My 2016 Winter FUN Show Report
keyman64
Posts: 15,521 ✭✭✭✭✭
In case there is any interest, below is a recap of my 4 day experience.
PRE-FUN
Added everything to my Heritage watch list that I wanted to lot view. I made many contacts with folks that I wanted to meet up with. Some people reached out to me for the same reason. A couple had things that they wanted to show me that I might have an interest in. A few forum members pointed me in the right direction for dealers that I should meet with. That was a big help and a huge thanks goes out to them! I planned out what PCGS coins I had that I would submit to PCGS at the show for reholder/TrueView. I only had 5 that required that. Since the show fees for these services are the same, this was a GREAT VALUE since it would save me about $50 in shipping charges, there and back with California. I also planned out which items I had to sell if I came across the right opportunities. I gathered together many items and planned a meeting with kryptonitecomics (Shane) so that I could give him a bunch of comics and scarce HotWheels to sell for me since he has the right followers on eBay...and this would save me a ton on shipping just getting the stuff to him. I put together contact info for many folks so we could meet. I made sure I had my discovery 1897 RPD Barber Dime with me so I could try to tackle that project if I had the time/opportunity. I also needed to meet with PCGS' David Talk to help rectify a problem that came up. A solid couple of weeks were spent on preparation for the show and it paid off, allowing me to accomplish more than I ever had!
WEDNESDAY
I embarked on the uneventful 25 minute drive to the Tampa Convention Center in downtown Tampa. I was so happy that this was a local show for me. I parked in the parking garage about 1:30 PM, made the 2 minute walk to get inside the convention center and checked in for some lot viewing FUN.
When this show is in Orlando, if you do not get there early enough, you can end up with more than a mile walk, much of it an uncovered walk outside...and even if you get there early enough it is at least a 15 minute walk at a quick pace. I walked over to the Platinum Night lot viewing area and met up with AuroraBorealis who was already entertaining himself with the Heritage offerings. I viewed the 1944 Steel Cents, 1942 White Metal Cent Patterns, 1943 Bronze Cents, the 1792 material which was very very cool to hold in hand, and some other random pieces. I enjoyed looking at the 2000 Lincoln Cent struck on the NH Quarter. It was really cool to look at but the luster was muted so some of the eye appeal I hoped for, just was not there. I viewed the Roosevelt Dime struck on the nail. Crazy thing to look at but what impressed me a bit was the holder/encapsulation. I thought that was well done. I looked at the purple/blue/red toned 1916 1c PR67+ RB MPL. WOW WOW WOW! The strike and detail on the 1916s are so awesome. The added toning to this example just made it a wow coin for me. Another toned coin that I viewed was the 1932 25c PCGS MS67 CAC. From the photos, you can certainly get a good idea of the colors but are clueless about the luster until you view it in hand. The photos make it look kind of dead. It was a WOW COIN and sold for WOW MONEY. For additional grins, I viewed the S.S. Central America Kellogg & Humbert 60.48oz Gold Ingot/Bar. Since it was not "graded" of course I was curious about the presentation of it. THAT WAS COOL TO VIEW! They brought over a small treasure trunk type of box with handles on the sides, opened up the box to reveal the bar encased in what a believe to be a plexiglass box. It was awesome! One of the more interesting items that I was there to see was the 1894-S PR66 Dime. I was very excited to see this as I studied the Heritage photos closely and read the write-up etc. Upon getting the coin in hand, I was very disappointed. The fantasy photos posted online, used for press releases by so many, etc could not be further from the truth. You have to look at the slab photos to know exactly what this coin looks like in hand. The coin was a dull brown without luster. I discussed this with people that have much deeper pockets and also have a couple of decades more experience than I do....and they all seemed to agree with me. Disappointing that what I consider to be false advertising fantasy photos are still being used by some auction houses in order to promote and sell coins. Why is this done and how does the industry continue this way? For $2,000,000, I think it is possible to buy BOTH beauty and rarity. I also had a few cheap items at the cheap preview table to look at just to make sure they weren't unattributed varieties that required rescuing. None of them were varieties. I enjoyed my lot viewing experience very much and the Heritage staff was absolutely WONDERFUL to work with. I big thanks to all of them to make that experience what it is. So much can be learned in just a couple of hours! Upon my exit of the Heritage room, I ran into ColonelJessup. That is always a pleasant experience and I enjoyed a short chat with him. Having accomplished my goal, I made the 25 minute drive home to close out the day.
