Continuing Impacts Of Coronavirus On Collecting

Definitely can be interesting, I think the problem is that a lot of people forget that the scale itself was just very different decades ago without all the possible grades being used. Taken into context history is always very interesting, it's just if that context is lost people can come to incorrect conclusions.

One of the more interesting things I find from old prices is the impact of the internet opening up the market and really showing things. Common grade common date things have suffered, but premium things really thrived with that and the implementation of a full grading scale

 

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Excellent points.

Spot on.....and the fact that gold couldn't really be bought until 1975 had to freeze/impact the numismatic prices even if you could or wanted to buy gold coins.

Then the gold price ran up so fast....$35 to $180...then a big correction....then a 4-year moon shot to $800....had to play havoc for anything priced off bullion and then when people found out a "bullion coin" really was a rare numismatic coin, prices moved more. Even dealers probably had to adjust....for decades, gold was fixed and 99.9% of your demand was other dealers and some hard-core collectors...now the public was interested, too.

The super-rare coins, proofs, and the 1907 HR were about all that were priced in 4 or 5 figures in the 1970's according to the Burdette/HA price charts. Everything else -- commons, semi-rare coins, and even very rare Saints -- could be had for < $1,000 up to the late-1970's for the most part.

 

Without question, it was almost like starting a market fresh which would take time for the quality separation to take place and of course the 80s fiasco certainly didn't help and probably set some things back for a bit.

 

You look at the 1976-2015 Burdette/HA price guestimates....you look at a chart of the PCGS 3000.....you look at a chart of gold or silver.....it's a parabolic move every decade and when you go back over decades the moves are all concentrated in a few huge moves UP...and down. No multi-year let alone decade-long up moves, as with stocks.

It's ironic: the 1973-1980 move in gold/silver was the longest we've ever had. Every up move since then has been shorter. We then overshoot to the upside on bullion and/or numismatic prices....and then during corrections we are "sticky to the downside" and prices don't correct as quickly (esp. numismatics) and this prolongs the agony (opposite of the stock market where bear markets are always shorter than bull markets).