I think coin prices at auctions, all on-line (including phone, mail, fax) now, have held up well during the pandemic. And there are likely to be no live auctions until fall, if then. Companies that have held live auctions will probably take a close look at whether they are worth staging in the future. Some may decide no, remote auction auctions work just as well, and we can save the costs (venue, personnel, paper catalogs, etc.). This may have a negative impact on some shows. However, auction companies will still want a presence at shows including lot viewing. I have attended a couple of big shows per year. Not this year ... just canceled flight and accommodations for summer ANA. I look at lots, chat with personnel at auction company tables, sometimes submit or sell coins at auction company tables. I occasionally peek in the auction room to see what's going on, but never take a seat. Paper catalogs are useful for lot viewing. But they could hand me a tablet computer with the lots on it and that would be even better because of features like good pics of all coins, searching, pop reports, past prices, etc. I use my own computer along with the paper catalog if internet is available in the viewing room (often it's not). I receive paper catalogs in the mail, but my bidding activity would be no different if I didn't receive them. Live auctions ... who needs them? Cal
In terms of live auctions and bidding they will likely stay. Once they bring everything and set up for lot viewing which is important and really essential on the high end it's not that much harder to do the bidding too. One bidding war or an extra bid or two on a six figure coin and its worth it. Local live auctions and things like that will disappear to some extent or go online more though
Eventually yea, probably not entirely anytime soon and may be decades to be entirely gone and not just scaled back. Plus the fact that if someone is selling a 50 or 100 million dollar collection or a bigger whale like a Pogue says they wants a paper book, you're going to make a paper book lol. With the potential absence of lot viewing I expect (or hope anyways) that the use of video in listings will become more prevalent
