Attended the Long Beach Show Wednesday
Elcontador
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Haven't been here since I purchased my Flowing Hair Dollar from Dan Decker last year. Since then, have been putting quite a bit of money into my house and taking once in a lifetime vacations that I want to do while I'm still healthy enough to enjoy them. Will be going to Antarctica next February, so no coins for me now.
Have been a regular attendee of the Long Beach Show for over the last 30 years. It's the only show of any size on the West Coast. It was the most slimmed down Long Beach Show I've ever attended. A dealer friend of mine said that could be because the Pittsburgh ANA was several weeks ago. Bottom line is that many Midwestern and East Coast dealers who are a mainstay at Long Beach weren't there.
Went to visit some dealer friends that my only chance to visit is at the Long Beach Show. Stacks didn't have many coins up front. Their auction coins were in a tented area in the back. If interested, you go back there, register, and do lot viewing. Heritage doesn't do auctions at Long Beach any longer because Stacks owns the show. Only dealers with large displays were a few local dealers whose names I forget.
The usual suspects - all sorts of gold, high end Morgans and Walkers were there in abundance. Not so much 19th century type. Best Large and Half Cent offerings, mostly raw, were from Tom Reynolds, of Omaha, and Pierre Fricke, of San Antonio. Van Simmons of David Hall Rare coins had an attractive 1873 Seated Dollar in MS 65. David McCarthy of Kagins showed me a really nice 1796 Flowing Hair Half Dollar that I thought was severely undergraded. He also had a really nice 1810/11 Classic Large Cent that was way out of my league.
Saw a disturbing number of high end SLQs that to me looked overgraded. Spoke with an interesting guy who was selling ancients. Another reason I like going to Long Beach is to learn something new, and I did, courtesy of him. Said that ancients often aren't graded, and pricing comes down to eye appeal. Also said that Turkey forbids the export of its pre 1940 coinage; something about preserving its culture. Which is too bad, as I'll bet the earliest coinage ever minted came from that area.
Am seeing more tables selling US currency, Mexican coins, and jewelry items. Longest lines were for PCGS submissions and at the US mint. A number of people were buying Trump coins there.
Should you go? If you're a local it's worth going and spending a few hours there. If you have fly or drive all day, I'd pass.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
Comments
Great report, thank you. I had to head to LA last week and had been kicking myself for not delaying the trip a week and combining it with a LB visit, as I hadn’t been in a couple of years. I’m both glad and sad that I didn’t miss very much.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Thanks for your report. I attended Wednesday and Thursday and had a great time and added a "big" coin to my collection as well. Most of the dealers I talked to said the show was good, but nowhere near Pittsburgh levels.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
Great report. Would you say the show was 2/3rds the size of a normal LB show, or maybe even less than that?
Dave
My two cents...
From what I could tell, the floor was relatively the same size (meaning the number of dealer tables) as a normal LB show, but attendance (at least on Wednesday) was definitely slower than a usual Day 1 in the past. No "weird" tables anymore, so no botox table, and also no sports card-only tables (and no PSA along with that).
Some of the dealers I spoke to were musing that they thought Friday would be a bigger day since it's closer to the weekend. But with no public weekend show days this go around plus LB immediately following both ANA and Labor Day Weekend, and some of the politics of Stacks being behind the show (basically, select players choosing not to attend for political reasons, i.e.: Heritage), it did "feel" a bit slimmer.
Thanks for the report! Miss seeing you there.
As a dealer and show promoter I’ll throw my three cent in… while I have no problem with Stacks being the show promoter (anyone running a show deserves all the support that one can provide) I do feel that timing was off and more effort could probably be made to welcome small and midsize dealers to the show. With that said the OP mentioned the biggest advantages… it’s the only real West Coast show and has a known name! I’ll throw in a tidbit of info for my NY NJ Ct readers. The longest running bi monthly show in Melville Long Island is no longer however a new show is now scheduled in Plainview (Exit 46) on the 4th Sun of each month. Not trying to change the subject above just trying to help spread the word.
Are you still involved with the Nashville show? Is it still a thing?
Either way, what say you about the timing and effort to welcome all to it? Because, I'll be honest. While you seem like a really good guy, I don't think anyone involved with the last two iterations of the Nashville show should be casting shade at anything anyone does or does not do with any other show.
Anywhere. Any time. Any anything.
This is where FUN kills it and perhaps Long Beach could learn? (I’ve never been to a LB but attend every FUN, which as I understand it has basically become the largest show in the world in recent years)
I’m not someone who will spend 5 figures on a coin (ever) but might spend four and will happily spend $xxx. The range of dealers at different price points at FUN is what brings the crowds. If the Long Beach show is becoming a de facto museum, thats going to hurt it. FUN absolutely has that, and it’s great to look at those coins in passing but if the show was ‘all that’, I wouldn’t bother going nor would most others. Jeff Garrett recently commented on this in:re FUN and how its so successful because its ‘the biggest show of the year for many smaller dealers’. Totally agree. We did the ANA Savannah also this year and it was definitely a bit more museum’ish.
Long Beach has always had dealers for all price points. Slabbed and raw coins. Wednesday was no exception. You'll often see Pierre Fricke have jars of large cents priced at $10, $15, and $25. You can find everything from slick Coronet Head to VF later date Braided Hair Large Cents in these jars. I've thanked him numerous times for selling these, as it gives someone an inexpensive way to jump into the hobby and acquire a piece of our history.
Dave: In terms of dealers and traffic, while the hall was full, I'd rate it at half size of the normal show to which I have become accustomed over the years.
Todd: The show is not the same with you and your father being there.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
I don't think that the sentiment that Long Beach is becoming a de facto museum is true, necessarily. There's plenty of material across the spectrum there, from the "public Joe" to the most discerning collector. I certainly agree with @Elcontador, who has been going to the LB show way longer than I have, and I've been to many. There was ample raw material to dig into across several always-busy tables at this iteration of the show.
And I also would say that there is a strong contingent of smaller and medium-sized, California-local dealers in attendance at each and every show (calling out a few of them: Allen with Coins X Collectibles, Karo and his team at Magnolia Coin, Numiscat, Truffle Hunters, Sunny with Sunny's Coin & Collectibles, and several of the Mexican-focused dealers that have started to grow their presence in the back half of the bourse over the last few years), and they will often be some of the best sources for fresher to market material.
Surprising, what happened?? Attendance seemed solid despite the new location not being great.