Santa Clara Saturday: My Report
skerke
Posts: 404
Before I start on Satruday, I just want to share I went Friday after work (about 5:30 pm) It was dead...I overheard one delaer say to another, " I'm sure having fun not selling anything" with sarcasm in his voice. This was after I walked away after a breif glance at his porrly laid out table. I did stop by the Toners table ( the members name eludes me athe moment and am too lazy to look up the messages) I have to say his coin selection was great, loads of beautiful and some wildly toned coins. Prices were in line with others and the display was clean,well laid out and well marked (hope your first show went well.)
I walked over to NGX C ready to plunk down 65 beans to get a coin graded. What do they tell me - " Sorry we are not grading on sight, the graders left yesterday (thursday) it was too slow" For god's sake give it a chance I thought..oh well my coins go off to PCGS for the regular submission now. Oh PCGS was not grading onsite either..I did hear a few dealer frieds of mine say they had a few dissapointed customers regarding the early NGC pullout. They still left there stupid placard out front on Satruday saying stop by booth xx fro onsite grading bwahaha losers.
Ok. Saturday - much busier though the general chatter was mixed - some delaers saying the show was great and they were doing well the other half I 'overheard' were belly aching over the crowd and poor sales. I thought the mood/energy was a bit more uplifting in the early afternoon, but thats me as I picked up a 27 and 34 peace doller in 63/64 respectively for current grey sheet ask. Lighthouse had 10% off on there cases which I took them up on three, nice guy, must be Austrian, sounded like the Governator. I was a bit dissapointed they had to ship them to me. It may be me, but, when you mope behind your glass and don't even look approachable, you probably are'nt approachable - take a clue, look good, smell good (yep I wandered by a few stinky displays/vendors and wondered if any of their friends would tell them) Oh and don';t talk to me while your eating the crap they serve at the snack bar - it's bad enough eating the stuff myself, but watching you eat it..(thosae last two notes were for the hygineically imparied vendors I stopped by)
A great selection of graded cand ungraded currency - more Morgan dollars than Ithink were minted in all history (now I really know why they are called widgets) Tough finding quality colonial coinage - though some delaers defintely had their I better make some money to pay fo rthis trip game on..so some deals to be had.
It was like the ANA show in San Fran as far as the mix of delaers delas and personalities. But take that wit ha grain of salt, I've only been to four shows this year and none prior to give a real comparison on. If your still reading this, I'm summarizing now. Free Parking good, admission price..hmm fair $2 off with coupon so $6 for whole weekend + free parking. Staff/facilities/location/space/atmosphere: very good. Variety of dealers excellent ( I only wish more book vendors were there ). Seeing the stamp side of things is always cool, as well as some of the ancient pottery and knick knacks. NGC blows for reniging on their special onsite show deal, PCGS no better, they probably still burned people who submitted with a blacout date on their website.
Lot's of arbitrage deals going on buy from delaer at A at x sell to Dealer B at x+some more money. Delaers were doing this as well. It's funny what you can overhear at the tables, when your staring ath their coins, conversations go on as if you were'nt there. (see the unapproachable part mentioned above)
Otherwise all was good I met a few more nice people and friendly dealers - all in all if you have'nt gone and can make it there- go for it. Thanks for reading.
Skerke
I walked over to NGX C ready to plunk down 65 beans to get a coin graded. What do they tell me - " Sorry we are not grading on sight, the graders left yesterday (thursday) it was too slow" For god's sake give it a chance I thought..oh well my coins go off to PCGS for the regular submission now. Oh PCGS was not grading onsite either..I did hear a few dealer frieds of mine say they had a few dissapointed customers regarding the early NGC pullout. They still left there stupid placard out front on Satruday saying stop by booth xx fro onsite grading bwahaha losers.
Ok. Saturday - much busier though the general chatter was mixed - some delaers saying the show was great and they were doing well the other half I 'overheard' were belly aching over the crowd and poor sales. I thought the mood/energy was a bit more uplifting in the early afternoon, but thats me as I picked up a 27 and 34 peace doller in 63/64 respectively for current grey sheet ask. Lighthouse had 10% off on there cases which I took them up on three, nice guy, must be Austrian, sounded like the Governator. I was a bit dissapointed they had to ship them to me. It may be me, but, when you mope behind your glass and don't even look approachable, you probably are'nt approachable - take a clue, look good, smell good (yep I wandered by a few stinky displays/vendors and wondered if any of their friends would tell them) Oh and don';t talk to me while your eating the crap they serve at the snack bar - it's bad enough eating the stuff myself, but watching you eat it..(thosae last two notes were for the hygineically imparied vendors I stopped by)
A great selection of graded cand ungraded currency - more Morgan dollars than Ithink were minted in all history (now I really know why they are called widgets) Tough finding quality colonial coinage - though some delaers defintely had their I better make some money to pay fo rthis trip game on..so some deals to be had.
It was like the ANA show in San Fran as far as the mix of delaers delas and personalities. But take that wit ha grain of salt, I've only been to four shows this year and none prior to give a real comparison on. If your still reading this, I'm summarizing now. Free Parking good, admission price..hmm fair $2 off with coupon so $6 for whole weekend + free parking. Staff/facilities/location/space/atmosphere: very good. Variety of dealers excellent ( I only wish more book vendors were there ). Seeing the stamp side of things is always cool, as well as some of the ancient pottery and knick knacks. NGC blows for reniging on their special onsite show deal, PCGS no better, they probably still burned people who submitted with a blacout date on their website.
Lot's of arbitrage deals going on buy from delaer at A at x sell to Dealer B at x+some more money. Delaers were doing this as well. It's funny what you can overhear at the tables, when your staring ath their coins, conversations go on as if you were'nt there. (see the unapproachable part mentioned above)
Otherwise all was good I met a few more nice people and friendly dealers - all in all if you have'nt gone and can make it there- go for it. Thanks for reading.
Skerke
0
Comments
siliconvalleycoins.com
On the subject of on-site grading at Santa Clara, I may have been at the NGC table when you inquired about having a coin graded on-site on Friday.
Other than at the Pre-ANA last July, PCGS has never graded on-site at Santa Clara. They provided a courier service during one of the shows in 2004, if I recall. In the meantime PCGS was hosting a Trade 'n Grade in Las Vegas that concluded on Thursday.
NGC always stops accepting coins for on-site grading by Friday early in the afternoons regardless of the show they are at. The volume of on-site submissions was small this time, according to the NGC staff. Four of the five largest submitters of on-site grading by volume did not submit any coins for grading at Santa Clara and the fifth submitted a small number of coins by their standards. The only way to insure that your coins are able to be graded on-site is to submit them as early as possible once the show opens to the public.
On-site grading is new to Santa Clara. The convention in November last year was the first time that on-site grading was offered at Santa Clara by any grading service.
You were probably better off not submitting your coin for on-site grading as NGC was extremely tight at Santa Clara.
A positive that comes from a light submission load is that turnaround times improve greatly. If a coin was submitted in the morning it was possible that it could be ready for pickup by late afternoon. At a convention such as FUN, turnaround times often take upwards of 72 hours.
If you thought bodily hygiene was an issue at this show, you should attend the Mid-America show in June in Rosemont, IL. Lots of preventable foul body odor there. In fact, at Mid-America I know of one dealer who demanded that his bourse fee be refunded because he was put next to a dealer who had nearly toxic body odor.
I agree with you that the Santa Clara Convention Center is a great facility. The exhibit halls have good lighting and high ceilings with a clean, modern environment.
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
5 stars for this thread
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"