DGS might well be the little engine that could. I am really excited that we will grade coin number 2000 this week. What makes this milestone unique is that we are not grading ANY bulk submissions. We are NOT grading rolls of Lincoln cents, Morgan dollars, modern issues, etc. We're doing this the hard way... one collector coin at a time. And it's not easy to grade one 1938-D Walker in VF, then an 1804 half cent, followed by a $20 gold piece.
In addition to our success in the submissions department is the positive feedback the market is showing us because collectors are BUYING up our DGS coins. We are selling a higher percentage of DGS coins in our auctions than nearly all other grading services (coins offered versus coins sold). Collectors want conservatively graded coins for their collections.
Gold toying with $1000...
As you probably know gold is flirting with $1000 per ounce levels for the first time in months. The market saw a $21 correction today (after hitting $981!) but that's healthy given the rapid climb this week. Along with this new movement, we've seen a lot of buyers looking for "generic" gold coins on our site this week, which is very encouraging. As we head into the bing ANA show in 2 weeks, we can only hope gold will pop over the magic $1000 barrier to get everyone excited.
Thanks for reading...
-John
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Mid-America Show Update
Greetings from Shaumburg, IL. John Brush and I are here at the show to load up on fresh material for the office and future auctions. We've made some great purchases and we're excited to get them back to the office for next week's sales.
The market is really tight right now. Despite the greater economy, supply/demand flow for certified coins seems relatively unaffected. We do continue to see a shift towards quality of (grading) in coins, especially coins over $1000. Dealers are fussier about what they'll buy. But supply of coins, even at medium sized (regional) show like this one is really tight. Win and I spoke last week about how few fresh collections are coming out of the woodwork. But very few interesting deals have come on the market. The Stack's sale here contains all of 300 lots of U.S. coins...
Hottest Coins Right Now
1. Collector Coins (circ coins in the $50-$1000 range)
2. Red Indians & Lincolns
Can't Seem to Find Enough of
1. Collector Coins (see above)
2. PCGS MS67 Washington quarters (where are they????)
3. Dated Saints in the $5000-$15000 range
4. Red Lincolns (sell faster than we can possibly find them)
5. DGS coins (well, just kidding... a little... they've been selling a lot faster on our site than we even anticipated. Got raw coins to sell? Send them to DGS and we'll sell them for you -- fast.)
If you have any of the above to sell we are very aggressive buyers. In this market we have great cash flow and we really need coins for our twice-weekly auctions.
.
.
Thank you again for reading my posts. I look forward to your responses/inquiries. I will respond to all your questions personally.
-John
The market is really tight right now. Despite the greater economy, supply/demand flow for certified coins seems relatively unaffected. We do continue to see a shift towards quality of (grading) in coins, especially coins over $1000. Dealers are fussier about what they'll buy. But supply of coins, even at medium sized (regional) show like this one is really tight. Win and I spoke last week about how few fresh collections are coming out of the woodwork. But very few interesting deals have come on the market. The Stack's sale here contains all of 300 lots of U.S. coins...
Hottest Coins Right Now
1. Collector Coins (circ coins in the $50-$1000 range)
2. Red Indians & Lincolns
Can't Seem to Find Enough of
1. Collector Coins (see above)
2. PCGS MS67 Washington quarters (where are they????)
3. Dated Saints in the $5000-$15000 range
4. Red Lincolns (sell faster than we can possibly find them)
5. DGS coins (well, just kidding... a little... they've been selling a lot faster on our site than we even anticipated. Got raw coins to sell? Send them to DGS and we'll sell them for you -- fast.)
If you have any of the above to sell we are very aggressive buyers. In this market we have great cash flow and we really need coins for our twice-weekly auctions.
.
.
Thank you again for reading my posts. I look forward to your responses/inquiries. I will respond to all your questions personally.
-John
Sunday, July 6, 2008
July 4th Musings
I hope everyone enjoyed their 3-day weekend. July marks the beginning of the third quarter, and the coin market tends to quiet down in this period as the busy travel (marathon) schedule of January-May is much quieter in June-July until the ANA show. Many small dealers without employees take long vacations during this time of year.
Of course, at DLRC, we never slow down! There's no question that the economy is headed in some unusual places. On the one hand we are seeing an unprecedented credit crunch and the American consumer is really being squeezed thanks to gas prices and inflation in general. We'd all like to know how this will affect coin values.
For starters, many of the same forces that are pushing oil are also pushing gold prices. So that helps. But the irony is that generic certified gold pieces (especially Saint Gaudens PCGS/NGC MS60-64) are trading at the lowest premiums to spot prices ever. A knowledgable friend of mine told me at gold spot of $1500 we'll be melting mint state Saints! In other words, consumer demand for certified gold lags behing the metal price. As dealers and collectors who own such coins, we're profiting from the rising base metal cost of our inventory of such items but they are not worth as much as they should be!
