Road Report

November 7th: Day 3

The Most Interesting Things that Happened on Friday

I ran into an old coin dealer friend in the hotel gym and immediately had a flashback to 15 years ago when the two of us were in a hotel gym in Long Beach racing on adjacent stationary bikes. We are both pedaling much more slowly these days, but at least we are still pedaling.

We opted to have breakfast over at the Cosi Café, and even though it sometimes appears that they are out of business and located in an abandoned building, neither is true, and the avocado toast is surprisingly good.

Just as I was thinking of a strategy to sell two New Orleans mint gold coins on consignment from a collector, a guy from New Orleans came by and bought them both. That’s what you call good timing.

We got some good grades, and heard about other people getting good grades, but only on one very specific coin type.

A dealer with whom I split a coin two years ago brought that coin to the table to discuss strategy. I would suggest that the first strategy should be to never ever split another coin with that dealer, unless he is reading this, in which case I am just kidding.

A long time customer came by the table, announced that he was not going to buy anything, but asked if I would mind if he sat down for a bit to take a rest. Within 5 minutes he was writing a check for an early gold coin in our case. I honestly do not know how that happened, but it was a great coin that fit his set and I guess it was just meant to be.

We bought another cool dog token.

A number of extremely enthusiastic customers came by to talk about colonial coins, which I am happy to do for as long as people want to hear about them.

Your author wore a special issue brown CRO hat on the bourse floor which caused a near riot from people who loved it, and from one cantankerous old timer who hated it. Correction: He really, really hated it.

The show organizers announced a total reconfiguration of the bourse floor for the next show in March, meaning that our decades long run in this same table location is likely to change. Hey, maybe it will be even better?

We sold some neat old-holdered gold that was hidden away in our back case at about 5:30, looooong after many other dealers had already left.

For dinner we decided it was time to try something totally new, so we took an Über far enough away that I was sure we were lost, but eventually we arrived at The Duchess, an off beat English-style pub in Hampden with a chef from Guam who liberally used SPAM which may not sound good to you, but I assure you it was well worth the trip.

We got back to our hotel at about 10, giving me just enough time to pore through four Stack’s-Bowers catalogs for 2 hours and formulate bids on our target lots in the vast series of auctions next week.

But before that we are going to enjoy one more day at the show during which I expect that we will buy and sell even more coins, pick up checks, drop some off and clean up all sorts of loose ends before we head home.

From where I will write the final installment of this RR early on Sunday AM.

Until then, then –

November 6th: Day 2

Now comfortably into our regular Baltimore routine, we actually arrived at the show even earlier on Thursday, ate another sad breakfast sandwich in the lobby and walked into the bourse just as the doors flung open.

Allowing us to be up and running by 8:10 and writing our first invoice shortly after, this for another cool early dollar we recently acquired at the NH show and thus justifying our decision to put these in the case here instead of squirreling them away in our bank back home:

It would also be a happy harbinger of activity here, as we sold dozens of coins over the subsequent 10 hours, most of which were our typical cool US type with some world coins, colonial currency and a couple of colonial coins thrown in.

As an aside, I always find it interesting to observe the varied buying behavior of our customers, as some carefully scrutinize coins at all angles, rifle through price guides and search furiously online before making a decision, while others walk up and start pulling money out of their wallet before I can finish a sentence. And at many points during the day, this was happening all at once with multiple people at the table, and others behind either trying to peek into the cases (which is good), or interrupting the people who are in the process of transacting (which drives your author a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y bananas).

I eventually got over it though, just in time to buy a bunch of coins from sources all over the bourse floor, but also from collectors arriving at the table with neat things to sell. Including one last deal mere minutes before closing time which included a bunch of coins we sold either years ago, or years and years ago.

All combining to make for an excellent but exhausting day at the show.

So after that we desperately needed a drink at the Hyatt bar with some dealer friends, followed by a fantastic dinner at The Helmand where I would recommend the Seekh Kabob with the cilantro sauce. You’re welcome.

November 5th: Day 1

Rested and ready for action, Team CRO stormed into the convention center at 8:45 on Wednesday morning, ate a breakfast sandwich unexpectedly served on French toast (thus making it a Monte Cristo), joined the queue, headed to our table and set up at standard CRO (i.e. breakneck) speed.

Allowing us to sell our first coin not 5 minutes later, and a bunch more thereafter in a room that was busy and active right from the start.

So of course your author utilized his well-honed multitasking skills, variously working the table and running around the room looking for cool coins. Of which we did well on the former, and even better on the latter, finding a bunch in all categories, and in a variety of price points, though none (so far) were of the XL variety.

And this continued on for about 3 hours, at which time I dropped everything and headed up to SB lot viewing to pore through 4 catalogs containing many, many cool coins. Including a whole bunch on which we would be representing clients. A responsibility we take extremely seriously, of course, and thus study everything as carefully as possible.

Eventually returning to the bourse floor for more buying and selling before heading back up to view the last group of coins.

By the time I finished that, it was time to head out for our usual Wednesday night dinner here in Baltimore at Cinghiale, which is IMO the best Italian restaurant in town and the only place that can make an authentic Italian Margarita.

Where we talked coins until late in the evening, sufficiently so that we were the last non-employees in there and the staff started ironing the tablecloths.  A subtle indication that it was time to head back to our respective hotels to rest up for what figures to be an even busier Friday, with a full complement of dealers on the bourse floor, full blown public attendance and another gazillion coins to buy and sell.

So we’ll try to do a bunch of each, and then describe whatever happens right here in just about 24 hours from now.

Prologue:

With the fall Baltimore show nearly upon us, several key words come to mind:

Adaptability
An important concept in the coin business, and one which is often required in the face of changing market conditions. Such as at this show, with the new PNG Day preceding the show on Wednesday, allowing us to set up at 9 AM right on the bourse floor, instead of 5 PM as has been the case for the past many years here.

Dominos
As in the domino effect of starting earlier which necessitated us flying down here on Tuesday evening rather than early Wednesday morning as we have in recent years.

Wind Advisory
Describing the conditions at the airport in Boston on Tuesday with gusts up to 65 mph causing even more delays than the runway construction project or the impact of the government shutdown on air traffic control. We did make it though.

Gazillion
Describing the number of new coins we will have in the case here as we continue to manage the delicate balance of having fresh coins for show visitors with presenting cool stuff on our EBs.

So if you are in town, we think it will be worth your while to stop by Table #442 and see what we’ve brought.