March 19-21, 2009: The Bay State Show & C4 Convention in Boston, MA

Day 1:

It was a full day on Thursday, which included an event at my daughter’s school early in the AM, followed by an extremely painful dentist appointment, then a couple of hours on the phone making some pretty good deals, all followed by the actual subject of this report, my set-up at the Bay State Show in Boston starting at 4:30 PM.

4:30 PM?  Yes, that’s what I said.

Dealer set-up at this show actually runs from this unusually late start until 8:30 PM, which seems odd to me, though I guess it works well (unless you normally like to eat dinner before 9:30 at night).

But most everyone showed up at the scheduled time and started putting out coins, including me in a shared arrangement with John Kraljevich, a function of the fact that we, CRO, hadn’t planned on attending this event.  And not becuase we don’t like this show, it was more a matter of finding the time and the energy to go to a Portland for a week, then do this show before flying down to Baltimore on Monday while trying to stay on top of the website and the regular non-show activities.

But after a good show out west, we figured we’d ride the wave and set up here, provided we could find a friendly soul to share his space.

John obliged, offering me up a case at his table in a prime spot in the main room, a waaaaaay better location that some of the guys who were stuck in one of the little rooms off the hallway in this strange labyrinth of a coin show.

And I’m glad we’re here, since it was a pretty good day, including the purchase and sale of an expensive coin in the first few minutes, and some surprisingly decent dealer to dealer business overall.

But after that opening flurry, we had just a few scattered sales here and there, and nothing else in the way of exciting purchases.

Friday will be a full dose of coin dealering, as the show opens at 9 AM (for dealers), and the public makes its first appearance at 10 sharp.

Which will be described here in great detail just 24 hours from now.

Day 2:

It was an uneventful beginning on Friday, as I set up amidst a cluster of covered tables, indicating other dealers who were still asleep, or possibly out jogging (though I’m betting it was the former).

Anyway, I got organized and then walked the floor in search of something especially cool or interesting, and while I did see some neat things, nothing sufficiently so to buy it.  At least not yet.

After doing that for a while, I noticed the line of public attendees crammed into the narrow hallway near the elevators and impatiently waiting to be allowed in at 10 AM (a hallmark of the Boston show).  At which time I immediately flashed back to standing in that same line years ago as a non-dealer, and remembering just how annoying and uncomfortably warm it was (and so if you are attending this show, save yourself some aggravation and get here when it opens, not 20 minutes before).

Anyway, with a decent sized crowd now milling about, I was back at the table and showing coins to various visitors.  And we sold a few, but not many.

And then a few regular customers from the local area showed up, which is always a nice opportunity to chat, discuss collecting directions, and to show a lot of the coins that we have on the site in one fell swoop, etc.

Which carried us into the afternoon, with most of the early-arriving crowd now thinned out and some new attendees coming in, apparently straight from their jobs in the downtown area.

For me it was one last transaction, and then off to dinner with a few other dealers at a Malaysian restaurant a few blocks from the show.

So far it’s been pretty decent here regardless of what Saturday brings, which I am thinking is going to be not much, with most of the serious crowd dispersing by about noon.

But we won’t know for sure until I post about it tomorrow.

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 . . .) no sales or purchases at all in the morning.  None.  Zippo.

And so after a couple of hours hanging around, I headed across the street to Legal’s for lunch with my daughter and then went home to write this brief RR, collapse on the couch and then get organized for Baltimore starting in about 36 hours from now.

Which means that our next RR will be from Baltimore on Monday night to recap the Stack’s auction.

Until then, then.