Belated Coin Show Report - White Plains, NY (WESPNEX)
DaveG
Posts: 3,535 ✭
Unless I missed it, no one who went to this show posted a show report, so now that I'm a little less busy, I thought I'd do it.
I went to the four-times-a-year three-day show in White Plains, NY this past Saturday. This show advertises about 100 dealers, but about 25%-35% of them are stamp dealers, so I'd estimate that it features about 60-70 coin dealers. Although this show is in a decent location and draws dealers from the nearby region, it doesn't get a whole lot of floor traffic - certainly not as much as the monthly Parsippany, NJ show.
Although the weather on Saturday was beautiful, heavy rain was forecast for Sunday. Perhaps as a result (at least according to several dealers) the show was really very crowded! It was actually hard to get down the aisles several times during the morning. Even the stamp dealers, who are usually really lonely, were busy!
As I mentioned, this show usually draws dealers from up to about 200 miles away. In addition to our fellow board member, Jon Lerner (Scarsdale Coin), Coins of Merritt comes from the Adirondacks and Gus Tiso comes from Maryland. For the second show in a row, Steve Ellsworth from Butternut coins (Virginia?) was there. What really surprised me was seeing Paul Nuggett from Spectrum! He didn't have any coins on display, but seemed to be doing a fair amount of dealer-to-dealer business. This show had a somewhat different mix of dealers than it usually has. A few of the usual dealers weren't there, but their places were taken by some dealers I hadn't seen before. Board member Sea Eagle Coins was attending his first White Plains show (I believe), for example.
This show has a nice mix of material, including classic Commems, coins in a wide price range and currency. As usual, the hard-to-find stuff was still hard to find, although I did see a nice 1851 dime (raw, marked AU), a nice 1836 dime (raw, marked VF, I think), and a nice 1841 half in a PCGS AU-55 slab. There's a dealer who has a real nice inventory of US medals and Don Young was there (as he is frequently) with his inventory of world medals and coins. To my disappointment, an exonumia and paper ephemera dealer (who I only know as "Steve") wasn't there. I was looking forward to perhaps buying a Confederate bond or a WWII counterfeit British "fiver" from him.
Since I'm still somewhat "broke" from some serious purchases early in the year, I wasn't looking for anything special on Saturday. I did briefly admire Tom Hyland's nice (and growing) inventory of large cents and half cents, as well as a PCGS VF-20 1796 quarter(!).
All-in-all, it was a decent show. Although my lone purchase was a French medal, I had a good time.
The next White Plains show is scheduled for October, although I understand that the exact date is still in flux.
I went to the four-times-a-year three-day show in White Plains, NY this past Saturday. This show advertises about 100 dealers, but about 25%-35% of them are stamp dealers, so I'd estimate that it features about 60-70 coin dealers. Although this show is in a decent location and draws dealers from the nearby region, it doesn't get a whole lot of floor traffic - certainly not as much as the monthly Parsippany, NJ show.
Although the weather on Saturday was beautiful, heavy rain was forecast for Sunday. Perhaps as a result (at least according to several dealers) the show was really very crowded! It was actually hard to get down the aisles several times during the morning. Even the stamp dealers, who are usually really lonely, were busy!
As I mentioned, this show usually draws dealers from up to about 200 miles away. In addition to our fellow board member, Jon Lerner (Scarsdale Coin), Coins of Merritt comes from the Adirondacks and Gus Tiso comes from Maryland. For the second show in a row, Steve Ellsworth from Butternut coins (Virginia?) was there. What really surprised me was seeing Paul Nuggett from Spectrum! He didn't have any coins on display, but seemed to be doing a fair amount of dealer-to-dealer business. This show had a somewhat different mix of dealers than it usually has. A few of the usual dealers weren't there, but their places were taken by some dealers I hadn't seen before. Board member Sea Eagle Coins was attending his first White Plains show (I believe), for example.
This show has a nice mix of material, including classic Commems, coins in a wide price range and currency. As usual, the hard-to-find stuff was still hard to find, although I did see a nice 1851 dime (raw, marked AU), a nice 1836 dime (raw, marked VF, I think), and a nice 1841 half in a PCGS AU-55 slab. There's a dealer who has a real nice inventory of US medals and Don Young was there (as he is frequently) with his inventory of world medals and coins. To my disappointment, an exonumia and paper ephemera dealer (who I only know as "Steve") wasn't there. I was looking forward to perhaps buying a Confederate bond or a WWII counterfeit British "fiver" from him.
Since I'm still somewhat "broke" from some serious purchases early in the year, I wasn't looking for anything special on Saturday. I did briefly admire Tom Hyland's nice (and growing) inventory of large cents and half cents, as well as a PCGS VF-20 1796 quarter(!).
All-in-all, it was a decent show. Although my lone purchase was a French medal, I had a good time.
The next White Plains show is scheduled for October, although I understand that the exact date is still in flux.
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Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Actually, I've been doing the show for a year now...I will be a regular there from here on. This year, it unfortuantely is falling on the same weekend as the Holmdel show, which I am a regular at...so I'll only be there on Fri & Sat...
It was a great show...I was very busy on the two days I was there...sold many Franklins in PCGS slabs and a nice 94 Morgan in NGC AU58... two 77 IHC (one slabbed and one raw) and a host of other goodies. Funny thing though...I usually sell alot of Buffalo Nickels at every show...I didn't sell one at this show...not even any lookers ??
Also made a few nice purchases...another 94 Morgan that 'walked up' to my table 20 minutes after I sold the one I had...which was pretty neat...and a nice full set of Wash 25c.
The best ones, though, were for my type set...4 very nice raw Commems (with eagles on them, of course) and a real nice toned, unmessed with raw Trade Dollar. Gonna be real tough to fill the two Seated Dollar holes...all the raw ones have some sort of problem...I want crusty ones...neat, circulated and NOT DIPPED.
All the sellers around me did very well and from what I hear, Sunday was great, even with the heavy rains.
I ended up staying home that day...just getting over a bad flu bug and I didn't want to get wet & cold and end up with a relapse.
BTW...the October show is slated for Oct. 19-21...confirmed by the Show Organizer...Mark.
I apologize! I guess it just takes a while for a "new" dealer to make an impression on me!
Check out the Southern Gold Society
Was overall generally impressed with the offerings at what I'd consider a nice mid-sized show. Foot traffic was heavy for the entire time I was there. As I was focusing on Lincolns, I can't really speak to what else may have been offered, but there did seem to enough breadth and depth to satisfy all but the most advanced collecting tastes. And there were lots of kids and teens, definitely a good thing!
I left at 4 -- in the 2 hours I was there, I scanned every table at least twice and managed to pick up a bunch of full red Lincolns in the 65/66 range (15 or so), mostly raw and a few slabbed, primarily in the 40s and a few in the 50s that I needed some upgrades for. Managed to pick up a 30-P PGGS 65RD, a raw 25-P that I think is a slam-dunk for 66RD, and a raw 19-P in 64RD. All told I was pleased with my acquisitions and felt the prices were quite reasonable (and even a few bargains). However, I was disappointed that there weren't any pre-1930 branch mint Lincolns available in my price range that I felt were worth picking up -- there were a few at prices I felt were reasonable but I just didn't like the look of them for some reason or other (probably just being too picky, I know).
Most of the dealers I spoke with were friendly and helpful, a couple were moderately indifferent, and unfortunately one acted like a real a-hole. Par for the course I suppose.
Looked for SeaEagle but didn't see him, unfortunately.
Would recommend this show for anyone in the New York City region. Next time I'll probably spend a bit longer and look for a few acquisitions for the 7070 as well.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.