Have you noticed that quite a few coin dealers have forgot about coin collecting and got caught up in gold and silver fever. All they want to do is buy gold and silver instead of promote the hobby that they used to love. I have talk to other collectors in my area who have given up on buying from some local dealers as all they want to do is buy junk silver or scrap gold. The sad thing is someday silver and gold will fall and these coin dealers will have no customer base. I had more fun collecting coins when silver was $4 an ounce and gold at $250 to $400 and ounce. Oh the good old days. I will never stop collecting coins and currency in my lifetime or stop promoting the ANA and the local club in my area. Thanks for listening to the ramblings of a old collector.
I agree with you. Remember the late 70's? Same thing. Most dealers were caught up in PM simply because so much was moving with them at the time. Things will return to normal eventually, and we will have "good old days" again, this time maybe at $12 silver instead of $4. Heck, I am having a great time with my ancients, not having to worry about handling them, MS grading nonsense, etc. Maybe try that out and see how much fun it can be to actually handle your coins again and not trying to strain to see if a coin is MS64 versus MS65. We are happy to just grade something VF versus F!
I think part of the issue is that these dealers are catering to what their customer base is asking about. People see all these commercial/advertisements about turning in your gold for cash and so if people have gold coins that's what they're going to ask about. Most of these people are not true collectors but people who probably got a coin(s) from a deceased relative and don't know what to do with it or don't want to keep it. Once the economy picks up and the dollar is stronger the market for gold/silver will go down and dealers, hopefully, will get back to also promoting the hobby as well as making a living
Being on the dealer side of the table I will tell you that it is depressing when I set up for a show and all anyone asks for is bullion. This often happens for the first hour or so but eventually the collectors fight their way through to my table and all is well again in the world. I have some gilt bronze medals in my case and I get nasty looks from some of these guys when I have to explain to them that they are not gold. Richard
Asmedoraman said we saw this same thing back in 1979. but you really can't blame them. When bullion is going crazy they can make more money in one day dealing bullion than they could make in an entire month than they can dealing in coins. Back in 1979 I knew mom & Pop brick and morter shops that were doing more than a million dollars worth of business a week in bullion. Even if they were netting 1% that is $10,000 a week.
"Make hay when the sun shines" as they say. The dealers haven't forgot about collectors, they just need to cash in on this opportunity right now. I don't blame them, I would too.
Some people like me are using this as an opportunity to convert low grade silver and gold into what we truly love collecting. With me it's Large Cents, really early Large cents. I no longer have either silver or gold, and I don't really miss them.
My dealers are in a similar boat and are making good money for it, so good for them. I've stopped collecting silver series (except for MS Peace Dollars) and moved mainly into Half Cents, Capped and DB Large Cents, and RB Two Cent Pieces. My main early copper dealer loves the change of pace when I come into the store, because he's a real collector himself who loves the early copper stuff just as much as I do. But he's doing the smart thing, making good money buying raw Morgans and gold chains off walk-ins. That said, I honestly just don't know if gold and silver will fall much before they find a "new normal". The future is hard to predict.
I for one got in to collecting because of the rising gold and silver but soon fell in love with coins in general. so there is hope.
It may be true that a lot of dealers are buying/selling bullion to help earn a living, however, I can attest that the collector coin market is alive and doing quite well! As many of you know, I only deal in (and collect) pennies (half, large, two, Flying Eagle, Indian, and Lincoln cents) and if the recent coin shows are any indication, pennies are still quite popular.
Everyone moving into early coppers, etc in this environment are in my estimation extremely smart. Collect what is not in voque and you will always come out ahead. Its the collectors chasing the latest fad that end up hurt when the fad ends.
