Show Report - Buffalo Spring Convention

StrikeOutXXX

My son and I spent about 5 hours walking through the Buffalo Numismatic Association's Spring Convention today. I have to admit, was totally different from my last coin show 20 or so years ago.

Around 70 dealers with 90 tables on my map for this Sat/Sun only show. Looking at the legend, the dealers are all from New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Obviously not exactly up to par with the shows most of you write about, but figured I'd give it a shot anyhow. Being close to Canada, there was a lot of visible Canadian items, and quite a few people looking at those items. Most of the dealers had wide varieties of items at their tables, with only a couple with specialized tables with just gold, large cents, foreign, etc.

I think what surprised me the most is what I perceived as a slab-craziness of the hobby since I got back into it, yet I'd guess only 3-4% of the coins there were slabbed. If you only count the "Big 3" TPG's, I'd say 1-2% then. The other few % were mostly SEGS, Coin World, or other home-made ones. [What % is slabbed at the "Bigger" shows??]

I watched sellers basically go table to table with their briefcases offering coins to the dealers at the tables. I think the dealers were buying as much from the customers as the customers from the dealers. Although there was Buffalo Police roaming about, I had a feeling who was toting around big bucks in their briefcases by the large gentlemen escorting them. I'm 6'4" 250#, and I felt little around a few of them.

A lot of people were shopping their rolls of scrap silver to the dealers (Nearly every table had a buying coins/silver sign). The gold tables seemed to be very busy, saw lots of money moving there. A few of the more popular "Do you have any ..." I heard were centered around bust or seated coins, and 2/3/20 cent pieces. Bust halves in slabs were being sought a lot, but most were raw or slabbed in the lower-mid grades. There were books and cases of walkers, barbers, morgans, peace dollars, but I didn't see many people going through those. The popular raw album flipping seemed to be indian heads, wheaties, and the mercs and buffalo nickels.

I let my son just look, and maybe because of price, maybe because he met another boy around his age who collects mercs there, he seemed to gravitate to buffalo nickels and the mercs. In addition to his mercs/buffalos, he tried to buy one of everything he could afford, (A large cent, liberty nickel, barber denominations, SLQ, a walker, etc). He sat and went through the books, chatted with the dealers, asked to see items in cases, went through the bargain bins, and didn't have one problem. I was sort of gunshy of how he would be treated, and I was very pleased with the whole experience. He already marked the fall convention date on the calendar. There weren't many teens/pre-teens there, only saw a dozen or so out of the several hundred while I was there.

I definitely think before the fall show, I need to come up with a specific field of interest. I didn't go there "Looking" for anything in particular, figured I'd buy what I really liked when I saw it. I liked everything, but didn't see anything big I "Had to have". Ended up with birth year mint and proof sets, a new redbook, a few 3-cent pieces that caught my eye, and a fun day with my son.

dizzyfoxx

report. My first show was with my Dad a year ago and we had a blast. If your looking for a specific field of interest, may I suggest early commems. They are incredible in their design, each have their own historical significance, oh, and every now and then you find one with pretty toning.

StrikeOutXXX

There are a few early commemoratives I will probably add that I really like no matter which way I lean. All in all, about 2/3 of them appeal to me, I would have to get over the other 1/3. I saw a lot of them at the show today too, was 1/2 tempted to get the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge one (Liked the Bear )

I forgot to put in the report that toned coins were "flying of the shelf", but I think everyone sort of knows this anyhow. My son pointed to a slightly toned Franklin half, said something like look at the toning dad. The dealer heard him and said his whole row of tables was picked through in the first 15 minutes of the show. He said if people wanted to keep buying toned coins at 1.5 to 2 times an equivalent non-toned coin, he's all for it.