Coins We Love: 😀FUN in Review😀

First of all, thank you to all of you who stopped by to visit us at the FUN Show. We understand many of you didn’t feel comfortable attending and we completely respect that and hope that some of the offerings we’ve written about below capture your attention. I can confirm that you’re getting a shot at coins that did not attend the show, so you didn’t miss out on these opportunities just yet!

The overall show was wildly surprising to us. We were active buyers throughout the event and while we came home with a large number of new purchases and consignments, we only graded the buying as a B- or C opportunity. This had nothing to do with our efforts, but really just reflects the lack of fresh material on the market. However, I will agree with what one sharp dealer told me, "if you’re working hard enough, you can find coins." Our team of buying numismatists did just that and we were able to bring home a good amount of fresh material. Julia Smith, Amandeep Jassal, myself, and our newest buyer, John Call, beat the sidewalks and bourse floor as we visited over four hotels, a condo, and the hallways outside of the bourse for new coins. You’ll read more about John Call next week, but he joined us on January 1st and is already working hard to acquire new pieces for us.

The attendance at the show was incredibly strong. There were far more collectors and actual buyers attending this event than we’ve seen at the last few ANA shows. And, while I’ll credit the location, ease of attending, and scheduling of the show for that, it should honestly give the ANA something to think about in their long-term plans. Our only complaint from the entire show (business-wise) was the lack of allowing trading rooms before the show. This has nothing to do with anything except that it provides security for dealers who are showing up for the already sold-out event. There’s a discussion going on about allowing them in the future, but if you’re on the FUN Board and have a moment to chat, I’d love to discuss it with you! I think our greatest fear as dealers is that something happens security-wise at a show when it could have been prevented. That being said, we left the show on a high - It was our best retail selling show in over a decade. Unfortunately, no Disney World visits could happen this year as we were trying to be as low-key on traveling as possible, but we’ll look forward to that next January.

So, what does the overall market look like? Well, coins are flying out the doors right now, and when you’re trying to replace them, you can’t - or at least you have to pay more than what you just sold them for. As for DLRC, we simply buy and sell at the market, and because we’re actively moving the pieces, we’re not selling at tomorrow’s prices. We’re simply searching for higher-end pieces and then hoping to find homes for them. It’s a crazy time to be a coin dealer, but it’s also an interesting time to see coins finally bringing some of the potential that we’ve talked about for so many years. If you’re a collector, you’re also slowly getting some opportunities to buy coins that have been put away for a long time as the sellers are in a more financially-positive situation to sell. And, if you’re considering selling, it’s certainly a time to think hard about it as this may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting on for some time. Either way, it’s a great time to be in the hobby and we appreciate all of you that continue to work with us and read our musings below.

Many of you ask who actually writes these CWL blurbs. Well, you can probably tell by the style that it changes regularly. This week I had the privilege to step in and write about many of these highlights. So, please forgive me for not including some of the less expensive items this week. I was writing much of this from home and these were the coins that really stuck out to me over the past week. I was just a bit overly excited to share…thus the long email today. If you’re keeping track at home, it’s eight pages on a word document and over 3,400 words. This is longer than many of my college papers years ago! Hopefully, the pictures tell a better story than my words this week! Thank you for trusting us and we look forward to working with you this week!

Numismatically Yours,
John Brush and Your Friends at DLRC

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