Road Report

June 12th: Day 3

Notable Numismatic Quotables Heard on Friday in Baltimore

“We do not open until 10 AM.”
– The lady at the snack bar explaining that you cannot get a cup of coffee at the show until it is so late that you no longer need one.
Editor’s note: Don’t get me going about this whole snack bar situation, which used to have breakfast available first thing, some fantastic chili for lunch and generally better options all the time. Oh well, that is life on the coin circuit.

“Coins with ships on them are considered shipwreck adjacent.”
– A world dealer explaining to me why auction houses that specialize in shipwreck coins also frequently offer coins, tokens and medals with images of ships on them.
Editor’s note: In that sense, I guess a coin with a fish on it could then be considered shipwreck adjacent adjacent.

“I had a really cool capped bust half that I think you would have liked, but I put it in an auction and it did not do as well as I thought it would.”
– A collector at the show lamenting the disappointing result on a sale earlier this year.
Editor’s note: I felt kinda bad about that because I was the one who bought that coin in the auction while representing a different collector. On the other hand, I was the high bidder, so if I had not done that it would have sold for even less and the seller would have been even more disppointed.

“This will be my table next year.”
– Another dealer explaining to me that he had somehow already reserved and paid for the table I was currently sitting at for the next Baltimore show in the fall.
Editor’s note: I found that extremely frustrating since I would have kept this table, but I never had the chance. Oh well, that is also life on the coin circuit.

“Planning a collection in advance sounds like a lot of work – this is my hobby that I do for fun, so I like to just buy cool coins whenever I see them.”
– A collector responding to the comments in yesterday’s RR and outlining his different approach to coin collecting.
Editor’s note: I thought we might hear this or something similar from some readers, since there are many different ways to enjoy this hobby and it is not a one size fits all situation. So you gotta do you.

“How much do you think this is actually worth?”
– Another dealer asking for my opinion of an appropriate asking price on an admittedly interesting and unusual toned coin in a PCGS slab with a CAC sticker.
Editor’s note: The reality is that there are no set values for some coins. I would think you could justify asking around double the price of an untoned one in that same grade, but it could very well sell for 5x that number in an auction.

“This place will be a ghost town tomorrow by noon.”
– A dealer friend predicting that on Saturday most of the other dealers here would have long since packed up and left by then.
Editor’s note: Unfortunately I agree with him, since many of the dealers (including nearly everyone in the prime spots in the middle of the room) were actually already gone by midday Friday. But Team CRO will be here for the duration, so if you are in town and want to do business, swing by our table #837.

EOM

June 11th: Day 2

Your author was up at the usual absurdly early hour on Thursday, doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, writing the blog, checking auction lots and having some delicious in-room coffee before eventually heading over to the convention center for what we hoped would be a good day on the bourse.

It would be slightly staggered though, with dealer set up starting at 8, early bird badgeholders at 10 and John Q. Public entering the room at noon.

From our perspective at table #837, however, it’s not that regimented, since it was pretty busy and active for us right from the start with dealers and collectors wearing dealer badges (since some of the enterprising guys got themselves listed on a table). Whoever they were, and however they got in, they seemed to be in the mood to buy, allowing us to write a surprising number of invoices right out of the gate, and make a bunch of sales in all categories. And this continued on for most of the day, including some relatively inexpensive coins, some highfalutin gold, a couple of colonials, some currency, and a few world coins to boot. With some of these items having been on our site, while others were brand new and launched here for the first time. Like this one for example:

While this was going on I escaped the table whenever possible to look for cool coins, and while I considered some, I had a much harder time than usual finding things for the site. So if you are in town and have something cool to sell, please show it to us.

Somewhere in there we also delivered a recent EB coin to a customer, and he showed me his detailed spreadsheet in which he had carefully planned out his whole collection from the start, and where this coin fit in. I have to say I was super impressed with that, since I have been advocating this approach for y-e-a-r-s now, and actually laid this out in this 2007 Coin Commentary article, i.e. begin a collection with the end in mind, map out a plan, determine an overall budget of money and time, identify the approximate grades to target, make sure it is something you can and want to achieve and then work methodically toward that goal. That seems logical to me.

