By Laura Sperber – Legend Numismatics Market Report

THE COINFEST SHOW

First, I’d like to thank my partner, visionary (creator), and manager of COINFEST, Jon Lerner (Scarsdale Coins) for working his tail off to ensure the show was a total success. COINFEST is definitely THE BEST REGIONAL SHOW in the biz! Also, a big thank you to everyone who attended or worked at the show.

Several thousand collectors attended the three day show (the exact totals are not in yet). There were 150 dealers with tables. ANACS, CAC, and PCGS, were there as well.

Stacks ran a VERY successful auction. We thank them for their support.

Even before we opened the doors, wholesale activity was strong. Several dealers had arrived the night before and did business privately. When the doors did open to the show for the public, several hundred collectors attended the first day. The majority of dealers we spoke to said the show had exceeded their expectations by the end of Friday!

CAC began accepting coins before the doors opened Saturday. If anyone has any question as to whether or not the public accepts CAC, this show had to clearly answer oh yeah! They had to stop accepting submissions shortly after noon. We are told they viewed well over 1000 coins.

Even on Sunday, there was a small decent “buzz” from the collectors who attended. Much to our surprise, there were some very serious players who showed up. We promise to keep COINFEST open on Sundays-with more than just a handful of dealers setting up. We are reviewing how to improve Sundays especially.

COINFEST IS a show seriously dedicated to the collector. This is why you do not see many “national wholesale” dealers set up. We invited dealers who felt would have coins in their cases and for the most part be willing to deal with collectors. Plus, we want to try and bring back the “romance” of having a show in a beautiful hotel ballroom. COINEST is never going to be the biggest show, just the best!

SO HOW WAS THE MARKET AT THE SHOW?

All we can do is tell you from OUR point of view how we see things. We did try to talk to as many dealers on the floor as possible to see how they were doing as well. Overall, business was excellent. We did hear of a few dealers having their BEST shows ever, while we do know of a dealer or two who sold nothing. Everyone agreed there was an underlying weakness lurking and that they feel they should have sold more but the economy was holding people back.

We had a very strong strong show. Surprisingly the small group of wildly colored Commems we offered attracted the most interest. GEM TYPE was next, followed by a certain “GOLD EAGLE” (yes we did really negotiate for 3 hours over it). Our sales did exceed our expectations. Plus, we did as much retail at the show as we would do at a FUN Show. Also, we happen to have many customers in the area, so that may have contributed to our success.

ACIVITY DURING THE WEEK

We want everyone to know that from our point of view, coins -especially big ticket coins are holding up very well. We were surprised when a major dealer at COINFEST said to us he didn’t see coins over $10,000.00 as having much demand. Well, we don’t see coins UNDER $10,000.00 being as strong as six figure coins! Its really a matter of what you have and your clientele.

This past week we posted a 1796 $2.5 PCGS AU58 CAC. You see so few of these in PCGS holders, let alone find one that is CAC’d. We had a call on it as soon as the description was posted. Within 48 hours, we had two other serious buyers approach us about the coin-each one prepared to write an immediate check. Keep in mind, this is a $215,000.00 coin! Also during the week, we sold several HIGH five figure coins as well. The interesting thing-no one needed even short term financing-and everyone paid immediately!

Buyers DO very much still have money. Many players are just sitting on the sidelines wondering and waiting to see what direction the world is going to move in. In fact the buyer of the 1796 and one of the people who missed it said they wanted to move more money into coins as they do not trust the stock market. We do believe as time goes on, we will see more people doing this as well.

As we have stressed many timed before, the real weakness in the market is in inferior coins. True quality is still in demand and is trading at strong levels. No wants over-graded coins-especially over-graded “widgets”!

A WORD ABOUT GENERIC GOLD

We had a gentleman stop by our table at the show and offer us some generic Saints. We offered what is FULL BID by the biggest market makers. He passed after pulling after out a major market makers WHOLESALE SELL sheet. We think he made a big mistake by not selling. It was his comment that got us, “everyone is telling me gold is hot”. Gold is hot-but it is not as hot as it was. Generic wise, most dealers have now filled their BACK orders from when gold sprang up to $1,000.00 and people wanted anything they could get. This gentlemen did not know that yes indeed, gold is still in heavy demand, but the prices (especially with orders filled and gold now at $740.00) for generics have fallen. The premiums have dramatically shrunk as well. Unless gold shots back up to $1,000.00, the feeling is it will continue to drift slightly lower. Only a few weeks ago we could not buy ANY MS64-65 Saints. Today, we can call around and get them. The one thing you still can NOT buy is bullion. The major wholesale operations (MTB, Dillon Gage, A Mark) will take orders now, but can not deliver ANY until mid January at the earliest.

WHATS COMING UP

This upcoming week is a reality check. We’ll be posting some VERY neat NEWPS (you’ll actually see many of the of coins we have purchased privately in Oct). And then there is the Baltimore Show (the best privately run major show) a week later. However, due to economic times, we do not have very high expectations. Like COINFEST, you can still get the public to show up, but times have made buyers more demanding and less likely to spend on something that isn’t exactly 100% what they want. The days of free spending clearly are over.

It also should be noted that there still is no consistent supply of great coins. For us, with all we bought in October, the majority of the pieces were SOLD immediately (we held a some back too). Even at a major show you can’t go around all the isles and find many really juicy fresh and nice coins. There certainly is no mass desperation dumping that we can see.

As we have mentioned in recent Market Reports, the principals of Legend are shunning the stock market in favor of buying coins. We see there are still many opportunities in the coin market for smart buying. 

Related posts:

1. Current State of the High-end Market for Classic Head Quarter Eagles
2. It’s No Secret, Collectors and Investors are Fueling Current Bull Market in Rare Coins
3. Coinfest Coin Show Report
4. CoinFest Show Debuts – Show Report from Legend Numismatics
5. CoinFest a Success – CAC Accepts Submissions
6. Coinfest comes to East Greenwich
7. Unique 1870-S Half Dime Exhibited at CoinFest
8. Current gold $3 coin prices may present opportunities
9. Legend Market Report – THERE IS STILL A HUGE MARKET!
10. Stack’s, The Official Auctioneer of CoinFest