Daddy Days: A valuable lesson in coin collecting

It all started when I was arranging wood in the backyard firepit to light a fire for the boys. I was crumpling up some newspaper to get it started and came across a full-page advertisement declaring the imminent presence of the Pflugerville Roadshow.

The ad had pictures of coins and antique items and, much like the "Antiques Roadshow" program on PBS, invited the public to come to the show and sell collectibles and coins.

The 9-year-old saw this and snatched the page to save it from being used as part of the fire. And then he immediately said, “Dad can we go?” Hoping this was an outdated paper, I asked when the event was scheduled. To my chagrin, it was in about a week. I told him we’d see.

He let me know it says right in the ad that they buy pre-1964 quarters and pay up to $1,200. I lit the fire and tried to explain to the boys the nature of advertisements and the trickiness of the phrase “up to.” I think I got through to up to one of them.

Fast forward to about a week later. I walked through the door after work and the 9-year-old had the ad in his hand and asked, “Dad, can we go to this? It’s today, at the La Quinta Inn behind Target.”

There were no legitimate reasons not to and I couldn’t invent any legitimate conflicts, so I agreed to take the 9-year-old to the event. We grabbed a few old coins and headed up to that bastion of antique treasures: the La Quinta Inn behind Target.

I let my son know what I thought it would be like (doing my best to describe what I’d seen on "Antiques Roadshow") and also let him know the coins we brought were not worth much (if anything) beyond face value and I wasn’t planning to sell anything. He was on board with all of this and said he just really wanted to see what sort of coins they had and how it all worked.

We walked into the hotel lobby and followed the signs to the conference room where the show was taking place. I immediately noticed two things: there were cameras everywhere outside and inside the conference room, and there was only one man sitting behind a table in a room much smaller than I had envisioned.

The man told us to sign in and have a seat in the lobby and he'd get us when it was our turn. We did and got comfortable-ish on two intentionally uncomfortable chairs.

Then I started assessing the situation. It was shortly after 5:00 and this event was supposed to end at 6. In the room with the man behind the table there was a woman with an enormous trunk of items she appeared to be negotiating a sale on. There were five people in the lobby and at least three of them appeared to be waiting their turn. There was no way we were getting in that room before 6.

I quietly gave my son the lay of the land as I saw it. He understood but he really wanted to see the coins. I let him know this was not really what I expected and this guy surely knew we were unlikely to be worth much of his time.

We waited for about 30 minutes and the woman with the trunk remained in the room. A man with huge cardboard boxes had come and gone from the room and it was unclear how long that transaction had been going on. Without being overly eavesdroppy, I ascertained that the husband and wife sitting nearby had been waiting a long time. Too long for the husband and he was ready to go. He kept muttering about there needing to be a time limit for each prospective seller.

Six o’clock rolled around. I was starting to get hungry. I told my son we likely wouldn’t get seen until 7 and that was only if the guy didn’t close shop as soon as he was done with his present customer. He understood … but he REALLY wanted to see the coins.

Finally, the guy running the show came out and announced the names he had left on the list and brought back the next person. It wasn’t the married couple and I was hopeful the husband would finally just bail and we’d move to next in line. But they stuck it out.

It was past 6:30 and the couple in front of us still had not been called back. I reassessed the situation and started to have concerns about how this was likely to go down. When, and if, our turn came we were likely to get a glance at one table that might have coins on it, and then likely get quickly dismissed by a guy who was surely as ready to have dinner as I was.

I began trying to severely temper my son’s expectations and gave him the option of bailing now and doing some coin research online. He started to waver a bit. I increased the linguistic vice-tightening. Dads, you’ve been here. You don’t need to outright say no but are trying to get a kid to see things a bit differently and maybe consider a different course of action more in line with what you want to happen. I was hungry and tired of waiting, but I was also starting to fear this could be a terrible first experience with coin collecting and possibly a hard disappointment that was unnecessary.

Then the couple got called back and we were next in line. My son was once again solid in his conviction to stick it out. Shortly before 7 it was our turn. As we walked by, I tried to read the body language of the collector and assess whether my son was about to get a curt lesson in the way of the world. But I got an entirely different lesson instead.

This guy was the best. He politely introduced himself and shook my son’s hand. He showed us the coins he had on display, gave us a guide for the coins he was looking to buy (for next time) and also some tips on what specifically to look for as both a collector and seller. He didn’t rush us or act like we were taking up his time. He seemed legitimately thrilled to see a kid interested in coins and wanted to encourage that interest.

As if this wasn’t enough, he then told my son he was going to help him start his coin collection right now, and allowed him to choose one of the various encased collectible coins on the table to take home. My son was stunned he could actually take one.

Honestly, I’m not sure who this was a better experience for, me or my son. He got to meet and get tips from a guy who knew a ton about coin collecting and I got a lesson in it being worth it to stick it out so a kid can explore an interest. All this because my son spotted a newspaper ad for the Pflugerville Roadshow — at the La Quinta Inn behind Target.

Harris and his wife live in Pflugerville with their six sons. Please email comments or suggestions for future columns to thoughtsforcaleb@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Daddy Days: A valuable lesson in coin collecting