By Vic Bozarth – Rare Coin Market Report
Dear Rare Coin Enthusiast, I am writing this morning from the Long Beach Coin Show. It is June 2nd and dealer set-up was yesterday afternoon and evening. Where have all the good coins gone? I’m not trying to be melodramatic. The fact of the matter is that dealers are running around like ‘dogs chasing their tails’ looking for nice ‘fresh to the market’ rare coins.
The June Long Beach Show starts slowly. Those few dealers who are known to have ‘fresh material’ all had several dealers waiting at their tables for ‘FIRST SHOT’ when the show opened Wednesday afternoon.
Dealers have money to buy nice coins and can’t spend their money. The bottom line is this: Rare and ‘fresh to the market’ coins ARE NOT coming onto the market because prices are too low. Dealers are paying over bid for nice coins IF THEY CAN FIND THEM. Values must rise before more coins come onto the market. A large number of dealers are taking ‘positions’ in selected coins. Pretty coins are not available in any quantity. IF you ‘beat the bushes’ you can find coins. BUT… and this is a big BUT, there are a lot more ‘hunters’ out there and the ‘game’ are scarce.
I have talked about the strong demand for Morgan and Peace Dollars. Although generic common date price levels have backed off nearly 20% since the end of April, better date dollars are rising in price. Indeed there are some very large orders for ‘dated’ dollars out there. Guess what? There just aren’t that many available (at these price levels). We too are feeling the pinch. Rare date coins, if you can find them, are not available at ‘bid’ levels. Where are we going from here?
The answer is UP! Price levels have nowhere to go but up. Over the last three years coin prices have been on a downward slide. Yes, really nice fresh coins have sold for great money, but good solid coins that are never available in large quantities have been FLAT. Bids for CAC coins especially are quite generous. In fact, we can’t keep CAC coins in stock.
Enough of the hype! You get the picture. The smart money in the rare coin market is buying aggressively. A good customer asked me recently what he should buy? My answer was to buy the nice coins that were available now. Waiting for a particular coin may have been sound strategy over the last few years, but those days are gone. Let me give you a couple of examples. Don’t limit your buying to just the few coins (if you can find them) for your set. Now is the time to branch out. Have you been considering the addition of some rare singles to your collection? Have you been considering starting another set of U.S. coins? Now is the time.
Generally speaking, the Summer months are somewhat tentative for the rare coin market. We will not see tentative this Summer. I fully expect demand and therefore price levels to rise through the Summer and indeed through the remainder of the year. This week after the Long Beach Show we travel to the Sharonville, OH Show in a suburb of Cincinnati, OH. Week after next is the Whitman Baltimore Coin Show. We expect both shows to be very active. Baltimore is always an excellent show, but the East Coast hasn’t seen a major show for three months (since the last Baltimore) and not only will there be ‘fresh’ coins at this show, there will be dealers and collectors actively pursuing them.
My name is Vic Bozarth and I am the Rare Coin Road Warrior. My wife Sherri and I attend nearly 40 coin shows each year. We travel extensively to buy ‘fresh’ to the market rare coins for our customers. We are always excited about meeting new people during our travels. Come see us at a show in your area. Our travels during the Summer Show season are as follows:
Sharonville, OH
Baltimore, MD
Colorado Springs, CO
Summer FUN, Orlando, FL
Ontario, CA (buying only)
St. Louis, MO
PNG/ANA-pre-ANA Show, Chicago, IL
ANA Show, Chicago, IL
