By Laura Sperber – Legend Numismatics ……
HOW TO MAKE A GOOD MARKET LOOK BAD
Have a miserable Long Beach Show and Auction and then repeat and do the same thing in Baltimore in two weeks.
Why don’t show promoters get it? Summer shows simply do not work. Even the mighty FUN Summer Show struggles.
The Long Beach show was the culmination of everything wrong.
First, the majority of East Coast dealers did not attend. With Baltimore only two weeks away… Why? Of course the West Coast dealers will skip Baltimore too. The auction was probably the weakest in 20+ years. Fresh material is gone again. Now we are clearly in the summer doldrums. The crowd of collectors Thursday at the show was very small.
The last nail in the coffin? Grading was tight to the point dealers can’t sell their coins (big losses if they sell) and or they did not submit, keeping money tied up. All this just looks bad and makes the market feel bad. Save for a few hardy contrarians, the market will be in small funk probably through the ANA Show in July.
From our point of view, the market is alive and VERY healthy. BUT, we spent 40 years building up the amazing collector base we have. It’s all about demand–specifically demand for REAL quality. We never made up the fact we had $22 million plus in Want Lists. Over the past two weeks we got VERY lucky. We did HUGE business (millions of dollars) because some cool deals fell in our lap (we also bought and sold a $10 1913S PCGS MS65 CAC – a $200,000.00+ coin). So in our world, our market was very much alive and well. We do know if great coins appeared like they did in March that activity would be booming for everyone.
Now we are back to blah retreads, which cause people to go away until something exciting comes along again (usually around ANA). Don’t worry, though. When our supply of cool coins runs out (probably by the end of the month), we’ll be mere mortals again and agonizing with everyone else about how slow the market is and how much money we’re losing (although we will have had a record first half of the year).
Overall, our Long Beach show was okay. We paid our costs of the show and that was it. However, we only did TWO sales to collectors. As we said before, the crowd was small. We totally agree with the East Coast bunch staying home. We come out to say hi to our West Coast customers and to show auction lots. The good thing was when we got home and started posting coins Friday – we sold several coins within minutes of posting! Really nice coins are selling.
Forgot to mention, we went out early for the PRE Long Beach Goldberg sale of Mid-date Large Cents. Yet again, we came home with very bruised egos. No question Legend represents some of the biggest copper buyers on earth (our Pogue purchases prove that). Yet again, true GEM Large Cents were super strong. Save for one rip (1C 1824 PCGS MS65BN – we paid $11G hammer), we got blown away on half of what we came to buy. And we are beyond strong. We only bought two coins for inventory and they were sold before we got home (one was the 1824 1C).
Can’t say how the rest of the regular sale did.
In the end, sometimes it’s all about securing the trophy regardless of price (we’re still smarting over losing on the 1C 1852 PCGS MS66+RD in Pogue). The many new collectors we see simply think great coins are too cheap, so they pay strong to get what they want.
CURRENT WANT LIST
We are aggressively seeking ALL PCGS+CAC ONLY Cameo and Deep Cameo coins in 65 and higher. We will still look at NGC coins, but our acceptance rate is low and CAC is a must. We have several collectors now building Choice and GEM PR Liberty Seated 10C-$1 sets, plus of course ALL Proof Barbers and Seated/Trade/Proof Morgan Dollars (the dollars can be PR64 and higher). Sorry we will NOT tolerate ANY haze, spots, or cloudy toning. The mirrors must be clear. We pay top dollar for real Cameos and Ultra Cameos.
Like everyone else, we need $10+$20 GEM Proof gold 65 and higher. Here too, no haze in the mirrors. Will take Matte Proof $10+$20 too PCGS CAC ONLY.
Still need that $20 1907 Wire Edge High Relief in MS66 or higher. HELP please – our customer is getting slightly grumpy!!! MUST BE PCGS CAC ONLY. In fact, we’ll take two!
NEWPS
This week we’re posting some exceptional NEWPS. For a coin to make our web site, it MUST have the following credentials: be of TRUE and HIGH-END quality. That means if we offer a PR68 Morgan, it’s not going to be a lifeless or hazed up piece. A coin MUST be PCGS CAC. Face it – the market is not as liquid for ANYTHING else. While a few people are jealous or do not like CAC, one thing CAC guarantees you won’t get is a doctored coin. Last, every coin we post MUST have great eye appeal. We are talking eye appeal that you do not have to imagine. Beautiful and true quality coins maintain liquidity the best and do increase in value.
We do NOT hype our coins to sell them. You can ALWAYS count on it when we say we really LOVE a coin or that has wild colors, you will get nothing less. When it comes to absolute quality and eye appeal, other dealers can claim what they want – Legend delivers the goods! Plus, we price our coins predicated on what we pay, which is totally predicated on the quality (sorry, we’re not for price buyers).
Maybe that’s why we sell over $35 million a year in coins. We never stop aggressively seeking the top 5% of all coins in the market place. So with that info, enjoy browsing our NEWPS!