THURSDAY
WOW, THE BIG DAY FINALLY ARRIVED! I was so excited for this day! I got up early, took the kids to school, drove to downtown Tampa and parked. I was there around 9:15, got my name tag, made a couple of phone calls to locate people and find out when they might arrive and then generally socialized at the front of the ribbon cutting ceremony. I met up with Dimeman and hung out with him quite a bit over three days. Good guy! Once the ribbon cutting was done, it was off to the races. First stop was to PCGS so I could give them 5 coins for show TrueView as I wanted to get them back before the show's end. That was pretty quick and the PCGS staff was wonderful to work with! I also obtained a couple of sample slabs that were being offered. Very nice, PCGS, thank you! My next stop was a sprint across the room to a dealer that was "HOLDING SOMETHING" for me that he thought I would be interested in. WOW, he was right!!! And with that, all/most of my money was GONE!!!!!!
Of course, with me, it does not take much for that to happen. This was the case where I had to stretch for the coin. When the rare opportunity presents itself and if there is a remote possibility of acquiring the RIGHT COIN, you MUST DO IT! This was the case here. I was on cloud 9 for the entire show (still am) for having made this acquisition. I had purchased a coin from this same dealer the week prior, which I also felt I had to stretch for...and through that contact, he told me he would take this coin for me at FUN. I could have left the show, less than an hour in, at this point and been VERY HAPPY but there was still so much more to do. While finishing up with this dealer, a friend of mine that I had never met in person but planned to meet up with, showed up at that very dealer's table. That was fantastic timing. After a brief meet and plans to do lunch, I allowed them to conduct business and I was off to my next stop which was with a dealer that forum members had pointed me to a couple of weeks prior. I ran into AuroraBorealis and his wife and of course shared my new toy with anyone willing to look. Throughout the show, I seemed to get the approval of every collector and dealer I showed it to. Call me a happy camper if you must. 
Anyway, this second dealer was slammed and asked that I give him some time to organize a few things for me and return in a little while. That worked for me! By that time, I received a couple of phone calls from forum members to meet up for lunch. AWESOME!!! I had a show BURGER & Fries and great company along with some show and tell time. While wrapping up lunch I received another phone call from someone that had reached out to me a few days prior. I was a little concerned about this meeting because he had said that he might have a few things I would be interested in. 
We met at a table and he pulled out his magical "BOX OF 20!" WOW! Yes, I liked everything in the box. Only 3 coins were in line with my current focus though. The gentleman then explained that he was not quite ready to sell yet. I then told him that we would be good friends since I was tapped out and not "ready to buy." I will email him confirming my interest in the three items for when he is ready...hopefully I will be ready at the same time. After those adventures I was finally time for me to start searching a few aisles. I made it through about 6 of the 21 aisles and did not find anything that I could not live without. I saw many gorgeous and amazing things but nothing I needed. I was trying to maintain my focus on my Toned 1950-1964 Proof Set and Cherrypicking varieties, primarily Mercury Dime varieties...and when I say Mercury Dime varieties, I was primarily focused on looking for the 1919 DDO FS-101. I searched a few 1919 examples but did not find the DDO on Thursday. I did stop by the Great Collections table to visit with Ian and view the Top Pop 1919 DDO FS-101 that has been consigned to him and ends February 14th. That will be a fun auction to watch. I already placed my bid and within an hour or so, my max bid was beat. Funny. Across from Great Collections were Charmy and Todd. It was nice to say hi to them and then around the corner from them was Rick Snow. Nice coins had by all, that's for sure! Later in the afternoon, while I was back with the dealer that had asked me to visit later, a friend I had lunch with walked up grinning ear to ear. He had acquired a couple of monster toned coins that I had the pleasure of viewing at the first dealer I visited with that morning. WOW! It was cool to see his success and of course view the coins again. During the day I was able to sell 6 coins that I had with me. It sure is a lot easier when you know which dealers you can take things to. Time flies when you are having FUN and the first full day of Winter FUN 2016 came to a close at 6:30 without me finding anything else that I couldn't live without.
FRIDAY
I have already typed too much so I will try to speed this along...
