2024 ANA WFOM Report- Peak Rarities' first national show

As far back as I can remember, I've never been good at planning things out in advance. Even as a kid in school, I was the king of procrastination. It doesn't matter if the assignment was given 6 months ago, I wouldn't begin to work on it until the night before. A lot of those habits carried over to my adult life, and often I find myself scrambling by the seat of my pants because I just couldn't kick the habit of procrastinating.

I attempted to change that in preparation for this show, and I planned this trip 8 months ago after winter fun. I booked my stay at the Hyatt well in advance, so I didn't have to stay at one of the secondary hotels not connected to the convention center. I also booked a first-class round trip with American Airlines. If the price isn't unreasonable, it makes sense to fly first class since you get two free checked bags included, in addition to having a much more comfortable seat and getting fed on the plane. I think the round-trip cost was around $1,200, which isn't terrible all things considered and it was out of the Palm Beach International (PBI) airport which is about 15-20 minutes from my house.

Despite my planning well in advance, in an effort to be comfortable for once, that all went to crap on Sunday when I woke up to a notification that my flight had been canceled. There was a pending "hurricane" and just about all departing flights had been canceled. I put the word hurricane in quotes because I looked out of the window from my house to see semi-cloudy skies and a touch of wind. Often times, when I tell people that I live in South Florida, they tend to ask "How has it been dealing with all the hurricanes?" Let me tell you, I've lived here going on 6 years and I have yet to experience a true hurricane. There have been a couple on the west coast of Florida, but my only experience with hurricanes here has been a modest storm with some heavy rainfall and wind. Not like you would expect when you think of a "Hurricane".

Now that everyone's flight had been canceled, the demand for departing flights was heavy and the next flight I could find was Monday morning out of Miami. Remember how I said my first class, direct (both ways) flight out of my local airport was $1200? Well this economy-tier flight with connections both ways out of an airport over an hour away from my house was $1350. There was nothing I could do, no other options so I booked it. Imagine my surprise when I got a notification on my way to the airport that this flight too, had been canceled. At this point, I was starting to get desperate, and the next flight I could find was out of Orlando, which is about 3 hours from home. The flight was at 9 pm, and it was United with one connection going there, and a direct spirit flight back. I had no choice so I booked it, but this flight was even more expensive than the last at $1800. Later on while I was at the gate, the airline representative announced that they had overbooked the flight and were offering a refund and travel voucher, a night at the hotel, and a free meal for anyone who would fly out the following morning. Being that my flight was so expensive and I wasn't going to land in Chicago until after midnight anyway, I took the deal. The flight the following morning was only $800, and I was still going to make it to the bourse by 10:30-11:00 AM.

I got a good night's sleep at the hotel and finally was on an airplane Tuesday morning, I made it to the convention center shortly after the show had opened to the public. Unfortunately, I missed dealer day and all the pre-show trading, and I also missed my opportunity to view the auction lots early, but I was at the show with my merchandise nonetheless.

Out of the gate, as soon as I put my coins out, our table was swarmed with collectors. I set up with Noah at the Rarity7 table. We had a good location in the front across from Doug Winter, next to Witter Coin. Peak Rarities only had one case, and it was an eclectic mix of different types of coins ranging from $1000- $50,000. We did around $40,000 in business on the first day, which was maybe 8 coins, and the bourse floor was lively and energetic the entire time. The entire afternoon I was on my feet without pause, and by the end of the day I was exhausted and sore. That night we had dinner at Gibson's Steakhouse, which seemed to have pretty good reviews. I ordered a ribeye, and when my steak came out I was sorely disappointed. They use a high-heat broil technique, and the outer crust of the steak had a char that made it bitter and black. The steak itself was terrible, and though it was cooked to the temperature ordered (medium), it was chewy as a boot. I didn't sugarcoat it to the server, I told her it was one of the worst steaks I've ever had and I sent it back to the kitchen to be replaced with a filet. The filet was much better, but I still found the heavily charred crust to be bitter and off-putting.

