THE BALTIMORE SHOW REPORT

THIS MARKET REPORT IS WRITTEN BY LEGEND NUMISMATICS A DEALER OF THE FINEST COINS. IT IS ABOUT WHAT WE SAW AT THE SHOW AND IN THE MARKET PLACE. OTHER DEALERS WILL HAVE DIFFERENT OBSERVATIONS DEPENDING ON THEIR AREAS OF EXPERTISE. 

First, we must congratulate Mary Counts and crew for working so hard and putting on yet another excellent Baltimore Show.

Legend also wishes to thank all our friends (collectors and dealers) who came by to do biz or just say hey.

Probably the biggest take away from this show-was there was so little nice or fresh coins on the floor. EVERYONE was talking about it.

OUR LIFE AT THE SHOW

The flow of the show was mystifying to us. We did our usual Tuesday hotel business. We were pleasantly surprised at how much activity there was before dealer set up. Starting with our favorite “super secret” buyer our sales were strong the entire day. In fact everyone we showed coins too, did not just buy a coin, they bought a pile of coins.

Wednesday was even more surprising. We hardly ever do any wholesale business that day-no matter how hard we try. Starting off at 9AM we sold a ton of coins. Our highlight of the day (and the show) was a meeting with a major dealer who was kind enough to offer us first dibs on a great super FRESH little deal.  Out of that deal came an extreme rarity that took us all of one phone call to sell and place in a great home. The price was in excess of $200,000.00. At that point we were like WOW, what will Thursday bring as that is our typical best day of the show.

Thursday AM started small. Did two small sales. Then, everything stopped dead. Even though that is the day the public comes in at 1:00, we did NOTHING the rest of the day.  A few “players” showed up but they could not find anything really special for their specific want lists. We were totally perplexed at how activity seemed to stop instantly. However, we felt better after several dealers told us the spigot for them had shut off too. We didn’t freak or anything as our show was already ” in the bag”.

Friday was highly unusual. The action happened then. Collectors showed up strong. For what ever reason, we saw more Morgan Dollar collectors Friday then at any other show (of course we had NO Morgans for them). Every one of them was highly disappointed there were no nice, fresh, or cool dollars to buy. Anyhow, our sales had picked up-as we have a killer multi million dollar inventory (largest CAC for sure) and everyone came over as there was so little else on the floor. As of the end of Friday, our overall show turned out really good. Even our “stealth secret sellers” said the show turned good for them too.

SOLD!

A note about what Legend sold at the show. For us, GOLD was red hot. We sold a ton of it, including several “old friends”at full ticket prices. Dealers needed all kinds of gold-and surprised us by paying strong premiums. The better the gold coin (quality or rarity) the stronger they paid. The demand for gold was clearly above average. Indian gold was definately in demand in GEM.

Type actually sold well too. We even witnessed a few dealers selling GEM MS Seated coins (as well as we sold a few pieces)! It is safe to say overall demand for rare coins is becoming healthy again. Areas that “went begging” for buyers months ago now have some demand. Its the slow start of a market rebound.

The slowest areas (in our opinion)  seem to be early copper and then nickel coins. The buyers are still not very excited in these areas. We think many different sets of nickels (MS+PR) can be built really reasonable right now, yet the coins just don’t sell.

Keep in mind, supplies of really nice coins were extremely limited to non existent. When that happens, activity usually stalls. We strongly feel any buys that were made at the show will be highly profitable down the road, the timing sure was not bad. Prices were stable at the show.

A SHOW ABOUT NOTHING 

The worst thing in the world is when a collector comes to a major show for their “fix”and they find NOTHING. This show was so typical of what happened last year around this time. You could walk it over and over and only one or two people had anything decent to offer (we still remember the days 20+ years ago when you could see a set of Stellas or even an 1804 dollar out for sale). Want  to see retreads? Want to see tons of dreck? Sexy coins are off the market for the long term.

We went on massive hunt for REAL DMPL’s (full 8″ mirrors) and PCGS CAC Gold-including generics. We bought 3 DMPL’s not even totaling $5,000.00 and gold-we were stunned we bought only 2 coins for a total of $5,000.00. WOW. There was that little available on the floor. NOTE: we are serious buyers of PCGS CAC (ONLY) 65 or better DMPL’s-of ANY date. MUST have 8” min mirrors. Offer us your DMPL’s!

Of course we tried to buy anything great-and we saw NOTHING. Price to us for the “right” coin would not have been a factor. We were NOT impressed with the coins dealers were getting back from the services either. Our purchasing at the show was very minimal. Fortunately, we bought a very nice group of fresh coins from a collector last week back at the office, those coins will be many of the NEWPS we will offer this week and in Round II.

