I’m curious were there a good variety of Gold Pandas in OMP that would appear to be in great condition for fair prices?
Also did you happen to see any graded gold panda “sets” such as the 2000 mirror, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995 or any of the other 90’s sets? If so were the prices fair?
I’m going to try and make more of these shows, the New Orleans ANA show was in May but I did not make it, do you have any idea if this show has a history of having significant coins?
1) The best time to buy nice omp coins is during the first two hours of the show (early bird) and during the last day of the show. During the early bird session almost all omp get bought up by the dealers, for shows that I attend I will buy every nice looking piece I can get at a reasonable price. Then on the final day dealers are always looking to make a few more sales rather than take inventory home so you can often find good deals if you know the dealer well and have history of transaction with him.
2) You will rarely see the key dates on the floor at any price except 1982, which appears everywhere despite it high price and implied rarity. Most of these key coins are sold privately prior to the show or during the early bird session, unless the price is sky high. I rarely display rare coins or even bring them to coin show, because most collectors are not really looking for those rare birds and if they are they will often contact a dealer to bring those coins especially for them.
3) On the question of whether prices are fair or not, it all depends on your view of the market relative to the person you are buying from. When prices are going up, I will buy everything because my view is much more bullish than someone that doesn't specialize in Chinese coins so all prices seem cheap. When prices are going down, I and many others pass because people have old prices stuck in their heads and don't want to budge until a few shows later. I have nice a bid/ask spread graph to illustrate why people should sell when coins are hot and buy when they are cold, I will dig it up and post soon.
4) The ANA New Orleans shows was great for buying on the 2nd day because retail traffic was so light. It seems like very few collectors came to that show, so dealers unloaded a lot of inventory towards the end at very good prices. I don't believe the show will be returning to New Orleans for a couple of years.
a) The best show to attend for the year is the upcoming Chicago ANA August 13-17. It is the biggest show of the year and you will see more panda coins there than any other show in the US or even Hong Kong.
b)The next best show is Long Beach, February, June and September all tend to be good.
c) In third place is Florida Fun show in January and July, a lot of great coins can be found there during the early bird session and later during the show as public brings material to sell.
d) Finally in forth place is Baltimore, March and November being the best ones, with June being slowest.
e) All other shows are too small to really see many panda coins, however if you are a coin show junkie others I would recommend are: Houston in November, ANA in May (rotates cities every year), St Charles show in July and October (Scottmans typically has auctions tied in with the show), Central States in April, International Coin expo in Chicago in April and any other show NGC or PCGS are attending (see their website). I am sure there are other good shows that I haven't discovered, such as the Seattle show for Boeing employees or Detroit show over Thanksgiving weekend.
Arif
