11/8/2010 - Baltimore- Brandon and I attended the Baltimore Coin and Currency show this past week and it was very interesting. We chose not set up at the show this time. I wanted to spend a lot of time walking the floor talking to as many dealers as I could to get a feel or pulse of the show. Since we were not registered dealers at the show, we waited in line to enter the show just like everyone else, which was a good thing. I did notice the large lines to enter the show which is a good sign for the dealers. Early on the response was good as there was a lot of early wholesale business being conducted between the dealers before the show opened. After the show opened to the public most of the booths seemed to be somewhat busy with clients on the currency side. Most of the currency dealers said business was slow for the common notes, but brisk for the hard to find and high grade notes. That seems to have been the standard for the whole year. Graded notes seemed to be the big sellers verses the ungraded notes. I noticed right away that most of the small size notes that were displayed in most dealer cases were ungraded. This could be a result of two things, either they were not worthy of being graded or it was simply not cost effective to do so.

There actually were some really good deals to be had on the bourse floor. The auction was a different story. You had to really look for them. I didn’t notice much new material in the cases of most currency dealers. It seemed it was the same inventory as the last show, with a lot of the material in different dealer’s cases as a result of the pre show wholesale buying. However, some did seem eager and willing to make deals on their current inventory that they have been displaying for some time. I did manage to pick up a few really nice deals for the website and mostly for my clients want list.

As I walked the show I did notice a lot of coin dealers increasing their currency inventories. The problem with that was they didn’t know exactly how to price their currency material. It was either a really good deal which went real fast or it was sky high, even by currency standards. The coin dealers who bought their inventory from clients priced it according to the book and it sold real fast. The coin dealers who bought inventory from currency dealers or at recent auctions priced it high as they had to also compete with the inventory of the currency dealers themselves. In this case the early birds did indeed get the worms.

Coin dealers said bullion was the big selling item as was expected with the price of gold continually going higher, and I was told it actually toped over $1400.00 an ounce. Who would have guessed?

I did notice that small size notes were out selling large size notes by a large margin. This could be the case because small size notes are more plentiful and considerably less expensive. Although the crowds seem to be large the consensus was that the show was flat. Most dealers complained that the margins were really low and the customers were demanding and looking for real deals.

In an experiment, I used the Greensheet as my guide and went shopping. I was not able to buy and decent large size notes at Greensheet levels. In most cases it wasn’t even close. I don’t know where they get their prices for their newsletter, but it was useless to walk to anyone’s booth with a Greensheet in hand and get a deal done. On the small size notes it was a different story. But then again small size notes were plentiful in most grades. Dealers only use the Greensheet when buying, not selling for the most part. In my opinion the Greensheet prices are totally worthless in the real world.

All in all it was pretty much an even keel show as dealers said they were more interested in buying new material for the upcoming FUN show this January to be held in Tampa, Florida, than selling what they had in stock. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

We picked up our lots from the auction and headed out Saturday at noon for the airport. At the airport I did see a lot of dealers, which meant they packed up and left the show early. This was not a good sign.

This year has been a great year for us here at Jhon E Cash Coins, Currency and Collectibles as we have maintained a very diverse inventory of unique and hard to find items as well as a good inventory of problem free notes and coins. I try to only offer certified graded notes by PMG or PCGS only. We will continue to increase our graded inventory across the board. I’ve always been a firm believer that if you buy as a collector, you will be just fine with the collector. It has worked for us in the past and we will continue to aggressively pursue only good problem free graded notes.

Our next show we will be attending is The Money Show of the Southwest in Houston, Texas on December 2nd to the 4th, 2010. We will also be setting up at the FUN Show in Tampa, Fla. in January of 2010. We look forward to seeing you there.

