November 13-16, 2024: The Whitman Baltimore Expo
November 13: Day 1
In yet another example of why being a coin dealer may be sliiiiightly less glamorous then you think, Team CRO was up at 2:30 AM on Wednesday so we could finish packing and catch a 4 AM Uber in order to be at the airport in time for our disgustingly early 6 AM flight to Baltimore.
And then fly uneventfully, arrive at our hotel before 8, have an XL coffee and then stroll over to the convention center like a boss (or bosses) for the 9 AM start of Stack’s Bowers lot viewing and the plethora of wholesale activities in the dealer rooms.
Where we powered through a few thousand lots of medals, tokens, colonials and US coins in the auctions scheduled for next week, finding a small number of cool things of high interest which we will be bidding on with great enthusiasm for stock and for customers.
Then rifled through at least as many coins in dealer boxes, though most of these were (to use a phrase I first heard from Julian Leidman about 25 years ago) “just coins” – i.e. regular pedestrian examples without the extra bells and whistles like cool color, + eye appeal, provenance, old holders, etc. that we are seeking. Actually, there were probably half a dozen coins that did have some of those attributes, and we were extremely tempted by them, but of course all of those were priced at the super PQ levels that those coins always bring, so we reached out to some potential customers first, rather than just buying them cavalierly. This is a business, after all.
While trying to make any of those work, we headed across the street to the sandwich shop we only discovered earlier this year and ran into a dealer friend who remarked, unprompted, that he had no idea this place was even here. Conclusion: Maybe this restaurant needs better signage, or possibly a huge stack of flyers they paste all over the convention center.
Speaking of flyers, we did take a few in the afternoon on some cool looking US coins that were firmly in our pricing sweet spot, and then did ultimately make one deal work for one of the big coins referenced above. Turning what had by then been a merely long and busy day into an extremely productive one.
Interesting too, since we ran into a couple of other dealers who surprised us by mentioning our October 25th Road Report and instantly identifying the yeller I described that day despite the fact that I gave no specific hints. I found that exceptionally astute and very surprising, more so since I had no idea these guys even knew about the RR, let alone read it.
And then it was time for the 5 PM start of dealer set up where we (of course) got the table ready quickly, sold a bunch of gold coins right away and then scoured the bourse floor like crazy looking for interesting things of which we found our fair share. We also passed on others that were priced too high for our liking and considered a few we might yet go back for in the AM if they are still there, and I think they probably will be.
After which we headed to a late dinner with some dealer friends at Cinghiale, which is always excellent, more so when we do not go crazy and drink too much.
Finally returning to the hotel real late and immediately collapsing after what was by then a thoroughly exhausting 21 hour non-stop day.
So we will of course be ready for action on Thursday for the first full day of the show, and then blog all about all of it right here in this spot.
Until then, then –
November 14: Day 2
After arriving at the show at a civilized hour on Thursday, your author headed straight to the PCGS table and picked up the 5 submissions that were completed back at the office a while ago but delivered to us here to avoid the cost and risk of shipping expensive stuff. And while I did call to double-confirm this over the last two weeks, I still had my doubts which proved to be totally unfounded as PCGS came through in a big way, allowing me to race back to the table with an armload of boxes and start the day in earnest.
Where I found MaryAnn already organizing coins that we bought yesterday but which were just delivered to us right then.
After which we did the same in reverse, dropping off coins that we sold yesterday at other tables and trying to clear the deck so we could be ready when the public arrived.
And they did and we were, starting a pretty much non-stop day of buying and selling at the table.
Which included visits from long time customers and regular Baltimore attendees, but also new people we had never met before, variously looking at coins in our cases, or offering us things for sale, or some delightful combination of the above which generally works out well for everyone involved as it did here.
With the absolute busiest period of the day being, of course, right after MaryAnn brought us lunch from across the street which for whatever reason seems to immediately draw a crowd to the table. I used to think this was merely coincidence, but I’ve come to believe that a lot of guys were subconsciously drawn to the scent of my Buffalo Bleu sandwich on a mutli-grain roll (470 calories) from Cosi. Spoiler alert: That was delicious.
Followed by some intense selling of kinda expensive stuff, including one deal which started promisingly when a collector looked at 4 cool coins in our case and asked “Can you do better on the prices if I buy all four?”. Yes, yes we can.
But perhaps my favorite deal of the day was when a long time customer brought us a half dozen cool early coppers in the afternoon, including a fantastic example of an issue that I desperately hoped to find here. Truth be told I saw a couple of other examples of this type on the floor yesterday that I did not really love, but was tempted to buy anyway since they are so popular. Ultimately I passed on those others, and so having this one show up was either vindication, or confirmation that I made the right call, or possibly serendipity, or maybe kismet. On the other hand, a long time dealer friend would have advised me just to buy all of them and sort it out later. Sometimes that can work too.
Those kinds of decisions come up 20 times a day on the bourse floor, where we see cool coins, have to evaluate quality and price on the fly, and make quick decisions before someone else swoops in. We do our best, but you can’t win ‘em all in this business and there is plenty of opportunity for second guessing.
As I did when a knowledgeable collector came to the table and showed me a coin that he bought on Wednesday that I had already passed on. The fact that he had bought it made me think I probably made the wrong call on that one, but you never know, and maybe tomorrow I’ll feel the opposite. Whatever the case, no point dwelling on that stuff and best to just focus on what comes next.
Which is what we did, finishing the day strong, and then heading out to dinner at the Helmand with some collector and dealer friends before returning to the hotel really late.
And of course we’ll be back at it early on Friday, looking to do more business of literally every kind at table #442.
EOM
November 15: Day 3
CRO-bservations from Friday:
For breakfast I had avocado toast from Cosi which came in a weird gift box only 5% larger than the actual toast itself, making it difficult and awkward to extract and, well, eat. It was delicious though.
