Road Report

Prologue:

After a looooong break since our last show in NYC, we were excited/delighted to reorganize, repack and relaunch ourselves to the airport on Tuesday for the approximately 3 hour flight to Atlanta.

Why so early? That is an excellent question to which the answer is that we had arranged to do a mega-appraisal for a new customer near the city, necessitating us to arrive here one day earlier than we would otherwise. So when we got to our gate and saw 4 dealer friends schlepping their bags, we were surprised. Turns out maybe we were not actually early at all, but merely on time as they were here for the anticipated onslaught of wholesale activities.

All of which would begin shortly after our late morning arrival on one of the bumpiest flights I can recall, and which culminated with the pilot slamming the plane onto the runway like he was making an aircraft carrier landing in a war movie. So that was nice.

After which your author kissed the tarmac in relief, and then headed off to our hotel where we enjoyed a totally normal check in procedure, except for the part where the enthusiastic young woman assisting us started talking about that crappy old cartoon Ren & Stimpy, and then continued to do so for the next 10 minutes. After we left I asked MaryAnn how in the world we got onto that topic, but she did not know either.

Then it was time for a quick lunch in the hotel lobby, followed by the aforementioned intense numismatic activities which would continue unabated for hours, interrupted only by some guy who encountered a bunch of us sitting at a big table, coins spread everywhere, and asked if this was the check-in booth for the insurance co. convention. No, no it isn’t.

When all of that was finally done, we met a local relative and headed off to some Cajun place near the hotel where the catfish is de-licious.

So come Wednesday we will be totally acclimated to this fine city, well rested and ready for even more wholesale activities, followed by the start of dealer set up at 1 PM.

With everything that happens there to be described right here in just about 24 hours from now.

Until then, then –

February  26th: Day 1

Wednesday here in Atlanta would begin, as is customary for CRO, with some intense blog writing in the dark. Then a trip to the gym, with the first exercise being to actually find the place, no mean feat given the extremely subtle signage here. Followed by breakfast in the lobby, where for the first time I can ever recall in any hotel anywhere in the world, the buffet is actually a pretty good deal.

After which your author variously hobnobbed and chatted up fellow dealers in the lobby, viewed a few coins, made a couple of deals and compared notes about recent numismatic news until about 12:30, when it was time to get organized and head over to the show for the 1 PM start of dealer set up.

Where we joined the usual massive throng of dealers all waiting in the convention center lobby, and then we all migrated en masse into the show just as the doors opened. But not before an extremely thorough security guard physically examined each dealer badge by flipping it over and checking the back. No idea what that was about, but if it prevents even one fake dealer from getting into the show with a counterfeit badge, I suppose it was worthwhile.

And then we quickly made our way to our table 616, scrounged around to replace the two lamps they shorted us (of course), rearranged our tables into a more suitable layout, placed our coins artistically into the cases and voilà, we were open and totally read for business.

Which would begin with the rapid fire sale of 10 US coins to three different dealers, including some which have been on the site for a while, and others which had never before seen the light of day. Ever.

After which I walked around the floor a few times finding some interesting coins, including one totally cool world issue, a couple of capped bust halves and one high end early Walker the likes of which we have not had in, well, ever.

Returning to the table to sell a 5-figure item from our recent list, which would turn out to be one of three expensive coins we would sell in the afternoon which was not exactly what I expected on a set-up day, but hey, we are not complaining.

And then suddenly it was 6 PM and time to swing by the hotel bar, then head out to dinner at some place called Ray’s by the River (the Chattahoochee, in case you were wondering) which turned out to be amazing. Also amazing: We did not see a single other coin dealer there.

Anyway, we finally got back to the hotel at about 10:30 where your author went straight to sleep, right? Actually no, I then spent about 90 minutes working on spreadsheets to try to finalize two deals thus demonstrating that 1) No one enjoys a good spreadsheet more than I do, 2) This numismatics thing is not all fun and games, and 3) Sleep is overrated.

Though rest assured I will get just enough to be totally ready for Thursday here at the show, and it should be action packed, with the public arriving at 10 AM and with them all manner of buying, selling, trading, grading and, of course, schmoozing.

And then blogging all about all of it right here first thing on Friday AM.

