August 5-14, 2010: The Boston ANA Pre-Show(s), Show and Auctions

August 14th - Day 10:

I am now comfortably back home after the best ANA we have attended in several years, which can be summarized as follows:

• Boston (and the Hynes Convention Center specifically) was an excellent venue in almost every way with plenty of cool things to see and do nearby.  So the same people who ripped the ANA for last year’s LA show (including us) ought to give them kudos this time.  Good job ANA!

• I don’t recall any other recent show where nearly everyone who came to our table was actively trying to buy something, but that was the case here.
  
  
• I have seen airplane engines less powerful than the automatic hand dryers in the men’s room.
  
  
• We have never before encountered a more location-specific interest in a particular coin type than at this show, where it seemed like 4 or 5 people every day would ask for a piece of Massachusetts silver (with nearly all of them seeking a coin in VF to XF).  And while this may not seem unusual for a show in Boston, I have never experienced anything like it at the Bay State Show (which is held biannually just a few blocks away).
  
  
• At the time we signed up for this show it was not clear based on the bourse map where exactly the best table locations would be, or that there would be two separate rooms for dealers, or where exactly the door would be, suggesting that next time we may actually have to visit the convention center in person before we choose our spot.
  
  
• I did not realize until today that the two people dressed in what appeared to be Harry Potter costumes were actually promoting Wizard Coin Supply.  Now if I could figure out what the guy in the giant light blue eagle-wearing-glasses costume was for, I’d be all set.
  
  
• People like to get free hats (though we do have a just a couple left for our website customers).
  
  
• Perusing every single case on the bourse floor, we didn’t see any other dealers with a single coin with a gold CAC sticker on it.
  
  
• A majority of the high-end marquis coins in the auctions seemed to go for very strong money, but plenty of nice collector coins were soft as can be.
  
  
• It was cool to go to the Canadian Mint Exhibit and actually hold the medals from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.  First reaction:  They were extremely heavy.
  
  
• Fully 50% of the people at our table acknowledged that they did not understand our recent “Batman” ad.
  
  
• I don’t recall talking to anyone at the show who felt like they had received especially good grades on any submission from either service, though in a room that big there must have been someone who did.
  
  
• One of the most interesting conversations I had at the show was with a serious collector who (unbeknownst to me prior to this show) personally owns a number of coins I had been trying to trace for years.  And while none of them are for sale, this sort of information is a very valuable acquisition at any show.

In total, this was our best show of the year, with nearly everything working great, and a few more straggler deals still pending.  Which is more or less what we thought would happen here, but it is awfully nice when it actually does.

And with that, we close the book on the Boston ANA 2010. 

Our next Road Report will be coming to you from Long Beach, CA at the end of September (unless we squeeze in another event sometime before then, which is fairly likely).  But now, it’s time to start working on our next Early Bird Notification to be unleashed on Tuesday.

Finito
 

August 13th - Day 9:

Dave was off to the Massachusetts Historical Society for some sight-seeing early Friday morning (since he didn’t get to go last week), leaving your author to fend for himself at the table and handle each and every bit of the heavy purchase and sales lifting with no help whatsoever.

And there continued to be a decent amount of activity, with visitors who had been at the show most of the week, and others who had just arrived on Friday, including familiar faces and collectors we were delighted to meet for the first time.

Which is always one of the highlights of these shows, and sometimes a seemingly random act as someone who does not know us happens upon our table, sees some things they like and then asks if we have a website, etc.  I am always especially pleased in these cases when someone asks “Are there pictures of the coins on your site?”, as it gives me an opportunity to fire up the computer and give them the grand tour of CRO.

We also had several conversations with collectors and dealers alike (many of whom have known Dave for years from the New England show circuit) about potential deals and collections which may be available in the coming months.  Which is another important benefit of these shows, as of course we are always on the lookout for the next deal.  And some of these sounded very encouraging, as they included colonial and federal coins that have been off the market for 20 years or more.

And then late in the afternoon we began the gradual migration into show clean-up phase, picking up checks, settling invoices from earlier in the week, and trying to finalize some of the deals which are still pending, but which we hope will happen before we leave town.

We also consigned some coins to the various auction houses on behalf of several different clients, thinning out the material in our back cases leaving just a gigantic stack of paperwork that will keep us busy well into next week.

And then it was time for a nice dinner across town with some dealer friends, and a pleasant stroll back to the hotel in perfect weather amidst lots of people out and about at the restaurants and bars in the area.

Which meant that, in total, absolutely nothing bad happened at all on Day 9 despite about 16 people reminding me that it was Friday the 13^th during the course of the day.  Phew.

And now we are looking forward to more business on Saturday with the possibility of new customers coming to the show for the first time, and one last installment of the RR before we close the book on the 2010 ANA.
 

August 12th - Day 8:

Everything started off absolutely great on Thursday other than the fact that I could not find the key to one of our show cases.  But once that was resolved, it was smoooooth sailing into the morning and another decent day on the bourse floor.

Which included selling a neat coin in our display that had been looked at, considered, evaluated and fondled (numismatically) by about 143 collectors and dealers since the show began, and which we knew would sell to one of them eventually.

We were also pleased to buy some cool world coins which circulated in early America, one a raw gem example of a piece I have been looking for in unc. for at least 4 years and was starting to think might not exist like that.  But I can now state with absolute certainty that it does.

Then I popped into the Heritage auction and bought one colonial coin that I was not really planning to buy for well less than it had sold for about a year ago in a session in which most of the results seemed at least a little soft.

