Collectorama Coin & Currency Show - Feb. 17-19, Lakeland, FL

[Ed Kuszmar]

The Collectorama Show, Inc. News Release For Immediate Distribution

Business is expected to be very brisk at the upcoming 52nd Semi-Annual
Collectorama Coin, Currency, Antique and Collectibles show, this
February 17-19, 2012, at the Lakeland Center, 701 West Lime Street,
just west of downtown Lakeland, Florida. Precious metals prices
continue to be amazingly active, with a huge demand for all the
popular Gold, Silver and Platinum precious metals items, such as
American Gold Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, South African Krugerrands,
Mexican Pesos, Chinese Pandas, and a wide assortment of Silver Bars,
Silver Dollars, 90% and 40% Silver Coins, War Nickels, and much, much
more.

Well over 100 National dealers will be on hand to buy, sell and trade
all types of bullion related and precious metals material, as well as
all kinds of Collector Coins, Numismatic Investment Coins, Certified
Coins, Currency, Paper Americana, Floridiana, Confederate and Civil
War material, Watches, Diamonds, Jewelry, Postcards, Error Currency,
Disney Dollars, Stamps and Postal History, and many catagories of Neat
Collectibles and Antiques of every description. There will also be a
hobby supply dealer on hand.

Unlike the fly-by-night “Cash for Gold” people, or the gypsy hotel
buyers (here today–gone tomorrow), the Collectorama Show attracts many
long-time numismatic experts and professional dealers. Many of these
very competitive dealers have attend every Collectorama Show (52) in
the past 26 years, and are available to make fair offers, or share
information, on just about anything that is brought in by the public
and other dealers. There is always a great selection of scarce and
rare material available for sale at Collectorama, and there will be an
amazing amount of historical and interesting material on display. The
Collectorama Coin and Currency Show is a very enjoyable event for the
entire family. Be sure to wear your “trading hat” and come on down for
some great deals and strong offers.

The Collectorama Show is open to the public Friday and Saturday, from
10 A.M. to 6 P.M., and on Sunday from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Thursday’s at
Collectorama are for dealer’s only, which includes dealer set-up and
special wholesale only bourse, from 4 p.m to 8 p.m.. Dealers who wish
to come in for wholesale business gain entry with a $25.00 (Minimum)
donation, via company check, to The Florida Youth Villa, in Bartow,
Florida. Dealers must also have a current sales tax number, and bring
along a business card. A Free Verbal Appraisal Clinic will be held all
day on Sunday, and guests are urged to bring in any type of Coins,
Currency or Collectible material they wish to have identified or
evaluated by expert dealers who will be attending.

All youngsters, 12 or under, get a daily dip into the Collectorama
Show’s special Kid’s Bucket, for a Free Hand Full of Money, and larger
items such as reference material and supplies will also be
distributed. There is always Free Parking for Collectorama Show
attendees and hourly door prizes all weekend. There is a $3.00
Admission Fee (Good for the Weekend), and a special show Souvenir Card
will be available at $4.00 that depicts an attractive T-20 Confederate
Note. Other special features will be announced. BRING THIS
ANNOUNCEMENT FOR FREE ADMISSION. Just mention Collectorama Show to the
parking attendant for Free Parking.

Dealers and guests are excited concerning the Collectorama Show’s new
Host Hotel, which will be The Terrace Hotel, at 329 East Main Street,
in downtown Lakeland. The Terrace Hotel also has a great Five Star
restaurant, and is within walking distance of The Lakeland Center, and
close to all downtown Antique Shops, Coffee Houses, restaurants, and a
short walk to Lakeland’s wonderful lakes and wild bird sanctuaries.
The Terrace Hotel offers all show attendees an excellent room rate of
only $89.00. Call: 863-688-0800

[sgt23]

Why does every post now days talking about an up coming show, have too
include information about the price of silver and gold going up? It
makes me and some other I know that coin dealers and promoters are no
longer about the hobby, but about the money it makes. It kind of makes
me sick at my stomach. JMHO, no one here has too agree.

[Bremick]

"sgt23" <bravesfa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:53c38063-a83d-43b9...@b23g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...

------------

So you believe that coin dealers should run their businesses strictly as
a hobby-- not as a way to earn a living and support a family? They should
totally ignore and avoid discussing the fluctuating prices of coin metals?
Next you'll be suggesting that lawyers and car dealers are only in it for
the money they can make, too. Say it ain't so.

[oly]

On Feb 11, 8:18 am, "Bremick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote:
> "sgt23" <bravesfandevo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> the money they can make, too.  Say it ain't so.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I don't think you've taken the right tack on this, Mr. R.

I know of very few coin show promoters who can clear five cents an
hour for all their efforts at the end of the day. That's why almost
all shows have to be subsidized by some related collectors' club or
organization or an affiliated "for profit" auction held in conjunction
with the show. Being a coin show promoter/ producer is invariably a
thankless job. And the coin dealer community rarely steps up to help
a struggling coin show.

