My Portland ANA Experience

[jtryka]

Well, I made it home from Portland, and I must admit I had a wonderful time at my first ANA show. I arrived a bit late on Friday night, about an hour before closing. I met Legend Steve and Tradedollarnut, and then met Hoot, all wonderful folks! I took a quick spin around to see a few tables, then off to view lots for the Heritage sale, and man was I disappointed! There were several 1926-S Saints I thought I might be interested in, but they were not that desirable after looking at them. There was one graded MS-63 by PCGS that had three parallel deep scratched across Liberty's legs that looked like a cat got hold of it! I did see four wonderful 1911-D Saints in MS-66, and I thought about upgrading mine, especially when I saw the last one. The first two were nice 66s, but nothing stellar. The third was great, and the last was in an older NGC holder and it was nothing short of magnificent, with a legitimate shot at a 67. I also had a chance to see the 1927-S they were selling and it was a great coin to behold.

 

So I waited through all the lots till they finally came to the double eagles. The first two 11-Ds went for the opening internet bids of $2306 and $2300 respectively (I wish I bid on one of them!), then the third one went for the internet bid of $2900. The last one, the beauty came up, opening at $2250, and before I could raise my bidder card for $2400, the bidding was at $3800! I think it finally hammered at $4800! So the 27-S came up, and it opened at $102,500, and then a telephone bidder cut to $104,000 and that's where it sold, $119,600 with the juice, and I though sure it would have gone closer to $150K.

 

The next morning I arrived at the show and saw some of the exhibits, a marvelous one featured Oregon National Bank notes. Then I saw the two 1913 Liberty Nickels on display, and the 1866 No Motto silver dollar just recently rediscovered and returned to the DuPont collection, and finally the 1794 Silver Dollar. All wonder pieces of numismatic history for all to see. Then I saw the same midieval re-enactor group I saw at the PNNA show in Seattle about a year ago, this time hand striking tokens for this show. Very cool hammer struck tokens in pewter with a rose on one side for Portland, and the new ANA logo on the other. I saw the mint booth, and I felt dumb for ordering that Thomas Edison coin a week earlier when I could have just picked one up at the show. I saw the BEP exhibit, which was very cool. Sheets of specimen $500, $1000, $5000, $10,000 and $100,000 bills, a $500 Million bond, several older notes, very neat stuff. I bought a sheet of 4 series 2003 $2 bills from them.

 

I stopped by the NGC table and dropped off a couple submissions, one 1902 ANACS IHC to crossover, and 7 moderns (I figure that was like buying a lottery ticket, but since I found these coins at my folks house that I put away nearly 20 years ago, I might as well try). The NGC folks were nice, and they gave me a Arkansas quarter sample slab.

 

Then it was off to the tables! It was overwhelming to say the least, about 200+ tables with just about anything you could want. I was on a fairly focused mission to add a coin or two to my Saint collection, and I figured it shouldn't be a problem. I was hoping for perhaps a couple better dates, but my ace in the hole was that I still have a half dozen or so common holes. After about an hour or so, I was starting the think I might have to buy the common ones! It was a real barbell shaped distribution as I saw it, tons of common dates, in mid-range grades on one side, and then stellar graded extremely rare dates on the other. It seemed like all I saw were $600 common dates, or $20K rare coins. I did see one local dealer that I see fairly regularly who had a nice 1923 in MS-64 with such a thick original skin it was incredible! He wanted extremely strong 64 money for it, and I decided to think about it. So I kept looking, and finally, paydirt! I found a really nice NGC AU-55 1909/08 for about $100 more than all those common date MS-63 coins I'd been seeing all day, so I grabbed it. Then more and more coins, nothing that stood out at me. I met a guy by the name of Tom Hawkins out of Texas (I think this is the right guy) and he dealt mainly in Type 2 Liberty double eagles, so he was a little slow and we had a great chat about how we got into this, and our share denominational interest. At long last, I happened upon a PCGS MS-62 1922-S Saint at the J.B. Hamrick table, and that was it. Two coins, two holes filled in my set, without resorting to a 1923 or 1925! With my budget spent, I looked at a few more tables just to see if I found any interesting bargains. I ended up buying an ANA medal from the 1999 Chicago show for $15, which seemed reasonable and since I am from Chigago I figured what the heck. Don't ask for pictures of the newps, I'll post a whole other thread for that!

