Road Report

October 2nd: Day 2

Friday would begin again with breakfast in the fine hotel restaurant where we were joined by a dealer friend and the topic quickly turned to the dusty corner of numismatics known as Odd and Primitive Money. Which includes things like Yap Stones, Elephant Tails, Sea Shells and various other unusual and sometimes creepy things once used as money in some far away place. Some of which were believed to have mystical powers (think voodoo here) which could cause misfortune to anyone who mishandled them.

I am pleased to report that that did not happen while I was eating my omelet, we finished without incident and made our way to the convention under skies which were actually sunny for the first time since we got here.

But while MaryAnn headed straight to our table #1214, your author proceeded over to HA lot viewing where I powered through about 20 boxes in what I would describe as a confirmatory expedition to finalize our bidding plan.

Finishing up there at about 10 and then heading to the show in time for the start of what we hoped would be another good day on the bourse floor.

And while it was generally kinda quiet, we did have some good sales at the table, and bought a few more coins from various sources, including the star of the show here which will look deluxe on an upcoming EB.

We were also busy working on the wholesale stuff mentioned yesterday, ultimately finalizing some excellent sales which included our third (!) 1793 Large Cent at this show and, in the mid-afternoon, that XL group of Large Cents in one fell and satisfying swoop.

So we were feeling fine when we headed out to a bar with some dealer friends where they proceeded to tell us a bizarre story about their experience at this show which included a bunch of things that we’d never encountered before on the circuit, and culminated with a customer insisting on returning a coin he had purchased 14 years earlier. And while that exceeds most published return policies in our industry by approximately 13.99 years, they were happy to do it and the customer was happy too. So everyone wins!

After which we headed to Gibsons where we had a table in a quiet corner slightly away from the frenetic activity in there and had a great meal with dealer friends which did NOT include that giant carrot cake which is undeniably delicious, but simply too large to order unless you are a party of at least 23 very hungry people.

After which we headed back to the hotel where I watched my alma mater destroy Penn State at home in the first ever football game at the epic new Northwestern stadium. The sad part is that we were actually invited to go and could have been there in purple face paint screaming like undergrads. But I had concluded that we were here to work and just couldn’t take the time. I don’t exactly regret that decision but maybe I should, since we pretty much never get such opportunities, and it would have been incredibly memorable.

Oh well. At least we will be well rested for Saturday where we don’t expect much in the way of activity, but your never know. Whatever happens we’ll post all about it from the comfort of home on Sunday AM.

Finito

October 1st: Day 2

Our first order of business on Thursday: Enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the hotel where I was pleased to see that there was no buffet, since I prefer to order $12 eggs off the menu and not got soaked for $35 for the very same eggs in a giant chafing dish.

After which we decided to skip the series of complex and extremely eerie Hamster-Habitrail style passageways that connect our hotel to the convention center and instead walk outside to the show since it was not pouring at that exact moment.

Allowing us to arrive at the convention center at about 8:45, drop our bags, click on the lights and dive directly back into numismatics.

And things were active right from the start, with a bunch of visitors to the table and some solid sales in all categories, including a few more cool coins which had been on the site already, and a couple more NEWPs just acquired here yesterday. Some near misses too, as a couple of guys studied some coins intensively, seemed ready to pull the trigger, but then didn’t. At least not yet.

In and around which your author scoped out coins all over the bourse floor, finding a dozen or so interesting things that had the right look, at the right (or nearly) right price points. Including one cool gold coin that looked familiar, that I was pretty sure we had owned before, but which was nowhere to be found in our database. So I was either wrong, or we had owned it, but bought and sold it at the same show and thus never had a chance to image or list it. It doesn’t really matter either way, and if you do this long enough you will of course end up handling many of the same coins multiple times.