After dropping the kids off at school and making my way to the show, I again met up with/ran into a lot of the same people on Friday which was cool. I also met Proofmorgan as we waited for the show to open up at 10AM. The PCGS Luncheon was at 11:30 and was great for a few reasons. The food was very good and PCGS made the exciting announcement about them making CoinFacts free, starting February 3rd. PCGS also handed out Luncheon slabs. Thanks PCGS. I also had the pleasure of meeting Lakesammman and BigDowgie at the luncheon. Good times! After the luncheon, I was able to finally go visit the Sample Slab Dispaly at the PCGS table. Very cool stuff there! I have to say that my favorite has to be the 1933 $20 sample with the small gasket and no coin. After that, I walked down the PCGS tables to pick up my show TrueView Only submission coins which was very nice. Then I visited with David Talk who is the Customer Service Manager so that he could help resolve a problem I have had recently. We came up with a solution and he was most helpful. Thanks David! I was then able to resume my search down the rest of the aisles for the elusive 1919 DDO FS-101 Mercury Dime. I was pleasantly surprised to see close to a dozen MS 1919 Mercs at the show but then of course very sad when I came to realize they were not the variety. I probably searched through another dozen+ examples that were circulated and of course without any luck. Oh well, maybe next time. I briefly checked in with a couple of my favorite dealers to see if they had anything new. One of them told me that he was getting a nice box of coins delivered to him on Saturday morning and that I should visit him again at that time. That got me interested....hmmmmm. The excitement for the day ended at 6:30.
SATURDAY
This day was to be a little different since I had my two little kids with me. I really wanted to focus on them as much as possible and make sure they had a good time. I started the day with a drive to my PO Box in order to pick up two packages from PCGS that had been shipped earlier in the week. One of those packages contained two coins that I needed to deliver to PCGS' David Talk back at the show so he could take those back to California with him and get an issue resolved next week. The other package was a return of a 20 coin submission. It was exciting to get this stuff back, especially since I had three coins in there with TrueViews that I could now sell. Upon arrival at FUN, I met with Shane in the parking garage so I could give him comics and Hot Wheels. Then we walked in and we saw Walkerguy21D who was with one of his older daughters and his wife. It was nice to see them. We made our way to PCGS, saw David and I dropped off two coins for him. PCGS was kind enough to offer a sample slab to both of my kids which was cool. Thanks PCGS! The dealer that asked for me to revisit him was next. He had some beautiful coins for me to look at in old small ANACS holders. Wow! And yes, one of them I "needed" but he is going to put in the work to get it into PCGS plastic for me and then we will talk. Sounds like a fine plan. I was able to sell him two of my coins that were fresh back from PCGS so that was great! I really only have one coin left to sell now. Pretty cool. After those quick things were handled, it was time to go along with my kids on a numismatic trivia treasure hunt around the bourse so that could learn some things, have fun and earn some prizes. There were 18 multiple choice questions that they had to find the answers to...at 18 different stops around the bourse. We covered a few and when we had to stop at the CONECA table, that caused a DAD STOP. I talked to them again about my 1897 10c RPD discovery. They referred me to someone else, I met with them and we put together an action plan of sorts. Hopefully there will be another thread on that topic's success in a few months. We will see. We then had to go to another Luncheon that was very nice and had good food. Very interesting and enjoyable. Afterwards, we returned to the bourse floor so the kids could finish their treasure hunt trivia questions and get their prizes. That was awesome and the kids had a blast! I then took the kids to Pan For Gold which is always a big hit. There are so many wonderful people in this hobby of ours, top to bottom and in all facets! It made me very happy to have my kids there where they were able to really enjoy themselves and get lots of little freebies. We stopped by Joe Kaminski's table to say hi but he was very busy with a customer for a long period of time. He had taken a good amount of time to talk to my daughter about rainbow toned coins at a previous FUN show where he made a friend for life. Lol. We will catch him next time... Shortly thereafter, about 2:45 I believe, we made our way out and drove home. Once home, my kids wanted to go through all of their goodies, pull out all of their coins they have from previous acquisitions and organize/play with everything. That was awesome!!!