 

Then I waited a bit to join Hoot and Legendsteve for dinner. Hoot found some really wonderful nickels, but I'll leave that to him. We went to Jakes for dinner, but seeing the 2 hour wait, and since it was already 8:00, we went to McCormick & Schmick's, and Steve got to have his Dungeness crab. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well, so I don't think he enjoyed it much. We had a great dinner, and a lot of fun conversation (and believe it or not, hardly any of it was coin related!). Then after dinner I headed home. Overall, a fun time, and I got the chance to meet some wonderful folks!

[michael]

what can i say?

superlative report

 

with much great information stated and otherwise

 

 

thanks

 

michael

[DirtyGoldMan]

Excellent report. It made me feel like I was there looking at Saints. I enjoyed your post on the coins as well. Nice pick-ups!

 

Robert

[JamminJ]

Great show report, I really enjoyed reading it.

 

Can you give an opinion on how this show compared to other large shows (Long Beach, FUN, Summer ANA, etc) in terms of size and quality of material you've atteded?

 

-JamminJ

[jtryka]

Great show report, I really enjoyed reading it.

 

Can you give an opinion on how this show compared to other large shows (Long Beach, FUN, Summer ANA, etc) in terms of size and quality of material you've atteded?

 

-JamminJ

 

Well, I haven't really been to many big shows, so this is hearsay, but in talking with a lot of the dealers there, it was a weak show. Long Beach is big in it's own right, but there are a few things to consider. First is that the ANA mid-winter show is usually the weaker of the two each year. Second, Portland and the Northwest in March is not exactly pleasant, it was gray and rainy until today when it turned warm and sunny. Third, there is not as large a collecting base here as you would find in Southern California, or in many large cities, as a result, many east coast dealers decide not to make the trip. Even compared to local shows, I would liken it to rolling all the local northwest shows into one weekend, but it was nice to see some dealers from other regions with fresh material for around here. Overall though, I believe this show was much smaller than Long Beach, or any summer ANA.

 

A few other items I missed, there were a TON of youngsters there, which is always wonderful to see. ANd almost every dealer I spoke with was exceptionally generous with the kids, offering gifts, discounts etc. The ANA had a trivia "scavenger hunt" where they had to go to various dealer tables and find the answers to numismatic trivia questions. And it was great to see so many parents with their kids walking around and learning about our hobby.

 

Finally, I ran into a girl I used to work with at the Superior table, she was just working as a temp with them showing lots. So I browsed the catalog and picked our a few lots to see (they had very little I was interested in, though the catalog was top notch). I got to see a wonderful 1855 Wass Molitor $50 slug (NGC MS-60) and Kellogg and Humbert assay 102.17 oz gold bar recovered from the SS Central America. It was beautiful to behold, and heavy as all get out for such a small thing! Of course there was no slab, so I got to handle that one raw, such a treat! So a hint to all you common folks like me, even if you think you'll never be able to afford such rarities, if you ever have a chance to go to a major show, check out the auction lots, and you'll have a chance to see live what you might otherwise never see!

[TomB]

Terrific report and I think your barbell description of the available coins was completely on the mark. It is also something that has me somewhat worried about our market; there are "introductory" coins to a series available and there are coins that are well beyond most anyone. The coins that most hardened collectors would buy, however, simply don't exist in a large enough critical mass.

[LucyBop]

Crazy report Daddy!!!

 

I was going to attend, as I have buisness still in Hillsboro, but my plans fell through.

 

 

Sounds like you cats all had a really boss time!!!!!!!

 

 

Last time I was at that convetion center was for a international Auto Show....

 

Where I first saw the new 2002 Six Speed Turbo S, I was so impressed, I went and bought one.....

[Wihlborg]

Great show report Jeff. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself!

 

John