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Back to Road Report Archive 2006

July 14-17, 2006: The Whitman Baltimore Expo

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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. For us its our favorite venue, hands down.

Now, having said that, its important to note that this was the summer session, sort of a Baltimore-Light if you will, with a little less dealer participation and, with all due respect to the folks at Bowers and Merena (who were the official auctioneers) not the greatest auction I’ve ever seen. Ahem.

Nonetheless, our sales were brisk, with a high level of activity in early type, colonials and esoterica.

We scoured the place for coins to buy and found a few neat things, but in general we didn’t buy as much as we wanted to, or really needed to, which means we need more choice coins. So if you have some to sell, call us. Please.

A few other tidbits of interest:

  • We saw no let-up whatsoever in overall market enthusiasm, with expensive and moderate coins going away in equal numbers. Dealers we know well reported similar results.
  • On sight grading was hit and miss at PCGS. We got hammered on some nice original coins, but also received the first show-service up-cross from NGC to PCGS that we have ever had. Even though the coin deserved it, it was still shocking.
  • There was a high level of interest in some of the upcoming auctions this fall, perhaps more than I can remember recently with Heritage aggressively publicizing the Troy Wiseman sale (i.e. shoving a flyer in your face every 13 minutes) and a low buzz about some of the cool stuff on its way to ANR.
  • We ate well. Really well.
  • We also took in an Orioles game, which is worth it just to experience the stadium itself. We sat in the last row behind home plate, about 6 miles from the action but strategically situated to feel the high altitude breeze at your back on another scorching evening. Good fun that, and highly recommended.

Our next major event is the ANA in Denver, with a couple of smaller shows in between and an auction or two which figure to be pretty handy.

Onward. And upward.

JA