THE MARKET
Like a 2-3 other major buyers, we already had our fill of coins from the break up of the monster Oliver Jung Type set 10 days prior to the ANA Show. Legend Numismatics knows opportunity and does not waste time or jerk around when a once in a life time deal pop up. We were not the first shot but we spent the most of any one (well over $2 million) so far. So we really did not need to run into the ANA Show or its auctions starved for coins. We actually had a chance to sit back a little. We would say our show was very good. We still view the market as choppy at best.
PCGS CAC gold for sure was in demand. There was very little of it to buy on the floor. We spoke to a major dealer who fully expects a run for gold. He himself was on a huge buying spree of soup to nuts at the show,
We were shocked to see strong buying in the wholesale side. Our super secret “stealth seller” had a record show doing over $1,150,000.00! And he does not even have table. His first day he did over $500,000.00 in sales where he saw 5-6 people (we forget the exact number) was an all time record for him. Congrats!
In the end, Legend did over $1,000,000.00 in business (sales). On behalf of customers we spent 1,000,000.00 as well. Not our best show, but certainly no where near our worst. There was genuine activity and not just for gold. We’d also say overall,on Wed and Thur we saw an above average attendance rate by collectors.
OUR SHOW DAY TO DAY
SUNDAY
We left on a late morning light to Chicago. We landed at Noon and had a 1:00 appointment with our #1 buyer. He did not let us down. We had a fresh deal with us that was so hot to him, he called over another buyer and they spent over six figures with us. We got done at 3 then decided to do some lot viewing. Lasted an hour doing that. went back to hotel and checked in. Wanted sushi so we all jumped in the car and hit our favorite place-Bluefin.
PNG DAY-MONDAY
We did not even bother this year with PNG. In fact we went to visit our good friend Gerry Forsythe to pick up the 5C 1913 display. Stayed with him for while. We missed nothing, no one said PNG day was any good.
The ANA needs to dump this leaching body and just start set up on Tuesday and go from there.
Had dinner at Georges favorite resturant-Trulucks. Yum! Semi wasted day. Although we did go to the store and place our order for the flowers we like to have at our ANA table.
TUESDAY
Official set up day. We had breakfast at 6:30 AM with our good friend Tony Terranova like we always do. Then, we had a dealer sitting at our table waiting for us to come in. He could not wait to see our coins. He had first shot on a different part of the deal we had. He called it the “freshest deal he had ever seen”. Sensing something was up, other dealers soon flocked to our table and we had an all out feeding frenzy. One major dealer comes running over saying : “I heard you have gold deal, with $20’s” It was funny to watch. We were happy as we just kept writing invoices!
Broke to have lunch with Bret Charville, the President of PCGS. Had a wonderful chat. He certainly is out to make things better. Back to work: We were super busy all day. We did make time to run over and see the two displays we helped with-the Forsythe Liberty Nickel Collection at PCGS and the Black Cat patterns at the ANA museum display. Very cool. Time passed by so fast, we never really had the chance to leave the table again.
We crawled out at 6:00 and went to the sushi joint again for dinner. Yum! We were not done yet for the day. Stayed up until midnight figuring the auctions. So confusing-too many different sessions.
WEDNESDAY
We knew this would be a very long day. Started again by having breakfast with Tony. This time we had to be in the room by 7:30 to go over the days auctions with several customers. Made it to the show by 8 AM.
Dealers were already at our table looking at our coins. It was a long slower day but we did make several five figure sales to collectors. We’d view the room as having weaker but a flowing traffic of collectors. Lets face it, the ANA Show is on the decline still. Due to us having our auction companies highlights for the upcoming September Sale we had a small crowd at our table all day. And yes, we did more sales to collectors. Overall, we did strong business at the table.
Spent the day running back and forth the auction and the show. We did buy most of what we set out too. We felt prices on Wednesdays sessions were slightly weak. Worked the show until 5 PM, then took off an hour to call customers about the soon to start auction.
One thing that disappointed us, no deals came to us (nor any one we heard). The closest we had was some one offering us the 1926S PCGS MS65 FH CAC piece.
The auction was mediocre in terms of prices realized. We were able to buy our old friend-the 1C 1943 PCGS AU58 Copper Ex Simpson coin for $256,000.00. It sold just a few years ago for $305,000.00. The biggest coin we bought for a customer was the 1838 Gobrecht for $156,000.00 all in. We also bought the MONSTER 1C 1860 PCGS MS67+ for a customer ($52,800.00). Many people consider it the finest MS Copper Nickel Cent. Actually left the auction early (10 PM). Called it a night-a successful night.
