Anyone going to Niagara Falls Coin Show this weekend (4/20-4/22)? (Added a show report)

StrikeOutXXX · April 19, 2007 2:38AM

Don (Ajaan) posted a similar thread on the world forum, but wondered if anyone was going to this show this weekend. Pretty big for our area (200+ Tables). I'm still debating a vacation day tomorrow or going up Saturday.

They have some info on their webpage:

Gold & Silver over Niagara

coindeuce · April 19, 2007 2:40AM

I'll be set up there Friday and Saturday. Olde Saratoga Coin, Inc. Stop by and throw me a high five.

Remember though, stop in at the show before you hit Niagara Casino or the Falls. Wouldn't want you to be light in the green

StrikeOutXXX · April 19, 2007 2:45AM

<< <i>I'll be set up there Friday and Saturday. Olde Saratoga Coin, Inc. Stop by and throw me a high five.

Remember though, stop in at the show before you hit Niagara Casino or the Falls. Wouldn't want you to be light in the green

>>

Wow, I actually met you/someone at your table at the smaller show last spring. You were in the back room and I had my YN with me, and you took about 15 minutes to explain some of the history of coins and such to him. It was a nice experience for me/him. Wish I put 2+2 together for the last year

I'll come say hi again.

For the Buffalo connection, I tried to find a rubber chicken wing to take pictures with ala the mad one, but no luck

StrikeOutXXX · April 20, 2007 4:30PM

Took a vacation day and went to the show Friday. Here is a rough synopsis of the day.

Left home at 8:30 and got there right at 10:00. Paid $5 for parking and $1 to get in, and I was off. Spent the 1st 30 minutes doing the quick once through getting the lay of the land and tracking down coindeuce (Dan) from Olde Saratoga Coin. Found him and chatted for a few minutes until he had a few customers, so went back to browsing. Forum member Ajaan showed up about 10:30 and we went and visited the darkside dealers he knew. We split up for awhile and I went off in search of a few so-called dollars I had on my list for me and my son. Today's mission was a: Whipple Dollar, Pony Express Termination Centennial, and a Gasparilla Pirate Festival SCD. Other sub-searching if I ran across them were error coins, tokens, '67 SMS sets (have to look for those dotheads) and Barber dimes.

This was the biggest show I've ever been to with 200 tables advertised, showing 182 taken in the program by 56 different dealers, with probably 20 empty ones that I assume will be filled by the dealers not getting there until Saturday. There were probably about 10 tables dealing with strictly stamps, and 2 or so that had non-related items (jewelery, etc). One dealer had only supplies, and another had 1/2 supplies and books. There weren't many currency dealers at this show, maybe 1 all currency, and 3-4 more that had just a few items in their cases. There were very few error coins there, I think two dealers had a few of them, but that was about it. As for the so-called dollars, well that was somewhat an exercise in futility. One dealer did have an impressive display of slabbed ones, but were in the $500-1k range, and not what I was looking for. Of everyone I asked if they had a Whipple dollar, most asked me what that was or wanted to know what country it was out of. The few who knew what it was either left it at home or just recently sold the only one they had. One of Don's friends had two boxes of SCD's who let me look through them. Some nice Bryan Dollars, and probably 50 columbian exposition elongated coins on many different host coins (tmot would have gone nuts). There were probably 25 I picked out of his two boxes and when I asked about them, he said he wasn't selling them, he was just letting me look through them (I missed that part when Don asked him to get them from behind the table). His reasoning was he didn't know what to price them at as he's had them for so long, and was waiting for the "New Book" to come out. I told him from what I read here, there was not going to be prices included in the new book, just rarities. I told him I'd see him in the fall if he figured out what to price them at. Nice guy all-in-all, just wish I hadn't gotten so excited over coins not for sale

I have to agree with KingofCoins post (didn't realize he was going to this show) about the seated material. What I did see there was pretty run down in the AG-F range, not much in the upper end. There were more darn Morgans than you could shake a stick at and what seemed like an overabundance of bullion (Gold was everywhere, but nobody seemed to be buying). LIke the smaller shows I've gone to, plenty of mercs/buffalos/lincolns, etc but I'll be darned if I could spot any sizable quantity of bust or seated coins.

Found a really nice old PCI Photograde Barber Dime, and if it wasn't for a gouge (not rim ding, a non-mint created void) in the rim, it would have been mine. I was impressed by one table with colonials - outside my price range, and what wasn't was corroded, but a nice selection none the less. No luck on '67 SMS sets - I saw 2 sets total, and they were 65's.

A little after noon, Ajaan and I went across the street to Seneca Niagara Casino and had their lunch buffet. Great meal, if I didn't have to drive an hour and a half back home, it could have been a Labatts Blue afternoon, but I digress. Back to the bourse for another hour or so. I pretty much gave up on the SCD's and went through the token books, finding a few cheap ones I liked. Don and I did a "Last Hurrah" and went back to every table and I watched as he worked his magic with the darkside coins. Talked with Coindeuce a bit more, he had some nice VAMs in ANACS slabs, but it wasn't the flavor of the day for me. Bought a Krause token book and a darkside coin, and left about 2:30.

From what I could gather, dealer to dealer business was good, and some of the dealers had so-so public sales, they didn't seem to be going crazy, but they were all optimistic of a good Saturday.

My funny observation of the day was there is a few tables near the entrance who were sort of aggressive. You weren't in the door 25 feet and they were flagging you down with a "Hey, what have you brought to sell today" if you had a bag/case/pack of any sort (Saw this many times, myself included).

Anyhow, I had a blast, and left with a bit more knowledge than I walked in with. I have no idea how some of you guys do the monster shows I read about, I was beat with just our mid-sized one.

Anyone going to Niagara Falls Coin Show this weekend (4/20-4/22)? (Added a show report)

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