US Coin Market Stagnant

Sounds a little like just trying to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks

 

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Gold was no longer the "safe asset" during financial turbulence....the 1987 Crash showed that Treasury Bonds were the go-to asset during times of crisis (they still are).

If gold didn't have enough juice, the reasoning went, then numismatics (bullion + unique rarities) would be a good alternative.

Look at the auction sites. I don't know what Ebay, GC, and Stacks Bowers do but Heritage probably does $200-$250 MM a year in gross coin sales. 30+ years ago, those Wall Street firms were talking about $150-300 MM for a much smaller coin universe.

No wonder prices doubled in a few months, tripled in a year.

 

https://coins.ha.com/heritage-aucti...ons-to-826.4-million-in-2018.s?releaseId=3603

Not to shabby considering Legend Auctions has eaten into the high end stuff some.

eBay likely does the most volume, but it takes a lot of cheap coins to cancel out a million dollar one.

 

I don't think that's a great example. Given enough money, you can buy a whole set on eBay right now.

I beg to differ. It sure affects my budget quite a bit.

 

Which is true of basically every set if you're willing to just accept whatever to fill the hole.

 

The parameters were "problem free" and "mint state." I still believe that given enough money, I could put together a whole set of nice Barber halves in a very short amount of time. An hour on eBay would probably go a long way toward that.

 

But you can say that about anything. Every coin with very few expections is for sale at the right price. There certainly are some nice ones on eBay, there's also a lot where it'd look weird being matched in a set with the nice ones. Barbers are a tough series as a lot really just aren't every pretty even when problem free.

 

Fair enough, but I was saying that the specific example (mint state, problem free Barber halves) given was bad. If you can find a whole set of them on eBay, they aren't "scarce" or "rare" by any means.

 

I don't see any mint state 1904-s or 1907-s on ebays. I just thought I would investigate this theory right quick.

 

Just depends on the set definitions. Eye appealing gem or mid MS barber halfs can be difficult to locate for many, but yes if the only criteria is that they're a 60 or higher you're going to be able to put together most series or the vast majority of that series almost instantly, not a good way to make sets but can be done.

 

So we've gone from "mint state, problem-free" to "appealing to baseball21, who thinks they're an ugly series anyhow". I think I'll wait for the goalposts to settle down before I decide which team is in the lead.

 

Actually I think they're an underrated series (in all denominations) as eye appealing ones can be difficult to find. But if you check the search parameters in the link its all services in MS 60 and higher. That's not how I nor many other would approach an MS set for Barber halfs which was the point. If someone just wants to fill holes sure you can do it quickly for most dates, but that is not a series where you can generally do it quickly for a eye appealing set especially in better grades.

I also don't consider 60-62 in silver to generally be good grades and would rather 58s the vast majority of the time

 

Given enough money you can buy anything! lol Whats your point? My point was that Barbers in mint state are not rare but scarce enough with enough demand to where nobody's looking to just "dump them". You are going to shell out serious cash (to most people) for mint state Barbers even though the overall market is "in the tank" according to this thread. I was just citing one example. I also mentioned flying eagle cents which are increasing in value.
If you want to buy Barbers in VG sure, they're everywhere. Just because there's a mint state set on ebay doesn't really prove anything.