday and about 1/3 of the tables were empty and there was a steady flow of dealers packing up.

perfectstrike