11/8/2010 - Baltimore---Brandon and I attended to the Baltimore Coin and Currency show this past week and it was very interesting. We chose not set up at the show this time. I wanted to spend a lot of time walking the floor talking to as many dealers as I could to get a feel or pulse of the show. Since we were not registered dealers at the show, we waited in line to enter the show just like everyone else, which was a good thing. I did notice the large lines to enter the show which is a good sign for the dealers. Early on the response was good as there was a lot of early wholesale business being conducted between the dealers before the show opened. After the show opened to the public most of the booths seemed to be somewhat busy with clients on the currency side. Most of the currency dealers said business was slow for the common notes, but brisk for the hard to find and high grade notes. That seems to have been the standard for the whole year. Graded notes seemed to be the big sellers verses the ungraded notes. I noticed right away that most of the small size notes that were displayed in most dealer cases were ungraded. This could be a result of two things, either they were not worthy of being graded or it was simply not cost effective to do so. There actually were some really good deals to be had on the bourse floor. The auction was a different story. You had to really look for them. I didn’t notice much new material in the cases of most currency dealers. It seemed it was the same inventory as the last show, with a lot of the material in different dealer’s cases as a result of the pre show wholesale buying. However, some did seem eager and willing to make deals on their current inventory that they have been displaying for some time. I did manage to pick up a few really nice deals for the website and mostly for my clients want list. As I walked the show I did notice a lot of coin dealers increasing their currency inventories. The problem with that was they didn’t know exactly how to price their currency material. It was either a really good deal which went real fast or it was sky high, even by currency standards. The coin dealers who bought their inventory from clients priced it according to the book and it sold real fast. The coin dealers who bought inventory from currency dealers or at recent auctions priced it high as they had to also compete with the inventory of the currency dealers themselves. In this case the early birds did indeed get the worms. Coin dealers said bullion was the big selling item as was expected with the price of gold continually going higher, and I was told it actually toped over $1400.00 an ounce. Who would have guessed? I did notice that small size notes were out selling large size notes by a large margin. This could be the case because small size notes are more plentiful and considerably less expensive. Although the crowds seem to be large the consensus was that the show was flat. Most dealers complained that the margins were really low and the customers were demanding and looking for real deals In an experiment, I used the Greensheet as my guide and went shopping. I was not able to buy and decent large size notes at Greensheet levels. In most cases it wasn’t even close. I don’t know where they get their prices for their newsletter, but it was useless to walk to anyone’s booth with a Greensheet in hand and get a deal done. On the small size notes it was a different story. But then again small size notes were plentiful in most grades. Dealers only use the Greensheet when buying, not selling for the most part. In my opinion the Greensheet prices are totally worthless in the real world. All in all it was pretty much an even keel show as dealers said they were more interested in buying new material for the upcoming FUN show this January to be held in Tampa, Florida, than selling what they had in stock. Sounds like sour grapes to me. We picked up our lots from the auction and headed out Saturday at noon for the airport. At the airport I did see a lot of dealers, which meant they packed up and left the show early. This was not a good sign. This year has been a great year for us here at Jhon E Cash Coins, Currency and Collectibles as we have maintained a very diverse inventory of unique and hard to find items as well as a good inventory of problem free notes and coins. I try to only offer certified graded notes by PMG or PCGS only. We will continue to increase our graded inventory across the board. I’ve always been a firm believer that if you buy as a collector, you will be just fine with the collector. It has worked for us in the past and we will continue to aggressively pursue only good problem free graded notes. Our next show we will be attending is The Money Show of the Southwest in Houston, Texas on December 2nd to the 4th, 2010. We will also be setting up at the FUN Show in Tampa, Fla. in January of 2010. We look forward to seeing you there.

11/9/2010 - Baltimore - Ah, Baltimore. You never cease to amaze me. From the crowds at the show and the coins they bring up after years of being in a tight collection to the outstanding selection of seafood restaurants, Baltimore has me sold as one of the greatest coin-show cities in America. The weather, much like the show, was brisk. A sight rain welcomed Jhon and I with a temperature much warmer than we were expecting but still a tad on the chilly side. I felt fine in shorts, however. (If you know me, you are probably laughing right now)

We arrived around noon groggily walking off the 8:20AM flight, grabbed our bags and a cab, and checked into our hotel at the Sheraton connected to the Convention Center. After checking in we hastily made our way to the show battling a light rain en route. We did not come to set-up a booth but to walk the show. This gives us more flexibility with travel arrangements and allows us to freely walk the floor without taking turns manning a table. At such a large show like this, floating around the show all day long is more beneficial to our goal of buying nice material for you, our clients.

The general aura of the show was upbeat. At the beginning many of the dealers I spoke with were optimistic already having done better than average wholesale business before the public even got a chance to enter the show. Gold crashed through the $1400 ceiling spurring generic gold and bullion to trade like crazy. Many dealers were dropping 30%-40% of their classic coin inventory for bullion stock. This gave me, and others, a chance at some darn nice coins at prices that were still of this earth.

