By Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics

In the past few weeks we have been offered more coins than normal from collectors. However, the majority of coins that are offered were recent purchases that people are coming to find out they can’t resell for a profit, or even close. Some coins came from auctions, some were even bought a year ago, no luck. We do need coins VERY badly, but we are not going to over pay for weak pieces. What’s going on here?

After every major auction you read how coins brought “moon” money and how we all can’t find anything anymore at shows. We dealers make it sound like there is no limit to how strong or how high prices are. It is all true, REAL coins are unquestionably bringing real money.

What is happening is there is now a huge and very real separation of quality. A year ago, it was acceptable to buy a coin that is 95% there for full ticket. Today, if you don’t have 100% full quality and eye appeal in coin, forget it, you most likely will lose money.

Gone are the days when you could buy out of sale and “flip” it to a dealer. The market has reached its saturation point on the lesser quality material. We strongly believe CAC expedited this gap (which was bound to happen any way). The sophisticated buyers either demand CAC stickered coins or they demand the coin be all there. Nothing less is acceptable today. The market-especially in auctions is proving that clearly.

Just because you get caught up in the spur of the moment and bid aggressively in an auction does not guarantee you that there will still be someone right under you. And if the coin has issues (low end, ugly, etc) you are plain old stuck. The grading service does not matter.

If someone were to offer us say a group of GEM Bust Dimes in MS65 that have been put away for years and had eye appeal, we’d be throwing the sheets out to make an offer. If the same group lacked eye appeal or had problems, nothing really matters-we’d pass. And, if the nice group were in auction, then you’d see “moon money prices”.

The market is starved for quality better coins. Prices are clearly moving higher each day. The prices for marginal dreck, are sinking.

You need to know what you are buying. If you either have the eye and lots of experience or are working with a capable and competent dealer, then you should have no problem. However, you MUST remember that rare coins are a LONG TERM buy. Short term gains are possible, but not likely. Great coins can NOT be bought cheap today-so as a buyer you MUST be willing to hold them for a few years. EYE appeal rules once again.

So to all the collectors who randomly bought and have substandard pieces, take your lumps now. Its not going to get any better as time goes on. As demand rachets up for pure quality, no longer will the notion of getting a coin upgraded (taking a 65.8 and making it a 66.1) be acceptable to the market place. A coin would have to now be a full MS66.5 to be saleable at the full bids on the secondary markets. The upgrade premiums are shrinking daily. In some cases, you might even be better lowering a coin a full grade. The marketplace wants coins to look good and be the absolute right grade for the holder.

WHY DO WE THINK COIN PRICES ARE GOING UP STILL?

We can’t find the coins! Any one have a real GEM 1928S Peace Dollar in MS65? An MS67 Bust Half, a MS67 Liberty Nickel, or GEM 1886 MS65 Seated Half Dollar? Where are all the true ULTRA B+W GEM DMPL’s??? We could give hundreds more examples of coins that are NOT around. We need GEM PR $3 Gold pieces to finish two sets we are working on. We haven’t added to either set in over a year. So we must raise prices. Other dealers are in the same bind. If we were to find ANY of the coins we just mentioned, so long as they were accurately graded (Legend only retails CAC coins now) we’d be prepared to pay what it takes to buy them. Show us the same coins in so/so shape, we’d either make a low offer (to re-whole sale them to a wannabe dealer who doesn’t care) or we’d pass with a heavy heart.

We do not see the demand for quality or quality coins stopping anytime soon. There are plenty of deep pocketed collectors who have huge projects underway. We still see new people entering the market.

So if you have coins to sell and they are not all there, its YOUR coins, NOT the market. Sorry.

In a sense, we have truly come back to “buy the coin, not the holder”. Legend has forever been a believer in buying the BEST quality possible. You don’t have to have a MS68 to have quality. You can have a really sensational high end NS64 pieces with great eye appeal. The system got very distorted by greed for along time. Now, the people who do care are fighting back.

AHHH, THE COIN DOCS

As many of you know, we have been very vocal about them. It is amusing to us that a small group of them thinks they have a right to make a living doing this. They have threatened us (and then tried to spin the story), they have tried to have their buddies boycott us (thank you-now we see far LESS doctored up overgrade crap) and they cry like babies to others because they think its us not allowing them to make obscene profits. One even gave us the finger in public at the post office (how mature)! We mention this because the grading services have the full court press out and are making these guys feel the heat. There is also a group of the largest and most powerful retail dealers (no, not he PNG) who meet at major shows to discuss and deal with this issue. Ask your dealer if they take part and support the movement. As time goes on, your buffalo nickels won’t be as colorful, Morgans won’t have two tone cheeks, and gold won’t be as blue anymore. We all have to work with the grading services to keep the pressure up. It means better quality and even higher prices for the good stuff. The coin docs can cry as loud and hard as they want-it was their choice to ruin coins for a living.