Interesting numismatic news article about the ANA show

[Stephon-migration]

http://www.numismaticnews.net/article/news/general/ana-dealer-results-down

[Afterword]

A few squeaky wheels and some well-oiled wheels. Is this a typical spread of responses for a coin show?

[bstrauss3]

I'm going to call baloney on this. I think it's a matter of basic customer service and you reap what you sew.

 

A lot of dealers were there to trade inventory with other dealers and couldn't be bothered to talk to small retail customers. OK, so don't complain about low traffic - you never lifted a finger to make me feel welcome.

 

Others did (make me feel welcome) and I either bought from them or would have except for inventory (I'll call out JJ Teaparty, Charmy and Angel Dee's). It didn't matter that my budget was $100. I was made to feel welcome. Any wonder they had good shows.

 

As for the others? In the past I have bought from one of the dealers mentioned in the article who talked about a poor show. But the whole time I was at his booth - 15-20 minutes - he couldn't be bothered to look up from the coins he was sorting (and staring off into space as he thought), leaving his wife to handle a potential customer. Unless she's learned an awful lot during the last year, any questions, concerns, pricing would have been referred to him. Didn't feel welcomed, didn't bother to enquire about a couple of pieces I might have been interested in.

 

On the other hand, I interacted with two of the big name dealers in error coins, both major players and saw a couple interesting pieces in other booths. I'm not a player and certainly don't have the budget to buy major pieces. But those four dealers were willing to chat about errors & other things, to share knowledge and to make me feel welcome. As a result I bought a piece I had no intention of buying, except that it makes for a wonderful fit into my 3CS circulated type set.

 

Just my 3 cents

[messydesk]

The Kennedys being a distraction and "sucking all the cash off the floor" is part of it, but Julian's comment is probably more accurate. People are using the internet not only to replace buying coins at shows, but also select the dealers they want to visit during a show. Better access to auctions is also blurring the line between retail and wholesale sales. If a dealer wants to sell something for full retail or more during a show, not only do they need to engage, or at least acknowledge, their potential customers, but the coins they are selling had better be spectacular.

[FadeToBlack]

Dealers need to understand they're working in retail. Smiles, laughs, and general friendliness go a long way towards driving customers to your table and getting their wallets out. Any dealer who isn't comfortable with this should probably reevaluate their presence in terms of being a retailer instead of a wholesaler, or hire somebody who is comfortable talking to people and developing relationships (Hint; I hate my office job and worked retail for 6+ years, including management!) to work their tables' retail customers for them while they handle the dealers.

[World Colonial]

I don't see that this coin (gold Keendy) made any difference one way or the other except to dealers who sell coins which compete for the collector's money. As an example, I don't see that a currency collector didn't buy from that dealer as a result of it.