February 2006 Long Beach Show Report I

The February 2006 Long Beach Show opened today. Traditionally, Wednesday is a dealers-only event with trading occuring off the floor in the morning and on the bourse in the afternoon and early evening. Buying activity, in my eyes, could be described in three words: really, really difficult. I looked through dozens of dealer's coins today (including a number whose coins I do not look at until later in the show) and I have to admit that this is one of the harder shows I ever attended in terms of buying. There just isn't alot of material out there and what few nice coins there were have staggering price tags attached. I am hopeful that more coins will turn up later in the week but I am not holding my breath...

This is really par for the course at a Long Beach show. For some reason, this is a very hard show to buy at. It has been for many years. I would assume that part of the reason is that the services are tight at Long Beach shows and not many fresh coins get made. I expect that the upcoming Baltimore show in March will present me with more interesting buying opportunities.

But I am not returning empty-handed. I was able to buy around a dozen interesting New Orleans gold coins including a Condiiton Census 1855-O eagle, a lovely AU58 1845-O half eagle, some very high quality quarter eagles and a pleasing "slider" 1855-O gold dollar. I will have these coins listed and imaged on my website by Monday and would suggest you call me at (214) 675-9897 if anything captures your fancy.