Which stood in stark contrast to at least one of the half dollars sold later, as described to us by a collector friend who noted that he had bid $14,000 on lot 3262, a 1944 Walker in PCGS MS68 (which seemed like an awful lot of money to us) only to be outbid by $81,000.  Which, based on my detailed analysis, means that the $95,000 hammer price for this coin (of which there is a PCGS population in all grades of more than 11,000, nearly 5,000 of which are in MS65 or higher and 66 pieces are MS67) easily exceeded the price of the PCGS MS65 Pine Tree Shilling sold the previous evening, which would make perfect sense to us if we were collecting coins in bizarro world.  But if the buyer is happy, we are happy.

We were also happy to get the very last of our show grades back in the afternoon, which, in total, seemed strict, but fair at this show.

And then ponder a few more deals before packing up and heading out to dinner with a collector friend at Skipjack’s a few blocks from the convention center where the waitress was excellent, the conversation was stimulating, and the wasabi crusted salmon was dee-licious.

Friday we are heading into the home stretch, the 9^th of our 10 days in downtown Boston for what we hope will be a few more sales and purchases before we finally pack up and head out this weekend.
 

August 11th - Day 7:

I slept pretty well on Tuesday night, woke up early and quickly made my way to the show in anticipation of some intensive coin dealering activities on Wednesday. 

But the early morning was a bit slow, as we had just some light traffic at the table and nothin’ doing in the way of really exciting sales or purchases.  That gradually began to change around mid-morning, though, as a lot of new and long-time customers stopped by to say hi, buy, sell and/or consign coins to us, and, like the previous days, we once again found ourselves genuinely busy at the table, though not too busy to take in the full ANA experience.

Which included the two people (adults, mind you) who walked by our table in what appeared to me to be Harry Potter movie costumes.  No idea why.  But as ridiculous as that appeared , I would still have rather had one of those on than the uncomfortable looking lederhosen worn by the guy at the Austrian mint display.  That looked really uncomfortable, and, in my opinion, would not be well received if you, for example, went out to get some lunch in a nearby Boston neighborhood.

Which we did not do, instead making a quick run to the concession stand and then racing back to the table where we were selling well and buying some nice individual coins in all categories, just enough unusual esoterica to fill future CRO ads and a big box of federal coins that we will ship home to sort out later.

And then, late in the day, we started getting ready for Heritage’s Platinum Night auction which would begin at 6 PM in a medium-sized room just down the hall.  Which was totally packed when we got there, with most every seat filled, and SRO in the back for Dwight Manley’s colonials and Steve Duckor’s Barber Halves, among other things.

And both guys must have been happy with the results, as their consignments sold very strong (though some of the other coins in the session seemed a bit weak from our perspective).  We were not major players, though, as we were shut out on a few of the things we wanted, and not buyers of the others.

Then we whipped up stairs to stop by a friend’s cocktail party, and then headed back to the lobby to meet a good client and head out for a fantastic dinner at a great restaurant in nearby Chesnut Hill, MA during which we talked about coins and other topics, and no one in attendance wore lederhosen.

Thursday we look forward to bidding on some cool stuff in the Heritage auctions, and hope to see some new visitors at the table and start an entirely new wave of buying and selling, and I fully expect that that is exactly what is going to happen.

EOM.
 

August 10th - Day 6:

Team CRO was especially excited about Tuesday, since it meant that ALL of the attending dealers would now be set up, thus expanding the total number of coins in the room by a factor of about 17, and similarly improving the odds that we could find something extremely cool to buy.

Which we did with good success, adding some neat federal, colonial and esoteric issues to our inventory during dealer set-up.  Quite an accomplishment in our opinion, especially considering that a convention center staff member annoyingly drove a 5’ wide forklift up and down the 5’3” wide main aisle in front of our table about 23 times during this period, twice coming pretty close to running over your author and possibly flattening him like you sometimes see in one of those Road Runner cartoons.

But I remained unscathed, and the heavy machinery was thankfully gone before the doors opened to the public at 1 PM.

And when they did, a good-sized crowd of collectors came rushing in, quickly spreading across the bourse in a scene that looked, sounded and felt absolutely nothing like the barren wasteland that was last year’s LA show.  So that was nice.

As were the sales that followed for the rest of the day, in all categories, to collectors and dealers alike, ranging from a few hundred dollars to the mid five figures and including the two most expensive coins we had in our inventory (with CRO hats distributed accordingly!).

Also of note were the grades we got back, which included 2 PCGS + coins (our first on the non-Secure Plus service level), and the cool displays we saw:

• Two wild 1804 $10 Proof Restrikes and a small group of what could best be described as wicked high-grade Massachusetts silver coins at the NGC booth, including a Pine Tree Shilling in an NGC MS67 holder on which Dave and I were the underbidders when it last came up for auction as a raw coin at Stack’s in 2002.  Special thanks to NGC’s Scott Schecter who let us check these out up close and in hand.
  
  
• A neat selection of early American coins in the “other” section of the bourse floor, which included a nice run of raw colonial type and an American Congress Fugio copper, which is, as they say, something you don’t see everyday.
  
  
• Finally, in the collectors exhibit area, there was a spectacular selection of Massachusetts silver from New England to Willow to Oak to Pine Tree coins, in all denominations, artfully executed with old catalogs illustrating auction appearances of the coins on display.

And then, very late in the day, we had another nice flurry of activity at the table, selling, symmetrically, several of the NEWPs we bought earlier in the day, and the one coin which had been in our inventory longer than any other.  Which proves that, despite the planning and analysis we do, you can never really know what will sell, when or to whom.