Wednesday morning I had overslept, I was tired from the previous day of traveling and being on my feet all day and I guess my body needed more rest than I had planned for. By the time I had made it to the bourse, I had a piece of paper with the names and phone numbers of several collectors who were interested in coins in our case. 2/3 of them ended up buying the coin after I had called them back over. It was a little slow during the middle of the day, but from about 2:00 PM- 6:00 PM it was a barn burner and I never even got to sit down. I think we sold around $50,000 in coins Wednesday, one of them was a $25,000 coin and the rest were in the $5,000-$10,000 range.

For those of you that don't know, my only employee at this time is David Khaskin. David is a bright young man with an economics degree, and a junior member of the Bust Half Nut Club. David has been encouraging me to dabble more in bust halves, which is something I haven't done until recently. David found another collector who was looking to part with some really nice coins. That collector visited our table after taking bids from many dealers on the bourse, and he walked away from our table with a $40,000 check. We were left with several awesome coins, including a 1793 Wreath Cent in VF30 CAC with the most beautiful planchet and appearance. In about two hours, the wreath cent was already sold and paid for. I had never dabbled in EAC before, as a collector, but Peak Rarities is looking to diversify into different coin types, and we really enjoy any early federal coinage with original surfaces.

We had deep-dish Chicago Pizza that night, and it was outstanding. This was my first time trying it, and I was not disappointed. It takes a long time to prepare, but it was an inexpensive dinner that left me fat and happy for the night. Later on we had some drinks at the Hyatt Bar before retiring to our rooms for the night.

I was up early Thursday morning as I had a meeting with someone prior to the show, but the morning was off to a slow start. There were a few visitors at the table but no sales. I thought that I might have a moment to start walking the bourse since I had not had a chance to walk the floor yet, but just like the previous day, the afternoon heated up and I wasn't able to leave the table. If I recall correctly, we did around $40,000 in sales but one of the coins accounted for more than half that. We decided to all do our own thing that night so there were no dinner plans, I had hung out at the Hyatt Bar for a little while but I needed to catch up on my accounting and inventory so I retired to my room early.

Friday was a pretty slow day overall, we did around $20,000 in sales in the morning but it got quiet after that. I finally had the chance to peruse the offerings on the floor and ended up buying a few nice coins for inventory. I also got to stop by some of my favorite dealer's tables and acquire some coins for my own collection. As most of you know, my primary focus is pioneer gold with original surfaces, so I normally don't get to buy much. This time, however, I was offered 3 really nice pieces and I bought them all. I also bought a really nice 2 leaves flowing hair dollar for my type set. I don't recall where we ate that night, but we were joined by Shannon on Paradime coins, a similar type dealer with an eye for quality.

Saturday morning I was at the convention center by 8 am to view the Heritage auction lots, I went through just about everything and had my sights set on some fantastic offerings that I wanted for inventory. Unfortunately, Stacks had already packed up and boogied out of there, which was disappointing considering that there were a few lots I wanted to see in hand. Oh well, I guess most of our buying is done via pictures and videos anyway, it's the new normal. Besides, I can see the grades and I can see the stickers, why would I need to see the actual coin? 😛

I sold nothing on Saturday, and most of the dealers had already packed up and left as of Friday evening. Saturday was more of a social day, some nice conversations were had with whomever was left standing. My flight wasn't until 7 pm, so we all hung around until about 4 pm, and then made our way to the airport where we went our separate ways.

Our total sales for the show came out to about $150,000, which doesn't seem too bad for our first national show, with a single case. Several of those coins were 5 figures though, I'd say the average came out to about $5,000 per coin. We bought about $100,000 in inventory at the show, but again several of those coins were in the 20k realm, so it wasn't that many coins in terms of number.

The subsequent auctions went very well for Peak Rarities, and even better for Dan Decker 🙂. We were able to win some terrific inventory, and I secured a couple amazing rarities for my collection. That's one thing that I refuse to change, is that I want to maintain my personal collection in the form of a Box o' 20. I won't be sharing those coins on any of the Peak social media accounts, but you can see them on the CU forum, CAC forum, or on IG under @ddsboxof20. Some dealers openly maintain a collection, some dealers collect quietly, and many dealers don't collect at all, as they feel they shouldn't be competing with their clients. In my view, the coins I collect and hold are quite esoteric, and I don't feel as if I'm competing with clients. Before I put something away in my box, I normally offer it to collectors first just to make sure that I'm not keeping something that someone else desperately wants to buy. If you ever see anything in my collection that you're interested in, feel free to let me know. Everything I have is for sale at a certain price, but if it's a coin that I don't want to sell, the price will be painfully high. That said, my interests do change sometimes and I decide to sell coins out of my collection, and it's important for me to know if you would like to be offered that coin, should I decide to part with it.