THURSDAY
Delayed breakfast until 7 AM with Tony. We were just too tired. Again, after breakfast had to go back to the room to discuss the auction. So we crawled into the show around 8:30. Same cycle. Stayed until 1 PM when there was a “must attend” auction session. We did buy every single coin we wanted. Back at the table things were slower, but we did more sales then expected to collectors. Near closing time we did an $85,000.00 sale (a 10C 1829 PCGS PR65 CAC) to a collector. Nice way to end the day. If the show had ended then, we would have been very happy.
The amount of collectors at the show thinned quite bit. We were busy, but it was more ” hi how are you?”, then actual sales. We had more sales back home then we did at the show that day.
This was the night of the big auction. Legend Numismatics was the high bidder on the 10C 1894S at $900,000.00 prior to the auction. With our customer in the room, he ended up the under bidder at $1,100,000.00 hammer. He went on to buy a few other things and then tells us he wants the 1894S 10C in 66. Guess he was not disappointed losing the 63. By far this was the strongest of the 2 auctions. Fresh gold was untouchable as were the GEM Indian Cent Proofs. We bought the 1C 1900 PCGS PR67 Cameo for like $24,000.00. The auction company on behalf of someone then offered us a profit. WOW! Since we did not need much, we did not buy much for Legend. At the very end of the long drawn out sale, on behalf of a customer, we spent $300,000.00 or so buying up all the really cool patterns. That night we really crawled back to our rooms around midnight.
FRIDAY
Best day of the show-going home!!!!! Yippie! Had a 7:00 AM breakfast where we were told told the resturant ran out of our fav corned beef hash. Not a way to start the day! Had a collector or two stop by the table and close up some open business. At 11:30 went the PCGS luncheon with our good friend Gerry Forsythe. Congrats to him with all the awards he won! After the luncheon we packed up to leave. The activity had clearly had slowed and the attendance was super light.
Had a 4:00 flight. First delay, plane came from Hong Kong. The computers happen to go down at Customs which delayed the plane getting to us. Delay #2. Weather. Seems in Chicago area and Newark they had some thunder storms pop up. Final delay: Trump was in Bedminster so they had limited air space in NJ. Total delay: nearly 3 hours. Missed the Friday night sushi dinner and had to settle for some junk food. Still, nothing feels as good as being home and sleeping in your own bed.
SATURDAY
We all limped back into the office at varying AM hours. Exhaustion was king. Started posting coins at 9 AM. Had first order by 10 AM. Had a few more calls and orders. Quit for lunch (sushi) and posted some images. Quit at 2 PM. Massage time for LSS (as many people know). GH stayed on and did some imaging. Started back up working at 7:30 PM to write this report. Its now 8:51 PM. Figure another 15 minutes of writing and the 2019 ANA show has been put to rest.
Actually, ALL day Monday and most of Tuesday will be spent closing orders from the show and doing a huge pile of paperwork. It will be 2 full 10 hour days for everyone!
Legend Numismatics sincerely thanks everyone who came by to say hello and to do some business at the show. We are all in favor of having an ANA at Chicago every year. Its one of the easiest places to get in and out of quickly.
NEWPS
We’re going to to start slowly with our ANA NEWPS (and some Oliver Jung coins we are mixing in).
Highlights of our NEWPS:
25C 1926-S PCGS MS65 FH CAC
$1 1885-CC PCGS MS66 DMPL CAC
$1 1921 PEACE PCGS MS66 CAC
$2.5 1830 PCGS MS64+ CAC
$3 1883 PCGS PR 65 CAMEO CAC
Some little group the huh? The 26S 25C especially is exceedingly rare in PCGS CAC GEM. And it is fresh to market too. EVERY coin we listed had been picked for its great eye appeal as well as its great quality. When we say a coin is HIGH END, it really is. No hype, no games. Our prices are dependent on what we pay. Generally we are stronger buyers. We want to buy and sell the top 5% of quality.
We want to be clear, Even though we are full of bigger ticket coins, we did still do our best to buy coins in the $1,000.00-$5,000.00 range. Obviously, there is little for us to buy. We will always be strong buyers of coins in that range-email or call us with what you have.
ALL NEWPS FOR THIS WEEK ARE NOW POSTED
Next week we plan on having another great good size offering. In the mean time, do not forget our regular listings with some great NEWPS acquired over the summer. Stay tuned!
LEGEND RARE COIN AUCTIONS
www.legendauctions.com
Finally we are closed for accepting coins for our September Auction. The sale will be another huge offering of top quality pieces. We probably rejected more then 100 coins for this sale. We want only the best coins for our auctions.
We have many of the coins posted with unedited descriptions already. We expect to have auction live in about a week or so. Stay tuned!
More information on the up coming September and October Auctions will be coming soon.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR WISH TO ORDER EMAIL US: legendlegendcoin.com. WE DO NOT CHECK OUR PHONE MESSAGES UNTIL 9AM MONDAY.
