We have changed how we work on shows. Now, we come on Tuesday first thing and hit the ground running. We saw 4 of the biggest buyers in the biz Tuesday. We could have called it quits then! They showed no weakness at all. We sold well into six figures that day. Many of the coins we got our full website listing prices for. There was no question dealers wanted and needed coins. Even our “super secret stealth seller” had a monster show, doing just under $1 million. He sells soup to nuts and hits about 40 dealers each show. The old days of coming when the show opens for dealers is over. In fact, two of the 4 buyers had left the show Wednesday! Last, we thought it was funny that on Tuesday the entire lobby of the hotel pretty much was a bourse floor.
The biggest complaints among dealers were lack of coins and cash flow (really only from people who own shops). The lack of coins has forced many dealers to buy lesser coins to maintain an inventory. We will NOT do that. That is why our inventory is the smallest it has been in 10 years currently! And from the shop guys, they are making money, but apparently many people are selling gold to them, eating up their cash. One guy told us he did a $3 million deal of gold bullion and had to pay the people a few days later. They laid the gold off to a major wholesaler/market maker who also needed some minor terms.
As far as gold, most gold coins were in heavy demand. We saw virtually NO Saints. However, a dealer had three 11S Saints in MS65+ CAC. We hesitated and wanted to think before buying one. Then poof! They were sold. very frustrating. We did manage to find a nugget or two at the show. But overall, we did not come with enough coins to survive for more than a week or two.
WE NEED COINS-what do YOU have for sale?
Please know, most price guides are behind the markets today. Even we dealers have to pay more for our coins. Our markups have become super squeezed because of that, as have many other dealers. Get used to the fact the better coins are worth more. And gold coins—you simply either pay the price a coin is offered at, or you will NOT be buying it, as someone else will.
Lastly, the show itself was weak for us. We did not do many sales to collectors (thank goodness dealers were hungry). Friday we sold zero. The show had decent attendance, but people did not seem to be buying much (at least of our kind of coins). Many people came to socialize. That is why we’re seriously considering not taking tables at a show like this. Our problem is we need a space to work, and we need people to see us. But these shows have become expensive in all areas. While we did all our biz before the show even opened, we don’t see a real value in paying $1,200.00 for a table and staying 2 extra nights. Other dealers feel that way too. We shall see if things change. Our next show is the Las Vegas PCGS invite in May—one of our favorite shows. We shall see how this all works out.
HUH?
We saw an interesting phenomenon happen at the show.
Three people came up to us to show off their non-CAC coins they bought there. We were like, Huh? We’ve never had that many people who we know normally buy CAC do that.
Please think, why would any dealer who has a brain not send a coin to CAC? There is a huge price difference. We get that collectors want to think they cherry-picked a coin or something. Sadly, we felt in all 3 cases the coins would NOT stick. One coin was even miserably AT. We’ll probably find out later what happened.
To save yourself the trouble of the coin NOT stickering, we recommend you do this: offer to pay for the coin being sent to CAC and offer a higher CAC level price if the coin does work. Then you are safe once the dealer has agreed to that. Usually by doing that you can also tell if the dealer is lying as to whether or not the coin was at CAC. Do NOT fall for any stories. Also, at major shows the lighting is typically bad. So you might see a coin with a monster luster, but you might not see the lines, etc. We’re used to it, but it nails us too occasionally.
Please think about what you are buying. The CAC bean is more than proven to be worthy of the premiums the coins sell for. Do not believe on the bourse floor miracles really happen.
NEWPS
All NEWPS will be up by Saturday AM. So check back often. Many coins are not imaged, so they will have to wait for next week.
As we mentioned before, it was hard to buy. So hard, in fact, one of the best coins we bought was a rare $1 1883 Trade PCGS PR67 Cameo NO CAC. When we saw that coin originally, it was like, Whoa. We feel it is a monster. JA thinks it has a light line or two. We thought the lines were insignificant. Hence we own a great coin we will not post. Grrr… We will just give it to our “super secret” seller for ANA. A coin like this is frustrating, as people see it differently. We are secure with our opinion of it and decision to buy it (we fretted all night over it). The savior on it, we paid a very non-CAC price.
Anyhow, this round we had been limited on postings due to lack of images. Plus, as we looked to start writing up a few coins, we realized we had want lists for them. So we only have a few.
We do believe very much you will really like what we have posted.
IF YOU WISH TO ORDER OR HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL US: legend@legendcoin.com. WE DO NOT CHECK OUR PHONE MESSAGES UNTIL 9 AM MONDAY.
