By Laura Sperber – Legend Numismatics ……
EVERYONE WATCHES FOOTBALL
Okay, maybe for a few hours on Sunday the coin community went really quiet. It was the first time in a few weeks (actually since the election) that collectors were preoccupied. However, we are confident that by the time the many Internet Auctions started to close Sunday night, the bidders were there, aggressive as usual–especially those who won their bets on the game!
The rare coin market (at least for us) seems to be enjoying primetime again. We are still, for whatever reason, adding totally NEW collectors to our customer base at an unusual pace. When we say totally new, we mean they have started buying coins less then 6 months ago. The important thing to know is that these people are real collectors and are the furthest thing from the dreaded “speculative investor” category. Even more important, these new collectors are younger in age (we’d say upper 20s to early 50s).
Interestingly, the millennials are coming in via eBay or other connections like seeing another family member collect. We are highly confident that the rare coin market will not die out from lack of interest. What amazes us, this new breed of collector is well-read and knows that today’s market is cheap. They also embrace challenge. There is even one mega-collector out there who loves the idea (and is attempting) to be the next Louis Eliasberg (he has spent at least $45 MILLION on coins since July).
Our sales this past week were off the charts. We didn’t sell any major rarities, but we did sell a steady stream of $650 gold coins (because of our coins of the week we sold 28 quarter eagles at $650.00 each). We also sold some superb coins like the 1873-S Trade Dollar PCGS MS65 CAC for $30,000. Excluding the gold, our average ticket sale was about $15,000 or so. The month is off to a tremendous start for us.
GOLD
As you all know we are forever gold bugs. The price of gold showed some slight upward movement before sliding back at the end of the week. We spoke to two people we consider “in the know” about gold and the markets. One is a new friend who is a world-class manager of TRILLIONS of dollars (a mind-boggling sum) and the other is a MAJOR Wall Street player; each had very different views. The money manger felt gold would settle around $1,100 or so and was not on an upward trend while the Wall Street player was not only bullish, but is a strong buyer of gold for himself. Very interesting how two big insiders see things so different.
In the end, being the gold bugs we are, the fact that the money manager did not declare gold dead was a positive to us. We think the fact you can buy generics for such small premiums right now is, well, huge. Collectors certainly are responding. We went out of our way to buy smaller coins like $2.5 Libs and Indians in MS64. These coins are off by 20% from two years ago. After we sent out the weekly mass email, BOOM! We sold 28 coins (we probably have five to eight left).
Today, as we were posting a few, we kept being “hit” as fast as we were posting them. In one case we posted a $2.5 1913 PCGS CAC MS64 for $1,125.00–we had instant dual hits (fortunately we had two in stock). We chose these smaller coins because per unit they are affordable to everyone and we simply can’t buy the $10+$20 generics we want (note: our PCGS CAC MS66 BID for $20 W/MOTTO Saints are $3,275 right now). Legend has NO PCGS CAC pieces in stock and only two PCGS MS66 NO CAC – $2,150 each.
We clearly see people are comfortable still owning gold. At FUN we certainly did NOT see a lot of nice PCGS CAC generic gold for sale. The experts will always have their opinions. We see the premiums as being too tiny today with supply very minimal. Clearly only a small rise in gold and or demand will make for big moves in the generic market. For a coin like an $2.5 Indian PCGS CAC MS64 how much below $650.00 can they really go? We remember selling them like crazy for $850.00 just two years ago.
If you want a risker but stronger play in gold, then build a higher-grade generic gold Type set (MS66-67). Think about how many PCGS CAC MS67’s $20 or GEM $5 Indians have been around lately… not many at all! It will simply take a little time to build a nice set, but what a great diversification it will be.
NEWPS
How do we do it? Sometimes we pinch our selves. We’re now pretty much out of our FUN Show purchases. Several of the NEWPS came from purchases from collectors, some from dealers who have been feeding us great coins for decades, and others just found their way to us via plain old luck!
Highlights this week include:
- 1C 1887 PCGS MS66+ RD CAC
- 50c 1823 PATCH 2 PCGS MS64 CAC EX FRIEND-LINK
- $1 1876CC PCGS MS64 CAC
- $1 1879CC PCGS MS65+ CAC SUNNYWOOD/SIMPSON
- $5 1800 PCGS XF45 CAC
- $10 1907 NO MOTTO PCGS MS66+ CAC
- 9.15 oz 1933 ASSAY GOLD BAR-POSSIBLY UNIQUE!
These may not be the rarest coins in the world, but we assure you: they are absolutely of the VERY BEST quality! At Legend our mission statement is all about QUALITY. Does not matter if it is a wild 80-S $1 in MS66 or the most valuable gold set in the world–the Simpson Amazonian Patterns (which we handled). Over-graded, low-end or ugly coins are something you will NEVER see us selling. Quality and eye appeal DO make a huge difference in how coin sustains value. Plus, a beautiful coin is simply something you will adore forever–and that is priceless!
ALL NEWPS ARE NOW POSTED!
VISIT LEGEND AT OUR HUGE NEW TABLE AT LONG BEACH WHEN YOU WALK IN
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LEGEND RARE COIN AUCTIONS
www.legendauctions.com
THE LIST OF LOTS IN OUR FEBRUARY PREMIER SESSIONS SALE IS NOW POSTED–SALE OPENS FEB 16 AND CLOSES FEB 23 10 PM EST.
As Mark Cuban says: BOOM goes the dynamite! NO BS, we were swamped this week with arriving consignments. It was a soup-to-nuts selection – but there were some super coins included that we wish we could just buy. We are in the process of vetting every coin. We WILL reject anything that we deem messed-with or are simply a bad deal. The majority of the new coins will be in our March Premier Sessions Internet Only Sale, while the rest are for our May Regency Sale to held in New Orleans at the PCGS Invitational. Again, these sales are really smaller-size Regency Sales without a catalog or being held in Las Vegas. We assure you, the standards and the audience are the same as the Regency Sales.
Plus, we will display these smaller-lot (150-175 lot) auctions at shows (see us at the Long Beach Expo to view the February Sale).
A word about consigning with us. Don’t worry about exposure or us not having 500,000 names–Legend Numismatics unquestionably has one of the BEST customer bases in all of coins. Legend is one of the absolute TOP buyers in EVERY major auction. So that means our loyal customer base will pay the most for coins. Of course Legends customers LOVE Legend Auctions (plus we never charge them any representation fees)! The prices realized more than prove that. You DO get real top dollar when selling through us. Bigger is NOT always better–Legend DOES have the exposure–to the “right” buyers!
If you have a collection or a single rarity to sell (minimum $5,000.00) contact Julie Abrams at [email protected] or Greg Cohen at [email protected]. They will work with you from start until you are paid on your consignment. Generous cash advances ready.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR WISH TO ORDER, PLEASE EMAIL US AT [email protected]. WE DO NOT CHECK OUR MESSAGES UNTIL MONDAY 9 AM.
For more information, please visit www.legendauctions.com.
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Legend Rare Coin Auctions (LRCA), based in Lincroft, NJ, is a boutique-style rare coin auction firm.
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