GENERAL MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS
2015 Summer FUN was deader than dead and the smallest FUN show I had ever seen. 2015 Winter FUN seemed a bit slow. 2016 Winter FUN was very active with what seemed to be tons of people and packed aisles every day. Most dealers I talked to only had good things to say. There were a TON of silver bullion dealers, or at least it seemed like it to me. I did ask one dealer what they were charging for their 10oz bars and they said $1 over spot which impressed me. Most dealers charge a good bit more than that, at least online anyway and then you have to pay shipping. I thought there was a good deal to be had there. I regret not having the additional organization to at least meet up with a couple of other collectors/dealers that I knew were there but geeeez, time sure flies when you are having FUN. Everyone I met with, including plenty of forum members and dealers I did not name, were FANTASTIC! There are so many wonderful people and that is what makes this hobby so enjoyable for me. Next year, Winter FUN is in Ft Lauderdale which will be different since I have never been there for a show. I will try to make it even though it will be a long drive. 2018 Winter FUN will be back in Tampa which makes me very happy...and that will be followed by 3 years in Orlando I believe. I had an amazing time! I had lots of success in acquisitions, sales, consigning misc. collectables, handling all types of things with PCGS, making new contacts/friends, spending time with other good friends etc.
Sorry about a lack of photos but I am tired and I have a feeling there will be a show report favorite that will post a report with a ton of photos...hopefully.
PRE-FUN
Added everything to my Heritage watch list that I wanted to lot view. I made many contacts with folks that I wanted to meet up with. Some people reached out to me for the same reason. A couple had things that they wanted to show me that I might have an interest in. A few forum members pointed me in the right direction for dealers that I should meet with. That was a big help and a huge thanks goes out to them! I planned out what PCGS coins I had that I would submit to PCGS at the show for reholder/TrueView. I only had 5 that required that. Since the show fees for these services are the same, this was a GREAT VALUE since it would save me about $50 in shipping charges, there and back with California. I also planned out which items I had to sell if I came across the right opportunities. I gathered together many items and planned a meeting with kryptonitecomics (Shane) so that I could give him a bunch of comics and scarce HotWheels to sell for me since he has the right followers on eBay...and this would save me a ton on shipping just getting the stuff to him. I put together contact info for many folks so we could meet. I made sure I had my discovery 1897 RPD Barber Dime with me so I could try to tackle that project if I had the time/opportunity. I also needed to meet with PCGS' David Talk to help rectify a problem that came up. A solid couple of weeks were spent on preparation for the show and it paid off, allowing me to accomplish more than I ever had!
WEDNESDAY
I embarked on the uneventful 25 minute drive to the Tampa Convention Center in downtown Tampa. I was so happy that this was a local show for me. I parked in the parking garage about 1:30 PM, made the 2 minute walk to get inside the convention center and checked in for some lot viewing FUN.
When this show is in Orlando, if you do not get there early enough, you can end up with more than a mile walk, much of it an uncovered walk outside...and even if you get there early enough it is at least a 15 minute walk at a quick pace. I walked over to the Platinum Night lot viewing area and met up with AuroraBorealis who was already entertaining himself with the Heritage offerings. I viewed the 1944 Steel Cents, 1942 White Metal Cent Patterns, 1943 Bronze Cents, the 1792 material which was very very cool to hold in hand, and some other random pieces. I enjoyed looking at the 2000 Lincoln Cent struck on the NH Quarter. It was really cool to look at but the luster was muted so some of the eye appeal I hoped for, just was not there. I viewed the Roosevelt Dime struck on the nail. Crazy thing to look at but what impressed me a bit was the holder/encapsulation. I thought that was well done. I looked at the purple/blue/red toned 1916 1c PR67+ RB MPL. WOW WOW WOW! The strike and detail on the 1916s are so awesome. The added toning to this example just made it a wow coin for me. Another toned coin that I viewed was the 1932 25c PCGS MS67 CAC. From the photos, you can certainly get a good idea of the colors but are clueless about the luster until you view it in hand. The photos make it look kind of dead. It was a WOW COIN and sold for WOW MONEY. For additional grins, I viewed the S.S. Central America Kellogg & Humbert 60.48oz Gold Ingot/Bar. Since it was not "graded" of course I was curious about the presentation of it. THAT WAS COOL TO VIEW! They brought over a small treasure trunk type of box with handles on the sides, opened up the box to reveal the bar encased in what a believe to be a plexiglass box. It was awesome! One of the more interesting items that I was there to see was the 1894-S PR66 Dime. I was very excited to see this as I studied the Heritage photos closely and read the write-up etc. Upon getting the coin in hand, I was very disappointed. The fantasy photos posted online, used for press releases by so many, etc could not be further from the