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Copyright 1994 by Michael E. Marotta, 7 Aug 1994
[This special report to the Coins mailing list will be part of a set of queries to editors of coin publications as a test. I am testing the value of my new Numismatic Literary Guild membership. I'd like to get rejection letters instead of just being ignored.]
I attended the ANA in Detroit because it was in Detroit and I live about 60 miles away. As a result of what I have learned I am looking forward to making all kinds of shows from now on until I am totally showed out. You can profit bigtime at a show. You need never pay retail again. You can have a first-name relationship with the world's largest and/or oldest and/or richest numismatic dealers and/or collectors.
Rule 1: Join the ANA. It only costs $26 to $35 per year (watch for specials) and unlike the stamp people, ANA doesn't charge more for "dealers". You get discounts on travel (I don't care. I have charge cards with the same privs). You can get discounts on charge cards. You can get Long Distance Service. (I did. It was a bargain.) You can borrow books from the ANA Library. (Post on this later. It is the reason why I stay a member.)
As a ANA Member, you get a nametag that says so. This separates you from the public. There are a lot of hard-boiled dealers, to be sure, but it is human nature to identify with people like yourself and being an ANA Member provides a talisman that works magic when buying and selling. You may not buy below Greysheet Bid, but you won't pay Redbook like everyone else.
Rule 2: Go on a weekday. Call in sick to your exploitative capitalist overlords if you have to, but be there when the public isn't. The first day of the show, the deals are better because people want to cover costs and because everyone is "up". On the last day, deals are good, also. People have made their money (or not) and are dragged out and bored and just want to get it over with. If you go the last day, remind them of meeting you on the first day.
Rule 3: Volunteer! Clubs get a free table. (No dealing from the club tables!) As a Club Rep, you get a photo-ID and a ribbon. As an ANA Member you get a ribbon. Committee chairs get ribbons. Speakers get ribbons. Exhibitors and Judges get photo-ID and ribbons. When you deal with a chestful of ribbons, you deal from a position of respect.
I wore three items: Dealers Photo-ID (contract clerical for a local dealer at the show); Exhibitor's Ribbon; Member's Ribbon. I also had an exhibitor's Photo-ID and a Member's stick-on. Here are some of my purchases:
Obols from Massalia $5 each
An Archaic Diobol from Phokia $100
Keltic denarii $35 each
Sigloi $25 each
A Cistophoric Tetradrachma $60
I can't say more because some of the items were unique. All of these will be for sale at local shows and while they are, they are mine to enjoy, to identify, and to attribute. (Golly, what I know about snake baskets now!) If you are not into ancients, consider the bargains on six-step nickels, key date Wheaties, and national banknotes.
TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. I bought these bargains at a price not tallied in dollars. As a clerk for a dealer, my time was not my own and I didn't get to spend time on the floor. (I missed getting back to a hoard of Ephesus obols.) But at least my travel, room, and meals were covered.
As a club rep, you will spend a lot of time sitting behind a table, smiling blankly. I spent $100 and 40 hours on my exhibit. The judging classes cost about $300 before you can volunteer to be a judge. Reps, judges, committee chairs, etc. pay their own expenses. The only way I know to avoid them is to work for the ANA. (One staffer was fussing because nothing in Detroit could be found that was up to ANA standards for David Ganz's suite. He either slummed it at the Pontchartrain or else was jostled by the hoi poloi at the Renaissance Center; I don't know which.)
So, if you prefer to pay your costs up front and in the coin itself, there is no reason to attend an ANA show and surely none except as a member of the public. Assuming of course, that you are within a drive of the world's 450 best coin dealers who know you by your first name.
One more point: I even got J. S. G. Boggs to inscribe a bon mot on the letter I wrote to Numismatic News in his support. Other people bought his t-shirts and had them signed by him and then later by the Treasurer of the United States. Some things are so much fun that they are beyond monetary value.
Michael E. Marotta
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