ALL NEWPS ARE NOW POSTED
Our Fed-Ex from the show was misdirected, so the balance of coins will go up next week.
Highlights of This Week’s Offerings:
- 3cs 1868 PCGS PR67 CAMEO
– An LSS favorite - 25C 1894 PCGS PR68 – A GH favorite
- $1 1892 PCGS PR67 CAMEO – PCGS POP 3; really rare
As you all know we always strive to offer coins for every ones tastes and budgets.
LEGEND AUCTIONS
www.legendauctions.com
Get ready! This Thursday at 10 PM eastern our June Premier Sessions Sale closes. There are some really special quality coins including a super fresh and unmessed-with MS Indian Set in choice to GEM. The sale ends with an unopened box of CC GSA Morgans! Some really fresh and exciting stuff; this is not your typical dumpy Internet Only auction, we promise. Be ready to bid!
THE JULY SALE
OMG! We believe it is our BEST overall quality sale to date. We have more FRESH and GEM coins then EVER!
We’ll start with the amazing 1994 Collection–a monster (and we mean Monster) set of coins we handpicked and placed with a collector in 1994. The Proof Lincoln Cents are some of the finest ever, and are totally virgin.
Of course the highlight is the $20 1909 PCGS PR66 CAC–an amazing coin.
There are other coins in the deal too, including a gorgeous 50C 1864 PCGS PR66 CAC and some out-of–this-world PR 20C pieces. This is a deal that will more than prove, if you buy TRUE quality+eye appeal and hold, that you WILL make a lot of money! It also happens to be one of Legend Numismatics favorite collections.
This sale is a Morgan Dollar lovers dream. We have white to the best toners ever (The final Northern Lights selection). We have not added up all the Morgan lots, but we promise, there are Morgans for ALL tastes and budgets! A reminder, this is the final session for the Northern Lights Collection, and we’ve saved the very best for last: the $1 1880S PCGS MS68+ CAC will be the final Northern Lights coin to sell. We expect it to sell for a world-record price. Be ready!
Some individual special pieces to be sold:
- 1C 1814 PCGS MS65+ BN – Unreal!
- 1C 1909 INDIAN PCGS PR66+ RD CAMEO – Now that’s rare
- 1C 1914 PCGS PR67 RB – A new to the market amazing toned GEM
- 3CS 1866 PCGS PR67 CAMEO – Killer colors
- 10C 1894 PCGS MS68 Superb in every respect
- 25C 1853 A/R PCGS MS66 – Good luck finding another
- 25C 1897 PCGS PR67 DCAMEO – This coin defines the world ULTRA
- 50C 1797 PCGS XF45 – Try finding one of these this nice!
- 50C 1839 REEDED EDGE PCGS MS65 OGH – Superb!
- 50C 1898 PCGS PR67+ CAMEO – Magnificent colors plus super high end
- $1 1870CC PCGS MS62 – From a STD Dollar specialists estate
- $1 1878CC TRADE PCGS MS64 – Off the market about 15+ years and from an estate
- $1 1881S PCGS MS68+ – A date you never see in real MS68+
- $1 1891CC PCGS MS65 DMPL – WOW!
- $1 1892S PCGS MS64 – A fresh coin to the market and totally original
- $2.5 1836 Block PCGS MS64+ – Magnificent
- $5 1823 PCGS MS63+ – An awesome coin
- $10 1908 PCGS PR66 – The real deal!
- $20 1878 PCGS MS64 – Another long off the market coin
- $1 J-1115 1871 PCGS PR66 RB – Godzilla!
- 25C HAWAII PCGS PR67 CAMEO – Simply amazing. The finest known!
- 1C-$1 1858 PCGS PR Set – ALL matched original
We are NOT kidding when we say that EVERY coin in this sale is a highlight. We have many more coins we could have posted. Be prepared for some strong to record-breaking bidding!
If you have any questions please contact Julie Abrams at [email protected] or Greg Cohen at [email protected].
More information about this incredible sale will be posted in the next few days. We expect to go live possibly by the end of the week.
Stay tuned!
FINAL CALL FOR CONSIGNMENTS TO OUR JULY PREMIER SESSIONS SALE TO FOLLOW THE REGENCY SALE! Minimum value per lot: $1,500.00. Minimum $10,000.00 per consignment. Call or email us today!
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IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR WISH TO ORDER, YOU MAY ALSO 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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This “market report” makes it seem that only certified coins in the top five percent of the grade are worth buying. I disagree; there are many bargains available in the bottom 95%. I deal in key, unusual, esoteric, and low mintage coins as well as die varieties, all of which sell well regardless of their quality — as long as their prices are reasonable. I do not sell $35 million annually like Legend does, but I always do well into seven figures and on occasion eight figures. Find your niche, determine how to make money in it, and watch the profits roll in. Not everyone has Laura Sperber’s eye or motivation for quality.