Attending Your First Coin Show?

Go for it - MANY dealers will have a discrete (or larger) we buy sign.

What a great day! Just got home from my first coin show! Thank you so much for the tips for coin shows. I took my want list and got almost everything I was looking for.

I did do some haggling on coins, and was really surprised at how willing the dealers were to make me happy. I bought quite a bit from three separate dealers. I negotiated with all three. Two actually gave me more than I asked. One gave me a book of my choice, the other took $9.00 off my total. Can't wait for the next one!



edit. I used the word bartering, when I meant negotiate.

And remember that. As I posted earlier, most dealers raise their prices in order to lower them when people start haggling, bartering, or whatever. As I said one dealer I know raises all his prices by 20%. He makes so many people happy when he lowers the price of a coin by 20% which gets him what he wanted in the first place. I only feel sorry for those that pay full prices.

I'm worried about when I go because I just got back into collecting the last week before I left to go back to school.
That said I never made a list of what I had/needed because I had my collection on hand. So basically when I go to this coin show I am going to have 1 week to catalog everything and decide what I most want to tackle as far as a want list.

As far as want lists can they be as long or short as you want? Thanks.

I took two full notebook pages separated by category. Mine were pretty easy though. Wheat pennies and Jefferson nickels. As I found what I wanted, I just marked them out. Also, if they had multiples, I bought the one I liked best. I think focus is important. There was so so many coins there that it could be overwhelming without focus. Something I did to stay focused, was to not look at anything else at the table until I was done buying what I was there for. I ended up buying 4 coins not on my list.

This show had 17 booths, I can't imagine what a huge show would be like.

Matthew, Under a week away!!

This week is the first I've been with my coins in a long time and there is so much I want to buy/grab. I sometimes need to tell myself its a life long thing. It's just hard to decide if I want to start a new collection (Franklins) or fill holes in my current endeavors (Jeffersons and IHC).

Definitely going to be leaving the show with an ASE or Maple Leaf, providing someone has one.

Which is one other question, is it safe to assume that at this show if I'm looking for an item, someone will have it?
And how do I know which booth has what?

Thanks! Getting Excited!

Chute72,
Some common sense will get you far.
When you arrive, ask the organizers their policy on taking pictures.
If OK, and you want to photograph a display/coin:
"May I take a picture of your ..." will yield the answer.
Perhaps a given dealer does not want his/her picture taken, but will have no problem
with you taking pictures of their display.
If you want a general picture of the floor, and/or take a picture of new friends,
put a discreet distance between you and the floor.
"May I?" will work wonders for you, and coin etiquette is appreciated by everyone.
Oh, and show the photo to the dealer to make sure.

Cameras are a strict no-no at coin shows and will most likely get you bounced unless permission is granted and that would be doubtful. I observed a man walk into a show last year with his video camera running and pointing at dealers and their displays and he was physically removed.