truth. You have to look at the slab photos to know exactly what this coin looks like in hand. The coin was a dull brown without luster. I discussed this with people that have much deeper pockets and also have a couple of decades more experience than I do....and they all seemed to agree with me. Disappointing that what I consider to be false advertising fantasy photos are still being used by some auction houses in order to promote and sell coins. Why is this done and how does the industry continue this way? For $2,000,000, I think it is possible to buy BOTH beauty and rarity. I also had a few cheap items at the cheap preview table to look at just to make sure they weren't unattributed varieties that required rescuing. None of them were varieties. I enjoyed my lot viewing experience very much and the Heritage staff was absolutely WONDERFUL to work with. I big thanks to all of them to make that experience what it is. So much can be learned in just a couple of hours! Upon my exit of the Heritage room, I ran into ColonelJessup. That is always a pleasant experience and I enjoyed a short chat with him. Having accomplished my goal, I made the 25 minute drive home to close out the day. THURSDAY
WOW, THE BIG DAY FINALLY ARRIVED! I was so excited for this day! I got up early, took the kids to school, drove to downtown Tampa and parked. I was there around 9:15, got my name tag, made a couple of phone calls to locate people and find out when they might arrive and then generally socialized at the front of the ribbon cutting ceremony. I met up with Dimeman and hung out with him quite a bit over three days. Good guy! Once the ribbon cutting was done, it was off to the races. First stop was to PCGS so I could give them 5 coins for show TrueView as I wanted to get them back before the show's end. That was pretty quick and the PCGS staff was wonderful to work with! I also obtained a couple of sample slabs that were being offered. Very nice, PCGS, thank you! My next stop was a sprint across the room to a dealer that was "HOLDING SOMETHING" for me that he thought I would be interested in. WOW, he was right!!! And with that, all/most of my money was GONE!!!!!!
Of course, with me, it does not take much for that to happen. This was the case where I had to stretch for the coin. When the rare opportunity presents itself and if there is a remote possibility of acquiring the RIGHT COIN, you MUST DO IT! This was the case here. I was on cloud 9 for the entire show (still am) for having made this acquisition. I had purchased a coin from this same dealer the week prior, which I also felt I had to stretch for...and through that contact, he told me he would take this coin for me at FUN. I could have left the show, less than an hour in, at this point and been VERY HAPPY but there was still so much more to do. While finishing up with this dealer, a friend of mine that I had never met in person but planned to meet up with, showed up at that very dealer's table. That was fantastic timing. After a brief meet and plans to do lunch, I allowed them to conduct business and I was off to my next stop which was with a dealer that forum members had pointed me to a couple of weeks prior. I ran into AuroraBorealis and his wife and of course shared my new toy with anyone willing to look. Throughout the show, I seemed to get the approval of every collector and dealer I showed it to. Call me a happy camper if you must. Anyway, this second dealer was slammed and asked that I give him some time to organize a few things for me and return in a little while. That worked for me! By that time, I received a couple of phone calls from forum members to meet up for lunch. AWESOME!!! I had a show BURGER & Fries and great company along with some show and tell time. While wrapping up lunch I received another phone call from someone that had reached out to me a few days prior. I was a little concerned about this meeting because he had said that he might have a few things I would be interested in. We met at a table and he pulled out his magical "BOX OF 20!" WOW! Yes, I liked everything in the box. Only 3 coins were in line with my current focus though. The gentleman then explained that he was not quite ready to sell yet. I then told him that we would be good friends since I was tapped out and not "ready to buy." I will email him confirming my interest in the three items for when he is ready...hopefully I will be ready at the same time. After those adventures I was finally time for me to start searching a few aisles. I made it through about 6 of the 21 aisles and did not find anything that I could not live without. I saw many gorgeous and amazing things but nothing I needed. I was trying to maintain my focus on my Toned 1950-1964 Proof Set and Cherrypicking varieties, primarily Mercury Dime varieties...and when I say Mercury Dime varieties, I was primarily focused on looking for the 1919 DDO FS-101. I searched a few 1919 examples but did not find the DDO on Thursday. I did stop by the Great Collections table to visit with Ian and view the Top Pop 1919 DDO FS-101 that has been consigned to him and ends February 14th. That will be a fun auction to watch. I already placed my bid and within an hour or so, my max bid was beat. Funny. Across from Great Collections were Charmy and Todd. It was nice to say hi to them and then around the corner from them was Rick Snow. Nice coins had by all, that's for sure! Later in the afternoon, while I was back with the dealer that had asked me to visit later, a friend I had lunch with walked up grinning ear to ear. He had acquired a couple of monster toned coins that I had the pleasure of viewing at the first dealer I visited with that morning. WOW! It was cool to see his success and of course view the coins again. During the day I was able to sell 6 coins that I had with me. It sure is a lot easier when you know which dealers you can take things to. Time flies when you are having FUN and the first full day of Winter FUN 2016 came to a close at 6:30 without me finding anything else that I couldn't live without.FRIDAY
