By Laura Sperber

We can debate everyone’s different market reports. This report is written solely on how the principals of Legend Numismatics witnessed the show to be. We primarily deal in higher grade rarities and gold, so those are the areas we are reporting on. From our point of view, the Baltimore Show was definitely an “on” show.

About a week ago (when dealers like to call each other because of nervous energy about how a show will be) we predicted Baltimore would be great. THE BALTIMORE SHOW WAS GREAT FOR US! And we are not just talking about the usual awesome job Mary Counts and David Chrenshaw and staff do. The overall activity was strong.

Keep in mind that there had not been a true major show (even we don’t count COINFEST as major) in 45 days. That’s a lifetime numismatic drought! Gold has been steadily rising. Collectors are paying attention to coins again. It was a mini perfect storm.

The Stacks sale started off activity prior to the show. It clearly was much stronger than had been anticipated. Can’t say there was a major collection in it, but anything that was fresh and nice sold for strong money.

Dealer to dealer activity in the hotel rooms before set up was crazy. It was like seeing cockroaches scatter when the lights turned on only its coin dealers running around to buy gold or get first shot.

We like to say: “if you had gold, you sold”. ALL gold, was selling briskly. The demand reminded us of 1980. MS66 Saints started the show at a WHOLESALE sight-UNSEEN BID of $2,900.00 and when we left Saturday, buyers were paying $3,200.00 and seeking quantities. CAC MS66 Saints are now $3,600.00 WHOLESALE sight-UNSEEN BID! Replacing CAC gold was nearly impossible.

The B+M auction was VERY strong. We bought the 1870S $1 for $126,500.00 [Shown Above] on behalf of a family (we’ll be posting a story about them shortly on our Hot Topics) to cap off a AU/Unc MS seated Dollar Collection. Congrats to them!

At that sale coins were not cheap. We did buy the phenomenal 1876CC 10C PCGS MS67. A coin of that calibre rarely comes around. We firmly believe “sometimes you have to pay more when the coin really matters”. We’re glad the other dealers were too chicken to step up on it. As with the Stacks sale, if a coin was the slightest bit off quality wise or was a retread, it either did not sell or sold VERY cheap. THIS IS A TOTAL QUALITY DRIVEN MARKET.

Our stealth sales team did very well. Most of them even sold five figure coins. One of them sold well into six figures. Interestingly, they had a lot of Type Coins from us and did very well-even prior to the show (when every one who plays dealer wanted to buy gold). One of them did report to us selling Type was difficult and that all he could do was move gold.

One last note about our show, our sales were so strong that up until Saturday afternoon at 3PM, we were still selling. In fact Saturday (of late more of a non selling day), we SOLD $100,000.00 worth of coins WHOLESALE! And we have another $250,000.00 coin (yes single coin) sale pending! A few dealers wanted to see our NEWPS and one just couldn’t get free until Saturday to come over. That shows us how strong the market is. One of the coins we sold was the gorgeous $10 1908 PCGS PR66 CAC. We had a longtime collector customer who knew we had bought it but was thinking about it a day (he never asked to have it put on hold). At 10 AM we sold it. Of course he came by at 11 AM to buy it! Even his wife said the old like “you snooze, you lose”.

We forgot to mention that the bourse floor was exceptionally crowded with people from the time the doors opened to the public until we left at 3 PM Saturday. We were totally wrong in assuming the recent Philadelphia Show would take away collectors from Baltimore (they pretty much are the same area). Guess when the market is hot, people attend shows. We also had seen many collectors who flew in to attend the show. We do thank everyone who came by to visit and say hi!

THE MARKET

Sadly, we did hear several dealers say they had dead shows outside of gold. Well, we looked at what they had. If we had spotted hacked up dreck we wouldn’t be selling coins either. Or, they had loads of retreads at high prices. The dealers who have adapted to this market are doing very well-especially when they can find the right material.

Its interesting that Type is last on the active list pretty much. Few souls are stepping up to buy the higher graded coins, yet they probably can’t find much to choose from. The supply of properly graded rare coins is remarkably low to non-existent.

Unless gold crashes, the coin market is definitely coming back to life. Its amazing how only a month ago, the biggest dealers in gold (like Heritage) really did not want to buy generics because there was a glut of them. Look at them now, at Baltimore, firms like Heritage had all their agents running around trying to buy as much gold as possible! It is our understanding they are selling MILLIONS of dollars worth of generics a day right now.

Speculators and investors are not back in the market again. Prices are slowly rising for the Type and even Morgans (Peace Dollars too), but again the supplies are non existent for the better material.

If gold were to crash (which many feel is unlikely due to incredible momentum), it would take the market about 1-2 weeks to feel it. Dealers still have back orders to deliver. And it is possible a drop in gold could actually spur on more buying.

We do suggest you buy with caution. Gold coins are at all time record highs. Never put all your eggs in one basket and never think it can’t just end!

The next shows are in Detroit on Thanksgiving and then there is one in Houston around December 3rd (where they are having a PNG Day for some ungodly reason). Neither are considered major, but if gold stays sold to strong, these will be like a stream turning into a flooding river during a storm. Most major dealers are not planning on doing these shows so they will be waiting the FUN Show in January with extreme pent up demand.

DISPLAYS-LIBERTY SEATED CLUB

How could we write a Market Report without commenting on the amazing displays the show offered. Tucked away in the back of the room was the Liberty Seated Clubs table. It had 3 amazing collections. Anytime you hear of collections like that being displayed, you should take advantage and go see them. The owners of the collections and members of the club were on hand to answer questions and offer education about the coins or the series.

It was impressive to see collections that clearly were a result of intense passion and love of the hobby. These sets weren’t just plastic, they were coins that had been carefully selected over many years. Not all coins were the finest graded, but these collectors did not care. Every coin in those cases was outstanding! With collectors like these it really was about the coin.

Always take advantage of displays like that and go see them!

WHATS HOT

GOLD! Need we repeat that? GOLD, GOLD, GOLD! Especially any MS65 and higher GOLD UNDER $5,000.00. And surprisingly we sold SEVERAL rarer PR Gold pieces valued $50,000.00-$85,000.00 quite easily. Morgans. A huge deal (dollar value) broke at the show. The people before us spent $600,000.00 on it and we spent a few hundred thousand. We would guess the deal is now all gone. Peace Dollars are hot too. MS 65 and higher Walkers. We had more requests than usual for Early GEMS.

WHATS NOT HOT?

Dreck just keeps falling and falling out of favor. Anything but cheap Indians and Lincoln cents. ALL Nickels are slow. MS and PR Seated and Barber Type.

If you have any questions or comments, please fell free to email (or call us) legend@legendcoin.com
Read the Full Market Report Here

Related posts:

1. Legend Numismatics Baltimore Spring Show 2008 Market Report
2. Legend Numismatics Market Report: The Fun Show
3. THE BALTIMORE SUMMER SHOW – Legend Market Report
4. THE SPRING CSNS SHOW – Legend Numismatics Market report
5. Legend Numismatics Mid October Rare Coin Market Report
6. Legend Numismatics Market Report – The Philadelphia Coin Expo
7. The Pre Baltimore Coin Show Market Report
8. CoinFest Show Debuts – Show Report from Legend Numismatics
9. Legend Market Report: The 2009 Los Angeles ANA Coin Show
10. Legend Market Report – Sept. 08 Long Beach Show