Is it just me, or has 2015 been a slow year for high-relief medals?

In comparison to 2013 & 2014, especially.


I know we've got a couple more months left, but seems like we're at least a few high-relief silver medals short..


Any particular reasons why?

 

Silver shortage!

 

Slowing demand?

 

Way too many. Seem never end.

 

chinese mints minted too many medals in short period of time so it just became "let's squeeze as much as possible NOW"
Long term there are gonna be 10% of winners and the rest are destined to be losers for investors IMO
People are getting bored of too many medals commissioned by anybody who got big pocket to order something ... It has been with sone coins (not Chinese) too and this happens with medals from China

 

I pick only winners. Only my medals will have very high ROI...everyone else's is just junk and you will be lucky to get melt for yours.




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Hmm, but I haven't bought any chinese medals. So I guess I'm safe?

 

I'm going to throw out there a couple that haven't been mentioned yet..


- Chinese stock market now flat year-to-date.. This is after it crashed something like 40% from the peak this year in a very short time

- Too many playing the new electronic trading platform for coins/medals, instead

 

I think there are still relatively few hardcore collectors out there and there is a limit to what they can/will buy. Newly minted coins and medals are quite expensive. There is no guarantee that they will hold their value. I suspect there is a crisis of confidence and people are begining to walk gingerly!

 

I will give you guys a shocking news within today or this weekend about china art market especially mentioned the coins and medal. A people outside China and even the Chinese collectors have no knowledge of it.

Many thread in few coin forums mentioned about the China online electronics platform. However, theMCC veterans in those forum just tell pieces and pieces information. I will do so here lol. But I will give the important information.

 

I'm actually glad that the mints have slowed down with producing medals this year (if that's true) because it gives me a chance to breathe and not be frustrated like i was in previous years because I had to pass up on some very nice medals because so many were being produced.

I welcome the slowdown in production.



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This is a news from china about the china stamp, coins, medal and art item electronic platform exchange. I have add in and modify certain information to add value to the article.


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From: Oriental Morning Post

Author: Oriental Morning Post financial reporter Yan Peng Fei

Many companies have noticed the business opportunity of China coins, stamps, medals and art item online platform(Bika). Last month, The coins, stamp, medals and art items industry leader Zhao Yong Capital Group has officially announced its entry into the electronic industry by introduce the internet trading platform "Zhao Yong cow" and start trading from the end.

What is BIKA electronic PLATFORM? Bika electronic PLATFORM is an electronics trading platform that allow trading of stamps, coins, magnetic cards and other collectibles in kind online. All the items list must be meet certain standard, quality and requirement set by the BIKA exchanges and store in the vault.

It functions like stock exchange of stamps, coins, magnetic cards and other collectibles . However, the is new to the market and industry so many regulations are still weak and great room to manipulate. It yet to have any legally backed regulation authority to monitor, regulate and perfect the system like stock exchange. BIKA has growth significantly from the past few years as show in following examples.

The Culture Exchange who occupy 70% of the BIKA market share at the beginning of October 2013 with average daily turnover/transactions of 8.27 million yuan, after nearly two years of development, the average daily turnover drastically increase to about one billion yuan with the peak of 7.8 billion yuan.

Publicly available data show China has more than 30 BIKA trading platforms in operation and will be another 20 more in operation for near future.

WILL THIS A BUBBLE AND COLLAPSE ?????

In first half of 2015, BIKA electronic trading follow the China "A" shares trend and madness which less than a year the list item has rose over 100 times which is totally delinked between online and offline prices significantly. An easy example is the bullion 1997 1 oz unicorn coin which is USD3XX in ebay few months ago due to the person intend to list it in BIKA and try to gather all spread 1997 unicorn over the places and list it. After listing it up and up on the BIKA platform BUT the offline price (physical coin market in china, ebay and so on) has down to 1XX. This is the delinked. It is same happening for some pandas. Another famous example is the stamp collection "three tiger big Edition", the first listed price is 300 Yuan and it once reached more than 50,000 Yuan IN BIKA while the price of the physical store is at 700 to 800 Yuan. Many foreigners are not aware about this and keep talking about MCC and panda last few months in SS and many forums and thought their items are in high demand and worth a lot of money due to the news and made up stories from dealers and ebay transactions.

The current Bika listed items are easily subject to speculators manipulation with no intention of forming the long-term return on investment. Author views BIKA electronic trading should be based on the preservation, giving investors a stable return on investment instead of treat it as none regulated legal gamble tent. Once the immediate market bubble burst, the entire collection will be sluggish the market for two or three years as cited by Zhao Zhao Yong Chung Capital founder.