When that was over, we headed out to dinner at P.F. Chang’s, during which I may have overdone it on the spicy food, but will not know for sure until I go to sleep tonight and possibly have an unusually vivid or disturbing dream. 

To find out if I did (and to read about other things actually related to numismatics), please check out tomorrow's installment of the Road Report.
 

August 9th - Day 5:

Monday began with a long walk through the corridors of Hynes Convention Center desperately trying to find the bourse floor, which I eventually did.  And when I got there, I found dozens of PNG dealers already set-up in a room that somehow seemed smaller than I expected.  Until someone explained to me that there was actually another entire room which would be filled on Tuesday when all the rest of the dealers would arrive.  So size will not be a problem here.

Activity was not a problem either, as there was a pretty decent crowd of dealers and serious collectors (who had entered via invitation from the PNG dealers) roaming about buying, selling, trading and grading at a fairly steady clip from 10 to 5 or so.

Which worked out very well for us, as we sold a bunch of coins, including the Continental Dollar we had purchased just a couple of days ago at the pre-show, about a dozen other colonials, some cool bust halves, and a wide variety of gold.  We also found a bunch of interesting things to buy of all shapes and sizes, including 2 more high-end colonials, a lot of nice type and an obscure coin that Dave bought for himself after what he described as a “20-year search”.  If you ask him about it, he’ll be happy to show it to you.

And, in what is an ANA tradition, there were lot of rare and exceptional things on display in various dealer cases (including ours), one more reason that this show is such a hoot for serious numismatists.

My last order of business on Monday was some late afternoon lot viewing at Heritage, which I concluded just in time to head out to dinner at the well-attended PNG banquet.  That ran pretty late and included a lot of imbibing followed by some very serious sleeping, which explains why I am writing this edition of the RR on Tuesday AM before heading out again for what figures to be a long, busy and very active day on the bourse floor.

The details of which will be described right here in this space in about 24 hours from now.
 

August 8th - Day 4:

While John was out working on an important numismatic project (actually I think he was golfing), I had the pleasure of working hard all day (though I note that I was off on Thursday while he handled our pre-show set-up duties at the ‘The Castle’, so turn-about is fair play or something like that).  And, of course, that means that this Sunday edition of the RR has been scribed by me, Dave Wnuck.

And my first observation is that it was another spectacular day in Boston, sunny, with low humidity, high temperatures in the 70’s, and a breeze off the ocean giving just a slight saltiness to the air.  Which reminded me that the best way to see this city is on foot.

And hoof it I did, about a mile to the Park Plaza Hotel where they were holding the Stack’s auction. 

Upon arrival I said to myself “Hey, what a great venue for an auction” – with an old world air and suitably elegant for a gathering of collectors and numismatic professionals.

The auction itself was in a spacious room below ground level with a sunken area filled with tables and chairs set up for about 60 people (with most seats taken by the time the auction started), surrounded by copious floor space for people to view lots, get refreshments, etc.  A great setup, with the (somewhat major) disadvantage of being a ‘dead zone’ for cellular and wireless internet service.  Which forced folks to walk upstairs to the lobby to talk on their cell phones, which – come to think of it – isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Anyway, the auction was active (as was the Bowers & Merena auction held in the same hotel yesterday) with prices in line with auctions in the past few months.  I stayed through the copper coins, then left the rest of our bids at the podium and walked back to the Hynes convention center just in time for the PNG meeting.

During which there was the ritual sacrificing of a goat, followed by the traditional dancing around the bonfire in our long, black robes while chanting the Sacred PNG Verses in Latin.  Err, just kidding.  (Or am I?) Hmmm . . .

After the meeting, we all schlepped our stuff to the convention center for PNG set up (which really is primarily a time for setting up one’s booth; very little business was done by anyone as far as I could tell). 

But with that task now (mostly) complete, I’m proud to say we are ready for a rip-roaring ANA to begin. 

Starting tomorrow with PNG Day, during which we fully intend to buy and sell a lot of really cool coins (and give away the first of our special edition Red Sox inspired CRO hats as described on our home page). 

So if you are going to be at the show, you might want to stop by and see us.
 

August 7th - Day 3:

Saturday turned out to be about as crowded as the previous days, which is to say not very.  There were just a few visitors in the room, including some local collectors and dealers and a fairly continuous light stream of people who were moving from the ‘other’ pre-show to The Castle (and vice versa) to buy, or sell, or more likely just to kick a few tires.

And while several people expressed interest in coins we had, most said they did not want to spend all of their money before the ‘big’ show had even started.  Which seemed logical to us.

There were a few cool coins on the floor that we considered buying too, but we just couldn’t get together on price. 

So we spent much of the day either viewing lots, or entering bids into the computer for the Bowers and Stack’s auctions.

Until about noon, when I walked the 10 blocks or so down Boylston Street from the show the Massachusetts Historical Society with a dealer friend (passing a lot of cool shops, and interesting restaurants, seemingly thousands of tourists and the Hynes Convention Center on the way) to check out their display of colonial coins and medals.

And it was well worth the trip to see some of the famous rarities I knew were there (like the unique 1776 Massachusetts Pine Tree copper), some that I had forgotten were there (including one of 2 known Rhode Island Ship Tokens with VLUGTENDE on the obverse), to others I never expected, such as selections from the William Sumner Appleton collection of Washingtonia.  That last group was especially interesting, and included superb medals, neat esoteric pieces (like the finest Chowder Club medal I’ve ever seen) and more mainstream Redbook colonials, with nice examples of the copper and silver Getz Cents and a wonderful golden brown example of the Washington Ugly Head Cent.  The exhibit will be continuing all through next week, and so anyone attending the ANA really should pop over for a visit.