Nicely toned early commemoratives finally made an appearance after 10+ dry shows for attractive examples. I managed to find an ex.Larry Shepherd Monroe commemorative with unbelievable color, a darn-hard-to-find nicely toned Gem Lexington commemorative in an old NGC fattie holder, an End-Roll toned Columbian commemorative (pinks and emerald greens with distinct geometric fold lines), a Pan-Pac with the unmistakable target toning that ultra-nice examples exhibit, and a killer Sesquicentennial that, as evident by the moon-money bidding going on, IS the nicest toned Sesqui in existence. There were other monsters in the Bowers and Merena sale including a beast of a Maine commem that slipped my grasp.

Even if I had not found any material at this show, it still would have been action-packed as this was one of the most eventful shows I have attended. The first incident was on Thursday. As I was floating around the show in a grid pattern to get an early bead on nice material dealers had available, I noticed some commotion in the annex part of the show (a few tables over from the new PCGS table location). I walked over and saw a gentleman on the floor though I could not see his face. I thought someone had just fallen or had a seizure. You would be surprized how many seizures I have seen at shows. I have never seen a seizure anywhere else but at shows and I have seen at least four. As I was pondering this coincidence, I noticed a couple of EMTs walking through the convention center doors and onto the bourse. As they slowly strolled over some of the folks helping the gentleman alerted the EMTs to the obvious emergency and they made haste to the man. They started CPR and apparently got a pulse because they put the gentleman onto a stretcher. This is the point where I saw his face. I did not recognize the man but I was shocked to see that his face was slate blue. The EMTs rolled him out of the show and into their ambulance and off to the hospital. I later found out that the original call to 911 made by a bystander was for a broken nose from when the man fell after having a heart attack. That was probably the reason the EMTs did not appear to be in a rush coming into the show. Some who were on the scene before I got there reported that the EMTs took about 20 minutes to get there. That may have been the difference between life and death in this case as the next day, I found out that the gentleman did pass away at the show. I was a little more than shocked to find out that I had seen someone pass away right in front of my eyes. Even though I did not know him, I did feel a sadness for the gentleman. There are coin shows every week in Heaven and if you are going to go, being surrounded by the people and colletibles you love is not the worst way to get there.

In addition to the above incident, on Friday Jhon stopped me and told me that someone just tried to enter the show without proper registration and was stopped at the door. The AWESOME security at the show took one look at the fellow and their mental alarms went off. The guy had on a big coat, not unusual, but the huge bulge on the front and back certainly was not right. The security officer asked the man to open his coat and the fellow refused and stepped back from the door and turned to leave. Security promptly chased him down in the dining area right outside the bourse doors and discovered something terrifying. Underneath the mans coat was a large glass bottle of gasoline. What was this idiot going to do with it? My suspicion is that it had nothing to do with coin doctoring and very much to do with something very disastrous and evil in-mind. I did not personally see this and I know rumors get tweaked from person to person but I trust all of the people who pieced it together for me. Anyway, the man was cuffed and brought to a hidden room where he will probably never be seen again. You will never hear about this on the news or anywhere else because convention centers with private show security will never want anyone to ever know about incidents like this. I just have to say I am so thankful for the amazing security. They also busted three thiefs at the show. They did their job spectacularly.

As always, I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at G and M Crabcakes in Linthicum (only 15 minutes from downtown and worth the drive) with good friends Cliff (Tootawl) and Dawn and Mike of Mad Coins. Cliff was nice enough to take us there in his bad-ass new car. As usual, the place was packed like sardines with locals, dealers, and collectors visiting the Baltimore show. Yeah, word gets out when their food is seriously good. None of these people had a problem driving 15 minutes out of downtown. If you go to the Baltimore show, eat at G and M Crabcaks. Oh, and get the fries with brown gravy. Yeah, sounds wierd but it is a New England thing and it is pretty darn good.

Our next show will be in Houston, TX the first week of December. We will be down there for a couple of days without setting up a table. After that show we will be setting up a table at the FUN show in January. Come and visit us and check out our coin and currency inventory and bring nice coins for me to buy.