My Nashville IMEX 2025 show report
ElmerFusterpuck
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Made sort of a last minute booking for this show, since I wanted to look at coins and pay Nashville a visit. I was there from Wednesday thru Friday afternoon, so it was a quick tour. I spent Wednesday being a tourist and made stops at the old Ryman Auditorium, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum and the Capitol building. The certainly helped my get my 15k steps in. After all that, I checked into my hotel Tru by Hilton, which was wonderful. Only a couple blocks from the convention center. Then later, met up for dinner and drinks at the Finch with a YN and his mom. Overall, it was a great first day!
Sign for the Ryman. Only had time for the gift shop, but still a fun visit.
This museum was beyond awesome. Showed there was far more than just country music coming out of Nashville.
The Capitol building, getting some work done.
My hotel pool. It was either full of kids or full of weed vape vapors. Blecch! The hotel itself was great, with nice staff and hearty breakfast options.
Thursday was show day (day 2). Found it a bit odd that the first day of a show started at 12, so made time to make a run to Third Man Records, a series of music stores run by Jack White of the White Stripes. Along with Nashville, there is one in Detroit and one in LA.
After a bit of time there, then it was time to head for IMEX. The convention center was fairly large but it was nice inside. Made my way to the entrance where they were doing the opening speech and the ribbon cutting. There was a small crowd of people watching (me included), then we made our way in. The venue itself was fairly cavernous and there was plenty of room to move from table to table. The crowd was fairly steady from opening until around 2pm, when it really tailed off. Aside from a couple of tables where there were people looking at good coins, it was anything but crowded. I stayed there until closing, where we already had plans to head to a trivia bar at 7pm. The last hour was pretty much a ghost town at the show, and some dealers were starting to pack up at 4. Our trivia results? Our team won both rounds, and we were accused of cheating (we didn't). Seems like the locals didn't like some out of towners taking over. It was still fun.
Friday was my last day, so it was time to check out of the hotel and hang out at the show for a bit. The opening crowd was a trickle, but it did pick up and remained steady until around 1, when it started to dwindle. That's abut the time I got an alert that my flight was delayed, but I had options to change it, which I did. Those changes allowed me to get home a bit earlier. If I stuck with the original flight, I wouldn't have gotten home until the next day. Overall, I had a nice time, consigned some coins to GC and picked up a handful of nice coins for my collection.
Show thoughts: This would definitely qualify as a mid-sized show and may be better in a smaller venue like someone already mentioned. At no time was this show super packed, but yes - the width of the aisles did help. Most of the dealers were saying it was an ok show, and some were saying it was pretty slow and sleepy. The biggest complaint I heard was that it was once promoted as a 400 table event, then a bit smaller, then smaller, then it ended up being around 70. It was a stark contrast to OKC for sure.
There were plenty of YN's on the floor, including one young man that came to the table with a box of coins he bought and was trying to resell quickly. Some the coins in there were unbelievable, a 1916-S and a 1923-S Walker, both in MS-65 and green CAC and very attractive. Other good dates in there as well. From what I heard, he sold all the big stuff and made some money.
Now to the coins. Ended up getting an 1810/09 large cent for the collection. Nice chocolate and smooth brown surfaces, graded VF-30 with a green sticker. following that, got a nicely toned 1996-D Smithsonian commem dollar. It's a fitting tribute to one of our favorite places in DC. Then finally there was an 1882 PF-66 BN Indian cent I couldn't pass on. The reverse colors on this one made me want to call this one the Christmas Wreath.
For me it was a fun show to attend. The jury is still out on whether this show would return here next year or ever. Stay tuned.
10-4,
Erik
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Nice report, thanks!
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Thanks for the report.
I like the red in the first 1882 inc, it's all good 👍
Nice Smithsonian commem! That might be the only one I've seen of those.
The Smithsonian is one of my favorites modern commems and it was shockingly hard to find an example (although now that I'm not looking I do see a handful on eBay). I've never seen a toned one like OP's.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Just to clarify, I meant the only toner I’ve seen. I have a small collection going of toned modern Commemoratives and some are just not available. The 1980s (especially the Olympics Commems) can be found but get into the 90s or beyond and it’s super difficult.
I do like the design on the Smithsonian regardless if the coin is toned or blast white.
Thank you for another honest report.
Great report, thanks for posting it! Love the Smithsonian commem!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
Good to hear it was a nice visit to Nashville for you!
Thanks for a nice honest report. Each day we had roughly the same amount of visitors and we ended up with about 1500 total over the show. Thats a real number as we have each person’s registration
I would like to mention we originally said 400 tables not 400 dealers Somehow that was twisted by a board poster months back. We fell short of our goal at 285 tables. Most dealers did pretty well and you can ask them yourself when you see them. There is no hype from me nor puffery about that. Not every dealer will have a great show but we had dealers tell us they would definitely come back…I was happy to provide a positive experience for both dealers and collectors and a show that was a turnaround from the past. I think we still have a few more show to go to be the great show that IMEX will become…. hopefully you all will come enjoy Nashville and all it has to offer next time. Bye for now. It’s time for a little R and R and the Grand Old Opry
Isn't there always an issue with some dealers bugging out early? I've only been to a few big shows and I witnessed that myself. I'm not sure it's limited to this show.
