Once again, another Long Beach show has come and gone. For me, this show in particular seemed to fly by, from set up to tear down. I always look forward to and enjoy participating in the Long Beach Expo as I have many local friends and customers who stop by to see me. Although this show was well attended and we were very busy, I think partly due to the economy, retail business for me and several other dealers I spoke with was not as active as in past shows. However, I think everyone will agree that the buying side of our business was very active at this show.
As many of you know, a huge storm was set to hit California right during the Long Beach show. Luckily, it didn’t begin until after set up day! At the last show, my boothmate Rich and I discovered that it was much easier to unload and pack my one cartload out in front of the show across from the parking structure and enter through the front door, rather than arrive a couple hours early and wait in line to get in and unload in the loading dock area. So thank goodness it wasn’t raining during this unloading process!
Once inside, I found that I was the first dealer in line, so while Rich waited with my cart, I ventured downstairs to the trading room and did some early buying.
As it got closer to time for the doors to open to the dealers, there were quite a few dealers in the registration line and waiting by the doors to be let in.
My buddy James Sego also waiting for set up time
The Long Beach Expo was celebrating it’s “diamond” anniversary and had silver glitter decorations and balloons all around, especially at the entrance.
When the doors opened for the dealers since Rich and I were first in line, it was pretty eerie to be the very first person on the bourse floor!
This is what our booth looked like before we unloaded and settled in (since I am an advertiser/sponsor, they give us a special banner).
Now all set up (including my boothmate Rich’s case on the end of the front table)
Once my booth was set up, I walked around the show looking for want list items and coins for my inventory. In addition to several coins I bought at the trading room, I also bought these certified and raw Pretty Pennies throughout the show.
I was especially happy to add this beautifully iridescent toned 1955/55 DDO Lincoln Cent PCGS MS64 BN to my inventory!
Soon it was time to open one of the bottles of wine I had brought with me. I recently joined a new winery in Temecula called Doffo. The owner has several very cool vintage motorcycles displayed at the winery (which my non-wine drinking off-road motorcycle loving hubby appreciated). To me, their wine is one of the better wines in Temecula.
That night for dinner, a group of us went across the street to PF Changs for dinner. We all enjoyed the evening and the mai tais and food were good but I forgot to take photos!
Thursday morning we left for the show early as usual (Rich and I carpool) but, boy, was it raining pretty hard. We soon found out that the 710 Long Beach freeway off the 5 was partly flooded and everyone was being diverted off the freeway around the flooded area which created a very slow crawl. What normally takes us about 40 minutes took us over 2 hours to get to the show! Here are photos of the flooded areas.
The show opened at 10am on Thursday (the first public day), but we finally got to the show at 10:30, so we had to scramble to get my booth opened and ready for business (I am uncomfortable having no one at my booth once the public is let in). I was hoping the rain wouldn’t keep the public away, and it seemed it didn’t since the show soon was very busy with lots of buzz.
My good dealer friend Bob Holston was one of the first people to stop by – he even brought me this wonderful bottle of Justin Isosceles cab – he’s such a sweetheart!
Another dealer friend stopped by and showed me this interesting plaque of Lincoln he just won in an auction. He said it was a replica of the design created by Victor D. Brenner for the Lincoln cent.
My friend Alan Weinberg who collects all kinds of Americana, especially certain political memorabilia brought over a couple very interesting and scarce items he had just bought at the show. Even though the holder states the peace medal is a “restrike,” Alan believes the holder is in error.
He also picked up this very rare 1901 ribbon for McKinley’s Veterans of the Mexican War reception.
That afternoon I opened the other bottle of wine I had brought to the show – a Cab Franc from my favorite Napa vineyard, Del Dotto.
That night me, Rich, my friend Matt Chapman and Rick Snow went to Captain Jack’s restaurant on PCH in Seal Beach, about a half hour south of Long Beach.
They are known for their fresh and amazing seafood, especially their crab. The meals were absolutely delicious!
It’s a popular restaurant for other dealers from the show as well. Here is a group of folks from Stacks Bowers and Curt Mease from PCGS in the other room.
Thank goodness the rain had ended and Friday was clear and dry with no freeway flooding issues!
Just inside the entrance, each morning the Expo folks had carts of breakfast pastries for the dealers, this time there were various types of delicious scones
I took a few minutes to take some photos around the bourse – here are a couple of the beautiful ladies at PCGS
The PCGS Submission Lounge
Great Collections
GreatCollections’ very popular calendars!
David McCarthy working hard!
Very friendly representatives from Westgate Resorts (Las Vegas)
The U.S. Mint and their newest products for sale
PSA Representatives
Memory Lane, a local sports and entertainment memorabilia company
The kids’ Treasure Hunt table
A very popular table for collectors to visit!
One of my – and many others – favorite early copper dealers, Tom Reynolds
Americana Rare Coin out of Sacramento
Brian and Tom of Northeast Numismatics
My booth neighbors, Real American Treasure, have displays of old and rare PCGS and NGC slabs and memorabilia, including a very rare first generation NGC Styrofoam slab box which could hold exactly 13 slabs
This enthusiastic adorable young man came by my table to ask me about a penny collection given to him by his grandfather, and to fill some holes.
My good friend Matt Chapman showed me an AMAZING 1806 Half Cent error that was double struck rotated with a huge lamination (not a strike through as stated on the holder) he had just purchased for his collection!
Another good friend and customer of mine who collects PCGS AU58 Indian cents, including many varieties, showed me this very scarce 1888/7 (Snow 1) Indian cent from his collection in a PCGS AU55+ holder (which he tried to upgrade at the show). I’ve NEVER seen another PCGS AU55+ grade in any type of coin before, and couldn’t understand why PCGS wouldn’t have just given the coin a regular AU58 grade.
Pics from around the bourse
My awesome webmaster, Ryan Delane, stopped by for a brief visit!
Lil ol’ me!
Friday night Rich and I and our foreign coin dealer friends, Karl and Joanne, went to a wonderful Rombauer wine tasting dinner at L’Opera just up the hill from the convention center.
Of course, since I’m already a member of Rombauer (and have been for about 20 years), I absolutely love their wine – and the various courses of food were also delicious (since I’m not a fan of lamb, they substituted filet for me!
Saturday morning before the show opened to the public, I took time to view the very cool antique arms and other pirate treasure collection on display near the front of the room. Wow – there were some fantastic antique guns in this collection!
If I have someone helping me at my table, I usually participate in the kids’ treasure trivia hunt whenever I can, and the Long Beach Expo’s kids’ event is very popular and very well attended (there were so many kids participating that I ran out of the penny packets I created). Here is a group of young cub scouts who stopped by for their coin trivia question.
Soon it was time to pack up and head home. My hubby and of course Penny were there waiting for me!
Overall, as I mentioned, the show was a great buying show, but the retail side was slow. In any event, as always, I had a great time and very much enjoyed being at this show. The entire Long Beach Expo folks really do work hard to make sure all the dealers have what they need, and that the public has a good time at the show with various drawings, interesting displays, and special events. By the way, the dealers noticed that security was much more visible at this show, including more police officers walking the show. It also looked like there were more security guards or at least more security guards in uniform. We dealers are very appreciative of this! And I at least didn’t hear about any theft issues at this show.
That’s about it. Next up – the McIntosh show in Sacramento, followed by the Buena Park show!