Finally made it to my first coin show

hoardmonster

Went to the St. Louis show Saturday.

It was interesting and fun. At the same time it kind of stressed me out because I wasn't exactly sure how to approach things. I felt like there should be a 'Coin Shows For Dummies' book. So I just sort of tried to glance at every dealer's table and see what looked interesting. Finally I remembered that I have been wanting to find a $2.5 Gold Indian so I concentrated on that. Found some nice ones at pretty good prices too. Didn't bring as much cash as I thought I did though, so if I want one I gotta go back Sunday morning because none of the ones I liked were from local dealers.

One thing that struck me was that I got the feeling that that must be a hard way to make a living.

Coppernicus

My first trip to a coin show sounds a lot like yours. I felt like a fish out of water for a while. But, after giving it some time, I started to get in the "groove" of it all, and made one great buy. It was a Merc in a ACG holder graded MS64 but with great eye appeal. Sold it the following week raw, for 66 money.

Ever since, I feel right at home at the shows. I like to "dress down" (jeans, t-shirt or raggy sweater) and try to look naive. Some of the dealers don't give me the time of day (fine!) but those that do find I have a wad of hundreds in my pocket. If I were worth $100 million, I would dress and act the same as I do now.

I love to have people under-estimate me!

Mike

hoardmonster

That's funny Mike, that's exactly how I dressed. And I also met dealers that would barely talk to me. But the trend seemed to be that the ones who wouldn't, had the most overpriced coins.

ibzman350

Went to my first show yesterday, a local coin show and I also felt a bit overwhelmed, the hall was overcrowded, lotsa people in the aisles, I guess that's a good thing.

All those coins and so little money, then I remembered that I was there to see what people had to say about this thing, four people saw it, they all shock their heads and didn't really say anything about what I wanted to or not to hear, for that matter !

As I'm about to leave, one of the people I showed it to earlier, asked if I got rid of it and looked at it again, but not offering any explanation as to what was going on with the coin

Hopefully the next show will be somewhat easier.