Sales stay hot
Spurred on by news that proof gold Kennedy half dollars purchased at the U.S. Mint booth for $1,240 can be sold ungraded and unslabbed for $3,400 on the bourse floor…
Spurred on by news that proof gold Kennedy half dollars purchased at the U.S. Mint booth for $1,240 can be sold ungraded and unslabbed for $3,400 on the bourse floor of the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Ill., Matt Draiss joined the line waiting for the second day of the offering at around 11 p.m. Aug. 5.
He was about a third of the way down the line. The line of buyers for the second day formed earlier and seemed to extend a greater distance than the previous day’s line of buyers.
I walked it that Aug. 6 morning. This time instead of snaking south on River Road, it snaked north and wrapped around the corner of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center heading east for another couple of blocks’ worth of distance.
Though the line was longer, the people in it were more dispersed than the prior day’s crowd.
Rhonda Scurek, the ANA’s director of conventions, arrived at 5:30 a.m. and walked the line three times to announce the rules of behavior that were being enforced. She praised the Rosemont police for their efforts at keeping everything orderly and safe.
Draiss also praised the police. He said from 1 o’clock in the morning on they were just great. Beforehand, he said, there was a tentativeness about where people should be standing, but that was worked out.
At the end of the line, Deborah Bodner was seated in a comfortable lawn chair. She lives in a nearby community and drove in this morning. She said she got in line about 7 a.m. She has been a collector for about a year. She saw reports online about the gold Kennedy sales and she was also interested in the two-coin clad Kennedy set for $9.95, which also is being sold.
Meanwhile, Draiss wondered out loud how long the buying frenzy can last. He asked rhetorically whether the prices will collapse by the end of the convention on Saturday.
