My totally slanted, opinionated, biased experience of ANA Pittsburgh

[truthteller]

I flew into Pittsburgh tuesday evening, avoiding most of the thunderclouds and lightining. Rented a car and arrived late at the La Quinta hotel airport for a good nights sleep. Awoke early Wednesday and traveled 12 miles downtown. The commute was not a major hassle. Arrived early at the Convention center at about 9:30AM, where the doors opened at 10:30 for public. Viewed the Heritage JFS commemorative lots. Perused the floor 3-4 times in 4 hours. Purchased a beautifully colored oregon PCGS67 which I once owned 4 years ago. Nice to see an old friend at home again. However, that was the only colored commem that was pretty and fairly priced. Very few colored commems on the floor, even at the well known commem guys. Very active most of Wednsday, met with many dealers who were pleased with the action on the floor. Mostly dealer to dealer at first, then public arrived after 12PM, but still not up to most ANA shows. The show was VERY WELL PUBLICIZED on the radio and newspaper. I literally heard 30 commercials over the radio in two days for the show, viewed 3 TV news reports on local TV over two nights and read several advertisements in the local newspaper. Kudos to the publicity folks at ANA. Left at about 5 PM Wednesday to sightsee Pittsburgh.

 

Thursday was a different story. Arrived at 12PM. Parking lots were FULL in three block directions. I have to walk about 3/4 mile for an open parking lot by the river. Show was exceptionally busy with retail traffic. ALL DEALERS I spoke with were very, very pleased. In general, high end and specific dates were flying out of the showcases. Generic coins were dead, but most dealers realized this and did not bring much of that. Foreign section was so-so. Nice displays by foreign mints, especially Great Britain, Spain, Canada. Even the Ukrainian mint was there. Colored coins were nonexistant, and when obtained, were very expensive. I noticed a lacking of vest pocket California dealers who normally attend an ANA, expenses probably were a drawback. Since I couldn't find much in my area of collecting, I actually spent time viewing the ANA exhibits, very nice and well done. I stayed for the JFS sale. Things got interesting.

 

Most of the JFS type was all over the map in pricing. Many common, high grade lots sold for market( a loss), but many colored and rare date type went for outrageous money( quite a profit). Then the commems!!!! I was sitting with several well know commmem buyers, so our portion of the room got LOTS of action. I was bidding on 19 coins specifically, won 5. I was the underbidder on 8 more. ) Activity on the colored commems was OUTRAGEOUS, many of the registry type white coins and low pop commems did well. The average looking commems sold for market.(about 15% of the commems). Some sold for under bluesheet. The dicotomy between quality and commonality was extremely evident. All told, I was prepared to spend quite a bit more, but pleased on what I purchased. BTW, the thunderstorms viewd through the windows made for quite a backdrop during the auction. All the heavy hitters on commems attended, and most everyone picked up something.

 

I met Kranky during the show. Perfect gentleman and gracious. We talked coins and Pittsburgh for a while and I got some good sightseeing references. Great person.

 

Friday. I showed up late, about 1PM. Still active. I was offered as second person on the list two super secret ultra high end commems, but the first person bought them. I met Jon Rosenthal for the first time. He showed me a few colored coins, and I showed him mine. Kinda cool!! Left early for sightseeing again. Placed a bid on the Hawaiian PCGS66 in the Saturday sale. Found out I was the underbidder, yet again. Great show, nice coins, good people.

 

I was very pessimistic going into this show. Net results changed my mind. I feel the market will sustain current growth for the rest of the year, with material hard to find and prices for better quality continuing to rise. This should continue into 2005. By Feb. of 2005 Long Beach, another evaluation will become evident as to whether the market will continue moderate growth. This is a good thing so long as prices stay on a consistent and on a conservative upward trend. Overpricing DOES void sales and is a concern to overheating the market.

 

 

TRUTH

[jom]

Nice post...thanks!

 

See ya at Long Beach I hope.

 

jom

[TomB]

Thanks for the post, Truth, could you possibly supply images of the coins that you managed to buy?

[Hoot]

Ditto what Tom said and double the thanks. Great post!

 

Hoot

[truthteller]

Hi TomB,

 

I bought these lots out of JFS:

 

 

Isabella PCGS67 lot#4197: I purchased this for me.

 

1936S Boone PCGS67 lot#4239: This one was nice, but sold at market. I sold this one at Pittsburgh to a dealer

 

1937 Texas PCGS68 lot#4328: Another purchase for me.

 

1946D BTW PCGS67 lot#4338: I chased this coin for 2 years. I saw the history of this coin from NGC set, to PCGS set, to JFS collection, to individual coin to me.

 

1937S Texas PCGS67 lot#4330: I used to own this coin. Sold at market . I sold it again to a dealer at Pittsburgh.

 

 

TRUTH

[jom]

I thought the New Rochelle was a pretty coin...at least from the catalog. Any thoughts?

 

jom

[DavidSchweitz-migration]

Truth- Very good report on the show and in particular, the JFS sale. Between you, Gregg, and I sitting in the back of the room, I believe we got our share of the nice coins. Congratulations on your purchases. I was happy to add the Isabella in 68, Alabama in 66, Connecticut in 67, New Rochelle in SP 68, and Spanich Trail in 67 to my collection. I was surprised that JFS took the downgrade from NGC 67 to PCGS 66 on the Alabama and have little doubt that NGC will put it back in the right holder for me. I really wanted the Pan Pac in 68 but my pocketbook had had enough at that point so I sat on my hands during that lot and pouted. It was nice to see and talk to the majority of the Commem collectors that showed up to the sale. In looking back, there were some very nice coins that sold for bargain prices. The Rothenberger Lafayette in 66 stands out in my mind as one of the great deals of the sale. Hope you had a good time there. See you in Long Beach.

[kranky]

Truth,

 

Thanks for the kind words and it was a pleasure to talk with you a couple times during the show. Hope you enjoyed your time touring around Pittsburgh.