Then we cabbed it back to the show and discovered that we hadn’t missed very much (except the free cupcakes provided by the show organizers which I swear I would not have eaten anyway).

So we spent a bit longer on auctions lots, then eventually got everything packed and organized to be transported over to the ‘big show’ in time for tomorrow’s late afternoon PNG set-up.

Tomorrow will be devoted to auctions, with Stack’s live session, and Heritage lot viewing starting up at the convention center.

More later.
 

August 6th - Day 2:

The first thing I noticed on Friday was that it was cooler and less humid then Thursday, which was a positive thing, allowing me to roll into the show for the 10 AM start refreshed and ready for action.

And that was good, since there was a bit more of it, including some decent sales in the AM to several different dealers and collectors, and the purchase of a cool Continental Dollar (the first one we’ve handled in a while).  We had a few more transactions up to midday in a room with a few more visitors than yesterday, but it was still hardly crowded in there.

So we took a small fieldtrip at about 1 PM, heading over to the Boston Public Library to see the unique Washington Before Boston Medal struck in gold. The piece has been in the library’s holdings since 1875 or so, and today it was on display in a small glass case in the Rare Book Room, along with some assorted medals and a superb 1855 mint set which had been in the building’s original corner stone when it was built in that year, but was removed during renovations some 40 years later.  And it was remarkably pristine.  Plus there were (not surprisingly) some rare books in there, including the personal library of President John Adams.  In all, that was pretty nice and well worth the 15 minute walk from the show to check out.

The rest of the afternoon proved mostly uneventful, with the acquisition of just 3 moderate coins, a smattering of collectors checking out a coin or two here and there, but just a couple of sales actually taking place.  Then later in the afternoon Dave went to view lots for the Bowers and stack’s auctions across the street at the Park Plaza Hotel, while your author tried in vain to find other cool things to buy on the floor.

Which led us to dinner with a dealer friend next door at Smith & Wollensky’s which was delicious, but dangerous, and included your author smashing his forearm on a heavy, ornate doorknob, and the coin dealer at the next table gouging his leg on an elegant leather backed chair (the first time your author has ever seen or heard of anything like this in fine dining establishment, though once while eating lunch in a restaurant in Brazil I did see a decorative plate fall off of a high shelf and hit a guy at the table next to me directly on the head).

Anyway, Saturday we hope again for a few more visitors, some more interesting things to walk up to the table, and another field trip, this to the Massachusetts Historical Society to see their superb early American collection for which I frankly cannot wait.

Until tomorrow -
 

August 5th - Day 1:

After what seemed like about a 6 month hiatus from coin shows (but which really was just about 6 weeks since we were last on the road in Baltimore), we were extremely excited to being the 10-day long ANA adventure here in Boston starting with the Pre-Show this morning.

Actually, there were two pre-shows going on in Boston today - one run by the same outfit that puts on the Bay State show and held in the usual venue for that event at the Radisson Hotel, and the one we attended at a huge and ancient looking edifice aptly named "The Castle" about 1 block down the road.

Can a city support two pre-shows, you ask? Well, not really in my opinion, but since they were both on the smallish side and held so close together, most attendees (both dealers and collectors alike, and including us) seemed to spend some time at both.  Which would have been easier if it had not been unbelievably hot and humid on this day, which made the simple act of walking down the block (or hauling our show supplies into a building, for example) especially unpleasant.

Still, that was better than later in the afternoon, when a medium-sized monsoon erupted and thoroughly soaked anyone unfortunate enough to be standing on the sidewalk. Or in the men’s room in the basement of The Castle, which flooded impressively.

Fortunately, your author was upstairs manning the table at that point, which meant that he stayed completely dry throughout surrounded by coins and other dealers. Not too may collectors though, with the result that scant little action took place other than dealers looking through other dealers’ boxes. Which we did a little of too, finding a couple of coins we liked, selling a couple of inexpensive pieces, submitting a slew of cool things for grading and then calling it a day to go have dinner with a dealer friend and discuss, for the umpteenth time, a big deal we’ve been working on for ages.  Which concluded fairly late in the evening, at which time your author was ready to collapse.

Tomorrow we hope for some retail traffic and some more interesting coins to show up, both of which are quite likely from our upbeat perspective.

 

June 16-19, 2010: The Baltimore Expo and Auctions

Day 4:  Saturday I think we could most accurately describe Saturday as a minor mad-house, with a lot of stuff going on all day, including some concentrated wheeling and dealing with many different people all over the room (some, but not all, of which was successful), picking up the last of our thoroughly appropriate grades received from PCGS, a very brief period of the lights going out in the convention center, some very successful check collecting (though we had our doubts for a few minutes there), extremely entertaining show and telling (including a stunning coin that we compelled a serious collector to sell us), a very soggy but still acceptable tuna sandwich for lunch, some last second consignments to the major auction houses on behalf of collectors and dealers alike, some typically hectic packing and shipping coins for photography and, finally, some late afternoon high-tailing it to the airport (from where I am now typing this installment of the Road Report)...

