Takes brave buyers to counter current trends

If you want a catchword for this market, I would use “weakness.” Low grade and common date silver dollars and common date $20 double eagles in all but the loftiest grades are selling for prices barely better than their intrinsic values.

Not only are prices weak, but so is the volume of sales being reported by dealers. There are coin pricing publications that concentrate on what appears on the surface to be attractive prices being realized at auctions, or at some major show, but this ignores the fact that few of these results are occurring at better than average prices, let alone new records.

The coin market needs a good incentive. Perhaps it needs a good kick in the pants. Such an incentive would likely be a spike higher in the spot price of gold and silver.

People don’t tend to buy when prices are low or are descending. This is likely a mistake, but nonetheless, it is a fact. For that, I guess we can blame human nature. Nobody wants to be ridiculed for buying when it seems like others are not.

For braver collectors with better insight as well as fortitude, this means the bargain buying market continues, something I’ve alluded to very often in recent times.

The market for collectible coins, as well as for bullion, will recover. The question is “when” rather than “if.”

If you could go back to the weeks immediately prior to the bottom of the gold and silver market in 2001, would you be a buyer? Many refused to. Now look.