"My phone isn't ringing," Van Simmons told me at our annual Stansberry Conference in October...

"I never thought that would happen with gold at $2,700 an ounce," he said. "But no one's calling."

Van is a partner and president of David Hall Rare Coins, a metals and collectibles dealer. He also co-founded the Professional Coin Grading Service – the largest rare-coin grading service in the world.

We've considered Van a trusted dealer for decades. He's a member of the board of directors of our parent company, MarketWise. And he knows the collectibles markets better than anyone I've met.

For instance, Van and I once had a two-hour conversation – about pocketknives...

He has bought and sold hundreds (if not thousands) of pocketknives over the years. And he explained the market in vivid detail. What's more, he could probably do the same for dozens of esoteric collectible markets.

At the conference, I expected to hear that Van was busy as ever, given the incredible 28% rise we've seen in gold this year. But the opposite was true. Business is dead.

He's not the only one noticing this slowdown. That isn't a bad sign, though. In fact, it tells me that despite an impressive boom so far, gold's bull market is far from over...

Van's experience seems to be the rule, not the exception. I heard the same thing from two other trusted coin dealers at the conference.

First was Dana Samuelson, founder of American Gold Exchange. He had the same report...

"The 2011 gold peak was a retail buying frenzy," Dana told me. "I haven't seen that at all this time around."

Dana said he got a little busy earlier this year when gold first broke out to new highs. But recent months had been slow.

Rich Checkan, president of Asset Strategies International, told me something similar. He'd seen buying pick up a little recently. In his view, that was in advance of the election. But volumes were still low.

Between the three of them, an odd consensus formed...

Folks usually rush to buy gold as prices rise. They get excited as the gains pile up. Often, though, they're jumping in at the worst possible time. And that retail buying tells you the boom is nearing its end.

That's not happening today. Gold has hit all-time high after all-time high... but investors aren't interested. They aren't buying.

This bodes well for the health of the gold boom that's underway. Again, the metal is up 28% this year. Gold stocks are up 22%. But these kinds of rallies end when everyone's euphoric... and there's no one else to buy.

That's clearly not the case today... far from it.

Instead, retail buyers have forgotten gold entirely. They're showing no interest at all, despite gold hitting new highs this year.

That situation won't last forever. Eventually, investors will pour money into the metal, chasing the dream of easy profits. That's when we'll have to worry. But we're simply not there yet.

That means gold is positioned to keep soaring into 2025. So if you think you've missed the rally in gold and gold stocks, think again. This is one area of the market that's likely headed much higher in the months ahead.

Good investing,

Brett Eversole