By Jeff Garrett for Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) ……
As mentioned in a previous article, there were several new developments that unfolded at this year’s Florida United Numismatists (FUN) convention. There was a sudden and unexpected demand for “collector” coins in the $50 to $1,000 range. One of our first wholesale clients purchased more than $100,000 worth of United States coins in that price range. Normally, our first sales are more concentrated on fresh coins in the $5,000-and-up price points. This year, the lower-priced coins were flying off the shelf at setup.
There was clearly something new that was creating a demand that did not exist the year prior. After some brief research, I was able to figure out the new demand was being driven by two main sales channels that had been newly created for rare coins.
The first is the apparent success of VaultBox, WitterBrick, and other mystery boxes of rare coins. There have been quite a few other less sophisticated versions of the idea that have also entered the marketplace. The VaultBoxes, which are graded by NGC, have become quite popular and are now in their ninth edition. The latest one is touting the “$100,000 Hit,” the chance to pull a 1915-S Panama-Pacific $50 gold coin graded NGC MS64.
According to the VaultBox website:
“VaultBox is a totally new way for coin collectors to discover valuable coins, and for fans of other collectibles to start collecting coins.”
“VaultBox was inspired by the thrill of opening sports and trading card packs, and the excitement of chasing the biggest cards. VaultBox brings thrill-seeking collectors the action and excitement of card breaking to a collectible that has real and appreciable value.”
As mentioned by the VaultBox website, the inspiration for the concept came from the well-established model that the sports-card industry introduced many years ago. Buying a box of sports cards with the hope of finding one of the more valuable ones has been extremely popular in that field of collectibles. Social media has leveraged the excitement. Now, participants can share the thrill of the hunt with all of their friends. I have seen a few of the “pull” videos posted online, and they can be quite amusing.
The above part about it being amusing reflects the title of this article. Coins are now part of online entertainment with a side of gambling thrown in. Opening a mystery box of rare coins is part “Willy Wonka,” part social influencers and part numismatic education all thrown into one. There are several Facebook groups devoted to this new avenue of numismatic fun and excitement.
I reached out to Lee Minshull, one of the partners in VaultBox, with a few questions:
Interview with Lee Minshull, Co-Manager of VaultBox
How did you get the idea for VaultBox coin packs?
Lee Minshull: Blake Donen was visiting my office, and he told me about this idea he had to bring coins to an entirely new group of people. Like a lot of other collectors, Blake had become obsessed with NBA and Formula 1 trading cards over the pandemic, and he had this idea to combine the fun of opening sealed packs of trading cards with the historical liquidity and precious metal value of coins.
I originally wrote it off and didn’t want to hear him out. But once he brought in a pack of F1 cards and we got to share an afternoon opening them and chasing better and better cards, I knew there was something there. After we opened a few packs, I called a meeting with my traders and Blake, and I explained the concept to them. We voted on pursuing VaultBox as an idea then and there. Blake and Minshull Trading became partners on the project, we launched our first box in January 2023, and the rest is history.
Why are they popular?
VaultBox is popular because it lowers the barrier to entry for coin collecting in a few ways. First, you don’t need to be an expert on coins to open a VaultBox, you just need to be excited about the prospect of getting a coin, gold nugget or, most recently, a banknote. Second, there is something inherently exciting about the unknown. It’s exploded in almost every other collectible category, so why not coins?
Lastly, VaultBox lowers the financial barrier to entry for everyday collectors. In Series 9, suddenly there’s an opportunity for an everyday collector to find a 1915-S Octagonal $50 Gold Panama-Pacific graded NGC MS64 — a coin we value at $100,000. Now that’s how you bring excitement to coins.
Talk about creating new coin collectors with VaultBox.
At its core, VaultBox is about creating new collectors. The trading card format flips the way collectors get coins. Up to this point, a collector would identify a coin type they wanted to obtain and would then go out and hunt for it. VaultBox flips the script.
When a collector opens a VaultBox, they get a new coin in their hand first, and then they get to go research the newest addition to their collection. This allows the collector to learn why it’s important and potentially starts a new type set or helps them learn about other types they are interested in along the way.
What makes your product so successful?
We’ve followed the mantra from day one that we don’t put coins, medals, or nuggets in our boxes that we wouldn’t want to own. That’s why we put our money where our mouth is — we offer the first and only instant offer to buy back EVERY coin within our VaultBox series releases. Collectors can either keep their coin(s), or they can log in to our website to see exactly what we are paying that day and they can sell back to us then and there. The part we didn’t anticipate is that many VaultBox slabs tend to sell for 10% to 40% over our instant offer amounts amongst other collectors. There is an entire community of people who collect VaultBox slabs based on series release and rarity, especially the red core hits.
Another way we keep things exciting is by making each release feel interesting in its own way. For example, we have done a release of all modern coins and a release of all ancient coins, we have done a series heavy on classic commemoratives and a series that included a complete set of Morgan Dollars. We also recently did a series that was all paper money from the SS Andrea Doria shipwreck.
We immerse ourselves in our community. We spend hundreds of hours watching videos, speaking to our customers, and asking for feedback. We know that without our customers and the community, we are just another product on the market. Most importantly, we remain humble. We aren’t perfect, and the community provides us with both the good and the bad feedback we need to improve. Some of our favorite YouTube videos are the ones where we get fair but hard feedback — that’s how we get better.
We have some exciting twists on our VaultBox series releases coming up in 2025, like a gold nugget release and an even bigger ancient release that we are very excited about.
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