Last year we lost a ton of money for a few months because we could not find anything new or fresh. Other dealers did too. The market is still too low for the really big or great coins to be sold. With no major shows until CSNS at the end of April, we definately see the coin market as slowing. There will be little to no activity simply because the cool coins pretty much are not available in any frequency during this time. Come May with the end of CSNS and 63 more Pouge coins selling then June with an amazing gold collection coming up for sale, you’ll see activity again.  In fact, we believe the coin market WILL rebound a few % then.

In the end, this Baltimore Show itself was a show about nothing. The auction was a little different. There were several smaller “fresh” groups of coins in the sale. Most that were nice brought strong money. Legend was the under bidder on the fabulous $10 1799 PCGS MS66 CAC that brought $505,250.00. We wish we could put one more bid in! A coin like that is timeless and will ALWAYS maintain or have the serious potential to increase its value.

NEWPS

While we do not have any Pouge Type super six figure NEWPS, we are blown way at the awesome QUALITY and eye appeal of what we do have (we are NOT exaggerating). Our NEWPS from Baltimore consist of really hard to find pieces generally priced UNDER $10,000.00. Highlights include:

H.10 1856 PCGS PR66CA GOLD CAC-WOW!!!!!

50C 1834 SM DT, SM LET PCGS MS66 CAC

$3 1860 PCGS MS67+ CAC

$5  1803/2 PCGS MS62 CAC

50c BRIDGEPORT PCGS MS67 CAC-its not expensive at all, just we have not seen ANY we have really liked in years.

This will be ROUND I of our Baltimore Show NEWPS. There are about 20 or so coins we will offer. Don’t forget to check our regular listed inventory as well. We’re here to build great collections and sell nice coins!

Round II or III will be highlighted by some adorable Bust Halves (finally). Its matter of how fast they can be imaged and beaned.

If you attended the Baltimore Show, you would have a much better appreciation for our inventory and know how hard it is to find the coins we have. We will ALWAYS step up and pay strong-even record prices for the “right” coins. It takes YEARS to develop the contacts we have. And yeah, sometimes its just luck that gets us coins. Our motto: “There is no substitution for quality. ” No other dealer has an ALL PCGS CAC inventory the size Legend does.

ALL NEWPS ARE NOW POSTED FOR ROUND I. ALLOW 24 HOURS FOR IMAGES.  

LEGEND RARE COIN AUCTIONS

www.legendauctions.com

We were swamped all of last week and especially at the show. Wish we could have had the auction complete as we were shocked how many people wanted to lot view already! The 25C 1827 Original was on display and we thought it was neat so many people came to see it. In fact, we know many collectors were impressed at the case of highlights we brought. Just wait until we present the complete auction!

Sorry to say we are NOT accepting any more consignments for the May Sale. We thank everyone who did consign. You all gave us some amazing coins. And for the record, we DID reject probably 200 coins!

We do have an exceptional offering of better gold (for a change) lead by the famous Quintupple Stella (yes, we know its a pattern), an AU Humbert thick rim slug CAC , a $20 1929 PCGS AU58 CAC (we never saw an AU before), a $3 1885 PCGS MS65 CAC,  $2.5 1900 PCGS PR68+ DCameo CAC, a MONSTER (yes we do call this a monster) $5 1796/5 VG 10 CAC!  There is also a gorgeous $2.5 1804 14 Stars PCGS MS62 and $5 1806 8×5 PCGS MS64 that has been off the market for years. Of course there are many other great gold coins ranging in value from $1,000.00 to six figures. This is by far one of our biggest and BEST gold offerings EVER.

We expect to have a COMPLETE and fully visible list (yeah, we know the partial list print is small) ready by Thursday. The auction itself should be live around April 18th. We WILL have the entire sale for viewing (yes we WILL bring the Quintupple) at CSNS at the end of April.

Don’t forget, we accept more then just neat single coins. We can sell ANY size major collection! Legend customers are unquestionably the who’s who in the hobby and just love to buy the neatest coins. We assure you, EVERY coin in EVERY auction we produce is extensively promoted and is not lost in any phone book catalog or 10,000 lot sale. Contact Julie (julie@legendauctions) or Greg (greg@legendauctions) to discuss what Legend Rare Coin Auctions can do for you!

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR WISH TO ORDER, PLEASE EMAIL US: legend@legendcoin.com. WE DO NT CHECK OUR PHONE MESSAGES UNTIL 9 AM MONDAY!