As usual, I always look forward to the Long Beach Expo as it is basically “in my backyard” and I have many local customers who do their penny shopping at my table, plus I get to sleep in my own bed at night and I don’t have to deal with airport travel, delays, connection cancellations, bags going to London, etc.!
Even though I had a good show, bought several nice coins on Wednesday during dealer set up, and was very busy on Thursday, this show was noticeably less attended than other Long Beach shows over the past few years. Many dealers I spoke with said they had a very slow show, especially on Friday. Some of the comments I heard from dealers and attendees were:
(1) this show was not as marketed as well as it could have been, with minimal advertising,
(2) no one liked not having to use a QR code to access the show program, they would rather have a physical program
(3) the very slow internet and poor phone connections throughout the bourse was a HUGE problem (it also didn’t help collectors access the QR code that would enable them to find the dealers they were looking for),
(4) the $15 parking fee is a continued issue,
(5) the $10 entrance fee expecially on a sparse Saturday bourse floor, and
(6) the usual complaints about the vacant tables on Saturday.
In spite of the above, this show was much more well organized than the past couple shows, with no major glitches (time delays, missing cases, sign issues, etc.). In spite of the above issues, I think PCGS tries very hard to make this a very successful show. For me, this is a very fun show, with lots of familiar faces, both dealers and customers, and I am always able to find some great new material for my inventory.
Set up went very smoothly and quickly, so I was able to get out and about searching for coins pretty quickly, and found several great coins for my customers and my inventory. These are the certified coins I acquired throughout the show, including two AMAZING and GORGEOUS Proof Indian Cents:
I also bought a couple groups of some much needed raw coins, several of which I will send in to get certified:
I also took a few photos around the bourse during set up day
PCGS was consistently busy throughout the show
Gary Adkins at the PCGS table
PCGS had on display the All Time Finest Gilded Age 1880 Proof Set with Gold
Eeven though there was a guy with a cart of various cocktails and beverages for sale going around the bourse, after I finished setting up and looking for coins, I opened a bottle of my go-to favorite Rombauer Zinfandel.
That night we decided to try a new restaurant, La Traviata which had some very good reviews.
The owner of the restaurant, Mario, cheerfully greeted us as we entered the restaurant, was very friendly and gracious.
My boothmate Rich and I arrived early so had a cocktail at the bar. The bartender was also very friendly.
We ordered Hendricks and tonic but since they were out of Hendricks, the bartender suggested this “135” gin that I hadn’t tried before. It was delicious!
Soon the rest of our party arrived.
Ron Guth and his friend Zack
Karl and Joanne Stephens
Me and my boothmate Rich Wogoman
We brought our own bottles of our own wine for dinner – even with sharing some of our wine with the owner, other than the white wine, we weren’t able to finish any of the other bottles of wine.
They had several items on the menu that looked delicious
I had the chicken and palento with asparagus which was very yummy
They also had a sausage and pasta dish that was very tastey
Dessert
When I arrived at the show about 9:15am on Thursday, I was very pleased to see there already was a long line of folks waiting to register and get into the show!
The beautiful ladies at PCGS were already for the throngs of folks who would soon be lining up to submit coins!
Early birds were already keeping PCGS busy
The doors opened at 10am and it look quite a while before the line of collectors streaming in slowed down!
Soon the bourse floor was buzzing with activity
Mark and Chris from PCGS Marketing stopped by to ask if I had anything special that they could put on their website. I showed them the stunning colorfully toned1903 PCGS PF66 RB Indian cent I had just purchased (posted above).
It was a very busy Thursday, and I was very pleased with my sales. After things died down in the later afternoon, we hopened one of the bottles of leftover wine from dinner the night before.
That night since we were dining by ourselves, Rich and I went to our favorite easy yet tasty restaurants, PF Changs, which is right across the street from the convention center. We just ate at the bar – I had a delicious MaiTai and my favorite pot stickers, Mongolian beef and pork fried rice – mmmmm!
Friday we arrived back at the convention center a little early since I had some work to do. I needed to prepare and make a list of my new coins and other recent coin purchases that another dealer would be taking to my coin photographer, Todd Pollock, for coin photos since they live in the same city. Plus I had a customer who bought a lot of my raw Indian cents for three sets he was putting together and pretty much cleaned me out of many of my lower grade better dates so I wanted to see if I could find some replacements before the show opened. Once I got that taken care of I walked around the bourse and took several photographs before the public came in.
The US Mint was set up in the back of the room
PSA was set up right next to them
A guy was submitting several signed guitars for PSA authentication, including this beautiful Credence Clearwater Revial signed guitar
Some neat sports memorabilia at one of the sports booths
Coins on display at GreatCollections
David McCarthy and Christopher Bryan (fun-fact: he’s a decendant of William Jennings Bryan) and their respective books!
Chris specializes in all the rare old certification holders and showed me this 1921-D “Presentation Piece” 9th Dollar Released from the Denver Mint in a rare old Regency “coffin” holder including the original 1923 B. Max Mehl Auction catalog that featured this exact coin in its auction! It was truly amazing to see this!
Larry Shapiro (LSRC)
Alhambra Coin
Larry Shapiro (LSRC)
Tom Johnson and Just Waddell
The guys from Whatnot Coins (one of the big bourse sponsors)
Vikings Provisions
Bourse floor
Even though I had a few decent sales on Friday, overall it was very slow, one of the slowest Fridays I’ve had at a Long Beach show. So I was able to catch up on some of my show paperwork that I usually do when I get home.
We went to our usual Friday night dinner place – King’s Fish House – just up the road on Pine Street. Before we went in to the restaurant there was a comotion right across the street so we stopped to see what was going on. It was 4 people, including a female, screaming and fighting and punching each other. Wow! We watched until the police showed up, at which time they all ran off in different directions, including one of them who took off like a jack rabbit right in front of us. Even though the parties involved looked like they were probably homeless, it was crazy to witness such street violence first-hand. It did give us some interesting dinner conversation.
A dealer friend for whom I had done a favor brought me a bottle of Paso Robles Austin Hope cab which I hadn’t tried before. I heard from several other people that it is a delicious wine. So I took it to King’s Fish House where we do our usual Friday night wine tasting (they are one of the few restaurants who don’t charge a corkage fee). It was very delicious and was my favorite wine that evening!
I had my usual macademia nut crusted halibut – which was very delicious!
Saturday was the Pirate Treasure Hunt for kids, in which we usually participate – it keeps us very busy, that’s for sure.
Here I am all ready for the rush of the mini pirates!
We usually get about 60-70 kids each time, and we pass out old Lincoln cents after the kids make their guess to a given coin question. The kids seem to have a lot of fun, though many of them are pretty young and need a lot of coaching. But I try to take the opportunity to give some background and explanation about the Lincoln cent. However, some of the kids are very savvy and and knowledgable already! Here are a few of the kiddos who stopped by my table.
In between taking care of all the little pirates, I actually had quite a bit of busiess, which even with my boothmate was sometimes hard to manage, but all well worth it! I hope we were able to entice or help at least once little kiddo to continue to develop their interest in coins.
Soon it was time to pack up and head home. Once I arrived home, my hubby was there to greet me and help me unload, but my chubby little Penny did not seem that excited to see me!
Next up: the Buena Park Show this weekend, then the Seattle/Tukwila show Oct 6-9.