May 29 - June 5, 2010: The Long Beach Expo and Auctions

Day 8:  The Exciting Conclusion Actually, it was exciting, as we did a little more business on Saturday (including selling a fantastic PCGS 65+ Saint we had acquired at this show), picked up our last Heritage lot, then began the process of packing everything up like crazy, pausing only to reflect on the week that had been...

May 19-22, 2010: Whitman Nashville Expo

Day 4: With Saturday came the largest crowd of the week, which should not be interpreted as me saying that there was a large crowd...

April 27 - May 1, 2010: The Central States Show in Milwaukee, WI

Day 5: Saturday started off quite well, thank you, with the sun streaming into my hotel room window (after a violent rain storm the night before), and an email saying that our offer on a cool coin (which we had been trying to buy for weeks) had been accepted...

April 22-24, 2010: The EAC Convention in Annapolis, MD

Day 3: As noted here yesterday, I was thinking that Saturday might be another busy and active day on the bourse floor, with lots of customers, exciting new purchases and almost non-stop writing of long and detailed invoices...

March 24-27, 2010: The ANA National Money Show in Ft. Worth, TX

Day 4: Saturday John bolted out of Texas at 2:30 AM (actually it was probably more like 8, but he likes to exaggerate), leaving me, David J...

March 2-7, 2010: The Baltimore Expo and Auctions

Day 5: Saturday began as they usually do at these shows, with us packing up and checking out of our hotel, then schlepping heavy bags across town to the convention center in what could probably best be characterized as an inconvenient pain in the neck...

January 30 - February 6, 2010: The Long Beach Expo & Auctions

Day 8: For those of you who expected this last installment of our LB Road Report to be written and up early on Sunday morning, please note that I did too...

January 25-27, 2010: Stack's Americana Auction in New York, Part II

While John did his lot viewing at Stack’s on Friday last week, I, David J. Wnuck, headed out this Monday for the car + train trip into Manhattan...

January 22, 2010: Stack's Americana Auction in New York, Part I

Good morning everyone, and welcome to this special bonus edition of the RR recapping my one-day jaunt down to NYC for some intensive lot viewing at Stack’s...

January 4 - 10, 2010: The FUN Show

Day 7: It would be ideal to start this FUN show wrap-up by describing each of the 23 choice early copper coins we purchased from a little old man who walked into the show on Sunday, but since that didn’t happen we’ll begin instead by saying that (even though that one imaginary guy was not present) there were still quite a few people in the room...

November 19-22, 2009: The Bay State Show & C4 Convention

November 22, 2009:  Day 4 Well, after much activity on the previous days, and a late night at the auction on Saturday, we were pretty tired on Sunday...

November 9-14, 2009: Baltimore Show and Auctions

November 14th:  Day 6 Get away day is always a lot of fun, since it means we need to get up earlier than usual, pack, check out of the hotel and then haul our luggage to the convention center, usually in a rain storm...

October 9-11, 2009: Coinfest! in Stamford, CT

October 11th:  A Day of Rest  Sunday started off extremely nicely, as instead of hanging out in my hotel room in the morning (which unfortunately has been the custom for a few years now), I got myself down to the gym, worked out, had breakfast, packed up my stuff, checked out and then walked down to the show at about 9:30 to get ready for the 10 o’clock opening...

September 22-26, 2009: The Philadelphia Expo and Auctions

  September 26th:  And, in Conclusion Let’s pick up Saturday’s action at about 10:02 AM, when, just as I arrived at out table, another dealer walked up and informed us that on Friday he had sold a couple of pretty big coins that we jointly owned...

September 4-12, 2009: The Beverly Hills Auctions & The Long Beach Expo

September 12th:  Leaving, On a Jet Plane Here I am, back in the same airport terminal I visited just a few weeks ago after the ANA, and little has changed:  The restaurant options are still lousy, and the security guy on the Segway is still roaring through the terminal at about 35 mph...

August 3-9, 2009: The World's Fair of Money in LA

August 9th - Day 7: I’m writing this in Gladstone’s, a loud restaurant and bar with extremely mediocre service in LAX’s Terminal 3, but still the best option available (just ahead of Burger King) for unwinding after 7 long, tiring days of ANA-ing...

June 25-27, 2009: The MidAmerica Coin Expo in Schaumburg, Illinois

Saturday: Well, we were ready for something (anything) out of the ordinary on Saturday, but it turned out that wasn’t necessary, since it ended up being a lot like any weekend day at any show anywhere in the country...

June 10-13, 2009: Baltimore Coin & Currency Expo

Day 3 (Saturday): Day 3 started with your author checking out of his hotel, and thus saying farewell to his bizarre (and bizarrely large) hotel room...

May 27-30, 2009: The Long Beach Expo

The Exciting Conclusion: It proved to be a typical Saturday at LB, which is to say that we spent our time packing up and standing in the astonishingly slow post office line, as opposed to buying and selling coins...

May 13-16, 2009: The Whitman Atlanta Coin Expo

Day 4: It may surprise you to learn that Saturday was the most crowded day of the show. Though a weekend crowd at most shows is typically one with a high percentage of parents with young children and others out for a look-see, and that was the case here...

April 28-May 2, 2009: The Central States Show in Cincinnati

Day 5: Following my dear departed grandmother’s tried and true mantra “Don’t waste too much time sleeping”, I woke up at 3:41 AM Saturday, giving me ample time to write Friday’s blog, pack up all my stuff and then watch “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (highly recommended) before meeting Dave for breakfast, dumping our bags at the bell desk and heading out for what we hoped would be a decent day at the show...

