THE HOUSTON SHOW

THIS REPORT IS WRITTEN FROM THE EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS WE HAD. OTHER DEALERS WHO DEAL IN DIFFERENT AREAS WILL NOT HAVE THE SAME REPORTS. LEGEND DEALS IN THE TOP 5% OF QUALITY AND RARITY.

THE HOUSTON SHOW
This can be a very “hit or miss” type of show. We classify this show as a smaller state type of affair. It is very well run. There usually is a small group of “national level” dealers who do attend because its the only game in town at the time. Plus, Heritage having an auction is another good draw. Last, of all the shows we travel too, the Hilton Americas across the street is our favorite hotel to stay at.
We have seen years where there were just a few collectors who have attended and spent money. This year, for whatever reason attendance was larger then we had ever seen it. Plus, the show organizers told us all the tables had been sold. We felt a better “buzz” at this Houston Show then our experience at the last Baltimore Show. Collectors actually came to spend money this time! We we were totally surprised. Our biggest sale was just under $15,000.00 to a new customer. In the past, we did very little to NO retail at this show.
No question, we’ll be back in 2016!
THE MARKET
Still very choppy. If you don’t have dreck or retreads, you can easily sell coins. We are seeing the typical small year end dumping from collectors happening. We were able to pick and choose really wicked cool coins-at today’s LOWER prices as it was clear, cash is king. Only one person was dumping to raise cash, the others seemed more to be moving assets around. No one was fully cashing out and all will still be regular buyers in a month or so.
Right now we would be lying to you if we told you prices have not come down. We think in the past 30 days the overall market for anything but the rarest or nicest coins has dropped 10%. It shouldn’t be so shocking. Look at what stocks and oil are doing. The only thing frustrating-art, diamonds, and even baseball cards are still strong.
You can buy coins like $1 1883CC MS66 Morgans  and all Commems much cheaper today then a month ago. Both areas are loaded with dreck. BUT, you can’t buy an 1823 MS64 $5 for any price and where did all the bigger PR Gold go? Have not even seen any GEM Bust Halves. We’re actually selling lots of bigger coins like PR Morgans 66-68 for strong money. All Proof Barbers are a mystery as to why they slumping and remain a “must buy” in our eyes. So its not like every area of the market is hurting.
Then there is gold. You have three types of gold, generics, semi rare, and then really rare gold. Generics have fallen to levels where there are virtually no premiums. Collectors are now well aware of the pricing and are starting to buy heavily when they can find pieces. Semi rare is the most dangerous area. It has the most abuse from doctoring and gradeflation. Still, when nice, fresh coins appear, they are eagerly purchased. Last the rare stuff. Real simple, if a rare gold coin appears, and it is of true quality and eye appeal, it sells IMMEDIATELY for a strong premium. When is the last time you remember seeing a GEM PR $20 Lib being offered?
Gold looks like its ready to break out. We make no bones about that we are forever “gold bugs” and have a more positive attitude about gold and gold coins than most other might. We also think collectors need to focus on buying for tomorrow and open their eyes wide to the huge opportunities in front of them today-in all areas.
A NOTE ON $5 INDIANS 
We’d like to discuss $5 Indians. In the auction there was a very nice collection-highlighted by a really rare 1915S PCGS MS64 CAC (we were the under bidders as it sold for $94,000.00). The last nice set of $5 Indians appeared in auction maybe 4 years ago. Apparently this collection had been assembled 2006-2012. Many coins sold for LOWER then what the consignor paid-which is a shame because these are legit really rare coins. We see HUGE opportunities for future price growth in $5 Indians which is why we wanted to discuss them.
The reason why the collector suffered the loss: most collectors do not know this was an area controlled by one, maybe two major telemarketers. For years they heavily promoted these coins. We’ll guess that at one point they had 40-50 people actually trying to build sets. Heck, if you have 5 people at one time trying to build sets that would raise the market. Of course that demand dried up supply and prices shot up. As the story goes, something happened and one of the telemarketers ran into trouble. So they had to buy back a bunch of their customers coins vs going on the open market to buy. So over the past few years prices of coins like a $5 1914 MS65 have come down from $21,000.00 to $14,000.00 today (Legend bought the $5 1914 PCGS MS65 CAC for $14,100.00 out of the auction). The abstract inflation of their pricing has ended and now these coins have come down beyond where they really should be-and in many cases BELOW the right levels. Even if we offered $15,000.00 the chances of us buying another 1914 PCGS MS65 CAC-are extremely slim. We put our money where our thoughts are and we bought most of the PCGS CAC $5 pieces in GEM from the auction. It is our very strong opinion this series is no longer one to be afraid of. We also bought an outstanding group of MS63-MS64’s in deals. WE NEVER buy this many because we can’t find them as nice as these. We’re not just self promoting here. If you think about it, how many NICE PCGS CAC $5 1913 MS64+ do you ever see offered?
Today, if you can find them, you can buy these coins for a big % LESS then where they were at 5 years ago. They are every bit the great deal they should be. Now, you have a far more “pure”market for them. There are NO quantities available. Here too (like in all gold issues) dreck and gradeflation is a huge problem. So once you pick through all that, know that buying a really nice properly graded GEM WILL have significant yields down the road. We wanted to clarify why the majority of the coins from the auction sold for LESS then the collector paid since they are so rare. It was external market forces-not regular supply and demand that hurt the series. Of course, NOW is the time to buy these coins! We like all MS64 and higher PCGS CAC (ONLY).
NEWPS
As we have been mentioning, we finally have a great offering of gold that is soup to nuts! Our dream came true. There were two gold deals that broke at Houston. We bought one out right-part of it was a Superb GEM 12 Piece Gold Type set we had been building with someone and the other was a deal that hit the floor that the dealer who bought it gave us first shot on. ALL of the coins were purchased at the most recent bids-which are really cheap. Out side of these two deals, buying a lot of gold -especially NICE gold at today’s levels-extremely hard. We have not had such a larger gold offering like this in years! Do not think too long as we expect a quick sell out.
We’re not offering the Type set just yet as we like it so much we might want to sell it as a set. Its 11 pieces as the owner kept the $3.
We even have couple of lesser priced but WOW DMPL’S!!!
Other highlights include:
1C  1902 PCGS PR67 RD CAC
25C 1871 PCGS MS67+ CAC
$2.5 1895 PCGS PR66+DCAMEO CAC
50C J-73 ORIGINAL 1838 PCGS PR65 CAC
Of course we have something for every one.
Check back often this weekend. We expect NEWPS to be posted through late Sunday. We expect next week to be our final offering of NEWPS for 2015.
LEGEND RARE COIN AUCTIONS
Our sale is really cranking! We thank everyone who showed up in Houston to lot view (including the 2 people who flew in just to see the coins). We’ve had tremendous response already. Every day since we posted the sale we’ve added a huge number of new buyers (to LRCA) placing bids. We look forward to seeing many happy winners and sellers from this sale! Our motto: “A happy buyer makes for a happy seller”. The sale is a live event on December 17th starting at 4:30 PST.
Time to consign for Feb! We’re working hard and are in serious discussions on some world class coins/collections for our 2016 season already. In house we have some major rarities for Feb that we will be announcing shortly. You’ll want to consign your coins to our first sale of 2016. If you have any questions, need assistance bidding, or wish to consign, please contact Julie Abrams: julie@legendauctions.com.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR WISH TO ORDER, PLEASE EMAIL US. legend@legendcoin.com WE DO NOT CHECK OUR PHONE MESSAGES UNTIL 9 AM MONDAY.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *