2009 BECC Coin Show

I haven't written a show review in some time. This weekend, I attended the BECC (Boeing Employee Coin Club) Coin Show in Kent, WA. This is the second largest annual show in the area, topped only by the annual PNNA show in Tukwila, which follows in April. Unlike a lot of other shows, which run Friday through Sunday, the BECC show only runs Saturday and Sunday, so I was able to attend on the first day of the event. As an additional extra, I had just received a mailer from one of the coin dealers I frequently visit, so I had done advance research on his material and marked out the items I was interested in looking at.

I arrived at the show at 10:30 AM, about a half hour after the doors opened. Already there was quite a crowd on the bourse, but as time went on, it grew even more crowded. My first objective was James Hanna's table. I've worked with Jim before, and I have been pleased with both his prices and grading. Having received his fixed price mailer two days before the show, I quickly ran through the coins I was interested in. Unfortunately, I was not the only interested person, because most items had already been purchased (before the show) - including a 300 Reis from Azores in AU, which was top of my list. In fact, of the 8 items or so that I had marked off, less than half were still available. Fortunately, number two on my list was still there - an unlisted overdate, 1769/66 4,000 Reis from Brazil. Priced a little out of my cash budget, I had come prepared with some trade material of coins outside my focus collection. I also found a couple of bargain priced Dutch duits. In short, my buying was done in the first 30 minutes... now it was time to check out the show.

i wasn't sure what to expect this year. Overall, activity was still pretty strong. I thought more people would be coming to sell, given that there have been really tough economic conditions around the area. Most people I talked with said this wasn't true. People were still buying. On the other hand, I also, somewhat, expected to see a lot of really nice material for sale for the same reason - again, I was wrong. One of the show organizers told me this was likely because a lot of coin dealers were holding back some material for the ANA show coming to Portland in March. I didn't consider that, although I plan on attending, if I can build up enough scratch to make it worth the four hour drive.

All told, there were four other dealer tables that focused on world material. Aside from what I had already purchased, nothing really caught my attention. I don't generally spend time on the black binders and bargain boxes offered by the dealers that focus on US coins. There are usually great deals to be found there, but they never really involve coins in my focus.

While walking around and looking over the tables, I sold a couple more coins from my old US collection - just enough to give me a head start on saving up for the Portland show. Prices offered were fairly reasonable, and I got what I figured I was looking for.

For more information about the PNNA or the BECC, pelase visit the website of the PNNA at:

PNNA.org