April 16-17, 2009: The EAC Convention in Kentucky

Day 2: Can you imagine staying in a hotel in which every single person you see (other than the waitress and some guy – presumably a staff member – painting a hallway) is a coin collector or dealer?  I can, because this is exactly what it's like here, including at breakfast this morning, when I entered the restaurant and recognized absolutely everybody at every table...

March 23-29, 2009: The Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

Postscript: I did finally make it home, by the way, but not before my cab from the airport was pulled over by the police for speeding (a first for CRO) and a massive 45 minute argument errupted while your author sat in the backseat, quietly wondering what the appropriate etiquette is in this situation...

March 19-21, 2009: The Bay State Show in Boston

Day 3: I wasn't expecting much on Saturday, and that's exactly what I got. A decent crowd rolled in, and I had a few lookers, but a grand total of (add the 7, carry the 1 ...

March 12-15, 2009: The ANA National Money Show in Portland, OR

Day 4: No matter how carefully we plan, or how much time we have to pack up everything and head to the airport, it always seems to turn into a fire drill at the end of a show...

January 29-February 7, 2009: The Long Beach Expo

The Exciting Conclusion: Truth be told, it wasn’t that exciting.  Rather it was sort of a typical Saturday in LB, with mostly families and visitors looking around, and not too many serious transactions taking place (at our table or anywhere else that we could see)...

January 14-15, 2009: Stack's Americana Auction

This just in - it was very, very cold in New York.   It was also not very crowded on the streets and sidewalks, which might have been because everyone was huddled in doorways trying to keep warm, or because the economy has taken its toll on people hanging out in NY shopping and going to Broadway shows...

January 3-11, 2009: The First Show & FUN Show

Day 8: And at 2 PM, mercifully, it was over.  But not with a bang, it was more like a slow creeping death like when a plant gets sick...

November 18-22, 2008: Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

Day 5: I thought for a minute there our show was going to end on an extremely high note, as it appeared we were close to selling an expensive federal coin in the waning moments (during the packing up phase of our departure, right after our second lunch, but before Dave scaled the back table for the ceremonial removal of the CRO banner), but alas if it is going to be, it will be happening by phone later, and not here in person...

November 13-16, 2008: Bay State Show and C4 Convention

Day 4: I found out what Dave bought at the auction after I left:  a New Jersey copper, a Vermont copper, a USA button, a Fugio with a counterstamp (first we can recall seeing) and 2 unusual items destined for the "Wnuck Collection"...

November 7-9, 2008: Coinfest!

Finito! What were the top five things that happened on Sunday at Coinfest?  Good question - let's take a look: 1...

October 21-22, 2008: Stack's 73rd Anniversary Auction

Day 2: Wednesday began with the gentle sounds of a guy throwing a large steel trash can against a dumpster at 5:24 AM directly outside my hotel window, which was a nice (though fairly typical) way to wake up in NY...

October 15-16, 2008: The 2008 Silver Dollar & Rare Coin Expo

This will be a bonus Road Report, as I flew out to the St. Louis show for just a day and a half to try to buy coins on the floor, sell a few things, view some Scotsman and Heritage auction lots, see a few customers and gather sufficient anecdotes to write the following recap: First, you will be pleased to know that my flight out was uneventful, and pleasant, in the sense that it was not as horrendous as most flights we take these days...

September 13-20, 2008: The Long Beach Expo

Post Mortem: I have four things to say today: I apologize for this being so late.  Frankly, I was exhausted after the show (but not too exhausted to go play golf over the weekend)...

August 19, 2008: The Coin Collection at Colonial Williamsburg

I am pleased to offer some bonus Road Reporting from my vacation side-trip to view the extensive colonial and early American coin holdings (including pieces on public display, as well as the cool stuff hidden away in the top-secret vaults) at quaint Colonial Williamsburg...

July 26-August 3, 2008: ANA Week

And in Conclusion: It seems like about a month and a half ago we were sitting in the Stack's ANA pre-show auction buying some cool coins, and it feels like a few weeks ago when we sold our first coin on the floor on Monday during the ANA PNG-Day set-up, and just a few hours ago when we sold our last coin (a red unc...

July 8-12, 2008: MidAmerica Coin Expo

The Post-Game Show: Surely Saturday would be slow and uneventful, right? That's what we expected, figuring that serious collectors who planned to come would have shown up on Thursday and Friday (for first shot!), leaving us to cool our collective numismatic heels on Saturday before packing up to leave at day's end...

June 5-7, 2008: Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

Airport Report: I always enjoy these last-day reports from the Baltimore show, as I typically write them in the airport terminal across from Wendy's (which is somewhat nostalgic, since in 1990 I loaned my car to my brother while I was studying abroad and he dumped a gigantic Wendy's Chocolate Frosty all over the interior, then attempted to clean it with Armor-All, which took the finish off the leather seats)...

May 24-31 2008: Long Beach Expo

Day VIII: I have a little more time to write today, so brace yourself for a full dose of Road Reporting...

May 8-9, 2008: Early American Coppers Convention

Day 2: I arrived at the bourse this morning right here in my hotel at 8:50 for my anticipated entry at 9 and discovered that most people had been there since 8...

April 15-19, 2008: Central States Numismatic Society

Conclusion: Actually, it was exciting, as the positive vibe continued here at CSNS. But let's start at the end: Dave and I headed out at about 4:15 to catch a flight, but even as we were leaving it seemed like the room was still surprisingly full, with about 60% of the dealers still at their tables (though most were in serious 'packing-up' mode at that point trying to get everything organized before they booted us all out)...

