Coin Shows

There is a practice of opening up a coin show, for a fee, to get first chance
at coins and perhaps sell to a seller. While I have never paid I have had the chance to be 'on the bourse' before the show was opened to the public. As an exhibitor I was allowed the privilege.
Dealers do their trading at this time, often because they must tend to their own tables
when the public is admitted.
The average collector, unless acquainted with dealers, is unlikely to do much better price-wise.
The purpose of a coin show is to view the coin market in real-time: prices and popularity of certain issues.
Contacts made with dealers often payoff, not necessarily immediately, but down the road.
And the chance to learn something new ... priceless.

Nothing wrong with that I suppose.

Excellent!

It always appears that so many have little experiences with a variety of coin shows. As a general rule a coin show is nothing but a flea market but mostly for coins. They are like computer shows, knife shows, guns shows, camera shows, etc. Just a place where a very large variety and quantity of similar merchandises are found. Some such shows are large and have a large variety of dealers. Some are small and have repeditive dealers. Some are small and have a variety of dealers from a variety of places. Some charge to get in, some charge to park your car, some charge for coffee and something to eat. Some have door prices, some have a table with flyers and free copies of coin magazines. Some are in Hotels, some in convention centers, some in just halls. Some no photos are allowed and some don't care. At some shows people sell as well as buy coins.
I go to about 2 to 4 coin shows a Month and have been doing that for many, many years. I've seen some coins sold and resold several times at one show. I saw one coin sold several times in the first hour of a show. So yes you can find a coin and resell for more if you know what your doing and find the right coin.
I only buy at coin shows due to I've never been able to beat the prices I find at a coin show. And no postage, handling, insurances, etc. Just the cost of the coins. Unfortunately most people don't have the massive amount of coin shows within their areas as I do and I wish we had more.

just carl, thank you for your comments. You're lucky to have so many coin shows in your area. I live in a pretty large metro area (Denver), and we typically have two large, two small, and six medium sized coin shows per year in this area. If I want to go to more shows in a year it's at least an hour drive.

CoinZip.com

It's a great experience for the dealers to tell you that what you are selling are out of favor and no one wants to buy them. While the coins you are interested in are in hot demand, and selling for a lot more than you think you should pay.


Then reverse it and try to buy the coins they say are out of favor, and guess what they won't have any to sell. And offer them the ones they say are hot, and "no thanks I already have plenty of them for sale".

Then there are plenty of good dealers out there, just be wary of the ones who poor mouth your coins.

One tip - be wary of buying uncertified paper money that is valued say $250 and up. I have gotten burned every time from several well known dealers when I had them certified and they came back in significantly lower grades than what was represented.