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Can you remember the first coin show you ever attended?

DUIGUYDUIGUY Posts: 7,252 ✭✭✭
I will be going to a small local show in about seven weeks. Have any advice for a Rookie?image
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly."



- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC

Comments

  • dizzyfoxxdizzyfoxx Posts: 9,823 ✭✭✭
    Santa Clara, CA Mar '05 with my Dad and I'll never miss another one from here on out!image
    image...There's always time for coin collecting. image
  • fcfc Posts: 12,793 ✭✭✭
    i remember walking into a mall in MI and there were tables setup selling
    coins and all the related items.

    This was the early 80s. I was young then and with my parents.
    They allowed me to spend hours as i looked at each and every table it seemed.
  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 23,836 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Long Beach early to mid 1970's

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • RonyahskiRonyahski Posts: 3,119 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Albany, NY coin show at the Polish community center while I was in college. If I had any advice, it would be to go and just soak in the show. Don't feel any pressure about having to buy any coins. View the coins on display and be sure to converse with the dealers there. Get to know them, take in some knowledge and get comfortable in the environment.
    Some refer to overgraded slabs as Coffins. I like to think of them as Happy Coins.
  • TootawlTootawl Posts: 5,877 ✭✭✭
    Baltimore about 3 or 4 years ago. I started at the biggie.
    PCGS Currency: HOF 2013, Best Low Ball Set 2009-2014, 2016, 2018. Appreciation Award 2015, Best Showcase 2018, Numerous others.
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭
    It was only a little over three years ago, so I remember it well. Found very little to buy and most of the shows since have produced the same results. Matter of fact, a lot of the material I saw at that first show is still in the dealer's inventories today.

    Russ, NCNE
  • SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,597 ✭✭✭✭✭
    July, 1998. Purely a matter of coincidence as I was doing an errand and saw a hotel marquee advertising a show. I had never been to one, decided to stop and check it out for a few minutes, stay an hour or more and got hooked.

    Stopping by that show reignited my interest in the hobby at 42 years of age, about 20 years after I stopped collecting.

    As far as advice goes, have fun, look around and talk to as many persons as you can. Bring a few bucks if you must buy one coin, but do not go with the idea that you are going to buy, buy and buy. Get a feel for a show, develop a collecting interest, educate yourself on the area you are interested and have fun.
  • mirabelamirabela Posts: 5,102 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Some mall in suburban Boston around 1980, 81 maybe. I bought a nice original VG 1875 seated quarter for five bucks that day. I saw a 1955 DDO Lincoln, the mere fact of which nearly caused me to do something unmentionable in my nine-year-old pants. I saw a lot of unhealthy-looking middle-aged white men behind their tables horkling down sloppy meat sandwiches and fries from styrofoam takeout boxes. You will see that this, at least, has not changed much.
    mirabela
  • DaveGDaveG Posts: 3,535
    I remember my first show: it was November 1, 1992, an 80 table show in Parsippany, NJ.

    You should have an idea of what you're looking for and know about what you're willing to pay. First (before you buy anything) you should look at every table. If the show's not too busy, you should make a point of trying to talk to each dealer. If this is a show that you'll be going to regularly, you'll be looking to establish some relationships. Look for the dealers who carry what you're interested in and are willing to share their knowledge with you.

    When you've found a dealer you might want to buy something from, talk to him about the coins you're interested in, especially if you're interested in raw 19th century coins (Bust halves, Seated quarters, etc.) Try to get his opinion of the coin in question. Ask him about cleaned coins - ask him to show you a cleaned coin, a dipped coin, etc. An honest dealer should be willing to talk to you, if you're nice and he's not too busy.

    When you find a coin you want to buy, ask the dealer: "What do you need for this coin?" or "What's your best price?", but don't try to argue with him. As you become a better customer, he'll probably give you better prices. Also, remember that you're paying him for educating you, too.

    Check out the Southern Gold Society

  • mrearlygoldmrearlygold Posts: 17,858 ✭✭✭
    Yeh, don't bring any money with you. You aren't going to get any first shots, so if/when you see something that makes the money burn holes in your pocket, you probably aren't getting the deal of the century, and as such it will most likely be available after the show in which case you will have calmed down, and with a cooler head call the fellow with that one of a kind and make a better deal AFTER the show.

    Have a good time and don't eat TOO MANY of the darn sausage sandwiches!


    Tomimage
  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,800 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Pittsburgh, PA. Circa 1976. I learned a very valuable lesson at that show, one that was doubly reinforced years later. The lesson is: If you want any reasonable finacial return on what you spend on coins, don't buy crap.

    I wanted to buy a large cent and settled on an obviously recolored (unnatural red) 1818 in Fine detail condition. I paid ten dollars for it (or my father did). Nearly 30 years later, it is not worth any more than that, if you could find someone to buy it. About a year later (1977), I purchased a nice chocolate brown then VF/EF, now ANACS AU-50, 1825 large cent for $20. I recently sold it for over $400. Buy the best quality you can afford™.
  • coinlieutenantcoinlieutenant Posts: 9,320 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Robert,

    I was learning alot at that time as well...

    I remember learning how to roll over and play with my mobile. I was also very happy pooping in my pants. image

    Man...you are OLD!!! image

    V.r,
    The bicentennial baby.

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