We sold two gold stickered Walking Liberty halves at the table that I had bought yesterday with a ‘quick flip’ in mind. I don’t often do that, but I knew there was a near 100% chance someone would buy them here if I did.
We got some grades back including one on a coin submitted for a customer which he has asked us to submit 4 times in the last 3 months and which has gone 64, 63, 63, 65. If you are thinking he will be pleased with that, you would be incorrect since we both thought it was a 66 from day 1.
I heard an interesting story about a dealer friend who left his jacket (with his case keys in the pocket) at a restaurant on Thursday night and then spent Friday desperately trying to get it back which he never did, though he did get access to the cases from the show organizers using a technique so secret that he was not allowed to watch. I am not making this up.
Our sales here so far have almost exactly offset our purchases, which was unplanned, and atypical, but both have been pretty good so we are not complaining.
We organized and sent off about 20 NEWPs for photography (since we need help until my shoulder is better) so we can be ready to go for our next EB on Tuesday.
I met two guys at the show who mentioned that they actually woke up earlier than we did to get here, which is impressive, though I did point out that this is not some kind of a contest, but even if it was we would still win for ‘sustained early rising over many years’.
We dropped off consignments for us and for customers with 3 different auctions houses here, choosing what we thought would be the best venues for different coins / types / grades, etc. In our experience putting things in the right (or wrong) place can make a huge difference, and when auctioning one size definitely does not fit all.
It’s been busy and active here pretty much start to finish, even though some of the guys I have seen here through the years did not attend this time (at least not yet), and the bourse floor overall is smaller.
I overheard a show attendee ask the dealer at the table next to me if the PCGS graded, CAC stickered US gold coins in his case were real gold, or fake gold, which I think is the first time I have ever heard that question in 25 years of doing this. So I was of course even more surprised when a different guy came to our table hours later and asked me if the 1869 Liberty Head $20 in our case was “gold-gold”, or “half-gold”, and then asked if the secret service would confiscate it. I have no idea what prompted that, but I was pretty sure this conversation was not going to lead to a sale.
The Oreo Churro stand in the lobby was open on Friday, which I would suggest is literally the last thing any coin dealer needs at any show.
We dropped off multiple submissions for grading and CACing, but every time we did we ended up buying something new afterward and then trying to go back and cram it on to a previous invoice. Next time I think we’ll just wait until we have everything and do it once, but of course if you do that you run the risk of missing the submitting cut-off altogether.
Our last sale of the day was to a long time customer at about 5:30 who snagged a cool coin I did not think would last as long as it did.
We had dinner at the Mexican place in Federal Hill with collector and dealer friends and then walked the back to the hotel afterward on a pleasant evening.
Now we look forward to Saturday where we’ll try to do whatever last business can be done before hightailing it out of here.
And then blogging all about all of it right here in this spot on Sunday AM in what will shockingly be our last major show RR installment of 2024. Wow. Time flies.
November 16: The Exciting Conclusion
Let’s summarize the just completed Whitman Expo by answering questions we were asked in person and online during the show:
Is it worth attending?
Of course it’s worth attending – Baltimore remains one of the major events on the schedule with a wide variety of dealers, cool coins, lot viewing ops, club activities, new mint issues (this time, anyway) and in general a metric ton of numismatic activity.
Isn’t the city dangerous?
We’re all for taking sensible precautions, and believe me, we do, but some of this stuff drives me crazy. I literally had people before the show warn me to stay away from a particular Baltimore neighborhood that is literally nowhere near the convention center and not a place any of us would ever go to anyway. We’ve been coming here for 25 years without incident and we’ll certainly be back next time.
Do you guys have a website?
Yes, that’s why we have ‘online’ in our name. Honestly, I find it helpful when this comes up since it reminds me that a lot of people at shows have never heard of us and have no idea who we are, so we pass out a lot of cards, show the website on our computer at the table and hope to get some new EB customers from it.
Did you buy that new Flowing Hair commem from the mint?
No. It’s just not something I’m interested in (the coin itself, and the standing in line to buy one). I do know a bunch of collectors who bought one to keep, and many more collectors and dealers who bought one to flip and make a few hundred (or possibly a few thousand) bucks. I’d be lying if I said I understood the arbitrage for any of these things, but that’s OK.
What was the coolest coin you saw here?
I could say it was something in our case which would actually kinda make sense, since we bought all of our coins because we liked them and thought they were cool, but if we are talking elsewhere I’d say it was a 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar in MS64+ with original color.
Did you buy a lot of coins here?
While we did pass on both kinds of Flowing Hairs described above, we did find another 37 coins of all kinds, with some of them ready for market and now at the photographer, while others will now wend there way through the grading / CACing process to be revealed at some TBD future date that is, I hope, not too far in the future.
How was the grading?
Acceptable for us, but I did hear from a few guys who made mega-scores mostly on 20th century coins of the kind we pretty much never submit. That often seems to be where the grading action is, so maybe we should? I’m sure there is money to be made, but it’s just not how I want to be spending my time, and I am cognizant of the fact that for every well publicized grading score there are probably a gazillion (maybe more) disappointing results.
What’s the craziest thing that happened?
I’m torn between the “gold-gold / half-gold” guy, the collector walking around looking for an 1804 Dollar (not picky about the grade, apparently), or the collector who bought a graded / CACed coin at auction only to find out here that the coin in the slab did not match the image of a previous auction appearance of that coin in the same slab a few years earlier. Conclusion: Seems like some entrepreneurial crook found a way switch the coin in the holder for an inferior one and convincingly reseal it. Hey, be careful out there.
When is the next Early Bird?
We’re in a mad dash to do this on Tuesday, so I really need to stop typing this and start organizing that right now.
EOM