What about type coins? Or good collector coins like Bust dollars or better date Barbers? Truly nice examples of these coins are still far scarcer than one would think and I would love to acquire a great collection of these coins. Especially a high end collection that is conservatively graded. I doubt the market would have any trouble getting excited about these coins. Last month's Stacks sale did really well becuase the coins were really fresh and desirable.
In the next day or two, I plan to write about some favorite coin series that I think have real potential. Please tell a friend about this BLOG. Take care and happy 4th!
Of course, at DLRC, we never slow down! There's no question that the economy is headed in some unusual places. On the one hand we are seeing an unprecedented credit crunch and the American consumer is really being squeezed thanks to gas prices and inflation in general. We'd all like to know how this will affect coin values.
For starters, many of the same forces that are pushing oil are also pushing gold prices. So that helps. But the irony is that generic certified gold pieces (especially Saint Gaudens PCGS/NGC MS60-64) are trading at the lowest premiums to spot prices ever. A knowledgable friend of mine told me at gold spot of $1500 we'll be melting mint state Saints! In other words, consumer demand for certified gold lags behing the metal price. As dealers and collectors who own such coins, we're profiting from the rising base metal cost of our inventory of such items but they are not worth as much as they should be!
What about type coins? Or good collector coins like Bust dollars or better date Barbers? Truly nice examples of these coins are still far scarcer than one would think and I would love to acquire a great collection of these coins. Especially a high end collection that is conservatively graded. I doubt the market would have any trouble getting excited about these coins. Last month's Stacks sale did really well becuase the coins were really fresh and desirable.
In the next day or two, I plan to write about some favorite coin series that I think have real potential. Please tell a friend about this BLOG. Take care and happy 4th!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
First Entry
Welcome to my personal BLOG. I will use this forum to ramble on all things related to my numismatic ventures: David Lawrence Rare Coins (DLRC), DLRC Auctions & Dominion Grading Company (DGS). I hope to get feedback from those of you in the numismatic community, whether you are a retail client, fellow dealer, or passer-by.
There are so many issues in the coin business these days, it will be fun to address them in this "informal" area.
For today's initial post, I will comment on a topic that was heavily discussed in the PCGS chat room last week, while I was on vacation:
"Is there an inherent conflict of interest with DGS grading DLRC-owned coins?"
Of course there is... HOWEVER, but there are also conflicts of interest in every for-profit venture and it is up to the consumer to decide whether a dealer/company is reputable and has integrity. At DLRC we've spent 29 years building that level of trust in the coin community and we only ventured into the grading arena because we know that we can grade with integrity; especially when it comes to grading our material.
In the first two months of grading we have made numerous efforts to shield the grading process from the submission process so we really don't know when we are grading our own coins. Which is good, because we have tended to grade our own coins too conservatively for fear that we would set a bad precedent.
We have also added the letter 'D' to the end of the serial # of all coins submitted by DLRC for grading. This layer of transparency was done in an effort to demonstrate when we have graded a coin of our own. The pessimists will ask, "Could we cheat and omit the letter whether it suits us?" Of course we could, but that implies a level of dishonesty that does not exist at our company. Ask ANY employee or ANY long time customer. We play by the rules and we have built that rare company that believes integrity and honest dealings will allow us to rise above the competition in the long run.
Well, that's it for tonight's initial ramble... I will respond to any and all polite questions and I will also be happy to answer to any industry-related inquiries as well.
-John
There are so many issues in the coin business these days, it will be fun to address them in this "informal" area.
For today's initial post, I will comment on a topic that was heavily discussed in the PCGS chat room last week, while I was on vacation:
"Is there an inherent conflict of interest with DGS grading DLRC-owned coins?"
Of course there is... HOWEVER, but there are also conflicts of interest in every for-profit venture and it is up to the consumer to decide whether a dealer/company is reputable and has integrity. At DLRC we've spent 29 years building that level of trust in the coin community and we only ventured into the grading arena because we know that we can grade with integrity; especially when it comes to grading our material.
In the first two months of grading we have made numerous efforts to shield the grading process from the submission process so we really don't know when we are grading our own coins. Which is good, because we have tended to grade our own coins too conservatively for fear that we would set a bad precedent.
We have also added the letter 'D' to the end of the serial # of all coins submitted by DLRC for grading. This layer of transparency was done in an effort to demonstrate when we have graded a coin of our own. The pessimists will ask, "Could we cheat and omit the letter whether it suits us?" Of course we could, but that implies a level of dishonesty that does not exist at our company. Ask ANY employee or ANY long time customer. We play by the rules and we have built that rare company that believes integrity and honest dealings will allow us to rise above the competition in the long run.
Well, that's it for tonight's initial ramble... I will respond to any and all polite questions and I will also be happy to answer to any industry-related inquiries as well.
-John
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