Another Baltimore report & one more newp picture
Barry
Posts: 10,100 ✭✭✭
In the past, I've always gone to Balto on Friday, figuring I didn't want to miss the "good stuff," and you know how dealers tend to leave early... This year, winter has hung on longer than usual, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity of using Friday as a ski day. Turned out to be a great day with no crowd and about 3 inches of new snow! We don't get to ski on snow made by nature very often in Pennsylvania...
As it turned out, I'm glad I went Saturday. I got there just a few minutes before the doors opened. When the doors opened at 10 AM, I'd guess about 10% of the dealers were already gone, but all the regulars that I tend to deal with were still there. Another advantage of Saturday is not having to time my departure right to miss rush hour traffic in both Balto and Phila. Definitely makes for a more pleasant trip.
Got to chat with a few friends while waiting for the doors to open. Then, saw my first forum member, Ksteelheader, and said hi. Ken wore a PCGS forum handle-tag, which was a good idea, since he wasn't wearing his Super K logo shirt or cape
(not that I wouldn't have recognized him anyway from seeing his pics here.) Shortly thereafter, Jeremy came by (sans Afro), and then the doors opened. I thought the crowd was a little light, compared with previous shows, but I could be wrong. We'll have to wait for dealer comments on business.
I was looking to upgrade a few coins in my Dansco type set, if the right coin came along, and also was keeping my eyes open for early dimes. Shortly after starting up the aisles, I saw Andy Lustig, also recognized from forum pics. First time meeting Andy. Very nice guy, and he was kind enough to give me some coin opinions. One of the coins on my upgrade list was a Classic Head Large Cent. The first copper dealer I saw was Chris McCawley. He showed me a few coins, one of which I really liked - an 1814 with a very nice planchet and no significant marks. He removed the coin from a still-sealed B&M auction flip, so this coin was fresh out of auction. Before committing, I also stopped at tables of Doug Bird and Tom Reynolds to see what they had, and I felt the first coin I saw was, by far, the nicest. That's the one I bought and is pictured below. I also picked up a nice 3 cent nickel with some interesting clash marks, which I posted in this message.
I didn't pick up anything in my primary area of interest, early dimes, but I did see a few coins from the Richmond collection that I (under)bid on. One coin I bid on was a 71-CC dime. I bid 8K and the coin hammered at 9K. I saw the coin in Dick Osburn's case (for 13K) and said to him jokingly, "So you're the guy who outbid me on this." He said his max bid was significantly higher and he thought the coin was a steal for what he paid. Interesting how dealer perception differs from mine.
We went to lunch with with a sizeable group of forum members (see Ken's post). After that, I took a quick look back in the bourse, and seeing many dealers had packed up and left while we were gone, I took off shortly thereafter.
I've updated my Dansco type set pics (link in the sig line). Rather than taking pics of the coins in album page again, which was a bit of a pain in the butt as it's difficult to get the good pics of mulitple coins in one shot, then put the multiple shots together to form each page, I tried something different. I took the pics of the new coins, and in Photoshop, I selected, moved, and scaled them on top of the original coins. Here's the 1814 LC:
As it turned out, I'm glad I went Saturday. I got there just a few minutes before the doors opened. When the doors opened at 10 AM, I'd guess about 10% of the dealers were already gone, but all the regulars that I tend to deal with were still there. Another advantage of Saturday is not having to time my departure right to miss rush hour traffic in both Balto and Phila. Definitely makes for a more pleasant trip.
Got to chat with a few friends while waiting for the doors to open. Then, saw my first forum member, Ksteelheader, and said hi. Ken wore a PCGS forum handle-tag, which was a good idea, since he wasn't wearing his Super K logo shirt or cape
(not that I wouldn't have recognized him anyway from seeing his pics here.) Shortly thereafter, Jeremy came by (sans Afro), and then the doors opened. I thought the crowd was a little light, compared with previous shows, but I could be wrong. We'll have to wait for dealer comments on business.I was looking to upgrade a few coins in my Dansco type set, if the right coin came along, and also was keeping my eyes open for early dimes. Shortly after starting up the aisles, I saw Andy Lustig, also recognized from forum pics. First time meeting Andy. Very nice guy, and he was kind enough to give me some coin opinions. One of the coins on my upgrade list was a Classic Head Large Cent. The first copper dealer I saw was Chris McCawley. He showed me a few coins, one of which I really liked - an 1814 with a very nice planchet and no significant marks. He removed the coin from a still-sealed B&M auction flip, so this coin was fresh out of auction. Before committing, I also stopped at tables of Doug Bird and Tom Reynolds to see what they had, and I felt the first coin I saw was, by far, the nicest. That's the one I bought and is pictured below. I also picked up a nice 3 cent nickel with some interesting clash marks, which I posted in this message.
I didn't pick up anything in my primary area of interest, early dimes, but I did see a few coins from the Richmond collection that I (under)bid on. One coin I bid on was a 71-CC dime. I bid 8K and the coin hammered at 9K. I saw the coin in Dick Osburn's case (for 13K) and said to him jokingly, "So you're the guy who outbid me on this." He said his max bid was significantly higher and he thought the coin was a steal for what he paid. Interesting how dealer perception differs from mine.
We went to lunch with with a sizeable group of forum members (see Ken's post). After that, I took a quick look back in the bourse, and seeing many dealers had packed up and left while we were gone, I took off shortly thereafter.
I've updated my Dansco type set pics (link in the sig line). Rather than taking pics of the coins in album page again, which was a bit of a pain in the butt as it's difficult to get the good pics of mulitple coins in one shot, then put the multiple shots together to form each page, I tried something different. I took the pics of the new coins, and in Photoshop, I selected, moved, and scaled them on top of the original coins. Here's the 1814 LC:
0
Comments
In Laurel
MD
Just a fist full of Dollars
Ken
Nice 1814, has great eye-appeal.
<< <i>I bid 8K and the coin hammered at 9K. I saw the coin in Dick Osburn's case (for 13K) and said to him jokingly, "So you're the guy who outbid me on this." He said his max bid was significantly higher and he thought the coin was a steal for what he paid. Interesting how dealer perception differs from mine.
>>
No offense to Dick Osburn, but doesn't every dealer who purchases any coin at auction claim that it was for 'far below their max bid'?
Jeremy
Thanks. I don't want to turn this into BST listing, but if you want to see the one I'm replacing, I just listed it on Ebay. It's not a bad looking coin either.
- edited to make "set" plural. Nice sets!
collections: Maryland related coins & exonumia, 7070 Type set, and Video Arcade Tokens.
The Low Budget Y2K Registry Set