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Posted: October 4, 2009 5:27 PM CST
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EARLY OCTOBER REPORT
OUR MARKET REPORT IS COMPRISED OF LEGENDS OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES AT THE SHOW AND IN OUR OFFICES. KEEP IN MIND, OTHER DEALERS WILL HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES.
Finally a week where we had no major shows or had to do any travel! Being home and able to work in the office is like being in a whole other planet. Its amazing what we were able to accomplish and what facts we realized. Plus, its just nice to sleep in your bed.
Our sales for the past week were quite strong. Everything from $150.00 McClaren coins to high five figure better gold sold. One coin in particular (almost a six figure coin), all we had to do was mention it and it sold within minutes. Sales off the web site were strong. In fact much of the McClaren coins sell instantly-so fast that many people did not know we had a complete CAC PCGS MS65 Short set of Walkers listed! Also, slightly better CAC gold-that too has an almost instantaneous sales MO. We doubt you'll ever see an MS66 Saint posted on our site for more than 1-2 hours!
While bloggers on gossip forums say we hype or that the market is weak, we know the truth based upon what we are selling. In September, Legend sold SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS worth of coins direct to collectors. That is a fact. Last week we sold several high FIVE figure coins to collectors-that is a fact also. These sales were to a wide audeience, not just to our "whales". Why can we make the sales while others can't? Look at what we have in stock. We laughed hard when we read one web site that said they were aggressive for their customers (at auctions) when their customers request it. WOW! Legend is always aggressive to buy the VERY BEST coins ALL THE TIME. Our customers never have to ask us, we want to buy the best and we are not afraid. Some times these better coins take a while to sell-we do not mind. If we bought it, we wanted to own it and do not mind sitting with it-especially if the coin cannot be replaced. Do not kid yourself, if your not in the center of the mix fighting and paying top dollar, really cool coins do NOT come to you. Thats why Legend was one of the top buyers at recent Naftzger sale-all on spec. We did not take ANY requests for representation at the auction-we felt it would have had a negative impact especially since so many collectors at the time had no idea how to value the coins. And now, Legend has SOLD over 3/4 of what we bought. Our only regret-we wish we had bought more!
This week the highlight of our NEWPS is the $50 1851 HUMBERT 880 Thousand Slug PCGS AU55. Its by far one of the most amazing you will EVER see! We have kept it out and looked at it every day since we bought it. We know its a great coin to "put away" for the long term. Do your research and check it out! You can't go to a show or auction and see anything even close. This is the kind of coin Legend loves-top quality and true rarity at their best!
THE MCCLAREN COLLECTION
We should clarify a little what exactly is in the collection. There are over 35,000 coins. But 25,100 were raw choice Silver Dollar Rolls. They have since been graded by NGC. We actually are in discussions about selling the entire group to someone. The balance of the collection 10,000+ Merc Dimes, Walkers, Morgan+Peace Dollars are all being offered for sale to collectors AFTER we send them off to CAC. Hard to believe, but its taken us two months just to inventory 2/3 of the collection. We still have 90 double row boxes to go! The majority of these coins are MS65 and HIGHER. The collector who purchased all these coins did so with a good eye last buying a 4 years ago.
Plus, its a thrill to look all these fresh unmessed with coins.
According to a quick peek of or records, we sold to collectors over 800 coins in the second half of Septemeber alone. The majority of sales have been off our web site (as we mentioned last week, we only sold 4 coins in Phili to collectors). We recently started posting the NON CAC coins in our emails only-and they have received tremendous response. While all these coins are more common "widget" types, we have learned the publics appetite for them is huge-because of the CAC sticker. Too many generic coins (like Walkers+Morgans ) have suffered from "gradeflation" and all the people want are the nice examples they are supposed to get. Interestingly, with all the GEM Walkers we have that are CAC'd, it took us until last week to build ONE (and we are stuck on the second by 2 coins) an all PCGS CAC MS65 Short set. Forget about building an MS66 set (we haven't seen a 44S in MS66 since we sold one a month ago).
