Congratulations to Mary Counts and here team for staging another wonderful Baltimore Show. Her team really does want feedback and they do care about the quality of the show. They did confirm to us attendance was more then last year-and we could see it.
We were quite surprised at how our show turned out to be. Even with the market so “choppy” we call our results “VERY GOOD”. It was not one for the record books or even close. But we did have a consistent flow of sales and we even bought a few nifty coins from collectors. Our expectations had been very low to begin with.
Surprisingly we sold a significant amount of mid level five figure coins wholesale. Dollars and outrageous Type, and better gold are what made up the majority of our sales. This show was the first time in many months we saw active demand from dealers. Even at this years ANA show wholesale demand was weak. Even more surprising, dealers who have had horrible cash flows all year were not requesting time to pay! Glad to see a little strength coming back.
A very interesting note: did NOT see a single Gardner coin for sale. Many dealers have their coins in grading and collectors certainly did not buy to resell immediately. As we mentioned in last weeks Report, the Gardner sale was one of the greatest freshest and “crack out” oriented sales we have seen in many years. We do believe once the product starts showing up, it will be bought up buy quality starved collectors immediately.
THE MARKET
The coin market in our territory is still very choppy. However, the demand for real top quality and eye appealing coins is still there. The problem is, so few dealers know what real quality is. Sadly, many dealers only know how to grade from plastic.
Last week, we did do a $1.75 million dollar deal with a collector. The coins involved were all the best of the best. Yet at the Baltimore show, the dreck we had lingered in our box (yes, we have dreck for various reasons), and the offers were so low ball we’d much rather die with the pieces. Even the bottom fishers were tight.
PCGS CAC gold coins are strong right now as there are so few available. While CAC won’t admit it, we think the % they are stickering is LESS then it was a year ago. MS Barber Halves in GEM are an absolute “MUST BUY” at today’s prices. DMPL Morgans have become so rare we get multiple buy orders for any we post. Generally, its all about the quality now. We’re not talking buying crazy MS/PR68 grades, we’re talking about things like a PQ strong eye appealing MS/PR 64 coin.
Sure the market has been tested by the Pogue and Gardner sales, but it clearly proved its much bigger then most people think and can absorb the coins. As you may or many not have noticed, there are virtually NO Pogue coins available for resale and very few Gardner coins from the earlier sales.
The hardest thing for us to buy right now-coins valued $1,500.00-$4,000.00. There is just not a lot of PCGS CAC pieces around. Demand and lack of supply are the reasons. We went though the entire Baltimore show twice and only bought three gold coins. Could not find ANY MS66 PCGS MS66 W/Motto Saints. Even Proof Barbers were not to be found. Supply over all for what we buy was extremely limited at the show.
It will still take some time, but we do see a recovery underway. 2008 will not be repeated any time soon. We do think we are headed to a more stable and consistent market with supply being the only problem: not finding buyers.
To read the Full Market Report – Click Here
