From The Looks of Heritage's Bids, Long Beach is Going to Smash Expectations

[Catch22-migration]

Perhaps this isn't a revelation to anyone, but after viewing some of the bidding activity at Heritage's site and factoring in the juice, we are going to be seeing some silly hammer prices on early date coins. I say silly only because I'm going to be left in the dust on the coins I had wanted to win....I'd love to be there just to watch all the jaws dropping.

 

'scuse me for a moment, I'm going to go find a dog to kick....

[keithdagen]

I pointed out in an earlier post that even on generic type pieces, my strong bids got hammered out of existence. Very good auction brewing.

[IrishMike]

Even the common date IHC's have nutty prices already.

[gmarguli]

For the coins that I am watching, several are already well past what I thought they were worth. One lot is over triple what I was hoping to pay. Many others are already at the high end of what I was willing to pay, so I know they'll still go much higher once they hit the floor. A few are still in the acceptable range, but not many.

 

Hopefully I'll find something nice on the floor instead of out bidding the crazies at the auction.

 

[TomB]

I'm following the auction and will bid but I don't expect to win any lots this time around.

[keithdagen]

I'm following the auction and will bid but I don't expect to win any lots this time around.

 

Yeah, I started looking over the weekend at alternate uses of the funds I had planned on spending.

[Elcontador]

From the bidding at Superior, I thought all of the money was spent over there. The fact that the Heritage site will not permit me to look at their lots has

made me decide not to bid on any of them this time around. Maybe they "learned a lesson" from this week's Superior auctions.

[Higashiyama]

Could someone give examples of lots that look both desirable and pricey?

 

In browsing through the early material, much of it looks rather low end -- I'm staying out of this auction not so much because of price but because the material just doesn't look so exciting.

 

(there is a perfectly solid looking PR45 Gobrecht dollar now bid at $ 7250, which may go for about $ 10,000 -- perhaps double what it would have brought a couple of years ago)

[Beijim]

I was interested in a couple of choice proof Mercury dimes in the Superior auction this past weekend. Although I ended up not bidding, it wouldn't have mattered. The high bids ($4-5K) blew the almighty doors off the so-called estimates ($1-2K). Either people are paying silly money, or Superior habitually sets the estimates ludicrously low so they can turn around and appear to be really superb auctioneers.

 

Beijim

[baseball]

Superior does seem to lowball their estimates based on the auctions I have witnessed. Sometimes eggregiously so.

 

Insofar as the rising prices, does anyone else feel like we are about to turn the corner downward? Maybe not significantly so, but then again for some series or coins, maybe.

 

I guess the reason I am speculating that this will happen is that more and more, here and on PCGS, I see seasoned collectors (I feel the 2 boards have a good representation of them, though PCGS obviously has LOTS of newbies), who are amazed time and time again with each passing auction.

 

I don't know if it is a rush of new money or old time rich collectors who are finally waking up but either way, I am not comfortable. If it is collectors who have been around, why buy now at MUCH higher prices than just a couple of years ago? Especially considering the economy was better then and I for one feel better buying coins in a better economy, prices being the same or better still, MUCH cheaper. If it is the "new" collector, I just wonder about their propensity for wanting to "stick with it".

 

 

 

[cladking]

The biggest factors driving the bull market in classics are the huge numbers of returning collectors and positioning by long established collectors to profit from changes occurring in the market. There is some demand from newcomers to the market, but this demand is smaller than the other. The returning collectors are bringing a great deal of money to the table and a voracious apetite for coins.

 

We still have a generation of collectors to recruit so the demand for these coins will still be there in ten years.

[Peace_Fan]

My bids have all been overtaken, save one and I doubt it will last the day, and certainly won't last the open bidding session. I noticed bids for Morgans are through the roof as well, in some cases 2X bid...