A collector explain the BIKA electronic platform problem. There is high threshold for investor which require certain quantity of the items and value in order to list it in BIKA. It is impossible for the small collectors to list their item in BIKA. Therefore, those dealers and investors can form a close circle of group and easily manipulate the listed items and pushed their items in higher prices and profit it. The unknown or the person not in the close circle might get burn when a high price reach to a certain extent and no one buy it which lead to market liquidity in doubt and eventually collapse. Many dealers have join in BIKA and forgo their physical shop or put less efforts on their physical shop. More companies see this BIKA opportunity and more and more fund flow into it. None will know when is going to collapse. 2 years, 5 years 10 years or immediate or it will sustain.
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Later part I will tell you WHY YOU guys feel the China High Relief MEDAL has slow down in 2015 LOL.

 

I have been hearing from friends in Shanghai that Lugong coin and stamp Market has been very quite 1 year ago since the BIKA electronic platform has been hot. Anyone has a chance to post the photo of the market during 2011 and now?

Many coins and stamp dealers sit at home and face the computer to transact and earn money. Those dealers who sit at the market will focus on their computer and smartphone rather than entertain you. WHY? BIKA platform give them more profit NOT physical customers. This the reason the market is so quit now.

This is happening to some of the long established, well known and rich ebay MCC sellers in China. I suspect one of them need cash to dump in more to the BIKA market. He has intensively release many big gold and silver MCC to ebay and many china website for sales. Some are very rare items which you even not seen it many years in ebay.

As mentioned early the BIKA electronics operation has become more and more and more items have been listed. So many china dealers has focus on online market rather offline. Many collect and buyback MCC from overseas to list in BIKA platform. This happen in many month backs to unicorn, panda, putuo and other MCC. We did talking about it LMAO BUT not all of us get the full story.

MCC was started in late 70s' which is only 3 decades history. How many items have been listed in BIKA in these 2 years??? The items listed majority are most common and big quantity coins. Thus, those coins less available in real offline market which make some of us feel market has less stuff and slow down. On top of it, china dealers shift more effort and capital to BIKA online market also slow down the offline offer and activities.

The above only talk about MCC not medal.

Now, I talk about medal. Let face the facts and get it right. As many of the China medal collectors here might known that the collector base of MEDAL is smaller than coin. It is "non fiat money" which is not legal tender. Even some of the members did saying he can make the medal at home by himself so what the different of this China medals which are so special and call a high premium???? Everyone with money can get the mints to produce the medal you like.

Is that due to above reasons that the market slow down???? I talk to those full times coins and medal dealers in China, USA, Singapore and Malaysia frequently. My conclusion is the above reasons does not affect the China market medal slow down.

WHY many western mints come out with high relief silver round and coins in this years alone? You seldom see any HR coins or round of western mints few years back. It might due to Barsenault and few here keep posting those attractive photo of HR China medal..... you can agree and disagree. MCC and medal has bad and even no marketing campaign and activities and limited channel of distribution. As we know that only few dealers are selling china medals in ebay who have no good command in English. One of them has been focused on BIKA platform rather than his ebay and physical shop. another of them swift capital to MCC and BIKA platform rather than medals. This means less distribution channel of MCCM and less activities.

Classical garden series, panda expo 3 and mammoth silver have changed sales and distributionship approach and sales approach. Few dealers not even sell it at all. Only Dragonzheng is selling. ALL THOSE MAKE CONSUMER FEEL NO ACTIVITES AND GIVE IMPRESSION OF CHINA MEDAL NEW ISSUE HAS SLOW DOWN TOO.

Another key reason is many official mints has full schedule and work overtime to mints many medals which mainly for BIKA market only which you never seen in offline market. The full schedule of the official mints which spare no slot to those sponsor of new medals which make us feel less stuff available to the market and it has slow down. The Monkey panda suppose to be out in mid Oct BUT it has delay due to the above reason. We do not dare to rush the mints which might cause them anyhow to mints a products. This is same happening to the world heritage 4th medal which suppose to out in July BUT no news till now. In facts we have 2 new projects in hands which suppose to complete this month BUT fail due to busy schedule of all official mints in China. THIS BUSY TIME FOR MINTS TO MINT MEDAL FOR BIKA PLATFORM WHICH MAKE LESS offline medal can be done too and not slow down.