February 27th: Day 2

Interesting Things that Happened on Thursday in Atlanta

Late on Wednesday evening we had discussed going to Waffle House for breakfast on Thursday AM, but when we woke up we totally forgot to do so. I’m very sorry about that.

We walked into the show at about 8:30 and that same security guard gave my badge the same double-deluxe scrutiny.

A customer came by and looked at a 1776 8 Reales in our case which had never been on the website, liked it, but wanted to think about it. And then, predictably, a few minutes later a different guy came by and snapped it up. After which the first guy came back disappointed that it wasn’t there anymore. This has now happened 67 million billion times in my numismatic career, with each and every instance illustrating that if you see a cool coin, you may want to act while you have the opportunity. Certainly that is how we ourselves operate when we see something cool at a show or online.

That would turn out to be one of a whole bunch of world coin sales on this day. Honestly I did not see this coming at this show, but then again we did bring a bunch of world inventory with us, and so either we were prepared to handle this unexpected demand, or we ourselves may have actually caused it by bringing such cool stuff. Not sure which, not sure it matters.

We skipped lunch.

We were shown and considered splitting multiple coins with various other dealers during the day, but we declined on all but one of them. Our criteria in such cases is pretty simple: 1) We only split coins with like-minded dealers, 2) We only do so if we feel like we can add value by participating and 3) IF we do split something, and you turn out to be a giant pain in the neck, and/or dump all the work in our lap, we will never, ever split another coin with you again, ever. Just saying.

Joanne from PCGS asked if we would be willing to help some novice collectors by “reviewing a few world coins” to see if they were worth submitting for grading. We were happy to do it, but unfortunately the coins turned out to be tons and tons of common date, well worn Lincoln Wheat Cents which are by definition world coins in a sense, but not the sense I was expecting.

A bunch of different customers came and looked at our 1798 $5, studied it from every angle, asked a bunch of questions and then went off to ponder it.

A guy I’ve never met before walked up to our table at midday and said that his friend had directed him to “a booth with a lot of CACs”, which he thought might be ours, but wasn’t really sure, and so he was going to go find his friend to double check. And then the conversation went like this:
Me: Well, you’re here now – what is it that you are looking for?
Him: I have a Gold CAC coin.
Me: (Picturing an untoned 1940s Walker in MS62 or other relatively mundane coin, but wanting to make sure) I’d love to take a look.
Him: Reaching into his bag and producing a Dahlonega Gold $1 in an OGH.
Me: That’s fantastic – is it for sale.
Him: It might be.
Me: Well, let me tell you what I could pay (while firing up my lap top).
Him: I’m in it really heavy, I paid $X,XXX.
Me: That’s not heavy. (After looking it up) I’d pay $X,XXX + $X,XXX.
Him: Really?
Me: Yes.
And then the deal was done. Not sure if that was all some kind of happy accident, or maybe this was in fact the table the guy had been looking for, but it seemed to work out pretty well for both of us.

We wrote about 20 invoices in total, which is a pretty robust number in my opinion.

A local collector brought an incredibly original early dollar to the table that he had purchased from us several years ago, so of course I snapped it up instantaneously (if not faster).

A dealer came by late in the day and offered us a coin that we had actually sold to someone else on our Early Bird last Tuesday, but now it was priced at more than double our selling price. While of course I did not buy it, I am happy to see that people are buying from us and (assuming they sell it) making money, since that ought to keep them coming back in the future.

And then it was time to lock up, after which we headed to the hotel bar for a drink with some dealer friends and a mega-collector. Followed by dinner at an astonishingly good Oaxacan restaurant in Roswell, during which we discussed numismatic activities, a driving tour of Scandinavia, and of course The Thompson Twins, a band last popular when I was in college.

When we returned to the hotel we ran into a dealer friend who said that he had just come from the Waffle House, and described the experience as “transcendent“. Which made us feel like we really screwed up this morning,

Even with that misstep, it was a pretty full and successful day for us, and the kind of experience we would not mind repeating on Friday. And if we do, or even if we don’t, you can read about it right here on Saturday AM.

EOM

February 28th: Day 3

Team CRO again missed out on a Waffle House opportunity on Friday, instead taking our normal blog writing-gym visiting-hotel restaurant breakfast eating-coin show route which had us behind our table and ready for action at about 8:45 AM.