February 26-March 2, 2008: Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

The Exciting Conclusion: Well, we weren't the only people on the bourse floor on Sunday, but about 75% of the dealers had vamoosed and the collector traffic could be best described as ‘hardly anyone was here'...

February 13-16, 2008: The Long Beach Expo

Day 4: True to form, Saturday at Long Beach evidenced all 11 of our standard final-day-of-the-show activities: Having a customer ask for a specific coin which you had on display starting on Wednesday all the way through until about 20 minutes earlier, at which you had boxed it up and delivered it to the post office for shipping home...

January 15-16, 2008: Stack's Americana Auction

Because we hadn't quite had our fill of coins at the FUN show, we were delighted that Stack's had scheduled their annual Americana auction (plus some cool world coins and notes in a total of 4 robust catalogs) for Tuesday and Wednesday this week in NYC...

January 5-13, 2008: The FUN Show

Day 9: In addition to our normal commercial goals at a show, our plan for Sunday was to finish shipping out coins, tie up the last remaining loose ends and methodically complete and audit our show paperwork...

November 29-December 2, 2007: Bay State Show & C4 Convention

Conclusion It's 1:13 PM on Sunday as I begin writing this final installment of the Road Report, and I'm already home in my living room, sprawled on the couch completely exhausted by the week's activities (and there were many)...

November 13-17, 2007 - Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

Airport Report: Having carefully calculated Baltimore traffic conditions, I am now in the airport precisely two (2) hours before my flight and ready, willing and able to crank out the last installment of the Road Report for this show right here at my gate...

October 26-28, 2007: Coinfest

Day 3: I'm typing this comfortably seated on my couch, back at home, after a very nice Sunday at what turned out to be a superb Coinfest show...

October 16, 2007: Stack's Ford XX and XXI and 72nd Anniversary Auction

Part I: (Silence). That was the sound of us trying unsuccessfully to hoist our bidding paddle in the air at what was, apparently, the last and final evening of John J...

September 23-29, 2007: Long Beach Expo and Surrounding Auctions

Day 7: A quick 5 hour red-eye flight across country (which included no sleep whatsoever), and we're back in New England now and finally able to post the last (and, based on our emails, much anticipated) Road Report from the September, 2007 Long Beach Expo...

August 3-12, 2007: The ANA World's Fair of Money

Day 10: The lamps have been turned off. The coins have been put away. The invoices and receipts organized and collated...

June 28-30, 2007: Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

Finito: Saturday didn't start well. Upon checking out of my hotel, I had to admit to the incredibly attractive woman at the hotel reception desk that I had eaten a Pop-Tart from the min-bar in my room and that it should be added to the bill...

June 21-24, 2007: MidAmerica Coin Expo

If this is Sunday, we must be back in New England after another successful coin show, another interesting coin auction, and another opportunity to talk coins with another group of local collectors...

May 26-June 2, 2007: Long Beach Expo and Surrounding Auctions

  Epilogue I'm pleased to report that I'm back in New England as I type this final chapter of our Long Beach saga, having taken the red-eye, crossed the country and slept a good, solid 14 minutes since leaving the show...

May 22, 2007: Stack's Ford XVIII and Henry Leon Auctions

We planned to bring home a lot of loot, and that's exactly what we did. From the 3 PM kick-off of the Ford session through some early Americana, an exuberant session of several hundred colonials, US type coins, etc...

May 9-12, 2007: Central States Numismatic Convention

Day 4: After a generally tepid beginning, and then some bright moments, the show ended with a pretty quiet Saturday relegating this year's CSNC to 'Decent' (as opposed to 'Blockbuster', or 'Nuclear-White-Hot') status on the patented CRO Coin Show Rating-o-Meter...

April 26 - 28, 2007: The Early American Coppers Convention

A Surprisingly Lively Affair I don't have official figures, but I'm guessing this was an all-time EAC attendance record...

March 30, 2007: Bay State Show, Boston

There is a measure that we numismatists use to gauge the quality of a coin show: If your lunch is longer than your time on the bourse floor, it's probably not a blockbuster event...

March 20-24, 2007: Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention

Epiloque We were about half packed up, organizing paperwork and just about ready to head out the door late Saturday afternoon when it walked up to the table: A coin prominently listed on a number of our customer want lists, available right then and there and looking pretty good, raw, in an old tattered envelope...

March 15-16, 2007: Charlotte Mid-Winter ANA

Make it funny This whole thing started when I left for the Charlotte ANA show. John said to me: "Since I'm not going to the show, you must write the Road Report...

February 22, 2007: Trip to the Bennington Museum

We have a special bonus 'Road Report' today, recapping my trip to the Bennington Museum (in Bennington, Vermont, of course) to view the collection of Vermont colonial coins...

February 9-18, 2007: The Long Beach Expo

Day 9: We have unplugged our table lamps, shipped home several enormous boxes of auction catalogs, rolled up our banner and have closed the book on another LBE...

January 25 - 26, 2007: The Money Show of the Southwest

After some extensive advanced planning (which began last week), I decided to make the trip to Houston this week for the 50th annual Money Show of the Southwest...

January 11 - 12, 2007: The NY International Show

This one was really different. First of all, it was held at the Waldorf-Astoria on Park Avenue on the 18th floor on something called the 'Starlight Roof', a setting perhaps better suited for a fancy wedding reception in a movie starring Audrey Hepburn...

January 1-6, 2007: The FUN Show

Day 6: Sorry for the delay getting this last installment posted - I flew out on Saturday night and got back home at midnight feeling awfully tired and rundown...