Another valid reason is if you agree that Barsenault has brought in more collectors and buyers of China HR medal regardless the medals his own and sell or medals he does not sell. He is to busy with real life and work which spare less time in doing the video and photo. Both of us also invest into the webpage and buying stock which make us no extra money to buy more medal to post and show you guys. On top of it, we also get in many good and rare MCC recently at excellent price recently to drain up our piggy bank LMAO which make no money for new medal. Recently, we have obtained the distributorship for Monkey panda the WOW LUNAR PANDA SERIES which Barsenault love it which also lock in a big sum of our capital. BOTH of us wish to own the tree which can grow money that allow us to buy more

 

To address mmissinglink's post.. Yes, recently I did a rough count of high-relief medals in 2015, versus those in prior years, with the data compiled from various & numerous sources. Looks to me like fewer this year, in all metals (Ag, brass, copper) & sizes/weights, especially compared to 2014 & 2013.

In addition, apparently some series have temporarily (?) stalled out.. What should have been continued or even completed this year, hasn't.

And yes, while my wallet certainly appreciates this very real slow-down, too, at the same time, this is one of my favorite categories. I'd like to continue adding to my collection, and I'd like to see the producers continuing to "push the envelope" with these. I still have a much-shorter wish-list, but most of those are from prior years.


Anyway, many thanks to Andrew for the recent posts, which confirmed my theory that it's due to lack of time & money. Too many resources are being shifted elsewhere, which is causing the physical medal market at the retail level to suffer. Long-term, this does not bode well. While perhaps not (yet ?) necessarily the same, I somewhat liken this new electronic exchange to the paper market of silver & gold. Everybody trading the *representation* of the underlying asset between each other, while causing a disruption in the production & movement of the actual physical item.

I also believe the financial & economic slow-down in China is having an effect. Less capital to play with, and those who do have it are now currently more risk-averse due to recent events.

Finally, because of those who are normally involved with financing, producing & distributing these are now focusing their attention elsewhere, this might allow other non-China players to "catch up" in this arena. While these newer players certainly still have a ways to go, if the Chinese continue to dicker elsewhere, they may very well end up shooting themselves in the foot, as the retail market that was once theirs is being inadvertently handed over to others. Again, long-term this does not bode well -- at least for the Chinese -- if this continues in length and/or degree.


Hopefully 2016 will usher in a resurgence of the high-relief China medals, as we've seen in years past.

And if not, then I certainly welcome other players in their quest to truly compete on the same level.

BTW, if any are listening? Enough with the coins -- you're wasting half the piece.. Nobody wants to see the damn queen anymore, LOL.

 

Are the high relief Chinese medals that we love ( Xi-Shi Holding a Pearl, 2014 Great Wall, Mammoth, etc ) being traded on the BIKA electronics platform? If not, the prices of these medals should not really be affected as are all the other products being traded electronically on the BIKA.




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Majority of the medal trade in BIKA trading platform are newly mints so no worry of those all one. There are purposely mints for the listing not to circulate to offline market. However, it might be exception as heard that the coming 6th classical garden medal [one if the metal version] intend to list online.

As my observation, those listed items price will be high before listing because those dealers try to buy back from dispersed market then resell them to the person who intend to list it. Therefore, many months back silver psnda for certain years are very high price in ebay. However after listing you will not be able to sell at those prices. I grab this opportunity and make a good profit due to my direct connection to china. I have ways to solve the custom issue. This is trade secret and not ask for it.

 

http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-65192-china-medal-game-rules.html

Read this which is helpful.

I speculate there will be fewer new medals will be produced for offline market in 2016. However, the non official mints might still able to make some but not as many as previous years.

 

2013/2014: Pinnacle of the high-relief Chinese medals?


If anything, I guess now's a good time for a collector to play catch-up, if needed..

 

I was thinking the same thing....this break is a great opportunity for that. But there are fewer and fewer of the prime Chinese medals available to purchase on eBay and even on ChineseMedals.com.





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2013/ 2014 is not the peak for new issue of Chinese medal. In previous years the official mints and the few reputable non official mints have issue more than 300 medals which is much more than 2013/2014. However, it will only show less than 100 types of medal in ebay. Many ebay sellers only carry certain products and not majority of them.

In facts at least 20-30% of the medal issue for the year are LUNAR and for Chinese lunar new year. They are mainly for gift among the community and businessman. Only a portion of the famous one will show in ebay not others.

2013/2014 has drop the amount of medal release and this trend happen in 2015 too. 2016 is likely to follow the trend.

We also cut down and selectively selling certain medal rather than sell all new issuance. NOT all new issuance with potential price appreciation and good in art context. We only sell items that either one of us like it. The item which we not keen will not sell in our webpage. However, just send me an email which I might get it for you.