2/5/2012 - Long Beach- Just got back from the Long Beach Money show and it was great! I seem to always have the best time at the spring Long Beach show and this was no exception. First off the Friday Auction was the quickest auction I’ve ever been to-30 minutes. There were only 50 lots, but it was an awesome collection of high dollar notes. Some of the highlights of the auction were an 1890 $100 Treasury note commonly referred to as the “Watermelon Note” because of its back design. It was in a PMG-25 holder and sold for $161,000 which included Heritages 15% buyers’ fee. This was the first Watermelon note to be in a public auction since 2008 so there was a lot of interest. Then there was the 1907 $1,000 Gold certificate in a PMG-64EPQ holder that fetched a staggering $185,000. The 1869 $100 Rainbow note in a PCGS-45 holder sold for $138,000 with the juice and an 1890 $20 Treasury note with a super low serial number of 3 sold for $132,250 in a PMG-65EPQ holder. There was an 1880 $50 Silver Certificate commonly referred to as an Everett Note sold for $94,875 in a PCGS-35 holder. This is just a small example of the very nice collection of rare high grade notes that sold. Clean, sweet and boom the auction was over and we were all off to happy hour, for most folks anyway. This Long Beach show as a smashing success for the most part. The crows were not too heavy but the people who did show up were serious buyers. At the last show we requested a new booth up front, # 817 which is right up front across from PCGS coin grading company. Thanks to our new location, we had a tremendous amount of traffic and visited with a lot of past and current friends and clients. We have always had a great and strong following at Long Beach and this was no exception. We also had the opportunity to purchase a lot of new material for the website and for the next currency show which will be in Chicago on March 8th to the 11th. We also sign up for the next long beach which is may 31st to June 3rd. at the same booth. The market is definitely back as bourse floor sales were strong for those who had good or fresh material. Most dealers reported very good sales across the board, with the rarer or higher graded notes bring strong money. As we left mid day Saturday the floor was still going strong. We wanted to get out early to get back in time for Super Bowl Sunday. I think the Super Bowl was right there in Long Beach this past weekend.

1/10/2012 - Orlando- Well the 2012 Currency FUN show is over and I just got back to Dallas. I thought this was the best FUN show I’ve attended in many years. I purchased two spaces, a corner space and the 8 foot isle spot next to it. We had 14 show cases and they were full of nice coins and currency notes. I brought currency notes that I normally do not take to shows including my personal collection of serial number one star notes. There were supposedly 450 coin and currency dealers in attendance. I did not see many empty dealer booths. This is one show that most all dealers show up, after all, this is the biggest show of the year. We did dealer set up on Wednesday afternoon and the dealer to dealer business was brisk throughout. It seemed that everyone was anxious to be done with the holidays and get back to business. On Thursday morning the doors opened to the public and the gold rush began. There was a real nice line of folks eager to get in to the show. We were swamped most of the day as we had a lot of regular customers who hung around our booth for the good part of the day doing deals and chatting. We purchased quite a few coins and currency notes from the public. Some were sold right away and some we brought back with us. Friday and Saturday was busy with folks looking for good deals and others who were shopping for the best price on goods they had for sale. You have the typical tire kickers and then you had the collector going from table to table looking for the best deal they could find on that special coin or note that was missing from their collection. I love the aspect of dealing with these types of people as I can help them find what they are looking for because I know what inventory most of the dealers carry or specialize in. I spent a good deal of time as a convention cop, directing people to different dealer tables. There was a lot of new material to be had on the bourse floor itself. Of course most dealers save new material to bring to the annual FUN show. I thought there was a lot of excitement for this show. I visited with a lot of dealers who normally do not attend many shows. As usual I took a pulse of how the show was doing. Every day I ask many coin and currency dealers how the show was going for them. And as usual the dealers with fresh material did great and the dealers, who had the same material as they did at the last show, did not do so well. DUH! Anyway I thought the show was strong from attendees to the Heritage auction results to the bourse floor activity. Good solid notes brought good money and the notes that were graded less than GEM grade brought less than you would expect. As always notes with the EPQ and PPQ notation brought the most money. I can also tell you this, the infamous Greensheet was useless at the show. Everything that was any good sold for more than Greensheet. If this show was a indication of what to expect for this year, look for a modest increase in prices for some of the most desirable material. I’ll have a better feel after the Long Beach show coming us this Feb. 1st to the 4th. We will also be set up there as well and I’ll give another show report after I return from Long Beach. By the way…I did buy a lot of new material which I will put on the website tonight. Look for one of my best buys, a scarce cut sheet of four consecutive 1899 $5 Silver Certificates, commonly referred to as Chief Notes. I also bought a new Martha and Rainbow notes as well as some small size and large size Gold Certificates. We’ll talk later. You can always reach me at 214-769-9936. PS look for the new $5,000 and $10,000 notes.

1/10/2012 - Orlando- Well the 2012 Currency FUN show is over and I just got back to Dallas. I thought this was the best FUN show I’ve attended in many years. I purchased two spaces, a corner space and the 8 foot isle spot next to it. We had 14 show cases and they were full of nice coins and currency notes. I brought currency notes that I normally do not take to shows including my personal collection of serial number one star notes. There were supposedly 450 coin and currency dealers in attendance. I did not see many empty dealer booths. This is one show that most all dealers show up, after all, this is the biggest show of the year. We did dealer set up on Wednesday afternoon and the dealer to dealer business was brisk throughout. It seemed that everyone was anxious to be done with the holidays and get back to business. On Thursday morning the doors opened to the public and the gold rush began. There was a real nice line of folks eager to get in to the show. We were swamped most of the day as we had a lot of regular customers who hung around our booth for the good part of the day doing deals and chatting. We purchased quite a few coins and currency notes from the public. Some were sold right away and some we brought back with us. Friday and Saturday was busy with folks looking for good deals and others who were shopping for the best price on goods they had for sale. You have the typical tire kickers and then you had the collector going from table to table looking for the best deal they could find on that special coin or note that was missing from their collection. I love the aspect of dealing with these types of people as I can help them find what they are looking for because I know what inventory most of the dealers carry or specialize in. I spent a good deal of time as a convention cop, directing people to different dealer tables. There was a lot of new material to be had on the bourse floor itself. Of course most dealers save new material to bring to the annual FUN show. I thought there was a lot of excitement for this show. I visited with a lot of dealers who normally do not attend many shows. As usual I took a pulse of how the show was doing. Every day I ask many coin and currency dealers how the show was going for them. And as usual the dealers with fresh material did great and the dealers, who had the same material as they did at the last show, did not do so well. DUH! Anyway I thought the show was strong from attendees to the Heritage auction results to the bourse floor activity. Good solid notes brought good money and the notes that were graded less than GEM grade brought less than you would expect. As always notes with the EPQ and PPQ notation brought the most money. I can also tell you this, the infamous Greensheet was useless at the show. Everything that was any good sold for more than Greensheet. If this show was a indication of what to expect for this year, look for a modest increase in prices for some of the most desirable material. I’ll have a better feel after the Long Beach show coming us this Feb. 1st to the 4th. We will also be set up there as well and I’ll give another show report after I return from Long Beach. By the way…I did buy a lot of new material which I will put on the website tonight. Look for one of my best buys, a scarce cut sheet of four consecutive 1899 $5 Silver Certificates, commonly referred to as Chief Notes. I also bought a new Martha and Rainbow notes as well as some small size and large size Gold Certificates. We’ll talk later. You can always reach me at 214-769-9936. PS look for the new $5,000 and $10,000 notes.