Check this out: A Hippo shaped copper bar sold for $31 million at Sotheby’s Dec 10th. Can you believe this thing brought $31 million? Think of how many wicked cool low-pop coins that could buy! As people with bigger wallets enter our marketplace and with a seriously low supply, prices MUST go up. Part of the problem is that you are not seeing much motion with the fact that the price guides do a poor job of following the auctions or scoping dealers’ bids. In reality, in today’s marketplace, the price of superior, better coins has risen as much as 25% since 2022 as the pandemic was ending. If just a single collector entered the coin market and spent $31 million over two months, that would radically cause the market to rise almost overnight (which seems to be a phase we are going through right now). Again, we are talking coins over $25G that are top pops. That does not mean other areas are slumping. These WhatNot players are draining the market of supply at an alarming rate. Coins UNDER $10,000.00 for the most part are RED FRIGGIN HOT. eBay used to be the entry point for many new collectors; now these apps are drawing hundreds, if not thousands, of newbie collectors. Because of all this activity, there are so few neat coins in dealer cases at major shows. We know that at the close of 2025 our inventory is at the lowest level since 2010! Many coins are in seriously strong hands today in what we call a deep black hole. Gone are the days when we could buy an entire PR Barber Half set in 64/65. We are starved for GEM Bust Halves pre-1830 in MS64-66. And much to our surprise, most of the Fairmont Gold hoard is gone. We do not see many of them recirculating. Hard to believe that all 5 Omega sets we purchased are now sold.
We anticipate 2026 to be another strong year for the coin market. Hard assets rule again. We think people should build boxes of 20 or build Type sets. Otherwise you will see that it is a very long wait to build most sets with the reality that some holes will never be filled. We were just approached by a person who was thinking about Standing 25C. Beautiful coins; however, building a set of them—forget about it!
2026
We can not see ourselves changing our good old-fashioned ways of how we do biz. We are seeing fewer dealers who still do the “personal” touch now that the new generation is more online or just will not take the time to work directly with collectors. The manpower to do the apps is something we currently do not have (hint: if any young whippersnapper wants to apply, please email us). Even though our offices are closed Fridays, we will work. We answer emails all the time. Not being in the office allows us to catch our breath. The amount we sell just online is millions per month. That’s a lot of work.
NEWPS
We pretty much are done for the rest of the year. We only bought one cool coin at the Las Vegas show.
We cannot stress enough about checking our current inventory now. We have monster buyers lined up for Tuesday and Wednesday when we arrive at FUN. Most coins you see today on our site will probably be sold at the FUN show—some for more than we have listed (yeah, that really happens). We sell to several other collector-friendly dealers—and we can tell you, they need coins! Our super secret stealth seller rated the Las Vegas PCGS trade and Grae an A+ with how much he sold. Never heard that from him before.
Last, if you seek auction representation for FUN, please let us know asap. It is very helpful for us to know before the show so we can manage our time wisely. Otherwise we only view the lots of interest to us.
THE FUN SHOW
Unlike last year, we are sort of in a better location. See us at tables 310-312
Laura will be in attendance through Thursday evening. Jose and George will be there the entire time through Saturday AM when Malca picks up. Stop by and say hello!
We hope to have the $1 1794 PCGS XF 45 on display that we recently bought out of the James Stack Collection (it is NOT for sale). The coin is nothing less than AMAZING!
OUR OFFICES ARE CLOSED DEC 24 UNTIL WE RETURN FROM FUN. WE WILL POP IN AND OUT TO GET OUR MAIL, ETC.
DO NOT HESITATE TO EMAIL US, AS WE WILL BE FULLY RESPONSIVE DURING THAT TIME.
