Why does the ANA even have a Mid Winter? The days of having big coin shows are fading fast—RIP Long Beach. We clearly see a trend to local/regional shows as the places to go. Attendance at the biggest, including the summer ANA Show, is, in our opinion, meager (for the summer ANA Show to have attendance of LESS than 10,000 is a disgrace in our minds). Plus, the big shows cost way too much for dealers to do. You’d be surprised how many dealers sell little to collectors even if attendance is good. Collectors go to chat with other collectors. And dealers these days also do not have many coins to offer. Legend is seriously considering NOT taking tables anymore and just walking the floor. We have a strong history of doing the majority of our business (as do other dealers) BEFORE the show’s doors even open. At the ANA Mid Winter, we did better dealer to dealer than selling to collectors. It is a sign of the times.
THE COIN WORLD IS HUGE, BUT…
We’ve seen massive growth of the hobby, especially in the last few years. What most collectors do not see is the fact that the supply to satisfy these new collectors is VERY small. That is why for the past few years we have mentioned this huge black hole that is sucking up most available quality supply. In the old days, you’d know most of the buyers—or their agents. Today, that cannot be figured out even when checking Registries.
You would think with a high demand, low supply prices would go up. Yes and no. We have a VERY broken system with published pricing guides. What infuriates us is that we pay for information, and these guides do not have any one tracking changes. Thus, when we are forced to buy coins way over the sheets. Most collectors do not understand that. There are no options if you want a certain coin.
We cannot stress enough that when you are looking at ANY coin with a low PCGS pop and a CAC bean pop of LESS than 10, that is extremely rare! PCGS has been around nearly 40 years now and CAC almost 20. Here is an example of mispricing: We have a PCGS MS66+PL Morgan. It’s a slightly better date. The PCGS pops are 25 in MS66 and only 3 in MS66+. The CAC pop is just 10. The coin looks DMPL to us. Yet, the value guides are showing only $1,750.00. That is crazy. The coin should be worth at least $3,000.00++. We have seen few equals. If it were in auction, we feel it would easily hit the mark or more. Poor valuation only hurts most collectors. They either are not receiving what their coins are really worth, or they are missing out because they think they are paying too much due to price guides that are no reality.
This rubber band of lower prices is finally showing cracks that it is ready to break though. This past week we saw collectors scratching their heads, thinking a few of our offerings were too expensive. Only a few stepped up and bought. Then we hit the ATL show, and BOOM! The first dealer spent a ton with NO chiseling! Other dealers followed. Even our “stealth super secret” seller had a great first day—and that’s with a depleted inventory from Long Beach. Why are dealers stepping up? Because they have no or few coins (like us) and had to restock. Coins, especially BELOW $10,000.00, are running off the market every day at a crazy pace. These new apps, people in general, are drawing in new people. The majority of new people just want the coins; they do not know pricing subtleties. The biggest problem will still be reporting the prices of those transactions.
Our friend and customer, Bob Simpson, always told us he was not buying for today; he was buying for tomorrow. When he sold, he sure did not do too bad! Our message here is that the coin-collecting community is growing beyond what people know. The drought of great and neat coins is as bad as ever and will keep turning that way. You cannot trust published prices. Do not wait for a coin to get cheaper. Most prices will not come down. We see more one-and-done sales with fresh NEWPS on a wholesale level than ever—even charging the same prices we ask from collectors (like we did at ATL). We don’t even see much recirculating from auctions. Because of the HUGE size of the market today, you WILL be paying more for most (not all) coins. If you want to build a great collection, it is what you MUST do.
NEWPS
We have Part II of the Eastern Shores Collection now posted. There are some really great PL’s included. Do know, we are VERY strict with our grading and what we sell. Yes, you do see NON CAC coins posted from the set The reason: we think CAC was way too harsh on them. An example: there is an 1878 7TF PCGS MS65 PL. The thing looks DMPL. We could not find any problems. So this is CAC’s opinion vs us. If the coin had been CAC’d, we’d have paid far more than our asking price for it. We feel strongly it’s tragic that the value of the coin is minimized because it was not beaned. Very frustrating when we see NOTHING wrong with the coin (we do NOT make any promises it will ever sticker). Those are the ONLY NON CAC coins we would ever offer collectors.
We do want to make it clear; we are still sticking with PCGS CAC and CACG on everything else we sell. It is for our customers’ protection. But because we are doing that, our sales are hurting. We cannot buy enough coins! And then we have to pay too much to buy the coins in the first place, so sometimes they sit. For older school dealers like us, the market has become quite challenging to navigate. Collectors should cherish most NEWPS put up by any dealer today!
This week, we have a ton of great NEWPS. Our favorite coins are the J-957 50C 1870 PCGS PR67 CAC (one of the finest Standard Silver Patterns) and the $1 1898-S PCGS MS65 PL CAC. Cannot replace either coin!
DUE TO SHOWS AND APPOINTMENTS, LEGENDS OFFICES WILL BE CLOSED FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28TH. If you see a coin or have any questions, please email us: We will not check our phone messages until 9 AM Monday.
