Summer FUN Show: Pre-Show Expectations...UPDATE-- DAY 2 REPORT
Barndog
Posts: 20,503 ✭✭✭✭✭
I fly to Florida today to attend the Summer FUN Show. It will be my third straight year for attending the show. My collecting focus is rather narrow (Half Dimes 1829-1837) and the market-wide availability of problem-free, eye-appealing XF to low MS half dimes (my grade preference for my collection) seems to be rather low this year. At last year's show, I was able to get a really nice R-6 half dime from Harry Laibstain (1833 LM-6 in PCGS AU-50). At the first Summer FUN Show I picked up a couple of pretty XF to XF-45 half dimes too. My expectation this year is that I will be skunked and not find one coin for my half dime collection. Granted, this expectation is not only a reflection of my perception of the market for and availability of nice coins for my collection, but it also reflects that my collection is somewhat advanced...meaning there are fewer and fewer coins that can fill an empty slot or serve as an upgrade. I hope I am wrong with this prediction, since it sure would nice to bring home at least one half dime.
I need a couple coins for my type set and a handful of commems too...maybe I will have some luck with those.
edit:
DAY TWO UPDATE:
having seen just about the entire bourse floor yesterday, today was more of a poking around and waiting for an educational seminar kind of day. Stopped to see Linda Amey's stuff (love tokens, cutouts, numismatic oddities) and spent about 30 minutes going through all of her items. Nothing for me this time, but usually I walk away from her table with one or two things to bring back home and share with family. She did have a neat cut-out bust half that still retained its edge lettering. Talked with Brad at Cybercoins for quite a while (always one of the highlights of a show for me). At 1:00 o'clock my brother and I went to Chuck Heck's presentation on copper coins that he thinks will do well in the current economy. Very underattended but very enjoyable and educational. Those EAC people really, really love what they do! I was able to recommend Mark Goodman's book to another collector who attended the educational session who asked about how to take good coin pictures.
I bought nothing on day two, but my brother did purchase a Reiver large cent.
I submitted one coin at the show for next day grading (crossover from NGC to PCGS). I dropped it off on Thursday at 10 AM and picked it up Friday at 10 AM. I told my brother about the history of the coin while I was filling out the PCGS paperwork. The coin used to be in a PCGS MS62 many years ago. It was cracked out by its owner and kept raw in his collection. When it went up for auction, still raw, the auction catalog described it as AU-58. The new owner sent the coin to NGC, where it was graded AU-58. Recently this new owner had the chance to upgrade to a mint state coin, so I was able to take possession of the NGC AU-58 slabbed coin. So my sentence spoken to my brother after a bit of the history discussion was "PCGS graded it MS-62 a long time ago, NGC graded it AU-58 about six years ago, and I fully expect it to come back to me as an AU-55, which would be about right."
PCGS got it right this time. It's accurately graded at AU-55 IMO.
The Summer FUN show was enjoyable. Glad I went to the show.
I need a couple coins for my type set and a handful of commems too...maybe I will have some luck with those.
edit:
DAY TWO UPDATE:
having seen just about the entire bourse floor yesterday, today was more of a poking around and waiting for an educational seminar kind of day. Stopped to see Linda Amey's stuff (love tokens, cutouts, numismatic oddities) and spent about 30 minutes going through all of her items. Nothing for me this time, but usually I walk away from her table with one or two things to bring back home and share with family. She did have a neat cut-out bust half that still retained its edge lettering. Talked with Brad at Cybercoins for quite a while (always one of the highlights of a show for me). At 1:00 o'clock my brother and I went to Chuck Heck's presentation on copper coins that he thinks will do well in the current economy. Very underattended but very enjoyable and educational. Those EAC people really, really love what they do! I was able to recommend Mark Goodman's book to another collector who attended the educational session who asked about how to take good coin pictures.
I bought nothing on day two, but my brother did purchase a Reiver large cent.
I submitted one coin at the show for next day grading (crossover from NGC to PCGS). I dropped it off on Thursday at 10 AM and picked it up Friday at 10 AM. I told my brother about the history of the coin while I was filling out the PCGS paperwork. The coin used to be in a PCGS MS62 many years ago. It was cracked out by its owner and kept raw in his collection. When it went up for auction, still raw, the auction catalog described it as AU-58. The new owner sent the coin to NGC, where it was graded AU-58. Recently this new owner had the chance to upgrade to a mint state coin, so I was able to take possession of the NGC AU-58 slabbed coin. So my sentence spoken to my brother after a bit of the history discussion was "PCGS graded it MS-62 a long time ago, NGC graded it AU-58 about six years ago, and I fully expect it to come back to me as an AU-55, which would be about right."
PCGS got it right this time. It's accurately graded at AU-55 IMO.
The Summer FUN show was enjoyable. Glad I went to the show.
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Comments
Dick Osburn just sent out a notice that he cataloged a date set of 1/2 Dimes. You might try him, buy a coin, take it to Summer FUN, and say you brought back something with you. Of course, you being a .5 Dime nut, you've probably already scoured Dick's website.
Have a safe trip anyhoo, and here' hoping that there's a shcmorgesboard (?sp) down there for you to pick through.
-wes
Too many positive BST transactions with too many members to list.
<< <i> Of course, you being a .5 Dime nut, you've probably already scoured Dick's website.
Have a safe trip anyhoo, and here' hoping that there's a shcmorgesboard (?sp) down there for you to pick through.
-wes >>
already scoured, thanks!
Anyway, my expectations are pretty high - my wholesale guy already has a bunch of stuff put away for me from a large collection he just bought....not sure what the show will have, though. Hopefully the Clearwater show last weekend wasn't an indication, as it pretty much - well let's just say I was disappointed.
On Wednesday I sold about $55000 worth of coins and purchased less than $500. I wasn't like I was not trying to find stuff to buy.
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
<< <i>Dang Wei, you get around! >>
The guy is amazing - no one is on the road more than Wei.
<< <i>
<< <i>Dang Wei, you get around! >>
The guy is amazing - no one is on the road more than Wei. >>
Yep... with a slightly different focus and in a different time...he'd have made a great Deadhead...
...and he always seems so "at home" no matter where he is...
...truely admirable...
Best of luck to you Barndog... hope to see a cool NEWP post from you after the show
<< <i>
<< <i>Dang Wei, you get around! >>
The guy is amazing - no one is on the road more than Wei. >>
Greetings from Nassau in The Bahamas. A line of thunderstorms temporarily halted my journey tonight but things are calm again.
Believe it or not there are a few other dealers who travel more than I do. Hitting the road constantly is all good when it is done to find the best coins available to buy. Even if you're living in a good coin town it takes a few trips once in a while to find what you're looking for. Travelling is a hobby of mine so most of the time I don't mind doing it.
I was at the show yesterday and today and selling was the easy part. Finding good coins to buy at decent prices was the hard part. The attendance appeared to be much better than years before. Some dealers reported having a slow show while a few others said this was one of their better shows.
The onsite grading wasn't as brutal as it has been in the recent past. Of a half dozen coins submitted only one graded lower than expected.
It was also official that in the future this show will stay in West Palm Beach and not move to Daytona Beach as previously planned.
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Dang Wei, you get around! >>
The guy is amazing - no one is on the road more than Wei. >>
Yep... with a slightly different focus and in a different time...he'd have made a great Deadhead...
...and he always seems so "at home" no matter where he is...
...truely admirable...
>>
Yep, true story . I have ran into Wei at many a coin show and was jazzed as he cherried my Morgans at the last SoCal Ontario show. The first customer of the weekend and the first to look thru my 5+ boxes, fresh from a purchase the night before.