Numismatic gold on the rise

csdot

I know us collectors tell ourselves that we are just involved for the history, camaraderie, and educational aspects of the hobby. Most likely this is because we realize that the sales environments we have enabled both at buying time and selling time are heavily skewed in favor of the dealers (buy at retail, sell at wholesale- or lower if the dealer is less scrupulous and is buying from your uneducated estate).

That said, the retail prices on Numismatic gold since the start of the pandemic may offset that spread afterall, and could even result in us keeping up with inflation.

I know I have seen more than a few old time numismatic gold collectors taking advantage of the record prices and offloading their collections on eBay and elsewhere to get their money out while they can get top dollar (compared to prices from a decade ago).

Has anyone here recently experienced a happy (and maybe even unexpected) benefit at sale time? If so, what was the motivating factor for selling now?

Were you selling a long time hold, making an opportunistic flip, or something else?

pcgscacgold

I am considering selling off some of the CAC gold I bought right before COVID hit. In many cases the CAC guide prices have doubled (or more). I didn't buy them to make money so for now I most likely will hold them. It is fun having coins that have single digit CAC pops at grade and above.

I will say that I had hoped the high prices would bring more nice coins to market (and I am not talking $240,000 coins). A quick look at GC shows that very few gold coins are up for auction. Half Eagles and Eagles both have under 45 posted and that is going out 3 weeks (changes all the time though). There are under 20 Dollar gold coins and 60 quarter Eagles up for sale. I can't remember a time with less up for auction.

Also, when dealers get gold you better hit buy fast. The last few offerings (20-35 coins) from a better known gold dealer went in under an hour. Coins in the $2500-$85000 range fly off the shelf if PCGS CAC approved.

TurtleCat

I've been selling or trading a lot of my low end stuff over the last 2 years. It's been great narrowing down the collection but also having a nicer quality collection remaining. The rising prices, especially for gold, has really been helpful in turning a small profit or breaking even (depending upon what and how much).

Definitely good quality gold is hard to find and you'll be paying a premium for it. I have a dealer who is willing to hold some things for me for a while but he's having a hard time finding suitable coins. He's mostly a mid-to-high end dealer. Strong prices and they keep going up.

mark_dak

No doubt about it. Prices were starting to move before COVID but those increases were off absurdly low, near bullion type prices, even on slabbed AU or low MS pre-1933 gold. The pandemic has not slowed things at all.

Mark

ricko

Looking at prices now for gold, it becomes tempting to sell some. Anything I might sell would garner excellent profit since I have stacked years ago when gold was much cheaper (compared to today and the last decade plus. I will just keep it. Cheers, RickO

ms71

Nice CAC gold is insane. It infrequently appears on the dealer websites; and when it does, it's there only briefly. And this is at prices that would have seemed crazy six or eight months ago. There's a flood of money out there, and it's looking for a haven. Buckle up.

pcgscacgold

@ms71 said:
Nice CAC gold is insane. It infrequently appears on the dealer websites; and when it does, it's there only briefly. And this is at prices that would have seemed crazy six or eight months ago. There's a flood of money out there, and it's looking for a haven. Buckle up.

Yes there is a flood of money in the market. We are experiencing the greatest period of wealth transfer in history. Baby boomers are passing down $68 Trillion. That money ends up somewhere. The shows I go to are populated by older people. They have a lot of spending money and buy what they want.

vulcanize

@pcgscacgold said:

@ms71 said:
Nice CAC gold is insane. It infrequently appears on the dealer websites; and when it does, it's there only briefly. And this is at prices that would have seemed crazy six or eight months ago. There's a flood of money out there, and it's looking for a haven. Buckle up.

Yes there is a flood of money in the market. We are experiencing the greatest period of wealth transfer in history. Baby boomers are passing down $68 Trillion. That money ends up somewhere. The shows I go to are populated by older people. They have a lot of spending money and buy what they want.

And I believe the wise are moving their profits from stocks and bitcoin into PM

Anyways, am very shocked to see some of the prices.
For example - when gold spot prices have not increased, the PCGS SP 69 grade of 2016 W mint 100th anniversary gold Standing Liberty is at 700 USD, spiked up by 175$ in just under a year and a half from 525 USD that it had remained in, for two years till August 2020

asheland

I’ve noticed a lot of my set would go for a decent amount higher than I paid, but I like my set and I’m continuing to hold.

jkrk

I've sold more coins in the past 16 months than I sold in the preceding 7 years.

My gold inventory dropped by about 7% in that time and I am unwilling to go any lower. I offset the loss by buying paper gold.

Thus, I am buying whatever looks to be priced relatively fairly in today's market but at a much higher price than pre pandemic.

I'm probably buying a combination of "lower quality" and pricier coins than I have in the past and offsetting it by selling some of my lower quality inventory.

Hopefully, I won't discover the meaning of, "It is a Tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

Dave99B

I'm generally a bullion buyer sub-$1550, and seller over $1875. We're getting darn close to the latter. This shaky stock market is really helping things along.

Dave

ms71

When interest rates increase enough to give savers a reasonable return, the stock market will undergo a correction. Probably a long way off though.