Where we started organizing like crazy, wrote some checks for coins purchased earlier, collected others, looked at some upcoming auction lots, searched the floor for more EB-worthy coins and generally kept extremely busy until the 10 AM start of the show.

And while it was never as crowded on the bourse floor as on Thursday, we had a pretty steady stream of visitors at the table for most of the day, variously buying, selling and/or trading. That last category was pretty successful here, as we managed to make two such deals which is not always the case at shows. But any trade has to work for both parties, we are always happy to try, and of course delighted when it works. Honestly we are not that un-delighted when it doesn’t work, since at least we gave it our best effort.

With world coins again proving to be very popular here, which I think is at least partly attributable to us having a corner table at this show. We always have corner tables at all ANAs, which gives us an entire case of world coins and thus our best presentation with which to woo those seeking world coins, those who did not know they were seeking world coins and frankly anyone who just happens to innocently walk buy. However it happened, it kept happening over and over again and was thus no longer an anomalous surprise, but a trend.

Also action packed on this day: Toned Dollars, since we bought and sold several of our usual types, i.e. cool color, old holders, green and gold stickers and generally not of the mega-priced variety we sometimes see on bourse floors and in auction catalogs.

And then another dealer asked why we mentioned skipping lunch in yesterday’s RR, to which I replied that it provided the change in rhythm needed in a long blog post, it lightened the mood, and also was intended to evoke sympathy from the reader, who then might bring us lunch (I’m kidding), or purchase a world coin (I am totally serious). Also, we skipped lunch again on Friday.

We had a few more neat purchases in the afternoon, and a couple of late sales before we began to pack up about 5:30 so we could get to our 6:30 dinner reservation with a dealer and industry friend at Canoe. That really is an excellent restaurant I believe I last visited in 2006 during the ANA here and which received top billing in our Road Report about that show (done at a time before we started doing daily Road Reports and instead just wrote one large blast after we got back home).

As an aside, do you know why we started doing these daily RR installments? I’m not really sure myself – I think it was a complete lark when I posted serialized daily updates in the PCGS US Coin Forum from the January 2007 FUN show, and the next thing you know your author has been awake typing in the early morning at every show for the next 18 years. Like right now, for example.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel on the early side and then of course immediately began doing even more spreadsheets, since that is one of the most important but least fun activities for any dealer, unless you like spreadsheets which, as noted earlier, I actually do.

And we’ll back at it tomorrow but only briefly, since we could not get a late flight back, and so if you are coming to the show and want to see us, please try to come by first thing.

March 1, 2025: The Exciting Conclusion

Should we summarize the just completed ANA show through another of our patented random series of observations presented in no particular order? Great, let’s do it starting now:

For the first time in a while (aside from some unavoidable weather related issue) we left a show early on a Saturday, which I must tell you was kind of a sick feeling. We like the “in for a penny, in for a pound” approach to setting up at a show, where you get there early, stay late, and we will certainly endeavor to do that going forward.

We ended up selling 44 coins at this show to a variety of collectors and dealers, with no single person buying more than 4 coins. So that was a pretty decent amount of well dispersed action.

Buying was pretty good too, with our total haul (including split deals) 32.5 coins of all sorts, from dealers and collector attendees, US and world, from downright affordable to highfalutin.

Years ago some dealers used to tell me that Atlanta was “not a good coin town”, which frankly sounded ridiculous to me as if there was something in the water here. Certainly we have plenty of customers in this area, they showed up here, and they seemed to like cool coins. Sounds like a good coin town to me.

All of the like-minded dealers we spoke to seemed to do very well here, too.

I had a long conversation with another dealer on Friday about his view that most of the colonial reference books dive way too far into the minutiae for the majority of potential customers. I actually agree with that. Hey, that gives me an idea . . .

My goodness Atlanta is way more of a foodie town than we realized.  Everywhere we went was amazing, but if I had to recommend just one it would be this place.

The ANA announced that next year’s National Money Show will be held in Savannah, GA, which sounds like an absolute hoot to me. I am totally unfamiliar with the actual venue, and I think it’s kinda odd to have two in a row in Georgia, but a hoot nonetheless.

But that’s not for a while. In the meantime we will be working on our next EB, finalizing our taxes, making some website changes and doing deals like crazy until our next show in Baltimore.

From where our next RR will be written some 3.5 weeks from now.

Finito