November 29 - December 2, 2006: Bay State Show and C4 Convention

Put a positive fork in the Bay State Show, which ended Sunday after a fun-filled and very productive 4 days in downtown Boston...

November 8-11, 2006: Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention

This time the Baltimore show was pretty much like every other time: Good. Very good. In fact, it was better than we thought it might be...

October 19-20, 2006: St. Louis 'Silver Dollar' Show

While Dave was in New York looking at all of the cool, rare and high-end stuff at the various Stack's auctions this week, I was in quiet St...

October 17-18, 2006: Stack's Auctions

I packed up my lot-viewing psyche, my loupe and halogen lamp, my 'What would PCGS grade this thing?' prognostication hat and trucked on down to New York for the impressively diverse series of auctions at Stack's this week...

September 18-21, 2006: New York Invitational Show and Auctions

If I said to you that the New York Invitational Show would be held in Manhattan in a place called the 'Metropolitan Pavilion', what would you expect? Perhaps a grand ballroom? 30 foot ceilings, intricately carved columns and the requisite large ornate chandeliers? Not quite...

September 9-16, 2006: Long Beach Expo and Pre-Auctions

Let me tell you, there is nothing like the Long Beach Expo to test your luggage packing skills. 8 days, two hotels, all of our show materials and everything we need to view and evaluate lots...

August 11-19, 2006: Denver ANA

I've now received ANA show feedback from a number of collectors and dealers and I've read a blog or two on other dealer sites and articles in various chatrooms, all of which make me wonder whether we attended the same show as everybody else...

July 14-17, 2006: Baltimore / Washington Coin Expo

I don't want to get all emotional here, but I love the Baltimore show. The venue is good, the the turnout is strong and the mood is excellent, people are buying and selling with gusto and there are, generally speaking, a lot of nice coins from which to choose...

July 1-7, 2006: ANA Summer Seminar

What could be better than a week of intensive numismatic activity surrounded by other numismatists in an idyllic mountain setting? Well, actually, a lot of things, but for the purposes of a numismatic-related website, I'll say 'nothing'...

June 21-24, 2006: Mid-America Coin Expo

We packed up late Saturday after a rather unexpected little show here in Chicago. Generally speaking, the Mid-America Expo is a nice regional event...

May 26-June 2, 2006: Long Beach Expo and Pre-Auctions

Our 8 day, 20,000 coin, 3 major auction company, 19 auction session, 3 days of wholesale activity and 3 days of actual coin-show odyssey began on Friday, May 26 when we arrived in Beverly Hills...

May 23-25, 2006: Stack's May Auctions including Ford XIV

We like coin auctions as much as anyone, but this week at Stack's was pushing it. We had 4 separate catalogs to be offered in three separate sessions over a three-day period which, of course, would end just in time for us to catch that flight to the Long Beach Show...

May 4-6, 2006: EAC Convention

If you like personalized attention, want to focus in-depth on one fascinating and important area of US numismatics, enjoy seeing displays of some of the finest early American copper coins in existence, and think you might want to do all of this in a decadent resort atmosphere, then you most certainly would have enjoyed attending this year's EAC convention...

April 26-29, 2006: Central States Numismatic Convention

We arrived in Columbus on Wednesday morning and were one of the few (only?) dealers to stay until Sunday morning, thus not missing a single moment of exciting midwestern numismatic activity...

April 6-8, 2006: Atlanta ANA

First the really important part: Thursday evening I had dinner at Canoe, a restaurant about 10 miles from the show, which had been recommended by coin dealer-gourmet Andy Lustig on the PCGS forum...

March 16-18, 2006: Baltimore Show

This week its going to be down and dirty: If you've read our last several Road Reports, you'll know that we are not prone to hype or hyperbole, so when we say that we returned home Saturday evening from Baltimore still reeling from what was the best show we have ever had (by a significant margin), we mean it...

March 10-11, 2006: The Bay State Show in Boston

We had a 'quick-hitter' of a show this time around. Dealer set up was Thursday afternoon, we displayed all day Friday and then packed-up mid-afternoon on Saturday...

March 1-2, 2006: Palm Beach Show

I hope no one has been waiting for a long and exuberant write up about the Palm Beach Show in which phrases like 'white-hot market' and 'we had our greatest selling show ever' would appear...

February 9-11, 2006: Long Beach Expo

In what surely must be the unlikeliest of travel stories, we returned from the Long Beach Expo on Sunday flying from California directly into the blizzard here in New England and actually arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule...

January 28, 2006: Heritage’s Jules Reiver Sale

We just returned from one absolute endurance test of an auction - the $8.5 million Jules Reiver Collection auction conducted by Heritage and held at their Dallas headquarters...

January 16, 2006: Stack’s Ford XIII Auction

The latest installment of the John J. Ford collection – the French Colonial Coins and Tokens and Betts Medals Part I - came to auction at Stack’s on Monday in frigid New York City...

January 6-10, 2006: FUN Show

We returned from Orlando late Saturday night after a nice week at the show and the related auctions. Our overall assessment is as follows: Sales were very strong as everyone seemed to be in a buying mood...

December 8-11, 2005: Baltimore Show

We just returned from the Baltimore Show and are still sorting through our new purchases and following up on a number of new deals that came up during the week...

October 19, 2005: Stack's Ford XII Auction

Wasn't it just yesterday I was sitting in a cramped room breathlessly waiting for Ford I to begin? Actually that was 2 years ago...