First, my apologies...it's been over two weeks since I created a new posting but I've been in Baltimore (off and on) since July 25th. I was lucky enough to come home for two days over the weekend, but a a bunch of us that had eaten in Baltimore's Little Italy came down with a nasty food-poisoning bug, so the weekend was a wash-out. But you're not reading this blog to hear about that... so I'll move on.
The Pre-ANA...
As many people may or may not know there is always a "pre-ANA" show that precedes the big event. Usually held in a suburb of the host city, in this case we found ourselves in Towson, Maryland. The pre-show rarely attended by the public but it is a huge part of the commerce that we can expect at the main show, as well as guaging the mood of other dealers. About 30 national dealers attended the Towson show and we had modest expectations going in. We'd seen a lot of the same guys in Chicago a few weeks earlier, and the summer mood had been catious. Well, the pre-show was gang-busters from the opening bell. John Brush and I bought and sold a "pre-ANA show" record amount of coins in 2.5 days. I was able to get all the inventory home to process and this past week's DLRC Internet auction contains most of these new purchases. The most exciting purchases we made were: a beautiful 1921-S Walker NGC MS65 (on hold for a client now); 1795 $5 Small Eagle PCGS/CAC MS61 (almost sold twice at the ANA -- won't make it very long); Wass-Molitor $50 NGC VF25 (sold at ANA).
The Main Event
I rushed back to the main ANA on Tuesday morning for the opening of PNG Day and the momentum continued. We exhausted ourselves trying to keep up with the pace of business. Now, we mostly do wholesale at shows, and the ANA is no exception, but collector traffic was very good for the show. The trend of declining show attendance is still there and I think the ANA will report lower numbers than in previous years. But that's due largely to the fact that serious collectors are happy to stay home and acquire coins via the Internet. Why fly to a hot mid-Atlantic city in the middle of the Summer when you can point and click in your pajamas??? The Heritage sale was very strong, especially the Price Collection, which exceeded expectations. But our small, but very fresh Summer Harvest Sale also went crazy...and it closed during the Heritage auction! We realized over $250,000 against a pre-sale estimate of around $165,000! The coins were fresh and bidding was very aggressive.
DGS Update
DGS submissions are holding nicely at 1000 coins per month which is a sweet-spot for us. We're looking to add new graders and attributors for DGS so we can accomodate the greater number of submissions that are coming in. The market is slowly embracing our new company. Now that everyone realizes we are in this for the long term, and we're not trying to over-grade coins to get submission numbers up, collectors and dealers alike are snapping up DGS-graded coins because they are nicer than most other graded material on the market. We keep hearing that people are going to crack the coins out, but that's just fine with us. As long as buyers are happy with the coins they receive in DGS holders, they keep submitting and/or buying more. I think we've really struck a chord with our Visual Population Report as well. Folks love looking thorugh the coins we've graded. Later this summer we will add some nifty little features to the VPR like a "virtual collection" where you can create a collection of DGS coins that you don't even own.
Quick DGS Stats
Coins Graded as of July 31: 2,175
DLRC-owned coins graded as of July 31: 304
----
# DGS Coins Sold by DLRC/DLRC Auctions as of July 31: 153
Sales Price of DGS graded coins sold by DLRC as of July 31: $78,804
Average sales price of a sold DGS coin by DLRC: $515.05
Interesting Message Board
While I've not been a big contributor to any message boards (due to time constaints), I have enjoyed reading and posting on CoinTalk. The tone of the boards is congenial and professional. There has been a very interesting analysis of DGS on there of late which I've contributed to. CoinTalk thread.
Well, that's it for today. It's been a loooooong 10-days of non-stop numismatics with a nice bout of illness thrown in for good measure. I'll be happily back at my desk this week to build on some great ideas I've had for our web sites and auction platform. Have a great week!
John
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
DGS Hits 2000 Coins Graded
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
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
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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