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How healthy is the Darkside market?
stevereecy
Posts: 205 ✭✭✭
If you've been reading the forums on the lightside, there are a couple threads about how the lightside coin market is in decline and has been for a while.
Is it the same over here?
Really enjoying collecting coins and currency again
My currency "Box of Ten" Thread: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1045579/my-likely-slow-to-develop-box-of-ten#latest
My currency "Box of Ten" Thread: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1045579/my-likely-slow-to-develop-box-of-ten#latest
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Don' t think you'll get a balanced answer as it seems everybody has an angle. IMO, it is overall a bit slow with the usual exception of high end pieces that people with substantial means are chasing.
Well, just Love coins, period.
Depends on the country and denominations, quality of the coins and how often such coins are offered
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I assume both are driven by collector demographics.
It all depends---plus the dollar is a bit stronger right now, which works to your advantage as a buyer, disadvantage as a seller assuming you are doing international buying. Not having read heavily on the Liteside, I suspect the Japanese market is similar. Common things have weak prices and the truly superb are still going strong.
I think trying to pigeonhole the Darkside into one description is impossible though. Too many segments to parse out.
Common material seems to be declining sharply just about everywhere. It may be a good time to thin your holdings and keep only the best items. This applies to more than just coins.
The coins that I have been bidding on lately have been strong. Because of this, I haven't added many to my collection. The common issues in low to mid grades have been taking a beating, but the high end still are doing okay - but not great. I've also seen some rare highly graded coins take a betting over the past seven or so years. But these went for moon money at the time and shouldn't be compared to the others.
Overall, the common German States area seems lukewarm at best.....has been softening for the past 2+ years. Hard to make generalizations about the darkside market as a whole since each region has its own movements and influences, but it is safe to say that the divergence of high end from common is happening across all segments. Museum quality seems to have no ceiling, along with the budgets that chase it.
I think that the non-US coin market is doing just fine. It has the advantage that people all over the world are active in it.
If Kunker's sale is an indicator, I couldn't compete for my second tier choices.
TalerUniverse.com is a curated numismatic project dedicated to the silver talers, crowns, and medals of the Habsburg Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, spanning the 16th–18th centuries. The collection emphasizes historically significant issues, rare mint varieties, and high-grade NGC/PCGS examples, presented with detailed historical context, scholarly references, and high-resolution photography. TalerUniverse aims to serve both as a private collection showcase and a growing reference resource for collectors, researchers, and students of early-modern European coinage.
Z - Is it considered to be 2nd tier when you have to take the Jag instead of the Bentley?
Just kidding of course. I am fairly sure Z does not even own a car, nevertheless a Bentley.
I just had Jeremy sell 13 lots for me on eBay, all .99 cent no reserve, and did about 8% better than I thought I would. The lots fell into many different categories within the world market. I felt like I gave away some of the coins while others were complete surprises when the dust finally settled. All in all, though, I hit my number and a little more. I was happy.
With that and other anecdotal evidence, I would agree that the world market has portions that are hot and those that are not. I don't think great stuff is always killing it, but generic is definitely not what you want to sell right now.
https://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/collectors-showcase/world-coins/one-coin-per-year-1600-2017/2422
It seems about the same as US coins. Less popular series/types or lower grade material is down. Popular series and high end stuff is up.
IG: DeCourcyCoinsEbay: neilrobertson
"Numismatic categorizations, if left unconstrained, will increase spontaneously over time." -me
There is a glut of common date/condition Canadian coins on the market right now. The really good stuff brings all the money and then some. Most people are reluctant to auction decent material, as it tends to get lost among the dreck.
As with most numismatics, eye appeal trumps all. Doesn't matter what the number on the holder is, if it's ugly, it will preform poorly unless it's a major rarity.
I don't want to jinx my own post by responding and killing the thread. I think we'd all enjoy more responses and perspectives. That being said, I have a burning question. Seems like many of you are saying that the market is stratifying, with the better material doing better, and the dreck/common/widget stuff not doing as well. But how do you define "better stuff"? Don't worry, I know it's foolish to chase trends, so I won't go running after that stuff. But I'm trying to get a feel for it. Seems like with U.S. coins you have to spend thousands (like $5,000?) just to get into the "better stuff". I'm envisioning the lower rung of "better stuff" in world coins as costing much less. Where does "better stuff" start? $300? $1000? Sorry if this is against etiquette...I'm still figuring this stuff out.
My currency "Box of Ten" Thread: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1045579/my-likely-slow-to-develop-box-of-ten#latest
Better stuff is not always well defined by price but by condition and how often it surfaces.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Agreed with coinkat. It depends on the market too.
As for Canadian coins, there are actually very few four-figure value coins. Better stuff in the Canadian context isn't always more expensive. Demand and realized prices for things such as problem-free Victorian (1870-1901) and Edwardian (1902-1910) 50 cents and 25 cents in low to mid grades, remain quite strong. Even those that aren't key dates. These tend to be $50 to $250 coins for the more common dates.
The ancients market in the above-$5K pricepoint is very strong in my eyes, based on the number of times I've been outbid this year on what I thought were aggressive bids
"Better Stuff" can be defined as coins/currency/medals that can't be obtained just by waving a wad of cash in the air at a major show or auction. "Better Stuff" is not necessarily expensive but it is very hard to find.
It's difficult to generalize about the market for any individual country. It's ridiculous to generalize about the entire world.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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