Charmy's September 2018 LONG BEACH SHOW REPORT w/lots of pics!

[The Penny Lady]

Another Long Beach show in the books! This show, more than any other I attend, seems to fly by so fast. Maybe it's because I am usually pretty busy throughout the show, with a lot of my local regulars stopping by to see what new Pretty Pennies I have in my inventory. Also, having my booth buddies helping at my table is more fun than "manning" my table by myself! And the Expos folks really do work hard to make this a smooth show for the dealers, always walking around asking if they can do anything for us.

I must admit that preparing my report of the Long Beach show is a bit of a challenge. That's because me and my "posse" have our favorite places to dine and each of us looks forward to going to the same restaurants we went to the previous show. And we often even order the same dishes at those restaurants! So my photos tend to show the same faces eating at the same restaurants having the same entrees! However, at least Ricko will appreciate that the wines are usually different!

Wednesday was a beautiful hot sunny Southern California day.

This beautiful photo of the Queen Mary is courtesy of Jeff Garrett.

I arrived at the back of the convention center area on Wednesday morning as usual, waited to be let up to the loading dock, unloaded my car quickly, pushed the cart up the ramp to the back door, moved my car to the parking lot, then waiting for the doors to open at noon. By the time the doors opened, there was quite a long line of dealer cars waiting to be let up the loading dock ramp. This is a picture of the construction on the street behind the convention center where we wait. They recently built this walkway above the street and are now constructing a building on top of the walkway.

After I set up my booth, I went over to view the Tyrant Collection and took quite a few pictures so you could see just how amazing this collection is - and there were even many more coins in this display that I didn't photograph.

I also did a lot of my usual buying on Wednesday from various vest pocket dealers who stopped by my table. These are the new Pretty Pennies I bought throughout the show.

After the show on Wednesday, we went to our favorite Italian restaurant, Cafe Piccolos, with my usual group, Karl, Joanne and Rich, and I had my usual goat cheese chicken and pasta dish. They also make a great Caesar salad!

We also had some great wines!

The show was very busy on Thursday, all the way until later in the afternoon.

John and his wife Linda stopped by to sell me some pennies. They are also the couple who assembled this spectacular complete collection of 144 U.S. Commemoratives which is ranked as both the Current Finest and All-Time Finest in PCGS's set registry.

At this show, several tables were reserved for various Olympic memorabilia dealers who began setting up their tables on Thursday morning. After things died down at my table, I was able to walk around and view some of the Olympic material. There were a lot of pins, posters, clothing, and other Olympic collectibles, but the most fascinating items were some of the torches used during various Olympic games, including the famous 1936 Berlin games.

I was even privileged to be able to hold a few of the torches! This first one was one of the torches used in the 1936 Berlin games.

The second torch was from the 1956 Cortina Olympics in Italy

This third torch was from the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Even though I believe this was a one-time thing, it sure was interesting and entertaining viewing some of these Olympic collectibles.

Soon it was time to open one of the bottles of wine I had brought to the show. It was a new vineyard that had a high rating and I was anxious to see how it tasted. It definitely did not disappoint!

Thursday night is reserved for Naples Ribs where many dealers gather in the back room and enjoy some of the best ribs out there! I usually order an extra large portion because my hubby would be very upset if I didn't bring him home some ribs and brisket!

The doorway at the end of this room is where all the dealers dine.

Here are some of my fellow rib lovers!

Northern Nevada Coin folks

Todd/BluCCPhotos and his dad, and Todd's uncle Curt

My group

More faces

I can tell you my hubby was in heaven the next day when he heated up those ribs and brisket!

Friday was slower than Thursday as is typical, but I was still busy and sold quite a few coins. We also heard that Security was very busy on Thursday with three different thefts reported, one theft included several notes, another was a stack of gold coins, and another was a money pouch that was on a back table where the thief reached across the table when the dealer was facing the other direction. They had some suspects in mind but I didn't hear of any actual arrests being made. Aside from travel mishaps, this is the most frustrating and infuriating part of being a dealer. We work very hard for what we have, building up our inventory to have the types of coins our customers are looking for, and these thieves just take the easy way out by stealing from us so they don't have to work! Geese, it just makes my blood boil.

Any way, later in the day I walked around the bourse floor hunting for some coins on my customer want lists and took a few more photos along the way. This is Gary Adkins, ANA President, hard at work!

Always friendly folks at ANACS!

Always busy folks at PCGS!

Always hard at work folks at NGC!

This is the wine we opened in the afternoon. It's from one of the wineries that I belong to in Warner Springs which is in eastern San Diego County. It's a winery that is located up on a hill where several hawks make their home hence the name "Hawk Watch." This is a very decent wine and didn't last long as we shared it with several people.

Friday night, we headed over to our usual Friday night spot, King's Fish House, which is just up the hill behind the convention center on Pine Street. We had a combined group of 10 people and 10 different bottles of some amazing wines, thanks to John Cox who brought the four bottles of Napa and French wines !

Needless to say, we didn't drink all that wine - we definitely had lots left over!

I had my usual macadamia nut crusted halibut which is sooooo delicious!

Several of us shared this yummy butter cake and homemade ice cream dessert

I carpool to the Long Beach show with my booth helper Rich, and when we arrived on Saturday morning at the parking structure, it was packed with Comic Con participants since the Comic Con show was in the hall next to ours at the convention center. Getting out of the car that was parked next to me were these three guys all decked out in costume so I asked them if I could take their pictures, and they were happy to comply! It was a hoot seeing all kinds of costumed people on the streets all around the convention center!

Business-wise, Saturday was very slow, with very few sales, though there were lots of people with their families and lots of folks who had questions about pennies they inherited, most of which were not very valuable. They had the usual kids treasure hunt which is always popular and fun for the young ones.

As I mentioned, this show just seems to fly by because before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head out. It was a busy four days and I definitely enjoy being at the Long Beach show. But I always look forward to getting home to see my hubby and of course my rolly-polly Penny. This is a picture of our little Ryder playing with Penny just before I left for the show. Penny is such a gentle kitty and she usually lets Ryder "pat" her for a few minutes before she simply gets up and walks away.

Next up: the Santa Clara show (9/20-9/23), the Buena Park show (10/6-10/7), the PNNA Portland show (10/19-10/21), and Baltimore (10/24-10/27).

[Jade Collection]

love the pics, wish I could go to the LB show....I know I would have a blast in the world coin section!