Archive for category: Market Reports News

This time of year marks one of those rare instances when we come off of one favorite coin show only to turn around and head to another that we like equally as much (albeit for slightly different reasons). Let’s first talk about last week’s Ohio State Coin Show (OSCS) in Dublin, Ohio. Although there are many coin clubs that pour their hearts and souls into their sponsored shows, few do it quite as well or thoroughly as the Central Ohio Numismatic Association. Once again, the green hats ran a first-class production. Friday was one of the busiest days in recent memory at any coin show, and for just a split second, we thought that we had traveled back in time to the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money held two weeks earlier. The room was full of passionate collectors and business was being conducted at a brisk pace. Of special importance to us, were the number of collectors indicating that they had seen our Coin World ad, Numismatic News ad, or weekly price list, and had specifically come to the show in search of one or more advertised coins. We also met, for the first time, several established mail-order customers that we knew only by name. Ideally, these are the type of opportunities that a coin show should afford us. We can now begin to look forward to next year’s event, being held at a neighboring facility yet to be named. Under the club’s competent leadership of Steve Petty, we are sure that this new  venue will be chosen carefully, and the show will not miss a beat in the process. Next week, we will be headed to a little bit different type of show, but one that we love no less. The Battlefield Coin Show, under the direction of Mike Dixon, is a fine venue, that is now in its fifth year. The allure of this show is the historic Civil War location of Gettysburg, PA. Dealers and collectors alike flock to this show, as does any serious student of American History. Few locations offer more in the way of distractions than the beautiful town of Gettysburg, but fortunately, this doesn’t seem to detract at all from what is usually a very well attended coin show. The Battlefield show offers an interesting and diverse mix of dealers who come from points all over the country. Both Rob and Robbie will be on the hand to represent The Reeded Edge at their usual location to the right of the front entrance. They will have thousands of new certified coins in tow (yes, you read that correctly-thousands), bipoducts of a very successful summer of office purchases, hundreds of PCGS grading returns and one of our most successful ANA shows in company history. As usual, the guys will have their checkbook open, and will be aggressively buying any and all fresh coins. Please make a point of offering The Reeded Edge any great numismatic properties that you have for sale. Immediate funds are ALWAYS available for the right coins! Just look for the giant BUYING, BUYING, BUYING sign visible from all vantage points in the room, and the guys should not be far behind. Finally, we are humbled that Mike Dixon and the management of this show recognized our firm with a Dealer Integrity Award in 2017 and a Dealer Choice Award in 2018.  Both mean a great deal to us, especially coming from a first-rate organization like theirs. Hopefully, Gettysburg will be in your plans for next week, as we would love to see you at this fine show.

The 2019 Chicago A.N.A. World’s Fair of Money is now in the books, and once again, Rosemont did not disappoint. Rob, Robbie, Miguel and Ron were all hands on deck for the majority of the show, with The Reeded Edge’s booth double-stacked with customers for much of the time. (The picture to the left was taken shortly after we opened the booth during set-up in the A.M. and was one of our few quiet periods during the show.) The quantity of sales was nothing short of astounding with over one hundred retail sales invoices written during the show’s duration. Buying was also great. Many fresh coins were offered to the guys throughout the week; the end result was many hundreds of new coins purchased for inventory. Individual highlights are numerous, but because the coins are currently in the processing stage, summarizing them here would be premature. Stay tuned. The A.N.A. is billed as the show of shows, so expectations always run high. This year’s event ranks as one of our greatest in company history, and from what we could tell, many of the other vendors from around the world concurred. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but if this show is any indicator about the overall health of the coin market, some really good times may be on the horizon.

