• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

What could show sponsors do to make them better for collectors?

19 posts in this topic

Have a table at the entrance of the show along the lines of a non-commercial and objective coin and currency analysis desk for anyone who wants grade opinions or help of any kind at a coin show can get it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heresy! Burn him at the stake! Making a show "user friendly" to novices.....unheard of! Free, non-commercial information.....must be "socialized medicine!"

 

;)

 

(I'll take my steak medium with a nice char on the outside, please.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One NY area show is famous for the main owner, but not only stake-holder, trying to direct traffic to his table, every dealer who knows that show said the same thing he was hogging the show and it was geared toward his maximizing advantages to him. Is there justification for that?

 

There are many well-run shows or dealers trying to do the right thing when it is not financially advantageous for them to actually help out aspiring collectors as well as the general public. If you look at all the nerdy hobbies in the U.S. the ones that do the best are those with proper balance between the educational aspect and the commercial people trying to make a living selling products and services.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At it's recent Fall Conference MSNS had tables staffed with dealer and knowledgable collectors available for the public to bring whatever they had for identification and potential values. It was advertised as a "Coin Road Show" type of thing. Not a lot of people showed, maybe 20-25 in a three hour window, but it was very well received by the public.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We tried that down in Louisville several years back and got a lot of complaints from the dealers. They didn't like us telling people what they had before they had a chance at them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We tried that down in Louisville several years back and got a lot of complaints from the dealers. They didn't like us telling people what they had before they had a chance at them.

 

Geez, that doesn't say much for the other dealers at that show.

 

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Replace all of the staff with pretty cosplayers, dressed up as lady liberty.

Hopefully the St. Gaudens and Walking Liberty versions, and not the Large Head $5 or Matron Head 1c versions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't mind if Whitman expanded the hours of the Baltimore show...and dropped the "early bird" fee. 8am to 8pm? Although, dealers might not like that.

 

Also wouldn't mind if they added an extra day or two. Maybe instead of Thurs. through Sun., it could be Thurs. through Mon. or Tues. Again, dealers from out of town might not want to be away that long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We tried that down in Louisville several years back and got a lot of complaints from the dealers. They didn't like us telling people what they had before they had a chance at them.

 

Geez, that doesn't say much for the other dealers at that show.

 

Chris

 

When a local club I am a member of holds "buying weekends" or "appraisal days" they get quite a bunch of stuff coming in the doors. It becomes an opportunity for low ball offers that the club can then run in their auctions as opportunities for members to buy below wholesale. A couple of the coins went way low, and one sharp dealer at least bid a $1300 coin up to $500 before he let it go to a guy who had no interest in coins only to buy it for resale. The next month he did a "nuclear" bid at $500 immediately and the same guy gave up.

 

When clubs run appraisal days are they going to offer fair market if they are also buying then? Because usually a grade assessment is only as good as the money backing it up or referring the owner/seller to someone who will offer top dollar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I attend several local shows, about a dozen times a year. I know I've mentioned this before, but my biggest gripe is Dealers doing deals with other Dealers the whole day long. As a buyer I'd like to see what's in the case without trying to see through the boxes of coins and grey sheets.

 

I'd say strict policing of Dealer to Dealer transactions is a great start.

 

Posting at the entrance the closing price of Gold and Silver (on the weekends) seems user friendly.

 

Hosting a Club table to allow for coin evaluations should be part of the Dealer's agreement. Dealers shouldn't have reason to complain if it's been made part of the agreement.

 

A local coin auction setting up to take consignments from Dealers and the public can be a boon for everyone as well as a powerful sales tool for Dealers who are present. If I were a Dealer I'd say " you can consign your coin with XYZ Auctions over there and take your chances or I've got cash.......right now".

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When clubs run appraisal days are they going to offer fair market if they are also buying then?

When we did it the rule was we appraise, we did not buy or make offers and we would not recommend specific dealers. On the appraisals I made I started with what an honest fair dealer would pay for the coin, and I backed up about 5 - 10%. That gave them a good idea what it was worth,protected them from low ballers, and if they did sell they tended to get pretty close to what I told them or a little more which made them happy and the dealer still got it at a fair price. Some of the others though tended to quote full retail as the value which meant thecoin owners couldn't get any offers close to what they were told it was worth. The dealers couldn't buy and the owners thought the dealers were trying to rip them off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Replace all of the staff with pretty cosplayers, dressed up as lady liberty.

Hopefully the St. Gaudens and Walking Liberty versions, and not the Large Head $5 or Matron Head 1c versions.

 

Type 1 Standing Lib quarter version ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Free beer for the dealers... oh yeah - CU already does that at Long Beach. I just wished they did it before the show opened as opposed to it closing. It would make talking to the dealers much more interesting...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How do these work anymore? I haven't been to one as an adult.

 

I imagine just like at the lawn and garden expo there is a $8 cover charge. Could charge and offer folks a bag of wheat pennies per paid admission. Say there is one 1921s to be given out per day of the show or something. The kids would dig getting a bag of pennies and you and I might get one we don't have to round out the collection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites