Enjoy the seasonal break

The stockings aren’t hung yet by the chimney with care, but it sure looks like a postcard view of a Christmas scene in Wisconsin when I looked out the window this morning.

Traditionally, business normally slows down a bit at this time of year as everybody in the hobby focuses on family and friends during the holidays. This year, the pause seems to be worrying decision makers in the hobby/industry and they seem to be waiting for the New Year to arrive to assess the state of their business going forward.

That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it might be called a return to a more normal activity pattern than we have seen in several years. The frantic pace of the precious metals markets and the numismatic market caused many to abbreviate their seasonal breaks in the last couple of years so they could stay in the great game of making money.

It used to be that the Michigan State Numismatic Society show on Thanksgiving weekend was the informal end of the business year. Business would then pick up again as rested and refreshed dealers and collectors assembled in Orlando, Fla., for the Florida United Numismatists convention in early January.

A return of this restful interval, now demarcated by the close of the Money Show of the Southwest in Houston, Texas, during the first weekend of December, simply seems unnatural to those who have been in hyperdrive the last couple of years.

Will January see a renewal of the frantic pace? I don’t know. It simply seems like a good idea to me to put worry aside and accept this gift of traditional time.