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ANA Day 3

Desert MoonDesert Moon Posts: 6,020 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited August 22, 2025 5:59AM in U.S. Coin Forum

OMG. I thought Day 2 was busy. Yesterday was the most intense day I have ever had at a show. Just total crazyness and mayhem. I still think the overall activity is a touch ‘light’ compared to last year, but being on executive row (you know with CRO, Garrett, O’Connor, Perkins, Eye Appealing…….), must be paying off. I was multitasking every minute. About 2 pm finally, ah, a pause. I PMed my wife, and 30 seconds later, wham, surging again. I thought it would slow down by 4 pm but it went right to the bell when I left with some board members here to go to dinner at Bob’s Steak House at the OMNI Hotel next door. We were joking that is was ‘senior’ nite for us, ages from 68 to 75. Bob’s was first class all the way, the staff was professional and excellent, the food worthy of the price, and they even brought out a birthday desert for us to share for our newly minted 75 year old on their dollar. What a blast we had. I apologize for no pics, I know @Charmy would be showing us every plate but alas, as a ‘senior’ I still haven’t figured out how to get images from my iPhone to my MacBook on the fly yet.
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So what a day, they just kept coming and coming and buying and buying. A couple nice coins came up that I was able to buy as well, but it was mostly a day for selling and talking to lots of folks at the table. Again I fasted, simply no time to grab a bite. My 1916 Matte Proof Lincoln sold to someone who is putting together the complete set of early Lincoln Matte proofs. As I told him, I love these coins, I always heard from @ldhair how much he liked them, so when I flipped to dealer side I looked at everyone I could and finally this one, I bought because it was so much better than any other I had seen so far for the grade. 66RB with beautiful hints of rose toning and the luster just explodes - and no carbon flecks:
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So a gentleman came by and asked to see it, we discussed it for a while and he said okay I may be back. He came back, we discussed again, he said he went around the floor and looked at every one he could. In the end he said this 1916 was the one he liked and then we discussed pricing. Coins like this are not cheap and pulling the trigger can be tough, but in the end, buying this quality, if you hold for a few years, you can sell it for a good price if you need to.
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One more copper story. I had another gentleman come up with a friend of his and they were looking at my 3 S-VDB’s. He was a new collector (but retired) and his ‘advisor’ was steering him towards quality and key dates which is the right way to get someone going into the hobby. I had one at 45, 58, and 65, all super strong for their grades. The new collector was particularly interested in the AU and XF ones, and prices for this key date of course scale quickly upward with each increment. The 3 of us spent some time discussing each, and I told him the story of the 45 - I had an 80 something gentleman at my table last year at ANA. He walked up with this PCGS 45 with no sticker and said he wanted to upgrade and saw my P63/CAC so could we make a deal? I said sure and made sure I gave him strong money for his 45 - in fact, straight PCGS retail price guide. I realized I had gave him several hundred too much for it and was hoping to break even. But I thought the coin was spectacular for a 45 copper penny - no marks, glossy luster and just a wholesome lovely penny with XF wear. I knew that the only way I could make a little on it was to get a sticker on it or into a CACG holder. If it didn’t sticker then I spent even more money and was sure to take a small loss bc it probably would not go for PCGS retail. I reasoned out that if CACG/CAC did like it, why not just do one go, send it in for crossing with a minimum of 40. But I loved the coin so was hopeful. When the results came back, it was a ‘whew’ moment, CACG liked it at 45 so I guess my foray into Lincolns was doing okay and was right about the quality of this lovely VDB. So that was the 45 the gentleman was considering at this ANA yesterday. In the end we were able to work out a fair price for both of us, I got to meet 2 collectors within the SW region, and happiness reigned around the world……………
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Lot’s of fun stories like this but one more to close. 2 weeks ago a friend on the boards asked me if I was interested in buying 3 coins from him as he needed cash for newps in the set he was building. This friend has simply amazing coins, and 2 of them were CROnewps he bought in 2022 and thus of course were very pricey but equally spectacular. The other one as a gorgeous 67+ commem and out of my area of what I sell. I wanted to make sure I could pay him prices where he would take no loss, but that I could sell them and take no loss either. The CROnewps of course would draw attention at my table as all CROnewps do, but selling them higher than the 2022 prices would be tough bc prices for these had not gone up. The commem had comps all over the place, but perusing the other 67+’s that sold I believed that his was the nicest of the bunch in terms of toning and luster. So I bought them. He was worried I might also lose money, but I told him I was accepting responsibility for them once I bought them and to not worry. So I placed the 2 gorgeous CROnewps into the case with 15% markups (very aggressive pricing given the situation). Sure enough, both drew immediate attention on Tuesday, the stunning half dollar sold to the first customer who wanted to see it for 10% markup, just like that. The dime was looked at, oohed and ahhed by about 10 different people and finally one stretched for this coin at 10% markup yesterday. These are frankly the kinds of coins I want in my collection if I were collecting them and sooner or later I knew someone would also want them in theirs and did. For the commem, I had plan A, plan B, etc. So finally when I had a break yesterday, I rushed over to Plan A’s table, showed him the coin, chatted and said hi etc., told him the comps which ranged over 50% in differences from high to low, and the price I was asking for it at the lower end, and boom, done, just as Plan A always does it if he wants the coin. The gist of it is, my collector friend is made whole, I did fine at 10%, Plan A got a great coin he can sell and make 10% and the next collector will still get a very good price for a cool coin. Love it when this all works for everyone. The only regret I have is that I never had the chance to image them, but maybe a good thing when they come in and go out so quickly.
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So closing Day 3 here. So many fun stories, this was a big part of why I wanted to be on the other side of the table. Get to meet alot of good people and just have fun. I expect Day 4 is going to be crazy too.

Best, DM

My online coin store - https://desertmoonnm.com/

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