ANA Day 4 and Summary By The Numbers w/ NEWP pics added in OP
Desert Moon
Posts: 6,021 ✭✭✭✭✭
I am a data guy so always thinking of the numbers. So I will sum up Day 4 and Summary with numbered sections.
1 – Coins I sold on Day 4 (see below). Every single show I have done so far over the past 2 years (n=5), are very busy and then just tank on Friday. Friday I guess is tire kicker day, at least for the stuff I sell. My show was made already so it did not matter and it gave me the opportunity to do other things. So I lasted at my table until noonish, then decided to get on the floor, do some submissions that had to be done before the end of the day, and say hello to friends. So not all was lost, and it gave me an opportunity to NEWP hunt.
3 – Coins I received from my friend last week, all of which sold. Lesson here, pay strong money for stunning coins as he did, even stretch to get the right coin, and you won’t lose when you sell. Too many folks come by my table, their eyes open big and ask to see a cool coin, then ask the price. Then here comes out the smartphones as they check the guides. Then too many say well that is too expensive and walk away. No it is not it is priced right, ya just got ta realize that cool coins are not priced in, in those guides. Some don’t look at the guides, they just buy it. These are the ones that have made it over the guide hump and realize when unique cool coins are there and they are for you, buy them. Then sell them if needed for strong money later on. Or keep them and enjoy them…………. Let you in on a little dealer secret – cool coins cost us alot too, thrilled to get 10% margins on these. Better margins on not so cool coins that can be had 10% below bid and sell for 10-20% above bid but that is not for me. But hey said buyer says, I got it for below retail. Yippee! OK then, now try to sell it in a few years……. Rant over (sorry).
4 – A dealer gave me a tip that a book seller on the other side of the giant bourse had some bust quarters to sell. Who woulda thought? So I rushed over like I was in a bicycle race to get there. When I arrived, said book seller said, I sold most of them to such and such and have 2 left. One was CACed and very nice so I bought it. OK I thought, at least I have 1 new CBQ….
5 – Minutes I owned a coin and continuation of 4 above. A record for me on the short side. After buying from the book seller, I then rushed over to the said seller who beat me to the CBQs. Got to his table and saw them in his case, there were 3 stacked up. A good friend who knows I do CBQs. I did not even look at them, I just said ‘hi XXXX’, are you selling these? He brought out his laptop, ran the numbers and said here is the price. I said done, paid, and boom, had 4 new CBQs for inventory. At minute 4 into this, YN walks up and sees them and picks up the 1822 in VG10 and is a match for the set of early silver he is building. Perfect circulated cameo, XXXX says sorry ‘YN’ (names are changed to protect the innocent), I just sold it to DM here. YN was bummed, so I said ‘OK YN, I paid ‘this’, I will sell it to you for $25 more. Minute 5, YN hands over the cash, I write up the invoice, and a world record for me falls!!! And YN is a gotta big ole grin on his mug! I still have 3 new CBQs for inventory, everyone wins.
6 – Total number of NEWPS I purchased at the show, that then sold at the show. Alas, I will never be able to image these beautiful coins and only got to enjoy them in my case for a short time. But they were all placed into good homes.
7 – New gold coins for my inventory, most of which are pre-civil war, some of these are ‘big boy and girl’ coins that I happily depleted my reserve capital for. Part of when I want to sell is really nice gold coins. Especially pre-civil war, finding CACed cool examples is hard and I mostly missed out on these at FUN and CSNS. So happy to find some here at ANA. Perhaps the most interesting story out of this group was the 1911 Strong D Indian Quarter Eagle in P55/CAC I acquired. A YN vest pocket guy I have bought and sold with at other shows brought by his inventory to my table. He brought out this coin and it was a looker. So I said how much? He gave the price and I bought it. Then came the cool story. He works for a metal processing company – taking old precious metal items (coins, jewelry, etc.) and melting it for bullion. One day he was sorting through the pot just about to be turned in to liquid metal and found this lovely Indian Head Quarter Eagle. An 11-D, wow!! So naturally he pulled it out of the pot, and he gets to pay melt price for anything he picks out. Serious score, who would a thought it would survive to AU55 and get stickered going through that. Lesson here folks, let your relatives know to have you screen anything they are sending to the melt man!!!!
