Coin Prices Rising?

I like to collect quarter eagles--as you can probably tell by my sign-on name. I pay attention to ebay to see what's for sale, where coins are selling, etc. Recently, I have noticed prices increasing rapidly for indian head $2.50 pieces. In fact, prices are up so much on average that it has forced me to become an investor rather than a collector. I define collector as someone who does not sell coins.

My thougths are:

Has anyone else noticed this?

Is this a bubble? I know that baseball cards hit their peak when I was growing up. Now most of my "cool" cards are worth about what they were worth in 1990.

If prices continue to climb, what does it mean for the average collector? My guess is that fewer and fewer people start to collect.

 

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The prices for these coins have been advancing because of the advance in the price of gold. They will also decline with the price of gold should it head in that direction...Mike

 

Thanks for pointing that out, I should have mentioned I was talking about the value outside of current gold prices. The liberty head coins, from what I have seen, have not increased at the same rate. Another thing that I have noticed is that the key date in the series has been sky rocketing in price on ebay. This really has nothing to do with gold, it has to do with demand for the series (at least in my opioion).

 

A lot of "Investors" are buying coins because gold and silver are so high. There were similar situations in 1979-80 and 1988-89 which were followed by slumps in the coin market.

Charlie

 

I paid about $125 for this $2.50 Indian about two years ago and now I'm having a hard time finding one for less than $225 in this (AU) condition and double that for MS60+

 

Are you referring only to Liberty Head Quarter Eagles, or to Liberty Head gold in general?

My favorite gold coin is the Liberty DE. I'm not always in a position to buy, but I do try to stay abreast of pricing trends. I have noticed that common EF/AU Liberty DEs that were selling for $475-$499 on eBay this time last year are now going for $580 and up.

It will be interesting to see what happens to coin prices now that gold is showing some signs of cooling off a bit.....

 

Gold coins are one of the only things in life you can buy for the same price that they sold for in the 1970's. This may be in the process of changing, and the prices you saw a year ago may already be gone forever. Some people believe this is a gold bubble and is destined to end, with prices returning to the levels people have gotten used to. Time will tell but my opinion is that we are probably only part of the way to a new, higher, "permanent" price level for gold [although nothing moves in a straight line]. This will flow through to coins of all types.

 

I suppose half sovereigns and sovereigns from around the old British Empire would be something for the quarter and half eagle collector to look at.