I also saw lots of other things I liked at various tables, but they were either priced at more than I could ever imagine listing them for on our own site, or waaaaay more. In such cases I invariably say thanks and move on, but one of the quoted prices was so far beyond my expectation that I actually heard myself blurt out “HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY BE $XX,XXX?!?!?!?!”. I genuinely felt bad about that, since that is of course not exactly great bourse floor etiquette, but since I knew the guy it did not turn into a huge incident. Had that been a stranger, I think I may have had my head taken off and rightly so.

After which I returned to the table just in time to split some cool coins with the dealer next to us at prices that induced no blurting at all.

We also spent a fair amount of time organizing an XL group of raw Large Cents at the table in hopes of wholesaling them here, but as of the end of day yesterday that was seeming to be harder than I hoped it would be. And believe me I am motivated to make it happen, since the last thing I want to do is schlep them home.

Anyway, we collected some last, late checks, wrote a few others and then headed out where we again decided to walk outside which was not a great idea since it was pouring at that point. And while we did have an umbrella with us, that was not much use against the huge tsunami being kicked up by cars plowing through the puddles near the sidewalk.

We did eventually make it back though, dropped our bags, dried off, worked on some spreadsheets and then headed off to dinner at a Mexican restaurant down the street with some dealer friends.

Making it back to the hotel late, working a few more hours and then finally turning in around 11:30 after another looooong but overall pretty successful day in Rosemont.

And we’ll be back at it again on Friday where we hope to sell more, buy more and blurt out less, and then blog all about all of it on Saturday AM.

Until then, then –

September 30th: Day 1

Eschewing the opportunity to fly in late on Tuesday night, Team CRO instead opted to get up at 3 AM on Wednesday, drag ourselves onto the first flight in the morning, arrive in Chicago before 9 and quickly make our way over to the convention center at 10-something where the Dealer Trading Room was already humming with activity.

So we jumped right in, ultimately selling 11 coins to various other dealers, including several things acquired in recent deals that were not exactly CRO-website style material.

Then symmetrically buying a different 11 coins of all shapes and sizes which all had one thing in common: They DEFINITELY were CRO-website style coins.

And after that excellent activity, we eventually migrated over to the actual bourse floor for dealer set up at 3 PM.

Where we started repeating the buying and selling cycle all over again, including the sale of a nice Vermont Landscape Copper, which was one of the 11 NEWPs we had at that point owned for about 50 minutes. Interestingly, we completed that sale just as a second customer walked up to the table asking if we had any examples of that specific type in that specific grade range, about which we can conclude several things:

• You gotta be quick
• Landscape Coppers are hot!
• I wish I could find more nice examples of this type, but of course the fact that they are so tough to find as such is what drives the demand for the choice pieces

Anyway, I then made several forays around the room looking for more cool NEWPs which was not easy, as many of the other dealers were just then getting set up and putting out coins. I found some though, including one last, late Large Cent just before we had to pack up so we could get to dinner with relatives on the other side of town.

Getting back to the hotel at a reasonable hour and then almost immediately collapsing after what had been by then a 19 hour, 18,000 step, totally exhausting, but super productive day.

But don’t worry – we’ll be well rested and ready to do it all again tomorrow, where we hope the public will come in droves and the action will once again be non-stop.

And if it is, or even if it isn’t, we’ll post all about it right here in this spot in just about 24 hours from now.

EOM

Prologue:

Who’s ready for some fine, early fall, midwestern numismatic action?

The answer is of course Team CRO, along with virtually every other major dealer and a bunch of local guys too. And with them, we hope, a massive contingent of collectors all of whom will show up here to buy, sell , trade, and of course schmooze at our table #1214.

And it would be good if they did, since we have a lot of new, never before seen coins which will be unleashed here, the unbridled desire to buy like crazy, and a generally high level of enthusiasm borne of the fact that we haven’t been anywhere since the ANA about a month ago.

But even if you can’t make it, you can still follow along with all the action here in our RR to be posted daily from this show, as always, right here in this spot.

Starting tomorrow –