Any reports from Summer FUN ?

Today was my one day at Summer FUN (I now attend for two days at Winter FUN). In addition to finding a special coin for my current endeavor of putting together a Proof Barber Dime set, I met and spoke with two wonderful people in our hobby: Joe O’Connor and T.H. Barrow.

Six years ago, Oliver Jung was selling coins from his #1 ranked Type Set, often referred to as “The Greatest Type Set Ever Assembled”. I was interested in buying his Silver Three-Cent Piece, MS67+ PCGS w/CAC. I was told to reach out to Joe O’Connor, who Oliver had chosen to handle the sale. I did, and bought the coin, which still resides in my Dansco 7070 Registry Set, which is my pride and joy, and can be seen by clicking on the hotlink in my auto signature below. Over the years I heard about Joe from some hobby friends with very high end collections. As I was walking the bourse today, a guy at one of the dealer tables saw my name badge, and asked me if I could give him a few minutes to answer some questions for him, which I gladly did. We had a wonderful and positive conversation for about 10 minutes, and at the end he stood up to thank me, and I then saw HIS name badge. Lo and behold, he was Joe O’Connor! We then spoke for at least another 10 minutes or so. What a joy!

About a half hour later I was at Shannon’s booth @ParadimeCoins. He’s a great dealer and an even greater person. At his booth at that time was another collector, and Shannon introduced us. His name is T.H. Barrow. We had a super enjoyable conversation, and as it turns out, we know of each other through the CAC Registry, where we are often neck and neck with each other in the rankings (most of the time he’s one spot higher than me). Again, what a wonderful conversation we had!

To me, as well as many other collectors, the value of attending a large coin show is not just the opportunity to buy and sell coins, but just as important is the opportunity to create and strengthen relationships with other collectors and dealers!

While Summer FUN is not considered a “major” show, they have over 260 or so dealers and tables, so it actually is quite large. I encourage others to attend!

Steve

I attended the show on Thursday, arriving as they opened the doors, which seemed to be a little early. By then the sign in lines were short, but also well staffed, so it was quick.

Entering the show already had some buzz to it. The summer show is definitely getting traction and getting busier year by year.
I zipped over to the NGC tables for a small submission (I do PCGS submissions at the Winter show). Basically no line, but all the reps were busy. Since I’d already had my forms completed, I wasn’t relegated to “form filling purgatory”, so one of the reps squeezed me in immediately. I then trouped all the way back across the hall as I needed to drop of one coin at the ANACS table, which was ok as I wanted to start the bourse in the first aisle anyway.

Observations - the PCGS submission line was enormous by that time (10:30). Probably at least 30 people waiting, and others already seated submitting coins, and they were very well staffed and still inundated.

The bourse was pretty busy. The tables weren’t 3 deep like at Winter FUN, but I still had to wait to view cases at many of the tables, and there was less time for chit chat than used to be the case in the summer. Prices, at least the listed MSRPS, seemed quite strong, at least in the specialized areas I was hunting (large cents and walkers). And as others have reported, even the better stuff in Details holders was priced near retail.
I did spend some time chatting with dealers I know from Florida, so that was nice. The only forum member I recognized and talked with was the former Deplorable Dan, now owner of @PeakRarities. He has some amazing material that is rarely seen, even at these big shows.As he said, he likes to keep it interesting!

Young wheeler dealers - I saw less walking the floor, but more working behind tables now.

Everyone I talked to indicated the show was off to a good start, and as Bill reported, the dealer day on Wednesday had been pretty busy.

Biggest shame- one of my dealer friends showed me a coin he picked up from wholesaler Coleman Foster. A gorgeous original mint state 21D walker, with a small but unfortunate staple scratch on the obverse. Ugh! But he loves early walkers like I do, and he had to buy it.

It’s hard to be a dealer when incident- a couple were at a table shopping for a high grade 20 cent piece for their type set. I was looking at coins in the other case. They haggled and haggled on the price, finally offering $100 below the best price they were given. The dealer consulted with his partner, and reluctantly agreed to it. They then pulled out a credit card! The dealer said whoa, that’s a cash price. They said they don’t have cash or checks. Dealer says ok, but we’ll need a 3% additional charge. Oh no, you can also use it as a debit card! He said it’s still going to be 3%….wife was quite upset, dealer suggested they go find an ATM. No we’re not gonna do that…let’s just forget it.

NEWPS- I did find two coins on my list,
The 1844 has been an elusive cent to find in nice AU/unc. Surprisingly so since it’s a later date with a generous mintage.
The 1814 is one of the “common” Classic Head cents, but I’d been looking for one for awhile that was all there for the grade and had decent surfaces and a solid reverse strike. Many I’ve seen have reverse details at least one grade below the obverse. This one is solid strong VF all around. Courtesy of the good folks at The Reeded Edge.