NO HYPE-JUST FACTS
Only once in our 40-year career do we remember selling coins around the 4th of July holiday. This year our plan was to slow down sales starting July 1st until we return from Summer FUN (we will post NEWPS on July 10th). It seems every day we receive unsolicited sales from the website or emails inquiring about what we have. Selling today is too darn easy! But then no one offers the quality or eye appeal like we do—NO ONE!
POOR PRICE REPORTING
The interesting issue is that prices are firm today—or so we think. They are not moving up at the moment. Part of it is the slow summer season, and a BIG part is that the price guides are horrible in their reporting.
As dealers, we have to use at least 3 different price guides just to try and estimate what a coin is worth. To make matters worse, the lines between wholesale and retail are blurred.
In our opinion, for gauging the strength of the market, the most reliable source for pricing is auctions. Even at auctions, most people do not know how to digest the information. If you don’t know the particular coin, then you don’t know how high-end it is or if it has a hidden problem. Hence, you can’t really make an accurate assessment. At least as dealers, we can see the coins in hand most of the time. And then what do you do when a coin has not sold in years? How the heck do you figure that out? Actually, auctions are good for basic information—is the market strong or soft?
It is our strong opinion that the price guides (especially CDN) need to have boots on the ground at shows or a physical reporter monitoring everything. Years ago the CDN had the late Keith Zaner. Every Monday we’d get a call. Basing prices off of cheap wholesale bids is ridiculous. At least PCGS (which is still behind the 8 ball) is trying and does have people working on it. With thousands of prices, the systems need time to correct and become accurate. In that time many collectors will lose out on coins, sell their coins too cheaply, miss selling opportunities, or see wrong information that could cause them to sit on the sidelines. Pricing can also go the other way too—especially when the market slows. How do you know when that happens when using outdated price guides?
Clearly we are in a massive BULL MARKET, especially for coins priced UNDER $10,000.00. Rarely have we encountered a correct price guide. We buy based on our experience, using three different price guides and auction results. All that and we can still be too low or too high. VERY FRUSTRATING!
Today, you just have to use price guides as nothing more than an approximation, knowing you are not paying 50%+ too much (although w/a CAC coin, you do sometimes have to pay double a non-CAC price). Nothing replaces the knowledge of a bourse floor working dealer, though. Being a do-it-yourselfer is not smart in this game. You will navigate it much better with help. And we highly advise you buy only PCGS CAC or CACG coins. Yes, you pay more, but darn it, you get so much more. Those who own non-doctored problem-free coins generally come out ahead. We have a motto: sometimes cheap is not cheap enough. And the price guides you may be using to buy a coin cheap may not be right.
NO NEWPS THIS WEEKEND.
We will be posting NEWPS July 10th. Stay tuned. Have some really fresh and nice coins.
Sign up for our mass emails. We will send out a Coin of the Week e-blast next week.
LEGEND WILL BE AT FUN TABLE 1212 until 1 PM Thursday. If you wish to see a coin or need to see us, email laura@legendcoin.com.
Not hyping anything, but do not think too long on what we have posted. We have some of the nicest coins available—and those coins are so eagerly sought that we will sell a bunch of them to 3 big dealers at prices at or above what we posted on the web on Tuesday. These dealers need the nice coins for their customers too! At the recent Baltimore Show, we sold so much on Tuesday that we went home early Wednesday!
Have a great, relaxing, and fun July 4th! Happy birthday, America!
OUR OFFICES ARE CLOSED FRIDAYS. WE DO CHECK OUR EMAILS EVERY DAY. WE CHECK PHONE MESSAGES MONDAYS AT 9 AM.