29 – Jump to a big number to end. I came with 31 Barber Quarters in mostly VF grades, a few XFs, and 2 AUs to sell. These were things I bought from 2017 to 2021 to start learning about BQ’s. I had a good teacher who gave me his write up about what to look for to get original, un-messed with examples. All 31 of these CACed, although 3 in that group did not and are long gone. So here I was sending in mostly very inexpensive BQ’s to CAC (hey it was only $10 a pop back then, now $25.50) and learning about their surfaces. It turns out I did pretty well because of the excellent guide I had to start. In either case, now the cost to send into sticker is so much that coins < about $400, it is just not worth it as all potential margin is gone. And if it fails, they still charge you for the service – they did not charge for the faileds to collectors back then. So going through CAC populations, it is not surprising the many of these are a Pop 1or so in VF and XF grades, and it is highly unlikely many more will be added to the pops given the cost to CAC now. So the group was pretty cool. Well the folks at ANA I guess agreed. All 29 sold at my strong and aggressive ask prices. The 2 that did not were the semi-keys costing over $1K and will be listed on my website soon, both as gorgeous as the others. The other 29 never made it to my website bc shipping would have killed the margins. Still, great result for everyone for cool, solid for the grade and original worn BQ’s.
So I will end here, the show was great, OKC is a nice town full of extremely nice people. Probably reduced collector attendance given the time to get to OKC, but everyone seemed to have a great show including me. I certainly enjoyed the friendliness of the OKC residents for sure.
Best, DM
PS I did get 2 NEWPS for my collection and will update here with images later in the week.
As promised here are the images of the 2 I obtained for my personal collection.
First up is for my pre-civil war date set of half dimes, none yet for Flowing Hair and Draped Bust. Could be I never get there, finding it difficult to obtain pieces in the Liberty Seated and Capped Bust first. This one meets my criteria. Would prefer to get the 38-O but too much coin for a piece at my grade range. This is also the more common large stars type. I really like the look of it and fits into my set. I need to redo do the images after polishing off the slab hits. 200 rubs with Meguiar’s PlastX wasn’t enough.
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I obtained my first 1806/5 Draped Bust Quarter and will go into my limited bust quarter set. These gals are always poorly struck. This one is actually better struck on the center of the reverse than most, and worse struck around the edges of the obverse than many. But again, nice wholesome look. The CAC images are much lighter than mine, but I try best to have the images as I see them in hand and thus darker than CAC’s.
Comments
Congrats on a great show, and thanks again for the great write ups! Enjoyed them all.
5 on your list is especially cool. YNs going after original skinned large CBQs? Brings a smile to my face.
Appreciate you sharing your experiences!
Great report! Love the inside view and the recounting of deals.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Great report and great coins! Good to see you again!
BHNC #248 … 130 and counting.
Great report, interesting perspectives. Thanks for posting.
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
Great report DM. The quality of what you were selling made folks slow down and take a look.
Every time I came by your table, you had several people checking out your coins. You have a nice way of dealing with customers and I think it serves you well.
I'll see you at FUN. I hope to book my plans today.
Great report(s)! @Desert Moon Thanks for taking the time to write them up. It was fun to see you as always, and I’m glad the show was worth the trip for you.
Also good to see you there @ldhair
Al - your show reports are awesome & I enjoyed reading every one of them! Even better to have dinner with you & @ldhair & @usararecoins. A truly great night out!
Always a pleasure, too, doing a little biz! This show was no exception.
Finally, I hope you managed a little time to check out my FE PR collection for sale @ Paradime’s table (hey - buy one!).
“Run for the hills”, my friend!
Ken
“The thrill of the hunt never gets old”
PCGS Registry: Screaming Eagles
Copperindian
Retired sets: Soaring Eagles
Copperindian
Nickelodeon
Just curious about this. Do show sponsors (in this case ANA) require dealers to stay for the entire show, or are there a lot of empty tables by Friday afternoon and on Saturday?
