EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
We were not sure how the show would be. When we took stock of everything late Thursday, our printouts showed that we performed significantly better in selling than we had anticipated, while our buying performance was mediocre. Here’s a day-to-day glimpse of our show activities:
SUNDAY
You wonder if you’re going to have a good show when you line up 3 of the biggest and best buyers in a tight time frame and your plane is delayed by 2 hours (we actually had to deplane—the pilots were late).
Arrived late but got lucky; buyer #1 was in between appointments and made time for us. The first sale of the show totaled over $100,000.00!
The second buyer—a dealer to whom we had not sold coins in years—came in as scheduled and did very well buying.
The third and last buyer for the day consistently makes strong purchases and has never disappointed us.
First day total sales: $225,000.00. Whew. One thing to note is that they all purchased higher-quality gold.
MONDAY
This was “dealer day” at the show. The ANA charges $600.00 per table. Unlike PNG days prior to a show, there was a small buzz. We were surprised at how many dealers were in attendance.
We had a pre-show opening appointment with some West Coast folk, but they overslept. So they got bumped out of line. Unexpectedly, while waiting outside, we spotted a prominent dealer who said he’d love to look at our coins when we got them. And he sure did, he was at our table when we got our coins from security! Then we had another elusive dealer sit down, and he bought a nice little pile. Then the sleepy folk from LA came in and spent well. We figured okay, that’s all the action we’ll have Monday. NOT! Plenty of dealers came around and looked and made purchases. One dealer came in and spent a large amount—something he has never done with us.
We hit the floor trying to buy. Had first and very early dibs on many dealers’ coins, but their offerings held nothing exciting. However, we did have a first shot from someone and bought two really wicked cool coins, which we plan on posting next week. It’s like we have to celebrate these days when we buy something cool on the floor.
Ended Monday very happy.
TUESDAY
The show opened to the public around noon. So we had the morning to shop the floor and sell. We did a little of both. We were disappointed, as there was not all that much for us on the floor.
When the show opened to the public, we got swamped. In fact, we are so swamped we want to apologize to everyone who was “in the crush” at our table if we missed you. We actually got overwhelmed. Never had so many people show up all at once.
Made several sales. Saw many old friends. Our displays of the Black Cat Gold Type set and the RSD Proof 69 coins left many people in awe. Interestingly, collectors exhibited a preference for either gold or silver coinage.
In total, we did well into six figures in sales on Tuesday.
WEDNESDAY
What a way to start the day. Our first sale was to a long-time customer who bought a Gem Bust Half. It deeply moved us that he came directly to us when the show opened. He was not the only one who did so. After him, we made two other significant sales in succession. Wednesday’s sales were exclusively to collectors, a rare occurrence. In fact, we cannot remember any show (ANA or FUN) where we logged as many sales to collectors in a single day!
The fact that collectors didn’t offer any coins to us indicates that they are in strong hands. However, we should note, one “discovery” coin was brought to our table for us to preview. All we can say was it distracted us severely—we never had seen an example so wild and fresh. The coin will be for sale in a few months, and Legend WILL try hard to acquire it.
By now we had walked the floor multiple times. We could not believe there were so few exciting coins for sale. Additionally, we realized that we had sold significantly more than we had purchased, and we needed to exert more effort in finding gems for our Newps. So we went back out and looked through dozens of boxes and cases.
Our biggest purchase of the day was a $50,000.00 non-CAC gold coin. We’re sending the coin to CAC. We’d be shocked if the coin hadn’t been sent to CAC prior, but we see no reason why it should not have been beaned. Stay tuned.
Before we knew it, Wednesday’s time on the floor was over. We did not have the time to see where our sales stood for the trip or the day. However, we concluded the show in a positive mood, buoyed by our activities. We were optimistic Thursday would be a good day too.
THURSDAY
We had so much to do. Our plan was to wait until the Legend team was at full strength to go and look at auction lots. However, we got distracted walking out by an up and coming dealer, to whom we flipped the FH Dollar to. Not a bad way to start the day!
Prior to that, we sat for 15 minutes with another dealer who just had to hold the $1 1893 PCGS PR69 DC CAC that was in our RSD display. He just could not put it down; he was so madly in love with it. Our two displays had MAJOR impacts on all who viewed them. We were honored that our two customers agreed to allow us to display their coins, which by the way were 100% sourced and sold to them by Legend.
It was time to look at some auction lots. We were highly impressed by both the Heritage and Stacks sales. We saw many coins we wanted to buy (and no, not every coin was a power coin). We just hope we can buy a few and that prices do not run away. A reminder: we need to have confirmed ALL auction representation by Monday at the latest.
Sales were slow but steady all day. We made far more sales to collectors than we had thought we’d do that day, but we did sell a coin or two to dealers. Our plan of accumulating coins from our customers to offer for sale at the show proved a HUGE success. There will be a few hefty checks being sent next week to our consignors.
One thing we did know, our “super secret” stealth seller was close to $1 million in sales by Thrusday. He just bounces around from dealer to dealer. His inventory is all on consignment and is soup to nuts. He needed a table space for an hour, so we let him use our table and watched him do a five-figure sale. Dealers just can’t ever get enough of what he sells!
Walking miles and miles around a major show; talking to so many people and trying to do deals and buy coins is amazingly exhausting. By Thursday night we were ready to retire for the weekend, but we knew we had even more work to do at home. Our show report ends here, as our time at the show is now over. We do have staff and our inventory at the show through Saturday 12PM.
FRIDAY
Even from home, we did business at the show. Two deals on two different $40,000.00 coins, one dealer called our office while the other worked it out with Jose. That felt like the icing on the cake! We had many people stop by our table on Friday AM. As of this writing I am not sure how our staff did for the remaining of Friday. Many major dealers who had been at the show since the previous Saturday left today.
WHAT WAS TRADING AT THE SHOW?
Better gold coins, it did not matter whether they were CAC or PCGS. Our very first buyer bought all gold. Just about every dealer that bought from us bought a gold coin. Pricier gold seemed heavily in demand, as was anything else. We had a double-row box of NON CAC gold (both PCGS and NGC), and we had sold all but 3 coins by Wednesday afternoon. It makes us feel strong, especially since a YN came up to us with a smile ear to ear. He had sold a PCGS MS64 High Relief for his dad. We heard of several of those trading (MS64s) at the show. They are always popular in any market. .
Interestingly, the majority of collectors we sold to bought Type. Proof Liberty Nickels were in demand, as were Bust Halves and Proof coins.
NEWPS
We have posted a small amount of NEWPS. We failed badly at our mission of buying coins that would be priced at UNDER $10,000.00. Legend is not just about the expensive stuff.
Because we could not do images at the show, the only NEWPS posted are those that already had images. We will have a full listing of our show NEWPS by next Friday.
Highlights include:
1C 1914-D PCGS MS65+ RD CAC
50C 1897 PCGS PR67+ DCAMEO CAC
$1 1921 PEACE PCGS MS66 CAC
$2.5 1857-O PCGS MS61 CAC
Of course we will have some special coins for our Coins Of The Week, so stay tuned!
A NOTE FROM LEGEND
We wish to sincerely thank EVERYONE who stopped by our table. We did enjoy talking coins and chatting with everyone. We also wish to thank everyone for all the business at the show. And of course, a special thanks goes to Black Cat and RSD for allowing us to have those two special displays.
Now it’s back to a week of auctions and piles of paperwork!
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL US: legendlegendcoin.com. WE DO NOT CHECK OUR PHONE MESSAGES UNTIL MONDAY 9 AM.