If you plan on attending COINFEST, we will be bringing a big portion of the McClaren coins to the show. You will get a chance to see they really are as nice as they sound.
NOTE: WE CURRENTLY HAVE ABOUT 400 COINS EITHER AT OR WAITING TO GO TO CAC. EITHER MID WEEK OR NEXT SUNDAY NIGHT WE WILL HAVE AN INCREDIBLE OFFERING OF GEM WALKERS-WITH MANY MS67'S! ALSO, WE HOPE TO BE OFFERING SOME MERC DIMES IN THE NOT TO DISTANT FUTURE AS WELL. SORRY, NO RARE DATES-STAY TUNED!
THE OVERALL MARKET
We see things firming up. We were amazed at how many NEW collectors have bought from us since September 1. No, its not just the McClaren coins. They want nice coins. We have not heard anything about speculation. Most are starting sets. Some just like a certain design. They are not buying token cheap coins-several bought low five figure pieces. The main thing, these people are buying coins. We have even seen some old friends come back who we haven't seen in months or the past year. While demand is firming, there is no wholesale dumping of collections that we have heard of. In fact, we wish there was-the biggest problem right now is finding neat coins. Where are all the GEM Bust Halves, MS65 Seated Dollars, or PR Gold pieces?
The market should firm up even more between now and the end of the year. There will continue to be certain areas of weakness (unfortnately MS+PR Barber coins still seem sluggish), while other areas-like long suffering commems may finally have hit price points so low they have to move up. There are definatly more people today building nice Commem sets that we have heard of than at any other time in the past few years.
And gold, well generics are doing the correction we told you about. You will see MS65 Saints fall another 10%-even if gold goes up (the movement of gold is by traders, not pure demand). MS66 Saints have held and are still in demand. Last weel, we posted two better MS65 $10 Indians PCGS MS65 CAC-we wish we had 7 of them! Thats who many of them we could have sold. So long as the coinis not in an area that ran up to high, gold is a safe place to be and will continue to firm. Just watch the rags to see which common gold coins are now falling.
Remember, buying rare coins is not a short term flip. You buy them for the long term. The long term is really forever- maybe one day in 15 years you happen to notice they have gone up dramtically (unelss your dealer has called you in between). There is no set time limit. The trick is to BUY THE BEST QUALITY YOU CAN AFFORD AND HOLD. EYE APPEAL IS EVERYTHING. Even if you buy 5 MONSTER MS65 Morgans and hold them, you should do well. Buying ugly coins cheap will not get you anywhere near the % returns great coins will achieve. The coin market had walked a very dangerous path until two years ago. Grading was almost out of control and the coin doctors did serious damage. Today, the coin docs are a bitter bunch who still try hard, but do not get as mcuh through as they used too. The grading services realize they need to be alert not only for their own sake, but for the future of the entire coin hobby. Because of this, we see more consumer confidence and more buying down the road. As long as the speculators are wiped out and true collectors rule, the coin market will enjoy steady slow rises.
COINFEST
Showtime is almost here! The show opens in the afternoon Friday October 8th and closes Sunday afternoon October 10th. of course we will be there and have a table.
CAC will be there accepting up to 20 submissions from collectors ONLY. Remember, last year they got swamped. You need to arrive before 10 AM and submit. Be prepared to wait several hours for your coins to be returned. There will be 150+ leading dealers set up, so you will have plenty to see and do while waiting.
Do not miss the Saturday morning 8:30 AM Q+A with John Albanese! Legend and Jon Lerner thank John Albanese and CAC for all the support they have given to COINFEST. It is the ONLY show you will see CAC set up at.
PCGS will be at the show accepting submissions-but they will NOT be grading there.
It will be a great show, come on out! We had a huge turn out last year. We designed this show with the collector in mind, not the wholesale dealers!
We will have a full market report and NEWPS starting late next Sunday night.
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