Great report, thanks for posting it! It's hard to write show reports when you are really busy at the show.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
4 am wakeups................
PPS - I got to peruse the @Copperindian flying eagle proofs at the Paradime table on Friday afternoon. Wow! what a group. I don't know how many had already been sold but the ones still there I am pretty sure were the best of show..........
I enjoyed reading the daily updates!
And I strongly agree with the point that quality coins require one to pay up; you won't find many at "guide" price. I don't mind someone checking a guide or looking at comps to get a relative idea but expecting to buy at those levels is usually not realistic.
DM, nice catching up with you again and thanks for the purchase. The 11-D in 58 CACG you have is a real looker!
Successful transactions with: Lakesammman, jimineez1, Flackthat, PerryHall, bidask, bccox, TwistedArrow1962, free_spirit, alexerca, scooter25, FHC, tnspro, mcarney1173, moursund, and SurfinxHI (6 times)
Sounds like you were busy !
Nice.....
Thank you DesertMoon for the great show report. Can't wait to visit and see your coins at FUN.
Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks for taking the time to do this write up. Makes be even more excited about the big show in Chicago in September.
Successful BST with drddm, BustDMs, Pnies20, lkeigwin, pursuitofliberty, Bullsitter, felinfoel, SPalladino
$5 Type Set https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/type-sets/half-eagle-type-set-circulation-strikes-1795-1929/album/344192
CBH Set https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/everyman-collections/everyman-half-dollars/everyman-capped-bust-half-dollars-1807-1839/album/345572
I was there Tuesday’s open until about 4 pm Saturday. Most Ultra Premium and Premium tables had cleared out by late Friday. Still many dealers around the peripherals. Good crowds Saturday from 10 till about 1:30 but not as good as Tuesday through Wednesday crowds. After 1:30 it was dead. I was helping out a dealer at his table and he was still doing dealer to dealer deals til about 2:30 Sat.
Most dealers I talked to said they were having great shows, some their best ever.
I really liked the venue and OKC.
Life member of ANA
It’s not required at most shows. By Friday afternoon you tend to start seeing empty tables and on Saturday it’s even emptier.
Yes, they (show organizers) claim that if you are not there as required, your table placing the next time around will not be as optimal. Kind of an empty threat bc prominent dealers were leaving in droves at 3 pm on Fri, after being there for a week, with a day of travel each way, well……………..
Pretty much explains why Saturday is free for the general public. Gives non-prominent dealers a reason to stay, and gives the public exactly what it is paying for, eliminating any reason to complain when they enter a bourse that is at least half empty.
This is good information for those of us who’ve not been to many shows. If you can only spend one day at a show, I guess it’s best go on Day 1 or Day 2.
Thanks for all of the nice comments folks, in SUM ANA was a great show…….
Nice show report, it was good chatting with you!
Collector of Capped Bust Halves, SLQ's, Commems, and random cool stuff! @davidv_numismatics on Instagram
DM:
Please let us know the final tally of exactly how many rubs it takes to make a scuffed slab clear again.
My (infrequently updated) hobby website Groovycoins.com
Great reports just read all of them. I also love hearing stories of the wheeling and dealing on the bourse floor.
Hey BG,
I did another 200 on each side today and almost there. I have to image the coin and blow it up to see if the nicks are gone so it is a process. These are more than just light surface hits, the go into the plastic maybe 2/10 of a mm, so I am hoping another 200 with lots of polish paste each time, for a total of 600 for these will do it. I think I got the reverse with the first 2 rub sessions (400), but will do another 200 on it anyway just to make sure. The advantage of P plastic is it is harder and polishes up nicely, but might take time.
I also redid the 1806/5 images. The left side of first round images were ever so slightly a touch darker on the left relative to the right side of the coin bc of light placement. The new images uploaded above corrected this issue. Great images take time and sometimes redo’s, I am a perfectionist……...
Best, DM