I have already typed too much so I will try to speed this along... After dropping the kids off at school and making my way to the show, I again met up with/ran into a lot of the same people on Friday which was cool. I also met Proofmorgan as we waited for the show to open up at 10AM. The PCGS Luncheon was at 11:30 and was great for a few reasons. The food was very good and PCGS made the exciting announcement about them making CoinFacts free, starting February 3rd. PCGS also handed out Luncheon slabs. Thanks PCGS. I also had the pleasure of meeting Lakesammman and BigDowgie at the luncheon. Good times! After the luncheon, I was able to finally go visit the Sample Slab Dispaly at the PCGS table. Very cool stuff there! I have to say that my favorite has to be the 1933 $20 sample with the small gasket and no coin. After that, I walked down the PCGS tables to pick up my show TrueView Only submission coins which was very nice. Then I visited with David Talk who is the Customer Service Manager so that he could help resolve a problem I have had recently. We came up with a solution and he was most helpful. Thanks David! I was then able to resume my search down the rest of the aisles for the elusive 1919 DDO FS-101 Mercury Dime. I was pleasantly surprised to see close to a dozen MS 1919 Mercs at the show but then of course very sad when I came to realize they were not the variety. I probably searched through another dozen+ examples that were circulated and of course without any luck. Oh well, maybe next time. I briefly checked in with a couple of my favorite dealers to see if they had anything new. One of them told me that he was getting a nice box of coins delivered to him on Saturday morning and that I should visit him again at that time. That got me interested....hmmmmm. The excitement for the day ended at 6:30.
SATURDAY
This day was to be a little different since I had my two little kids with me. I really wanted to focus on them as much as possible and make sure they had a good time. I started the day with a drive to my PO Box in order to pick up two packages from PCGS that had been shipped earlier in the week. One of those packages contained two coins that I needed to deliver to PCGS' David Talk back at the show so he could take those back to California with him and get an issue resolved next week. The other package was a return of a 20 coin submission. It was exciting to get this stuff back, especially since I had three coins in there with TrueViews that I could now sell. Upon arrival at FUN, I met with Shane in the parking garage so I could give him comics and Hot Wheels. Then we walked in and we saw Walkerguy21D who was with one of his older daughters and his wife. It was nice to see them. We made our way to PCGS, saw David and I dropped off two coins for him. PCGS was kind enough to offer a sample slab to both of my kids which was cool. Thanks PCGS! The dealer that asked for me to revisit him was next. He had some beautiful coins for me to look at in old small ANACS holders. Wow! And yes, one of them I "needed" but he is going to put in the work to get it into PCGS plastic for me and then we will talk. Sounds like a fine plan. I was able to sell him two of my coins that were fresh back from PCGS so that was great! I really only have one coin left to sell now. Pretty cool. After those quick things were handled, it was time to go along with my kids on a numismatic trivia treasure hunt around the bourse so that could learn some things, have fun and earn some prizes. There were 18 multiple choice questions that they had to find the answers to...at 18 different stops around the bourse. We covered a few and when we had to stop at the CONECA table, that caused a DAD STOP. I talked to them again about my 1897 10c RPD discovery. They referred me to someone else, I met with them and we put together an action plan of sorts. Hopefully there will be another thread on that topic's success in a few months. We will see. We then had to go to another Luncheon that was very nice and had good food. Very interesting and enjoyable. Afterwards, we returned to the bourse floor so the kids could finish their treasure hunt trivia questions and get their prizes. That was awesome and the kids had a blast! I then took the kids to Pan For Gold which is always a big hit. There are so many wonderful people in this hobby of ours, top to bottom and in all facets! It made me very happy to have my kids there where they were able to really enjoy themselves and get lots of little freebies. We stopped by Joe Kaminski's table to say hi but he was very busy with a customer for a long period of time. He had taken a good amount of time to talk to my daughter about rainbow toned coins at a previous FUN show where he made a friend for life. Lol. We will catch him next time... Shortly thereafter, about 2:45 I believe, we made our way out and drove home. Once home, my kids wanted to go through all of their goodies, pull out all of their coins they have from previous acquisitions and organize/play with everything. That was awesome!!!
