Vienna, VA Quarterly Coin Show Concludes Reeded Edge’s Show Marathon
Vienna was not a great coin show, but nor was it bad either. Coming one week after the Whitman Baltimore show, we had tempered expectations. Separated geographically by a mere 40 miles, the danger of market saturation was imminent. However, to a certain extent, Vienna has always marched to it’s own tune. There was an absence of some of the regular dealers who set up at this venue, which limited our wholesale options. But collectors did show up, and somewhat filled the room for both Saturday and Sunday. Although the numbers were not great for this show, that was due more to the small size of our average ticket rather than an absence of sales. Saturday for instance produced 13 individual invoiced sales, but none over $2000, with most south of $1000. In other words, the show was active albeit at a lower average price-point. The same held true for buying. Although The Reeded Edge was probably one of the more active buyers in the room, it was limited to less expensive coins. At the end of the day, we were satisfied with the show results; it certainly could have been much worse.
Rob and Robbie will be back in the office taking a much needed breather and playing catch-up. After four consecutive weekends of coin shows resulting in three abbreviated office weeks, it will be a welcomed time to get new purchases and grading returns processed and available for sale. We encourage all of our customers to check back often during this period, as many new coins are on the horizon. Also pay special attention to our TRECOINS eBay account, our exclusive marketplace for raw coins. This account has been somewhat neglected due to the large quantities of certified coins that we have been purchasing. We have started to rebuild our raw coin inventory and will continue to do so throughout 2019. There are some really interesting items that appear on this account, a fact that our raw coin customers will attest to.
The present coin market is somewhat of an enigma. As we have said previously, the market remains starved for fresh coins, and saturated with stale inventory. The former gets progressively more expensive, while the latter is being discounted. We have seen this progression in both sectors as the dichotomy continues to manifest. We believe that the real challenge will be purging the market of stale, over-populated coins, and discounting could continue until the sweet spot is achieved. Good coins, however, should continue to attract aggressive prices. Not to politicize this aspect, but today’s mid-term election results could potentially change some dealers’ outlooks on spending. It will be interesting to see how this component plays out.