Conventional wisdom doesn’t always prevail, especially when two coin show promoters don’t coordinate their dates. That is the situation that we face this week, as we travel back to Northern Virginia for the Vienna Quarterly Coin Show. Happily, the first leg of this journey was successful; the Annandale Coin Show managed to fill the room with passionate buyers (especially on Saturday). The challenge will be to see if Vienna can do it again this weekend, since the shows are a mere 8 miles apart. Demographically, this is the wealthiest area in the United States. But in the same breath, there are only so many collectors, many of whom showed up last weekend in Annandale. Rob and Robby will be conducting this weekend’s numismatic experiment, as they will be representing The Reeded Edge in Vienna. They should have hundreds of brand new coins in tow, as they work through a new collection that landed in the office on Monday. This will be the last show before the much-anticipated ANA World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Illinois. As many of you already know this is the show-of-shows in the numismatic arena. The world’s largest coin show will commence on August 13th and conclude on Saturday the 17th. The Reeded Edge will have an enormous 4 table end-cap in the very front of Hall F at The Donald Stephens Rosemont Exposition Center. Associates Miguel Lopez, Ron Iliffe, and Rory Shelby will be on hand to assist the guys throughout the week. More on this show will be forthcoming next week. For the time being, we hope that Vienna, and perhaps a D.C. getaway is in your plans for this upcoming weekend.

It is amazing how time flies. Just yesterday, we were talking about warming temperatures and the corresponding (and predictable) summer slow-down in the coin market. We were right for 50% of our prognostication. Although many coin traders who make their living selling exclusively to other re-sellers have reported a decrease in sales, we are not noticing any weakening of the collector contingent. We are firm believers that at the end of the day, this is the most important component for both the health of the coin market as well as the overall hobby.

We do want to take pause and wish everybody a happy fourth of July, and also hope that each of you contemplate what it means to live in the United States; please also take a moment to give thanks to those that have sacrificed so that you can enjoy the freedoms that many of us take for granted. Just to be able to enjoy a hobby like coin collecting and afford coins to further your collection is a privilege that many in this world will never know. Not to get overly philosophical, but at least give these factors a thought, because at the end of the day, we all VERY fortunate.

Speaking of, plenty of good fortune has come The Reeded Edge’s way lately. Coming on the heels of the major purchase of an east coast dealer’s inventory, we just finalized another significant acquisition. This one was also top-heavy in collector coins, so it was an excellent fit for our firm. Both of these deals featured quite a bit of raw material, some of which is being certified, but much of it is also being sold as-is. Please keep an eye out on our trecoins eBay account, which is now our exclusive marketplace for raw coins. We have over 400 coins currently out for certification, so expect a deluge of new PCGS and NGC material in the very near future. Next week, Rob Lehmann will be headed south to Orlando, Florida next week to attend The Summer FUN Convention located at The Orange County Convention Center on International Drive. Rob will have a myriad of new certified coins in tow, so be sure to stop by The Reeded Edge’s booth #725 and say hello.  Despite both the quantity and velocity of our new purchases, Rob will still be eager to buy any fresh, high-quality material. We urge you to stop by and show him anything that you are contemplating selling. Maintaining The Reeded Edge’s philosophy of there never is a slow season for buying coins, Rob will have the checkbook out and ready.

We hope numismatics will play an important role in everybody’s summer. After all sunshine and heat can both be really overrated!

This year’s June Baltimore show was a recipe for disaster. For one, it wasn’t in June. Instead, Whitman was forced to juggle their dates and held it on Memorial Day weekend. Historically, the June Baltimore show is the smallest and least active of the 3 yearly shows held at the Baltimore Convention Center. So, our expectations are always somewhat tempered. Given the change of dates to one of the most popular travel weekends of the year, our expectations were downright dashed. Boy, were we wrong! Baltimore ended up being one of our better coin shows of the year. Although the collector attendance was slightly affected by circumstances, those who did attend were serious. From our perspective, money was spent and coins were sold. It is plainly obvious to us that we are in the midst of a collector-driven market, something that we have no issue with whatsoever. On the buy side, the show was exceptional. Our acquisitions were across the numismatic spectrum, from copper through gold, with no single area better represented than any other. This is exactly what we strive for at a coin show-balance. At the end of the day, a tip of the hat goes to the entire staff of Whitman for another job well done. If there ever was a coin show laden with potential challenges, this was it. For them to draw a nice mix of both dealers and public on this otherwise auspicious weekend, speaks volumes of Whitman’s commitment to the success of the Baltimore Coin Show. If only other promoters would take more careful note of how this show is run, coin shows as a whole would be inherently more successful.