When we write a MARKET REPORT please note, we are discussing the current events of the coin market from our point of view ONLY. Other dealers opinions maybe be stronger or weaker depending on how they run their businesses. What we state is FACT, NOT fiction.
A CHANGE IN THE GOLD GENERIC MARKET?
Now that gold has calmed down a bit and backed off of $1,000.00 we see some important changes happening our customers need to be aware of.
The big telemarketers had switched from MS64/65 Saints to MS62/63 Saints a few weeks ago because they simply could not find enough of the higher grade coins. Now, with gold down the demand is still strong for 64/65 coins, but not as strong as it was. Plus, with all the dealers in the world trying to buy these coins and having minor success, the premiums being paid for 64/65 Saints and a few other larger size gold coins are falling. Our guess is they have come down a full 10% in the past week. Few dealers we spoke to were comfortable with the idea of MS65 Saints being BID at $2,200.00-even if it was the market.
We believe if gold continues to drop you will see even more decreases in the premiums being paid on certain larger gold coins. A friend of ours who is the buyer for one of the biggest telemarketers had told his company to stop dealing in higher graded Saints for at least week until things settled down. The guess is that gold will settle just above $800.00-for now. It is still widely felt that gold will rebound and shoot higher than $1,000.00. At this point we feel all the guessing is ridiculous. The markets are so volatile we just go by the day to day prices and do not try to plan or guess too far ahead.
Legend has also adopted a new policy. We have always paid as strong as possible for all gold coins. However, we will NOT quote ANY firm prices until the coins are in our physical possession. As for selling, no order on generics is confirmed unless GOOD FUNDS are in our offices.
RARE GOLD COINS
We kick ourselves for not having a larger inventory of what we call “intelligent” gold coins. Those are REAL rarities that have solid fundamental value. There are still MANY collectors out there who wish to either collect or add a few pieces of gold to their sets. It does not matter whether the coin is $2,000.00 or $75,000.00, better gold coins are easy to sell. In the month of February, Legend SOLD more than a dozen RARE GOLD coins valued at 5,000.00-$87,500.00 to collectors. The surprising thing: they didn’t have to be the biggest coins. Even GEM Gold Dollars are getting respect in this market.
Do note: rare gold coins are NOT enjoying the price rises that generics are. In fact some rare gold coins actually have suffered with the market and are off by 20% since the ANA Show. But that’s still many times better than what the stock market has recently done. Tremendous opportunities exist in rare gold-remember QUALITY and RARITY are everything (that can NEVER be overstated). Any puttied or doctored gold is BAD gold. And beware of buying quasi generics-they rise and fall with dizzying consequences.
THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY WAS STRONG FOR LEGEND
Much to our total surprise, the month of February was VERY strong. We did far more retail (well into seven figures) than we thought we would have. Most important, we had about a dozen “old friends” who hadn’t bought in years place orders and we picked up MANY NEW customers. Our offering of the Nafztger Large Cents was a runaway success! We had completely SOLD OUT without even listing any. We still have Want Lists for any we can find that aren’t crazy varieties.
You’d think most people would be more concerned these days with just surviving than buying coins. We believe that collectors who stopped in October out of fear now realize that coins performed probably the BEST of ANY financial or collectables market. We started seeing them stick their heads out to check things out at FUN. The same thing happened at Long Beach too. This is now slowly transforming into buying coins again. This time the “I” word has appeared only in the context of collectors saying: this is an area I know best and has done well for me, so I will buy more. Investors crippled themselves by buying the worst junk while seeking immediate maximum profits.
We actually expect March to be a good month for us and the coin market.
Keep in mind, when we talk about coins doing well, those coins are NOT low end, overgraded, unsightly, or problem junk. Those coins were off as much as 75%-with many now having NO buyers at all. Slowly many of the coins are either being regraded down, dipped (to remove putty), or are slowly being bought back by the services. There still is a VERY long way to go to clean up this dreck.
OUR SPECIAL PATTERN OFFERING
As many of you know, Legend is clearly the worlds largest Pattern Dealer. We handle patterns ranging from commoner R-1’s to classic rarity R-8’s (like the famous Amazonian set).
Back at the end of 2007 we purchased a major million dollar collection that had been off the market for 20+ years. We also have had many single patterns offered to us privately. We decided rather than to offer one or two at time, we wanted to make a large and special offering of many pieces. We are pleased to have assembled a truly top quality as well as rare offering.
If you are nervous about buying patterns do not be. Legend is a full two way market maker. We WILL stand behind EVERY pattern we sell. We make it our point only to offer the patterns we feel have the safest and smartest fundamental values.
So if you are building a GEM PR 3CN set, why not add the patterns that go along? Or if you seek a real challenge, assemble all the patterns of a year (say 1875)? There are so many opportunities in the pattern world to explore. In most cases, you can still buy patterns with LESS than 12 known in FULL GEM for LESS than $10,000.00. Seems too cheap to us! Plus, we think its neat being able to own a design that never was. And you won’t have the sudden realization when you are finished that all coins look alike!
BACK TO OUR GE STOCK SAGA
Of course several of you couldn’t help but make our pain worse by reminding us where GE stock prices are at or about any articles that came out. As of close Friday, it had drifted down to $8,53! Remember, we bought in only 2 weeks ago for $10.37. Of course many other great companies stocks fell too. So long as this type of negative stock market exists, the coin market certainly will survive nicely. Every day we since we wrote our initial blurb, we have heard from collectors who totally agree stocks are a disaster and have decided that building their coin collections was safer and smarter (they know nothing is guaranteed). Plus, we want you all to know we do read that the outlook for GE (even after cutting their dividend) is $4-6.00! Who ever would have thought that was possible? NOTE: we are NOT in anyway saying you can not make money in the stock market. We do know from experience, it gets old watching your money just go away.
NOTE: 11:41 AM 3/2, GE has busted yet again! The price is currently $7.62!!! THREE WEEKS AGO IT WAS $10.37 (-26%)!!!
Coins really are the ultimate place to store your money these days. #1 you get something physical and NOT an electronic statement. #2 you get something old and rare. #3 most coins are beautiful! We have never seen a beautiful statement from a brokerage. #4 supplies are limited while there is a world wide demand for rare US coins. #5 the absolute most important: RARE COINS ARE CLEARLY THE MOST LIQUID OF ANY COLLECTABLE. Try selling great minerals, art, or even antique cars these days. Only rare coins offer immediate liquidity.