However, as for coin dealers, on a net-net basis, well, you can't
write enough bad things. There are dealers who will do me personally
a very good favor and help me get the right coins at a good price, and
just as I am feeling full of goodwill, they will next show me where
they bought a high grade, rare date Carson City dollar for ten dollars
less than the cost of a common date Morgan. Invariably obtained from
some grand-motherly old widow. The business ethics of the numismatic
coin dealer community will bear NO scrutiny. Unlike used car dealers,
who buy for one and hope to sell for four (and will settle for two and
one-half), numismatic coin dealers expect a much greater killing.
Numismatic coin dealers think that ten for one is some kind of a
pathetic mark-up. The whole point of setting in a coin shop or
weekend bourses for years-on-end is to hopefully someday have some
fool walk in with a $300,000 coin or banknote accumulation that you
can manage to buy for five or six grand and then live off of for the
next decade.

oly
Full of the milk of human kindness this morning...

[Bremick]

"oly" <oly...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:7baf1879-1350-44d5...@l16g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...

--------------------

I certainly don't begrudge anyone trying to make a living as a coin
dealer, but I don't understand how so many local B&M dealers seem to be able
to keep at it. Maybe you're right. Some could be waiting for that package
from heaven, or that fool from Possum Holler. Otherwise, I can only imagine
they're like the antique or flea market dealers owning a shop with seldom
more than a couple browsers inside. Their secret to success usually lies
outside the shop (or as I recall from my youth, in the back room) where they
really earn their living, be it with mail orders, deal making, or something
less scrupulous.

The only close-by strip mall dealer near me had been at it for at least
20 years but shut down a couple months ago. I would try to stop in to buy
supplies and chat a couple times a month and there was seldom another
customer in sight. His stock rarely changed and what he had was mostly raw,
ungraded, and way overpriced. He knew I was interested in early copper and
I even gave him a want list. Based on what I saw, he HAD to work somewhere
else in order to support himself-- maybe mail orders after hours?.
Otherwise, there's no way he sold enough from the store to even pay his
overhead. He said he didn't go to area coin shows and was usually present
at his store. He also handled (gaaak!) stamps, as many coin dealers seem to
do, but his stuff was covered with dust. Maybe it's true that you've gotta
have money to make money, and this fellow just never managed to made it to
the "have money" level where he could break out of the strip mall category.

[oly]

On Feb 11, 2:03 pm, "Bremick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote:
> "oly" <oly2...@aol.com> wrote in message

> the "have money" level where he could break out of the strip mall category.- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -

These "shop" guys often have a pension somewhere, especially federal
or military, and they don't set up shop until after the age of fifty
or fifty-five. That's why they last about twenty years at a max. If
they managed to get an early out from some corporation that was
downsizing back in the '80s, their pension might be a little better
yet and they could have gotten out while still younger. Most of these
guys were once dyed-in-the-wool coin hobbyists at heart, looking for
something to do as our corporations abandoned America back in the
Reagan-Old Man Bush era. The guy who sold me all the German coins
that I mentioned back in December is a shop dealer with some form of
pension (and health insurance benefit) that helps him underwrite his
basic standard of living and then his coin shop may or may not make a
further contribution to his cigarette budget. That's my take on it.

oly

[sgt23]

On Feb 11, 9:18 am, "Bremick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote:
> "sgt23" <bravesfandevo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

I have no problem with them making money, I have a problem with gold
and silver doomsayers. Plus I thought these shows were mostly about
promoting the hobby, not running an investment client.

[sgt23]

On Feb 11, 3:03 pm, "Bremick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote:
> "oly" <oly2...@aol.com> wrote in message

You also see a lot of dealer dibbling into other hobbies such as
sports cards, autograph, historical memorabilia, comic and etc. As
much as they like to lie about it, most dealer these days have taken a
liking to eBay and they clear a lot of inventory that way. Any dealer
that will tells you he holds certain coins in his inventory for a long
time, is either computer illiterate, he's trying too hold on too some
old way of yesteryear or he just a bad liar. Sorry I'm just not buying
the sad sob story any longer. There are way to many pay too empty your
inventory now days and as many people looking too take it off your
hands if you have good quality stuff.

[Bremick]

"sgt23" <bravesfa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:e8a6825f-abca-4457...@n12g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...

---------------

If you.ve been under the impression that coin shows are mostly about
promoting the hobby, well................

As for the "doomsayers", don't you have your own opinions about gold and
silver? If you don't care one way or another, then what they might say
shouldn't bother you at all.

[oly]

> promoting the hobby, not running an investment client.- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -

"Optimism is the mania for declaring that all is well, when all is
going very badly" - Voltaire.

Buying gold and silver as a hedge is a large part of what a typpical
commercial U.S. coin show is all about. One could wish for more
emphasis on collecting coins as historic objects, but... it rarely
happens.

You must be one of the bigtime-tax eaters (as opposed to one of the
tax payers) if you think that all the doomsaying isn't justified.

oly

[sgt23]

Our government does that all alone. In this world you what you have to
do too survive.