Anyway, after that we completed some bookkeeping, submitted some grading and CACing, consigned a few coins to various auctions for customers and seemed to be heading to a quiet end of the day, when we suddenly sold our most expensive coin so far, another superb Territorial the likes of which we don’t expect to get again anytime soon.

Then we packed up and headed out to dinner at a new place, Judy’s island Grill in Canton, which was excellent, very reasonable, and a lot like having dinner in Montego Bay (including the ice cold Red Stripe and the slow moving fan).

Eventually returning to the hotel late to answer email, and texts, check auction lots, and finally turn in after another successful day here in Baltimore.

And we’ll be back to do it all again on Friday, and then blog all about all of right here in just about 24 hours from now.

Until then, then –

June 10th:  Day 1

Operating on a slightly different Baltimore schedule than usual, Team CRO headed to the airport for a civilized mid-morning flight out of Boston.

Where we enjoyed an overall travel experience that could best be described as “uneventful”, except for the old man walking through the terminal ahead of us with a giant child’s car seat on his head, about which I have several  thoughts:

1. That looked ridiculous
2. My God I wish I had taken his picture
3. No, the child was not in it at the time

And then had a fast flight to BWI, grabbed our luggage, jumped in a cab with a friendly driver and had a conversation that went exactly like this:

Driver: So, are you here for business or pleasure?

Me: (Being purposefully vague) Some of each.

Driver: That’s nice. So, are you here for business or pleasure?

Me: (Now confused) SOME OF EACH.

Driver: So, are you here for business or pleasure?

At that point we were just happy that we made it into town without careening off the road, allowing us to drop our bags at the hotel and head straight to the convention center.

Where we encountered an XL dealer wholesale room humming with activity. And while I walked around looking for interesting things there, went through a bunch of boxes, and considered a few coins, I didn’t find any that were sufficiently CRO to actually buy. Bummer.

So I migrated into the Stack’s-Bowers lot viewing room, pored through a bunch of lot boxes, and ID’ed a number of coins worth bidding on.

After which we sat at one of the tables out in the hallway and met up with a stream of dealers and the occasional collector showing coins, talking coins, comparing recent grading and/or CACing experiences and generally catching up with all of the recent numismatic news.

And then suddenly it was time to assemble in the lobby for the 4 PM start of dealer set up, and then cruise to our new table #837 on the right side of the room, set up like crazy and officially declare ourselves open for business at about 4:08. Which was about 6 minutes too late for our first visitors who were impatiently waiting for first shot.

But they eventually got it, and snapped up a bunch of coins straight away.

We then sold a bunch more to others over the next couple of hours, in and around which I was able to walk the floor, look at lots of coins, and buy some interesting ones.

Which was a welcome beginning at a show where we are not really sure what to expect. Yes, this is Baltimore, which is pretty much always good for us, but this is the less robustly attended summer installment, in a smaller room, with many of our dealer friends not in attendance. On the other hand, that should mean that whatever opportunities are here have a decent chance of finding their way to CRO. And if our experience here at set up is any indication, they have and they will.

So by the time we packed up at about 6:30 we were feeling fine. More so when we grabbed an Uber to Fell’s Point for dinner with some dealer friends at our usual Wednesday night restaurant. During which we discussed a variety of numismatic and non-numismatic topics, including a friend’s recent acquisition of this adorable Pygmy Hippo (seen here with his fleet of regular old dogs):

This was of course met with strong skepticism at the table (since Pygmy Hippos are dangerous, impossible to train and have an unfortunate tendency to spray excrement all over everything), but even under withering interrogation, the guy insisted it was true. Hmmmm.

Anyway, we eventually returned to the hotel at a reasonable hour and then almost immediately fell asleep after what had been by then a pretty tiring but overall quite successful day here.

So we’ll look forward to more of the same on Thursday, and then blog all about all of it right here in this space first thing on Friday morning.

Until then, then –