Scubafuel's Long Beach show report.
scubafuel
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I arrived in Long beach at 7am on Friday after taking off from SFO about an hour earlier. I’m not sure who makes this commute every day, but Jetblue has 3-4 flights daily and mine was packed. No turbulence, no huge guy in the middle seat, all good so far.
My dealer friend offered to try to sneak me in early, but Long Beach docents were on their game and it was not to be. I spent the time before 10am trying desperately to get the wifi to work on my iPad so that I could show off Collectivecoin. I’d just finished loading my bust quarter collection and wanted to get feedback (ok, brag) to the couple specialists I knew would be there.
I queued up with the other members of the public, and we rushed the stairs. Strangely, most everyone except for me insisted on taking the escalator down 1 floor to the bourse. I hit the stairs and beat pretty much everyone. Stacks was just setting out the early dimes and quarters from the Pogue collection, and already drawing a crowd.
These coins were magnificent. Almost to the point of unreality, actually. They were like restrikes without the “copy” label, so much so that I was almost uninterested in most of them. That may be sacrilege, but I felt like they belonged to a different hobby. However, I knew I still had to beg my way into holding 3 of the coins: The 1804 quarter in MS64, the 1823/2 quarter in AU58, and the 1821 B-6 quarter in MS66. The nice man behind the counter agreed, after checking with 2 different higher-ups, and then motioning the brute squad closer to me as I was examining them. At least that’s what it felt like.
Still, it was amazing to be able to hold these rarities and aim a loupe at them, while imagining who else had done the same thing over the years.
After that, I hit the bourse floor at top speed. Some people have a well thought-out, methodical plan of attack for this (JA), but mine was basically a lopsided swirling spiral, starting from Higleyville Coin and gradually spreading outward to the “beyond” section of baseball cards, hotdogs, and bored spouses. I found a couple of early dimes to purchase (because I never find any quarters anymore and dimes are close) but not much in the way of really attractive early material. I did notice a ton of toned morgans, some great looking bust halves and a lot of funky denominations for sale. If you collect 2c, 3c or 20c coins, you probably had a field day.
Along the way, I met Stone (now sadly departed from the boards) for the first time, along with Rory Rea and the Penny Lady. I was able to show a few collectors around CollectiveCoin, which I was pretty happy about. I crushed a jumbo dog and was back on the floor for a last lap before closing.
And there, at a lonesome table along the far wall, all by itself among cleaned, baggy and ANACS coins, I found a cherrypick. You know when you look in a case, see a coin and think “did I see that right?” I live for that feeling.
In this case it was a misattributed bust quarter. R5+ in an R1 holder. I won’t name names on the grading service, but it was a pretty big miss for variety attribution. It was cleaned, but not badly. I asked the price and the dealer kinda grinned at me and quoted a problem-free price for the impaired piece. I grinned back and said I’d take it. Not a bad transaction when we both leave happy!
I grabbed a beer with dinner, a beer at the airport, a beer on the plane and made it back home by 11pm. Not a bad day.
My dealer friend offered to try to sneak me in early, but Long Beach docents were on their game and it was not to be. I spent the time before 10am trying desperately to get the wifi to work on my iPad so that I could show off Collectivecoin. I’d just finished loading my bust quarter collection and wanted to get feedback (ok, brag) to the couple specialists I knew would be there.
I queued up with the other members of the public, and we rushed the stairs. Strangely, most everyone except for me insisted on taking the escalator down 1 floor to the bourse. I hit the stairs and beat pretty much everyone. Stacks was just setting out the early dimes and quarters from the Pogue collection, and already drawing a crowd.
These coins were magnificent. Almost to the point of unreality, actually. They were like restrikes without the “copy” label, so much so that I was almost uninterested in most of them. That may be sacrilege, but I felt like they belonged to a different hobby. However, I knew I still had to beg my way into holding 3 of the coins: The 1804 quarter in MS64, the 1823/2 quarter in AU58, and the 1821 B-6 quarter in MS66. The nice man behind the counter agreed, after checking with 2 different higher-ups, and then motioning the brute squad closer to me as I was examining them. At least that’s what it felt like.
Still, it was amazing to be able to hold these rarities and aim a loupe at them, while imagining who else had done the same thing over the years.
After that, I hit the bourse floor at top speed. Some people have a well thought-out, methodical plan of attack for this (JA), but mine was basically a lopsided swirling spiral, starting from Higleyville Coin and gradually spreading outward to the “beyond” section of baseball cards, hotdogs, and bored spouses. I found a couple of early dimes to purchase (because I never find any quarters anymore and dimes are close) but not much in the way of really attractive early material. I did notice a ton of toned morgans, some great looking bust halves and a lot of funky denominations for sale. If you collect 2c, 3c or 20c coins, you probably had a field day.
Along the way, I met Stone (now sadly departed from the boards) for the first time, along with Rory Rea and the Penny Lady. I was able to show a few collectors around CollectiveCoin, which I was pretty happy about. I crushed a jumbo dog and was back on the floor for a last lap before closing.
And there, at a lonesome table along the far wall, all by itself among cleaned, baggy and ANACS coins, I found a cherrypick. You know when you look in a case, see a coin and think “did I see that right?” I live for that feeling.
In this case it was a misattributed bust quarter. R5+ in an R1 holder. I won’t name names on the grading service, but it was a pretty big miss for variety attribution. It was cleaned, but not badly. I asked the price and the dealer kinda grinned at me and quoted a problem-free price for the impaired piece. I grinned back and said I’d take it. Not a bad transaction when we both leave happy!
I grabbed a beer with dinner, a beer at the airport, a beer on the plane and made it back home by 11pm. Not a bad day.
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Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
- Jim
Great Reading!...Congrats on the Cherrypick
This is a bit embarrassing, but for those who went, did anyone actually notice a CollectiveCoin flyer at the show? I got a good deal from Long Beach organizers to add a few of them to the collector bags they gave out, so I went for it hoping I could spread the word about the site. However, there were no new members, and not even an uptick in traffic during the show.
Experiment failed. I'd bet not many people even look in their bags. I should have made a poll first! Still, I had fun making them.
Matt (scubafuel)