Yes leaving early is part of every big show. Even the ANA show is around half occupied by Saturday. This has been discussed before and most dealers say the cost of staying for Saturday (hotel, flight) is not made up by the potential sales that would happen. Some have suggested to make staying mandatory (with some sort of fine or penalty) but the issue is that will just make it so that less dealers buy tables at all. The only way I see it changing is if Saturday became a big enough retail day to make it worth for more dealers to stay. Or another idea was to sell Saturday only tables at a discount so that local dealers can fill in the gaps left.
Sounds like you enjoyed a well rounded trip. Coins look like they were worth your trip.
I heard Taco bell sauce works well if you want toners.
Thanks for the report, I travel to Nashville frequently for work. Cool city. RGDS!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
The last day of multi day shows normally aren't worth it. People know that so they dont go the last day and then even more dealers leave early and it feeds on itself. I treat 2 day shows as 1 day and 3 day shows as 2. Thats all I can do
I dont follow modern Commems but I agree the Smithsonian is a great design
Crazy idea: Market the last day of a show as 10% off day. Each dealer will have certain items in their cases that are offered at 10% below their previous asking prices. I know this is fraught with obvious opportunities to game the promotion and it would be impossible to verify the deals were being given, but maybe it would help build traffic.
Interesting idea Thanks
That wouldn’t work because of dishonesty, but what COULD be done is something like “sponsor bucks”. Every admission charged results in a voucher that is the same (or even more) amount of money to be spent with any of the shows sponsors, or whoever can afford it with their margins, to be used as cash in a transaction. If I make a sale of. $2,500 coin and I eat $20 as a consequence of bringing in a killer audience, I and many others would probably have no objections whatsoever.
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I’d like a tire kicker special coupon worth, oh I dunno, maybe $1000 to overcome the cougar keystone markup.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Or a 10% off coupon
Just to compare, 9000 people attended the ANA WFOM in OKC
Nice show report. And I really like the coins you brought back.
But how did that attendance compare to shows other than FUN and the ANA WFM, the two largest ones each year?
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
How did this rumor go from being a Taco Bell napkins to Taco Bell sauce?!
peacockcoins
Dip them in the sauce (medium) and wrap them in the napkins. You will have monster toners and the ebay crew paying outrageous premiums. CRZY WRLD!.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Good question, I googled this and found . . .
approximately 2,650 people attended the Central States May 2024 show,
2,400 people attended the April 2023 GNA show,
I could not find anything else
Thank you.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Napkins, yes. and there's plenty of evidence for that. Sauce in a napkin? Calling bullsh*t. Provide evidence.
10-4,
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While I can’t find attendance for 2025 SUMMER FUN, I read that attendance for the 2024 SUMMER FUN show was about 4,000 attendees. I would think that IMEX would want similar attendance to that show. My sense is the number of dealers (not tables) was a lot larger at SUMMER FUN than IMEX.
I believe the owners/promoters of IMEX should ask themselves why the attendance and # of dealers at IMEX is not competitive with the SUMMER FUN show, in HOT Florida in the peak of the summer!
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
There's been a lot of gaslighting about this show unfortunately.
A lot of it deserved?
I was there on Friday, then went back on Saturday with my son. We had a great time. My 7 year old got to hold a gold bar from the SS Central America, which made his day. Most of the dealers I talked to said they had a pretty good show. Some dealers had definitely left before Saturday, but I still managed to find a couple coins. Overall, I had a great time and hope the show keeps coming back. My only complaint would be the high cost of parking, but that is really just par for the course in downtown Nashville.
Thanks for the report, really enjoyed it. Nice coins you picked up. That is the first time I have a closeup look at the Smithsonian dollar, now I want one!
Each day we had roughly the same amount of visitors and we ended up with about 1500 total over the show.
By way of comparison, we had 1,600 at the annual South Carolina Numismatic Association convention, a three-day show which is always held the last week of October in Greenville, SC. (Two years ago, the first IMEX was held in direct conflict with the South Carolina show but that's a discussion for another day). Anyway, we're just a little old regional show with around 100 dealers set up so we feel pretty good about the level of show participation. And yes, we always show a profit (as the SCNA Treasurer, I ought to know) which goes right back into things like YN Scholarships for the ANA Summer Seminar, educational programs in the schools, exhibitors' awards, etc.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
I'm not sure you understood.
The last day of many large shows is different. It's targeted at the public (small collectors), and might even (like ANA did) have free admission. The larger dealers, those travelling farther, and definitely the wholesale side don't attend.
A couple of years before COVID, at least one show tried to offer incentives, with better table placement for committing to stay and allowing dealers to move tables and curtaining off the empty back half of the hall.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")