What is your "plan" for viewing coins on the bourse?

Comments

• ms70 Posts: 13,956 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2005 2:59AM

  
  I bring a dayplanner type portfolio. In it is a calculator, my want list, price guides, and a note pad. I basically get a floor plan of the show (when available) and as I go around
  the floor I jot down what I like & where it's located. I also write down the grade & price. Once I've gone around the entire floor I decide what I really want out of what I saw
  and then go back to get it. If no floor plan is available I just draw a rough sketch & write in the name of the dealer.
  
  Caution: I have had occasion where I've gone back to get something I decided on just to find it was bought!

  Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.

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• RYK Posts: 35,800 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2005 3:04AM

  I usually know specifically what dealers I want to visit. I check the floorplan and the table assignments and go to these tables first. Then, I wander around aimlessly and get shoved around by New Yorkers.
  
  Don't forget to bring:
  
  Your loupe
  Water bottle
  Comfortable clothes (especially shoes)
  Price guides
  Reference books (DW's book on NO gold, for example)
  Paper/pencil, PalmPilot, or some other means for taking notes.
  Your cell phone (so I can call you and get a live blow-by-blow report).
  
  Do not bring:
  Your Heritage catalog (they have them there and who wants to schlep around a telephone book, anyway?)
  

  My Box of 20: https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/box-20/ryks-gold-box-20/17132

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• BillJones Posts: 34,796 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2005 3:11AM

  I have certain dealers with whom I almost always do business at every show. I make a bee line to their tables so that I can get into the que to run their boxes. After I have hit all of those dealers, I have three or four of them, I branch out to the next level to people with whom I sometimes to do business. After that I have a general inspection to see what others might have. And yes, there are a few dealers whom I've found to be a complete waste of time, so I don't waste time on them at all.

  Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?

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• AlaBill Posts: 467

  June 24, 2005 3:27AM

  My last show was a lot like Longacre's experience. I had one day only, spent most of my time with 2 dealers, and after getting home and reviewing the vendor list, realized there were at least 4 more I wanted to see.
  
  My problem on retrospect, is I had NO PLAN. I wandered around, peered into cases, and wasted a bunch of time.
  
  RYK... I forgot my loupe, had to buy one, forgot my reference material, had to do without, and had to chase refreshments from the area. Great ideas.

  ...AlaBill

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• rays Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2005 3:35AM

  I mainly wander aimlessly, but always stop first at Heritage for lot viewing.

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• dimples Posts: 1,286 ✭✭✭

  June 24, 2005 3:51AM

  At the last ANA show in NY I got flustered when Laura kept screaming " WANNABE" over and over as she ran around the bourse. I left quickly thinking she was a NY baglady.

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• LanLord Posts: 11,723 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2005 3:55AM

  I know what you are talking about.
  
  I suffer from sensory overload at every show I go to. I have a full plan prior to walking in the doors, but that goes out the window once l am there.
  
  All I can say is, make a list, stick to your list. If you figure out how to do that, PM me with how you did it.

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