Charmy's September 2017 SANTA CLARA COIN SHOW REPORT w/lots of pics!

[The Penny Lady]

I know I just did a show report on the Long Beach show, so this one will be rather brief. I always enjoy going to Northern California for a coin show as I usually only do 3 a year there and the Santa Clara show is the largest of all the Northern California shows. I have several customers who I only see when I travel up north, so they help make it worth while for me. And this year, Kagin was putting on an auction that included some amazing pieces. Also, the U.S. Mint set up at the show and was promoting their Ellis Island products. So this show promised to be a bigger success than usual.

I left Orange County early Thursday morning because I planned to visit my dad in Oxnard on my way to the show. My dad is 96 years old and still living in the house I grew up in in Oxnard (which is in Ventura County, about an hour north of Los Angeles). Going from Orange County through Los Angeles early in the morning is a nightmare and took me twice as long as it would later in the day. But I was glad to visit with my dad who is doing quite well in spite of his age!

Then I headed up the coast through Ventura, Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, Paso Robles, San Jose, then to Santa Clara. Even though it's a much longer way, it's a beautiful drive and I enjoy this 5-hour drive, especially since I get to listen to my audio book uninterrupted. This Nora Roberts book was thoroughly enjoyable and had me mesmerized!

I finally drove up to the loading dock for set up at 5pm. Right behind the loading dock is the beautiful new Levi Stadium which hosts football, concerts, and several other huge events.

Right across the street from the convention center is the Great America Amusement Park.

While I was setting up, I had a few vest pocket dealers stop by and I was able to pick up a few nice pieces for my inventory. Instead of setting up everything, I decided to walk around the show so I could find more coins on my customers' want lists. Here are some of the pieces I picked up at the show.

I really like this really pretty 1859 Indian cent that had prooflike fields with very pretty pastel toning.

I also bought some nice raw material to add to my inventory.

After the show closed, I walked over to the Tusca restaurant in the Hyatt which is attached to the convention center to have dinner with my dear friend Joe Wargo. He brought this wonderful Holdredge Pinot Noir that I very much enjoyed.

After dinner, I checked into my room at the Biltmore Hotel, just a couple miles away from the convention center. It's a beautiful hotel and I was happy to be upgraded to a suite! The first pic is from the hotel website, the last two pics are of my room.

Thursday morning I headed over to the show early to finish setting up. There was a nice crowd waiting at the door, and at 10am, the public began streaming in.

There was a nice buzz in the room throughout the day and I think having the U.S. Mint set up as well as having a quality auction really helped bring in more public. In the afternoon I took a few minutes to view the auction lots at the Kagin table.

And to say hi to my bff Nina! We even posed for our traditional exaggerated kissy face pose!

The Mint was set up just down my row.

Later that afternoon, even though the bourse floor had thinned out, I took a few minutes to take photos around the show.

At 5:30pm I headed to the auction. They had just started with the hobo nickels.

When I checked online for the lots I was interested in, the numbers had already passed what I was going to bid, so I didn't stay for those lots and headed out. I then met my friends at Mariani's Italian restaurant at the Mariani's Inn.

While my fettuccine alfredo was very good, some of the other meals were less than satisfactory so it's not a place we would return to.

However, they did have a nice crowd who was waiting for the karaoke to begin so if you're into karaoke, I'd bet it's a good place to go!

Saturday morning I talked to several people about the auction results and discovered that it was extremely successful, bringing in huge numbers. Many of the dealers I spoke with said they were consistently outbid and that the gold slugs were especially popular. There was a lot of public who came to the show on Saturday and I was pretty busy through most of the day.

I get offered a lot of lower end Indian and Lincoln cent sets in albums, but often many coins have been cleaned, have corrosion or other problems so I avoid buying those. However, a collector came by and offered me this very decent Lincoln cent set that had mostly original unmolested coins. Unfortunately, it was missing a the 1909-S vdb and 1909-S, but it still had the 1914-D and all the semi-key dates.

After the show ended on Saturday, I headed over to the Bay 101 casino/cardroom. This casino was built in 1993 and, according to Wiki, it became "best known for hosting the Bay 101 Shooting Star, a World Poker Tour tournament created by Bay 101 owner Marko Trapani in 1997." They closed their doors the day after I was there because they built a brand new casino right on the other side of the 101 freeway, and right next to their competitor, the M8trix casino. So I just had to play at the old location one last time. I had a good time and ended up breaking even.

Sunday morning, I took my time heading to the show. I slept in a little, had some breakfast, and gassed up my car. Then once at the show, I hung around for a little while, but not much public came in when the show opened, so I decided to pack up and head out for the long drive back home.

Luckily, it was a beautiful day, traffic was light, and I made good time getting home to my hubby and my Penny-in-a-box!

Overall, it was a decent show for me as I had a couple good sales and made some good purchases. However, there are many small coin shows put on independently and by various clubs in different cities in Northern California, and it is my opinion that having so many smaller shows throughout the year in relative proximity to each other dilutes each show, including the Santa Clara show. I think it would be much more fruitful and productive if some of these smaller shows could figure out a way to work together and combine their shows. I believe it would greatly enhance attendance at all these NoCal shows, especially the Santa Clara show, if there were maybe only a handful of larger shows up north. That's just my one cents, for what it's worth!

Next up: The PCGS Members Only show in Las Vegas next week, then the local Buena Park show in early October, then the PNNA show in Portland, Oregon the end of October.

[DWLange]

As always, the highlight of your report is seeing Penny!