Anaheim Show

Coxe

Since I only spent this afternoon (Thursday) there, this is not a thorough report but a glimpse of the bourse.

I had to get my consignment to Teletrade and decided since it was close to the show I would just drive it up from here in San Diego and hit the bourse, saving a registered mailing. I got there about 2pm and the parking garage, which was arrived at through an unmarked labyrinth, was empty like it was Christmas Day or something. A lot of elbow room there for the $9 ransom; but that is typical of a convention center. Then there was the several minute walk around the garage looking for the entrance followed by a similar nearly unmarked maze of hallways to the bourse -- reminiscent of the backstage wandering scene in Spinal Tap. Paid my $2 and got the golden ticket.

To say the bourse was dead would not do justice to the air of dealer dispair there. I was there nearly five hours and every minute seemed like the one where the dealers turn off their lamps and put the chairs up. It was so bad that I was constantly swept up with the feeling I should be mercy buying to help out on their table fees. In addition to the overwhelming malaise, the lack of interesting and fresh material was truly pathetic. It was more like a swap meet of part time wannabe club collectors in the offerings .... and these were good and some better dealers.

In the end, I ended up cherrypicking VAMs from two dealers' raw coins. The first victim was the ubiquitous Armando. I found a half dozen and actually bought three because I can never get a decent bargain there. Grades seem higher than they should be and so do the prices. But it is all subjective. Here's what I walked away with there.

1883-O VAM-1D MS63 (maybe MS62) -- gouge below left wing
1896-O VAM-19 XF/AU -- RPD shifted down
1903 VAM-6A -- gouge below 1

The sour coin was the 1896-O. They had it graded as AU with a high AU price. I thought XF45 and you know that step from XF to AU is a big one for the date. However, I had been looking for this one for some time and bought a couple false positives along the way. This one was in my hand and I had ripped some great coins recently enough; so I went for it. Got it bargained down 25% for the three from the asking prices. Admittedly, that is very generous usually, but the 96-O price constituted most of it.

Most of my time was spent over by Jim and (wife) Ray Draper. They are really nice folks and he is a good old timer in the business. We chatted and ranted on the TPGs, coin doctors, and everything else under the numismatic sun for a long while. I gave him a couple VAM designations for his front case and went to the 2x2 boxes. Here is the haul there.

1878-S VAM-86 (I think) -- MS65, but cleaned
1881-O VAM-1B -- MS62 -- Clashed and DOL gouge
1882-O VAM-29A -- MS62 GTO clash SCD
1882-O VAM-29A -- AU55 GTO clash SCD
1886 VAM-21 -- XF40 RPD/M Top-100
1887 VAM-5 -- MS63 Ponytail 7 Top-100
1888 VAM-11A -- XF40 Clashed Doubled Ear Hot-50
1888-O Oval O -- VG08 w/ rim nick Top-100
1889-O Oval O -- VF20 Top-100
1889-O VAM-13B -- VF30 Crumbled Stars
1892-O VAM-7 -- G06 Doubled Ear Top-100
1892-O VAM-7 -- F12 Doubled Ear Top-100
1921-D VAM-1P -- AU53 Die Break E R
1922-D VAM-3 -- MS63 DDR Top-50
1923 VAM-1F -- MS63 Chin Bar Top-50
1923 Clashed -- MS62
1923-S Double Clashed -- XF40 NEW FIND, off to Leroy (doesn't match any documented ones)
...and two 1935-S that I am still evaluating.

Of these, the really big one is the pair of 1882-O VAM-29A Super Clashed Dies. In Mark's "Elite" book, he said that this relatively new variety had ony 4 known pieces at the time of publishing. I think that was about a year ago. Probably more came out of the woodwork. If not, these could be pretty darned significant. Nonetheless, the VAM-29A is quite an interesting variety.

Well, sure hope Long Beach picks up the slack from this show. Maybe they'll get a lot more retail on the weekend in Anaheim too.

-- JC

Coxe

ttt ..... Any of yesterday's other four customers at the show on the forum?

RedTiger

The thread is as dead as you describe the bourse. If I remember this has something to do with the former promoters of Long Beach trying to add another show (or supplant the Long Beach show). The week after Labor Day, the week before Long Beach seems like a terrible time to have a mid-sized aspiring to be bigger show. When I saw the title I thought it was going to be about the small monthly neighborhood show in Anaheim.

$9 for parking, yikes. Though at the show's website it looks like some dealers validate with a purchase (unlike Long Beach).

Coxe

Nobody was validating though I noted that on the website before I went. Did ok anyway. The Ponterio (official auctioneer) guys must be bored to a psychotic degree there. I have to say, though, the venue is very convenient relative to Teletrade's office, about a 10 or 15 minute drive. In fact, the one remarkable thing was how little traffic I encountered on the whole roundtrip. Very light by So Cal standards.