Weekend coin show, first in 10 years...
coinpictures
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This morning I went to the one local show that we have each year. Pics will come later, once I have had a chance to sort through things.
The last time I attended any kind of coin show was about 10 years ago, so I thought I'd post my observations and thoughts about the experience. This show had approximately 35 dealer tables; it's a one-day show, 9am-4pm. I was there from about 8:30 to 12:30. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of traffic, and most of the dealers seemed to be dealing with one another. The nondealer sales that I observed though, seemed to be fairly large dollar sales in general. Lots of movement in U.S. proof/mint sets and high-end modern slabs. As usual, Morgan dollars were always in demand.
Only about 5 of the 35 tables had any DarkSide to speak of. Of those, I ended up buying from 3 of the dealers. One of the dealers was exclusively DarkSide material.
I came to the conclusion that I'm incredibly spoiled by my local dealer -- his DarkSide material is rarely ever more than 50% of Krause, and I can buy material that has languished for a while at 30-40% of Krause. Not so at the show. If you were lucky, you might get away only paying 80% of Krause, even on a several-hundred-dollar group of coins. Anything that was a nice XF or better, or was slabbed, was 100% of Krause and UP.
The only way to get a "deal" was to find undergraded or misattributed coins, or coins that had been priced long ago.
I did end up buying a few nice pieces at above Krause, simply because they were either types I don't see online, or ones that I've not seen trustworthy examples online. There *is* something to be said about being able to see the coin in person as opposed to relying on a photograph.
The priciest coin I bought was an 1848 Frankfurt Thaler one-year type in MS60-62 that I was able to get for about 65% of Krause. All told, I spent about $900, so I did get some nice material, just not at the bargain-basement types of prices that I usually strive for.
I passed on a few coins simply because the money ran out:
1. An 1887 British 6d with lovely toning, encapsulated as MS63 in an early PCI photo slab.
2. A very tempting double florin that had prooflike fields, but had a huge hit in Victoria's hair. That would have bothered me, especially at 110% of Krause. The rest of the coin was gorgeous though.
3. Some very lovely wildman pieces. Nice VFs and XFs, but simply priced way too high.
4. Some lovely 1820s-1840s Russian 5 and 10 kopeck pieces... priced at 200% of Krause. Russian material seems to be quite hot at the moment....
The last time I attended any kind of coin show was about 10 years ago, so I thought I'd post my observations and thoughts about the experience. This show had approximately 35 dealer tables; it's a one-day show, 9am-4pm. I was there from about 8:30 to 12:30. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of traffic, and most of the dealers seemed to be dealing with one another. The nondealer sales that I observed though, seemed to be fairly large dollar sales in general. Lots of movement in U.S. proof/mint sets and high-end modern slabs. As usual, Morgan dollars were always in demand.
Only about 5 of the 35 tables had any DarkSide to speak of. Of those, I ended up buying from 3 of the dealers. One of the dealers was exclusively DarkSide material.
I came to the conclusion that I'm incredibly spoiled by my local dealer -- his DarkSide material is rarely ever more than 50% of Krause, and I can buy material that has languished for a while at 30-40% of Krause. Not so at the show. If you were lucky, you might get away only paying 80% of Krause, even on a several-hundred-dollar group of coins. Anything that was a nice XF or better, or was slabbed, was 100% of Krause and UP.
The only way to get a "deal" was to find undergraded or misattributed coins, or coins that had been priced long ago.
I did end up buying a few nice pieces at above Krause, simply because they were either types I don't see online, or ones that I've not seen trustworthy examples online. There *is* something to be said about being able to see the coin in person as opposed to relying on a photograph.
The priciest coin I bought was an 1848 Frankfurt Thaler one-year type in MS60-62 that I was able to get for about 65% of Krause. All told, I spent about $900, so I did get some nice material, just not at the bargain-basement types of prices that I usually strive for.
I passed on a few coins simply because the money ran out:
1. An 1887 British 6d with lovely toning, encapsulated as MS63 in an early PCI photo slab.
2. A very tempting double florin that had prooflike fields, but had a huge hit in Victoria's hair. That would have bothered me, especially at 110% of Krause. The rest of the coin was gorgeous though.
3. Some very lovely wildman pieces. Nice VFs and XFs, but simply priced way too high.
4. Some lovely 1820s-1840s Russian 5 and 10 kopeck pieces... priced at 200% of Krause. Russian material seems to be quite hot at the moment....
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Gene
Life member #369 of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
Member of Canadian Association of Token Collectors
Collector of:
Canadian coins and pre-confederation tokens
Darkside proof/mint sets dated 1960
My Ebay
Are they like this series?
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U.S. Revenue Stamps
<< <i>I came to the conclusion that I'm incredibly spoiled by my local dealer -- his DarkSide material is rarely ever more than 50% of Krause, and I can buy material that has languished for a while at 30-40% of Krause. >>
I've always dreamed about buying coins at the half of Krause, the dream never came true.
<< <i>
<< <i>I came to the conclusion that I'm incredibly spoiled by my local dealer -- his DarkSide material is rarely ever more than 50% of Krause, and I can buy material that has languished for a while at 30-40% of Krause. >>
I've always dreamed about buying coins at the half of Krause, the dream never came true.
Stick to Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and key date German Federal Republic 1DMs and you too can buy for 50% of Krause!
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