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Baltimore Report
Coinosaurus
Posts: 9,659 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just got home from Baltimore, left early to escape the snowstorm predicted for Saturday.
There was very little good stuff on the show floor, and I heard several dealers express concerns about smaller inventories. Ended up selling a lot more stuff than I could buy. Some collectors are starting to get a bit nervous with the market strength. However, some of the stuff I sold turned several times quickly, so the dealers are definitely still in the game. The services were reportedly inundated with stuff and not getting submissions back - that probably slowed activity somewhat.
Lots of discussion about new Trends prices, with some dealers checking both Trends and the sheets before making deals. Wide differences in some cases. Which is reality? One dealer indicated that he was talking to Mark Ferguson at CW and expected some lowered prices in Trends as a result - whether that actually happens we shall see. It is VERY hard for me personally to price coins right now. I don't trust the price guides anymore, and the stuff I am really interested in is too thinly traded to get a good feel for what's going on. Best thing to do is to watch every auction sale carefully and talk to as many collectors and dealers as possible.
Looked through the auction sale lots and thought there were some grossly overgraded coins in it - what is this, a dumping ground for maxed out crap? I was doubly POed because B&M did not send me a catalog - mind you, I have subscribed to them for years, done tons of business with them, and then no catalog? I asked around and everyone else seemed to have theirs, so maybe mine just got lost.
FUN will be a very key indicator about where this market is headed the next few months - there aren't any big shows now for awhile, so we'll see how much pent up demand there is after the holidays. What with the stock market strength, there seems to be quite an "era of good feeling", as QDB might say, in the coin biz right now.
Lots o'cash available for the right coins, if you can find them. Hopefully the rising prices will start bringing forth some goodies and we can all find some awesome coins at FUN.
There was very little good stuff on the show floor, and I heard several dealers express concerns about smaller inventories. Ended up selling a lot more stuff than I could buy. Some collectors are starting to get a bit nervous with the market strength. However, some of the stuff I sold turned several times quickly, so the dealers are definitely still in the game. The services were reportedly inundated with stuff and not getting submissions back - that probably slowed activity somewhat.
Lots of discussion about new Trends prices, with some dealers checking both Trends and the sheets before making deals. Wide differences in some cases. Which is reality? One dealer indicated that he was talking to Mark Ferguson at CW and expected some lowered prices in Trends as a result - whether that actually happens we shall see. It is VERY hard for me personally to price coins right now. I don't trust the price guides anymore, and the stuff I am really interested in is too thinly traded to get a good feel for what's going on. Best thing to do is to watch every auction sale carefully and talk to as many collectors and dealers as possible.
Looked through the auction sale lots and thought there were some grossly overgraded coins in it - what is this, a dumping ground for maxed out crap? I was doubly POed because B&M did not send me a catalog - mind you, I have subscribed to them for years, done tons of business with them, and then no catalog? I asked around and everyone else seemed to have theirs, so maybe mine just got lost.
FUN will be a very key indicator about where this market is headed the next few months - there aren't any big shows now for awhile, so we'll see how much pent up demand there is after the holidays. What with the stock market strength, there seems to be quite an "era of good feeling", as QDB might say, in the coin biz right now.
Lots o'cash available for the right coins, if you can find them. Hopefully the rising prices will start bringing forth some goodies and we can all find some awesome coins at FUN.
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Comments
Was going to try to get to Baltimore but Mother Nature is making that unlikely.
Sounds like the ordinary collector can't count on the usual price guides anymore.
If the fear of getting ripped-off makes collecting less fun, I think a lot of good
folks will give up and turn to something less risky.