First Coin Show In Years.

Good, bad, or otherwise. Thanks for posting.

999.....

You get no heat from me.

I went to the Grapevine show today, too. I had arranged to meet a dealer friend there to pick up some stuff he had for me.

After hooking up with him, I walked around the show, looked in the showcases and didn't buy anything else. Shook hands with a lot of old friends and listened to the "heartbeat" of the show. Only thing moving was bullion...collectible coins were "dead". One dealer told me he had a pre-arranged meeting to sell a few coins at the show that were multiple thousand dollar coins. He said he had sold nothing else (other than bullion)! His concern was that the "average Joe collector" (the guy that buys the 5$ to 500$ coins) has pretty much disappeared from the DFW coin market. (A bad weather day at a coin show used to be an indication of real good attendance!)

The problem for dealers in the N Texas area is that shows are held way too often. The promoters of these shows do it to make money and I understand that aspect. I come from the school that there is only so much discretionary money for coins and once that money is spent there is no new money behind it until people build up their coin funds again. Naturally, the more shows that are held equals fewer available dollars to spend at each show. The winners are the show promotors and the collectors; the losers are the dealers as their expenses stay the same with fewer sales spread out among multiple shows in the same general area.

For the collector, you go from the Grapevine (or a Dallas area) show one week to a Cowtown (or a Ft Worth show) the next week and you are going to see mostly the same stuff from mostly the same dealers. (Trust me, their inventory is not going to turn over that quickly).. Throw in several shows a year each in Mckinney/Sherman/Paris/Denton (and now Allen) and the problem only multiplies.

Having so many shows in the N Texas area is good for collectors as they can pick and choose what shows they want to attend and plan their spending accordingly.

For dealers, it's a whole different story. When you hear multiple dealers discussing "crappy sales" on a rainy Saturday there is a problem. (When I was doing shows in Oklahoma we were all praying for rain!)

I'm sorry you drove so far to be disappointed. (I'm sure throwing away 3$ for an admission fee didn't help, either!)

Coin shows around Sydney are easy for me to get to.

I have a permanent senior's rail ticket, so maximum cost return any distance $2.50. Don't have to worry about driving or parking, and save by not burning fuel for my car. Most shows within walking distance of a rail station, rail service to anywhere I need to get to half hourly or less.

I am not keen on slabs, but they are not all that often seen in the shows that I attend, anyway. Most shows have a good range of Australian and World coinage, which can include some nice U.S., British and ancients material (which I love), as well as notes and reasonable associated numismatica.

I am at least vaguely familiar on an acquaintance basis with most visiting dealers from all over Australia; they at least know my face. That makes it easy to talk with them over a cup of coffee, when they are taking a break. I always try to be friendly and make connections.

Westernsky- it's not just DFW. I work out of state and often spend weekends there, so I visit another cycle of shows too. Same problem of the same dealers showing a small # of new items, with mostly same old (often tired) inventory.

But it does turn over - eventually - there's a dealer (he was against the back wall, I'm blanking on his name) who bought a huge collection of commems in rattlers. I think it was over 400 pieces. I've watched him for two years and he's down to six pieces. So - from two years ago - everything in his case is new. But from two weeks ago? Not so much.

And there is always new stuff, you just have to really, really look. I bought a toned 3cs from Carter Numismatics. I'm about to post it in the newp thread.

To my surprise there's been a fair amount of shows in my whereabouts (greater stockholm area), two in the beginning of this year. My first two actually. Sadly, nothing else definite is coming up but there are rumours about another one in November. I found both of them to be great fun and I bought quite alot for me, a gold coins, many silvers, a new album w/ pages and a whole lot of world coins that I wanted/fell under my interest. Certainly looking forward to the next one, whenever of whereever it is.

I am heading to my first coin show this weekend as an adult, which happened before there were cell phones. Not sure what to expect, I am going to take a short list of 3c nickel wants. I was going to also look for a 7070 and maybe some flips (should I buy online?). This show might only have 16 tables, with anything bigger probably an hour away.

999: I think I will find it awkward to look through the binders while the dealer is watching me, did it seem strange?

I may be old but online seems easier.

I have yet to go to a proper coin show and I'll be missing long beach unfortunately. I hope there's another in socal soon so I can experience one. Isn't there another long beach in august?