Have only been to 20-30 table, basement of VFW, kind of shows in the 4-5 months since I returned to coin collecting. So a 200+ table show was a new experience and BIG. Learned a lot tho so it was very worthwhile! Some random stories/observations - comments welcome.
*I swear I read here and elsewhere that copper pennies could not yet be "melted" down. But a BIG DEALER told several of us that wasn't at all true and that no US coin is banned from melting. He said he sells copper pennies in bulk for melt OFTEN but it has to be big big lots to make it worthwhile.
*Several obviously "old school" dealers were lamenting how silver prices had made so many coins "worthless" below AU grade these days - meaning they are all now considered "junk" and sold for melt only. One told me nobody was buying his Walkers or any halves or quarters or dimes because he mostly has them G-VF. He just can't bare to sell them for melt tho himself! He was hoping silver prices would plummet and make him a coin dealer again.
*Bought a 1907 PCGS AU58 $10 IH gold for $930 from a dealer on the first "pass" around the show. He first wanted 960 but took 930 saying it was under-dealer-to-dealer and a great deal/coin but he liked my style and knowledege about IH gold - whatever that meant. In the opposite corner of the room another guy had a NGC of the same grade/yr/etc I saw an hour later. I asked how much he wanted for his and he quotes me 1280. I tell him I just bought the same coin for 930, only PCGS, so that is out of my comfort zone. He says the guy that sold it to me must have made a mistake and must not have known it was a "better year" - I told him he had 8 IH golds and the others he quoted me on were a bit closer-to-list but not ridiculously low or hi, IMO. Anyway, the 1280 guy's "partner" overhears the conversation and they both agree that at the Chicago
ANA show last week the going price for "any $10 gold Indian" was $965, in any condition and any year - multiple dealers were paying 965 for them there from what they said. He offers me 1100 sight-unseen and when I show him the coin he re-iterates he'll give me 1100 for it cash. I guess 180 is his "profit expectation" then. LOL
*I had a PCGS 1938D MS66 buffalo I don't really need - upgraded to a 67 since - so I was looking to sell for the right offer. I see one dealer selling one for $89 and I was only asking $69 for mine so I ask him if he'd want to buy mine for that ( it lists for $65 but is particularly blast white and I was willing to take $65 and had been offered $63 already ). He offers me $45. So I sarcastically asked if he'd sell me his for 46 then.
*was talking to one dealer and some rude older guy walks up and interrupts - completely oblivious to our conversation and wants to buy a coin marked $4 for $3. The dealer said "ok, wth" and gives the guy the coin for $3 and resumes talking to me. The older guy then wants a RECEIPT! The dealer said he didn't bring any but would give the guy his card if he wanted one. The guy demands a receipt! I ask him if he thinks he's getting ripped off at a whole $3? He says, I may find out later its a fake. OMG I
at that one worth the price of admission.
*was looking at some hi end coins and this other "collector" comes up and wants to see the same coin I had just looked at ( 1926 $10 IH PCGS MS64 ). The dealer says the same thing he told me - the price on the back is old and its now 2190 instead of the marked 2040. He then got a new sticker out for it and re-priced it after the guy looked at it - so he wouldn't have to keep explaining I guess ( should have done that before the show IMO but he was up-front about it being like 1 month since he had been to a show and hadn't re-priced his gold yet ). The other guy is purturbed and complaining. I told him to calm down that 2190 is far from outlandish since it lists at 2600 on PCGS right now. I wasn't that interested in it but it was a decent price really - I don't think you can find one that low on
ebay for instance. He calms down and then starts asking why mintmarks on $10 gold IH are so hard to find. The dealer is nice to him and says that more coins were minted at Philly than Denver or SF typically but that 1910D is pretty abundent in that coin type actually. I reinforce that and tell the guy that I'd seen at least 7 1910-Ds at the show already, and it is typically around the 3rd or so least expensive and abundent after 1932&1926 depending on grade, give or take. The guy is so clueless he doesn't know that no mintmark is Philadelphia, or what other mints there are even and knows almost nothing about gold coins etc. How can someone so novice be looking to buy a coin of that value? Amazing! Probably just a lookee-lou in reality but he acted like he wanted the coin at 2040 and then shows he knows almost nothing about coin collecting in general...
*Speaking of 1910-D, I saw one dealer had a raw one he had labeled as XF. I asked what he was asking for it, just to guage and since I have had a few offered at around melt before, and he looks at his list and says $1980. Normally I'm into "buy, offer or pass" - no lectures or antics like some try. I don't think it appropriate to argue "marked grade" or deal with someone trying to rip others off so I usually just bail as quick as possible instead. But I couldn't resist telling the guy that "inflated list" is only about 1000 on it so "good luck" trying to get double that! So I ask him again if he is sure that is what his list/greysheet says and he says YES again. I mosey a couple tables down and am talking to that dealer when I feel a pat on the shoulder. Here the guy completely abandoned his table, he was alone while many have a 2nd person backup, to come tell me he was wrong and had made a mistake and that I was right and he was only asking 950, not 1980. I told him I would only be interested in it for 850 or less anyway, but thanked him for coming around to reality.
*Gabbing with one dealer with hi-end coins and he quotes me a couple prices that are reasonable but most of his coins are a bit over-my-head in quality and pricerange. He's a very knowledgable and with-it dealer so I chat for a while longer. I see a PCGS AU55 1934S Peace $ in his case that might be in my ballpark and ask him about that. He looks it up and says it's 880. I normally would just pass but since he has been a reasonable guy I tell him that I show that "inflated NGC" price on it is currently only 552 so that 880 is pretty OUT THERE, and that for me I was looking at offering probably 400 or so on it. He says "where did you see 552?", and I tell him NGC online. He looks it up on PCGS and admits it is only listing 600 there even. But he says it must have plummeted because he bought it for 800 several months ago - thus why he is asking 880. I tell him he got pretty well robbed on that deal then! Not sure if that was yet another "story", in a long long line of them I've been given by dealers already, but he seemed pretty straight up otherwise and ticked that he'd paid so much now.
*Pleased to find a dealer paying 3.5c each for wheats. Many locals only offer 2-2.5 cents and I've only found a couple offering 3 at small shows. I didn't have a lot ( my brother had some he asked me to sell ). I also dumped a tiny amount of "junk silver" he found when cleaning air vents in his house, for 28.5X face. Stuff w/o dates and very bad condition I wasn't interested in keeping.
*I had mostly lower-grade buffalos to sell. But no dealer was buying them and I didn't want to bother and hunt down other collectors in the "mass of humanity" circling this big ballroom. Not conducive to that kind of thing IMO, unfortunately. So I only sold some certified coins I had spares of.
*Sold 4 coins for profit and bought 9 altogether so a very good day. I found most of the "tuff" coins that no one seems to have at shops, or online even, in the grades I covet. Like some Buffs in the late teens and 20s are really tuff to find in hi AU or low MS for decent pricepoints. Some semi-early Walkers at VF+ are also not easy to get at decent prices. But there were enough dealers here to find most I had been looking for.
*Sold one ICG slabbed IHP, a MS64RB 1903, for $80 that I paid $60 for. The dealer then put a $129 pricetag on it and displayed it "prominently", LOL.
*Several dealers told me that 1938D Walkers are now so plentiful at every show they go to they aren't interested in buying them anymore and consider them "played out". Stinks as I have a nice raw one as an extra I was trying to sell, upgraded my album so its a spare now, and they wouldn't even offer on it. Guess I'll have to try
ebay to get a decent price.
GOOD LUCK ALL!
Posted 08/29/2011 4:18 pm