A general observation was that this show was red hot, and many dealers opined that they did great business. Collectors were hungry for nice coins, and as far as I saw, there was no lack of discretionary spending here. I was most surprised at the amount of 5-figure coins that were being bought up by collectors and dealers alike. Notably, however, the dealers who had strong business are the dealers who price coins appropriately. If a dealer has museum prices, and they want record numbers over comps for everything, theyre not going to sell much. If one's pricing is in line with the market or a touch under comps, then they are going to be selling some coins. Quality is getting harder and harder to find, and quality always sells. With gold prices surging to new all-time highs, many are using gold bullion or common date pre-33 as payment for their numismatic purchases. I'd say that about 30% of the 150k in sales was payment in gold bullion, and another prominent dealer I talked to said the same thing. If you have all these common double eagles that you bought when gold was $1600-$1800, and now they're worth $2400, it makes a lot of sense to use them in trade for a numismatic purchase rather than pulling cash from somewhere else.

One of the most interesting things I've learned being on the other side of the table, is how many different ways there are to make a living in numismatics. I've mentioned to my girlfriend before that this show is perhaps the biggest of the year, and there would probably be close to 1000 coin dealers under one roof at the same time. She asks "How can you guys possibly do well if there's hundreds of you doing the same thing?"

That's the beauty of it all, that none of us are doing the exact same thing! Dealer 1 is high-end type retail, registry coins and condition rarities. Dealer 2 is a rarities wholesaler, he walks the floor with a million dollars in inventory. Dealer 3 is a copper enthusiast and specialist in Indian Head Cents. Dealer 4 specializes in Japanese Kobans. Dealer 5 is a wholesaler of low-end commodities, pushing high volume at thin margins. I could go on and on, there are a myriad of ways to make your path in numismatics. That would be my advice to anyone who's toying with the idea of making a living in numismatics, find your niche, and be the best at it. I'm truly grateful that I get to spend my day hunting for great coins, and providing an honest white-glove service to like-minded clients who appreciate the same qualities that I do. Prior to my decision to be a coin dealer, I had a lucrative business that made money and afforded me a very comfortable living, but with that came stress and headaches that I no longer want to subject myself to. I didn't become a coin dealer because I thought it was the best way to make money, I became a dealer because I want to live, eat, and breathe coins every day, and my passion for coins makes it feel as though I'm retired, and don't have to work anymore.

Anyway, like I said earlier, we bought some great coins at the show and the subsequent auctions, and we're excited to start branching out into different segments of the market. I've been busy photographing and writing descriptions, and there were so many auctions this past week that it was difficult to focus and complete the tasks at hand. With that being said, our new inventory will go live on Tuesday, August 20th, at 3:00 PM EST (12 noon est). We have plenty of gold and a fair amount of silver, andthe two coppers we purchased at the show are already sold. We have some phenomenal coins in the pipeline getting graded/stickered and we'll likely have another round of newps the first week of September.

Peak Rarities will be set up at two more shows this year, hopefully. One for certain is the GACC in Tampa, September 11-14. It's a new show, but we have full faith in the promoters who have a track record of successful coin shows, and from our talks with other dealers, should be well attended. The other one will be Whitman Expo in Baltimore November 14-16, which is not set in stone yet but I'm 95% sure we'll be attending. At both shows we will be set up alongside Noah and the Rarity7 team, and in 2025 we are looking to start renting our own booth. Please reach out to us directly via email or phone call if you have any questions at all about upcoming shows, inventory, or if you'd like to discuss your collecting goals and let us help curate new additions to your collection. We're off to a strong start so far, and we truly appreciate the opportunity to work with you!