Charmy's September 2026 LONG BEACH EXPO SHOW REPORT w/Lots of Pics!

ThePennyLady · September 13, 2026 5:39PM

The Long Beach show was right on the heels of the very successful Pittsburgh ANA show, and after all the post ANA show paperwork, coin processing, website updates, my big huge show report, etc., I didn't have much time before I was off to the Long Beach show. And on top of that, our local Buena Park show was literally back-to-back with the LB show, which ended on Friday and set up for the BP show was also Friday. As a matter of fact, I'm beginning this show report Saturday evening and still have one more day of the BP show to attend. Luckily, however, after this show, I have about six weeks before I set up at another coin show (the Portland PNNA show), and I have some fun family events scheduled during that time, including tickets to see Metallica at the Sphere with my son in Las Vegas and a trip to a resort in Sedona, Arizona, for a reunion with my siblings! Any way, back to my adventures at the LB Show!

I arrived for set up on Tuesday with my booth buddy Rich. We unloaded in the loading zone in front of the convention center as always and went in the front entrance with my cart full of cases, coins, boxes, etc.

They have an airport-like security check point right inside the front door where you have to walk through a metal detector screening and where they open and search your bags, etc. They wanted me to unload my entire cart so they could open up and go through every bag and box right there in the lobby of the convention center. Of course, I strenuously and adamantly objected and told them I wasn't going to unload the cart that I had just carefully loaded only for them to open up all my bags in front of anyone coming through the door, which is a severe security risk for me/us dealers. Not only that, if they intended to ask every dealer to unload their carts right there in the lobby, I told them they'd have a line all the way back to the parking structure and it would take hours before we would even get into the bourse floor. I asked them to get a supervisor, and they called one on the phone who quickly told them to let us through - which is what they did at the last show.

So after we set up our booth, I walked around to see what coins I could find. I ended up finding some amazing coins at this show including this beautiful 1856 S-3/Mint State Flying Eagle in PCGS PFAU58 with both CAC and Eagle Eye stickers, another 1856 Flying Eagle graded PCGS MS61 (S-9/Proof) in an old green holder, and a gorgeous iridescent toned 1955/55 Doubled Die in PCGS MS63 BN.

I was thrilled to also acquire this awesome 1877 Indian cent in a rattler PCGS MS65 RB holder!

I also ran into a couple of my favorite gal pals!

This amazing, kind, beautiful lady is Anah Minsberg with All Valley Coin and Jewelry in Temecula, California.

And this equally kind, amazing, beautiful lady is Billie Blattel of Greysheet/Whitman

That afternoon we opened a 1 liter bottle of Caymus, which once word got around, barely lasted that the day!

That evening we went across the street to PF Changs for dinner - even though it's a chain, I think they have great food, especially their pot stickers - and they make an awesome mai tai!

The next morning there was quite a line of folks waiting to get in, many of whom went straight to the PCGS table!

Joanne, who is always hard-working with a smile on her face

And look who stopped by my table to say hi, one of my coin heroes and my coin error mentor - Fred Weinberg!

Andy Wedding of GreatCollections hand delivered a box of coins to me

A long time customer of mine Jeff stopped by to pick up a coin he had ordered, and he even brought me one of my most favorite wines, this wonderful bottle of Del Dotto cab!

Bob and Carol Campbell from All About Coins in Utah

Mr_Spud stopped by and gave me a sealed book of Lincoln cents and asked me to give it to a young person, which I gladly did

A long time friend and dealer Brian Morretti

This is Ivy and Chris who are with the Long Beach Expo - they came by and did a brief video interview of me

Bruce Skier8050

Some very cute kiddos!

Paul DeFelice, VP of Marketing and Client Relations at ANACS Grading Service

Julie Abrams, Consignment Director & Dealer Liaison at Stacks Bowers

Peter Treglia, Vice President & Managing Director of Currency at Stacks Bowers

Stacks Bowers had these large golden egg tents set up at the front of the room where the public could conduct private sales/deals to sell their gold and silver inside these egg tents.

That afternoon I opened another one of my favorite wines that I've posted quite often, Rombauer Zinfandel.

Wednesday evening Stacks Bowers held a reception for the dealers at L'Opera - it was a great event, well attended, with wonderful food and drinks!

Thursday morning I had to make a phone call but I had no cell reception on the bourse floor so I went outside in the loading dock area - what a beautiful day it was!

This young man has been a customer of mine since he was I think 6 or 7 years old - he came by to purchase an 1877 Indian cent for his collection.

Thursday afternoon I had an interesting incident occur. An older man and a young woman and her boyfriend were looking through my "Treasure Box" that contains all kinds of lower cost coins and coin-related things like tokens, medals, elongates, encasements, and Indian and Lincoln cent packs. The young woman's boyfriend got my attention and said his girlfriend saw the older man take some coins and put them in his pocket. The older man had already walked away from my table so they pointed him out over by the PCGS table. So I approached that man and told him to give me my coins back or I'd call security. He told me he didn't have my coins. I told him a young woman had witnessed him putting my coins in his left pocket and that he needed to give them back to me. He put his hands in his pockets and tried to show me he didn't have my coins. I then told him I was going to get security. As I turned to find a security guard, he apparently put the coins back under the Treasure Box but the PCGS security guard who was watching what was going on saw him and retrieved them for me. So security came, I told them what happened, told them about the young couple who had remained at my table, and the PCGS guard who saw the guy try to hide the coins. They asked me how I wanted to handle it, whether to have him "arrested" or just ejected from the show. I said that since it was only $14, that I doubt prosecuting would do any good so I said just have his info recorded, photo taken and eject him. They had a policeman take the thief's statement, ran his name through their database, escorted him to the show offices where they took his photo and his info, and advised him to never return to the LB show or he'd be immediately arrested for trespass. Coin thieves are the MOST frustrating and infuriating part of our business!

Thursday was not as busy as Wednesday, but it was a very good day for me. In addition to several certified coins I found at the show, my selection of uncertified/raw coins was getting low so I was able to find quite a few raw Indian, Lincoln, and some early copper cents to add to my inventory.

My booth helper Rich had a roll of beautiful uncirculated red 1909 vdb Lincoln cents, and he let me pick whichever ones I wanted and I found several beautiful pieces from the roll.

That night we went to 555 steakhouse just up Pine Street right behind the convention center.

They have wonderful steak and seafood.

They also allowed us "one last time" free corkage on our wine (after this time, they told us the first bottle would be free but each bottle after that would be $50/bottle corkage!). There were six of us and we each brought a different bottle so we could all do our own "wine tasting."

The food and wine were wonderful, and so was the company - we all had a great time!

Friday was pretty slow, as expected, but I did have a few decent sales. However, I had to pack up early, because the Buena Park show set up was that afternoon and I was going straight there to set up before heading home. After tearing down at LB, packing up, then unpacking and setting up at the BP show, I sure was exhausted when I finally got home! My hubby is out of town, so Penny was extra friendly waiting for me to get home!

So unfortunately, the next Long Beach show (March 10-14, 2027) will be held Wednesday thru Sunday (no clue why they chose to extend the show through Sunday), with Saturday and Sunday fully overlapping the Buena Park show - that is very frustrating but I plan to attend both shows again and leave Long Beach again on Friday and set up at Buena Park Saturday and Sunday.

Next up: The PNNA show in Portland, October 30-November 1!