GENERAL MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS
2015 Summer FUN was deader than dead and the smallest FUN show I had ever seen. 2015 Winter FUN seemed a bit slow. 2016 Winter FUN was very active with what seemed to be tons of people and packed aisles every day. Most dealers I talked to only had good things to say. There were a TON of silver bullion dealers, or at least it seemed like it to me. I did ask one dealer what they were charging for their 10oz bars and they said $1 over spot which impressed me. Most dealers charge a good bit more than that, at least online anyway and then you have to pay shipping. I thought there was a good deal to be had there. I regret not having the additional organization to at least meet up with a couple of other collectors/dealers that I knew were there but geeeez, time sure flies when you are having FUN. Everyone I met with, including plenty of forum members and dealers I did not name, were FANTASTIC! There are so many wonderful people and that is what makes this hobby so enjoyable for me. Next year, Winter FUN is in Ft Lauderdale which will be different since I have never been there for a show. I will try to make it even though it will be a long drive. 2018 Winter FUN will be back in Tampa which makes me very happy...and that will be followed by 3 years in Orlando I believe. I had an amazing time! I had lots of success in acquisitions, sales, consigning misc. collectables, handling all types of things with PCGS, making new contacts/friends, spending time with other good friends etc.
Sorry about a lack of photos but I am tired and I have a feeling there will be a show report favorite that will post a report with a ton of photos...hopefully.
"If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
0
Comments
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
If you had found 4 DDO's, that wouldn't have been any fun.
Great report with such detail!
AB
Best show report ever
Regarding photos:
One of the more interesting items that I was there to see was the 1894-S PR66 Dime. I was very excited to see this as I studied the Heritage photos closely and read the write-up etc. Upon getting the coin in hand, I was very disappointed. The fantasy photos posted online, used for press releases by so many, etc could not be further from the truth. You have to look at the slab photos to know exactly what this coin looks like in hand. The coin was a dull brown without luster. I discussed this with people that have much deeper pockets and also have a couple of decades more experience than I do....and they all seemed to agree with me. Disappointing that what I consider to be false advertising fantasy photos are still being used by some auction houses in order to promote and sell coins. Why is this done and how does the industry continue this way? For $2,000,000, I think it is possible to buy BOTH beauty and rarity.
I think the reason glamour photos exist is that people like them. We are in a world where Target Photoshops people models in their catalog to be thinner so adjusting lighting for coins seems much less egregious by comparison. The saving grace is that HA provides large slab photos are provided so those can be used for approximating what a coin looks like in hand. Press releases will sometimes use slab photos but they have a goal of increasing readership so that may be in conflict with widespread use of slab photos.
I've liked coins with nice glamour shots and and less nice slab photos but reserve judgment until seeing those in-hand.
You were very kind to PCGS!! LOL
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Latin American Collection
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
One of my new year's resolutions is to attend a major show this year. Probably Vegas or Chicago.
Check out my iPhone app SlabReader!
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
I actually just landed in Hong Kong from LA. I started to read your report when we got airborne and finished it as we were landing. What a comprehensive report and I'm grateful for the read.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Hiya G
I actually just landed in Hong Kong from LA. I started to read your report when we got airborne and finished it as we were landing. What a comprehensive report and I'm grateful for the read.
mark
My primary pickup was a 1951 10c PR in a pre-prong NGC PR68/QA holder.
It will be crossed and true viewed eventually. I'll wait until I have a few more to cross.
The obv has full coverage toning with purple, blue, red, orange and yellow.
It's amazing to me and I can't imagine ever locating a more beautiful example.
The rev is mostly white.
I also picked up a 1953 Capital Plastics proof set with a nicely toned quarter.
I already have this coin but this one is a little better.
It will be submitted eventually, along with others that are in wait.
I hope to do a post on my toned 1950-1964 Proof Set progress within the next couple of months as I have close
to half of the coins required for the set and they are all True Viewed. Right now, my visible reg set only has 1 coin.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
U.S. Type Set
heck of a report.
+1