You didn't think I'd miss it, did you?

Yes, I attended the latest Baltimore show, and had another minor misadventure along the way. This time, I could manage only two days: Thursday and Saturday. There is simply too much going on at work for me to have taken Friday off as well.

On Thursday, I arrived shortly after 10 AM, when lot viewing for the Bowers & Merena auction opened for the day. I was considering a handful of coins in the auction, and always enjoy looking at lots of nice coins (pun intended). Foremost among them was an 1890 MS63 half dollar, which I need to complete an 1890 set (all 64-ish, P-mint, non-gold) for my younger son's high school graduation present. He's a junior in college now... The coin was pretty nice, especially the colorful toning on the reverse. I wrote "GFI" (go for it) in the catalog. There are limits, however. Based on recent auction results for 1890 halves, I decided a bid of $1800 would be my limit. (This would make the half dollar more costly than the other five coins combined.)

During lot viewing, one other coin struck my fancy: a brilliant and beautiful 1917 Type I Standing Quarter in MS67FH, for my type collection. By the time I was done with the auction material, it was past noon, and I could enter the bourse. Both auction coins of interest were in a session starting at 6 PM, so I had plenty of time to scan the offerings of dealers.

My first dealer stop was to see if those two ex-Holmes large cents I mentioned in an earlier post were still available. I really liked, and could now afford the MS63BN 1828, and might be willing to stretch for the MS64BN (ex NGC 65) 1829 instead. The dealer was not as his table, and those two coins were not in his case (which typically has sparse offerings). So I went to Chris McCawley's table next.

Chris had a lovely 1825 cent (an ex-Holmes MS64BN that would be a nice upgrade to my 63), an AU55 1821 (that would nicely fill an empty registry set "hole"), and an MS64BN 1828 (to upgrade an "improperly cleaned" example I acquired raw in a B&M auction a few years ago). The 1821 was okay, but didn't really speak to me. Being that I have a decent 1825, the 1828 was first on my list. After chatting with Chris for awhile, I continued my usual sweep of the floor, having looks at coins of potential interest, and taking notes on who had what for how much. Along the way, I made a small purchase: I picked up a nice VG 1818 cent for my old Whitman album collection.

After dinner at home, I periodically checked the progress of the auction on-line,but I prefer to be present at the live auction if possible. The quarter was about 750 lots into the session. At 8:30, about 500 had been sold, so they were going at about 200 lots per hour, with 250 to go before the quarter. It takes me about 30 minutes to drive in, park, and walk to the Convention Center. So I left at 9, drove in without incident, managed to get a parking space right across the street, walked into the VIP suite about 9:25 only to find that I missed it by 12 lots. They had really picked up the pace for that hour! Almost right away, Steve Deeds accidentally unplugged his laptop, causing a several minute delay. Why couldn't that have happened five (or more) minutes earlier?

So I waited around until after 11 for the 1890 half dollar to come up. It opened at $1550. I raised my card for $1600, Steve bid $1700 for the book, I raise my card again for $1800. At that point, Steve could only say he had a prior $1800, meaning the absentee bidder's secret maximum had been reached and took precedence over my bid. Now there was no apparent other activity in the room, or live on the internet. In such circumstances, the smart play is to cut the next bid, meaning to bid only half an increment higher at the risk of not being able to bid beyond that. Even though $1800 was my preset limit, I figured fifty bucks more was okay, and I called out "cut". I would finally have the 1890 set completed! Alas, some bozo in the room bid $1900, and I lost it (the coin, not my cool). And so the quest continues...

Saturday was a much better day. More about that next time! Until then, happy collecting to all!