Gettysburg NON-STOP Activity-Market RED HOT!

Smaller shows generally come with tempered expectations. Going into Gettysburg, we expected a decent show….maybe even a really good show, if we were fortunate. Never in our wildest imagination could we have predicted what ensued. The Battlefield Coin Show might as well have been the ANA’s Worlds Fair of Money. A sold-out bourse, comprised of mostly smaller dealers, were eager to do business. This was plainly evident from the time we arrived. When we weren’t being hailed to a booth to look at “a fresh deal”, we were deluged at our own booth with buying opportunities. It was all but impossible to get set up during dealer day-the pace was such that we barely had time to even come up for air! Transactions were nonstop throughout Thursday, with people lined up 2-deep for much of the day. Robbie and I looked at each other several times in utter disbelief of the frenzied pace. Once the public was admitted on Friday, it got crazier yet. It literally took me 5 mins to walk a sold coin to another dealer’s booth just 25-30 feet away. The aisles were packed so tight for much of the day that simply walking the floor became a task. Now we realize, it’s one thing to get people in the room, but getting the right people in the room is an entirely different matter. The folks who ventured to Gettysburg weee definitely serious about doing business, and for all that we bought on Thursday, we sold virtually just as much on Friday. The kicker was that we didn’t bring that much in the first place to sell, but what we did bring, went. By Friday at the close of business, our showcases looked like Swiss cheese with more holes than remaining coins. Perhaps never in my 33 years as a full time numismatist, has it been this easy to sell coins. This heated activity level sustained throughout the closing bell on Saturday. This was one helluva coin show, and even more apparent, this is one even crazier coin market. Our next door neighbor may have surmised it best when a collector asked him, “what are your end-of-the-day specials?”, to which he replied, “Sir, that boat has sailed!” We want to extend a special thank you to Mike Dixon and his staff for hosting their best Gettysburg show yet. Finally, we were happy to see Mike’s right-hand man, and our good friend, Bill Waltman in attendance, after fighting some serious health issues. Hopefully, this market continues its momentum into the summer months. Given the present driving fundamentals (which will be a discussion for an upcoming market update), we see absolutely no reasons to the contrary.