Interview with Bob Simpson...
MrEureka
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I just watched this interview, mostly because I've never met Bob Simpson and thought it might be interesting to learn about him. Which I did, but I got one magic moment out of it that I thought I'd share. Towards the end of the interview, he was asked what he thought the 12 year old collector that he used to be might think if he saw what his older version had accomplished. Which led me to ask the same of myself. Rather than sharing my response, I'd encourage you to to do the same.
Andy Lustig
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
5
Comments
The link does not work for me.
It's amazing how well developed our interests are at 12.
Thank you for posting. That was a great watch, it makes me really like Bob Simpson and appreciate how he thinks. His retrospective thoughts on his journey were great to listen to. His perspective came as someone at the end of a journey vs someone on the road which struck me most of all.
"You are doing yourself no favors in buying the bargain, the best usually come with a price that hurts"
The point on "connoisseurship" vs. hole filling from Imhof I really appreciated. It stands in such stark contrast to another big collection being assembled right now.
"What is this CAC thing, someone else telling you it has good eye appeal"
Latin American Collection
My 12 year old self was sorting wheat cents looking for minor varieties--I'd certainly have been surprised.
My 12 year old self was looking at my mom’s collection she inherited which was mostly bulk silver. We didn’t have money to buy new coins. I’d have been blown away in every sense of the word.
My 12-year old self was checking coins for errors and
varieties, but I was lucky to have a paper route, and
you'd be surprised (or not) at some of the coins I'd
collect at the end of the month for subscriptions.
The local newspaper was delivered twice a week,
and I'd collect at the end of the month - and it was
dark when I went house to house, if it wasn't summer.
One dark night, I came home and found, among
the few foreign coins I'd get, there was an 1882
$10 gold Liberty - some lady passed it to me in the
dark, probably thinking it was a foreign coin.
That step led me deeper into numismatics, and
here I am 58 years later.......
There are all kinds of collectors and it's worth understanding and enjoying them all. I wouldn't pit one against the other here.
One thing of interest that was mentioned is the following.
It's great to see beautiful scarce coins, but it's also amazing to see a complete set of top quality coins of all dates. It's great to have many collectors collecting in different ways.
That's not what I heard and may give the wrong impression.
Here's what I heard:
It seems like Simpson appreciates the value of CAC but Wilonsky may not.
First thing he’d say is “why’d you stop for a while at age 16??”
And I don’t think he’d be impressed with my answer.
I think my 12 year old would be really eager to get on with the journey. Which sounds like a good thing, except it also might mean I never grew up.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
I like Todd's quote:
I think my 12 year old self would be shocked that I abandoned my goal of being a rock star and instead have a boring-sounding job and hobbies! I didn't start collecting til my 30's. Sounds like I might be an outlier.
Instagram
Life is about contrasts and I appreciate the contrast that Simpson draws
Latin American Collection
Great interview and an interesting guy. I would like to set down with him and talk coins.
Thank you for sharing.
Interesting interview - thanks for posting.
I would have enjoyed hearing more about covid, economic downturn, divorce, bad stock bets, etc with regards to his decision to sell, if at all appropriate. If not pertinent, then, never mind.
No worries. I have my preferences too. I like collectors that tend to be more public like Bruce, Simpson and Hanson. They are all top notch in my book.
For a contrast example, I don't know much about Black Cat aside form the fact that he has Bruce's Trade Dollar Set and the Supernova, so it's a bit harder to appreciate, though he may not care
He was very thoughtful about having too many coins to enjoy and his age.
Overall, I'm impressed by how thoughtful and humble he comes across.
I got an email from Heritage telling me that PCGS had regraded some of the Simpson coins going to auction and that the catalogue will not reflect those grades. Does anyone know what this is about? Did they go up or down?
Great interview!
Thanks for posting this Andy.
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
Regraded coins never go down except in rare instances where an egregious mistake was made in the first place or the coin has turned in the holder.
I'd tell my 12 YO self to stop playing minecraft and ROTMG and collect coins. Since I was not really collecting at 12. I was collecting from 6-11 and 16-almost 17.
Very interesting comments today from Laura in her market report about Simpson's interview
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WOW, that sounds like a good way to lose your best client. Very damaging statements.
The video is NOT truthful.
The only part of the video with some truth-the man actually does know something about grading and he craves great eye appeal.
Not knowing Mr. Simpson, and the only information that was known was feed to us, it was refreshing to hear him discuss this collection from his perspective.
My 20th Century Gold Major Design Type Set ---started : 11/17/1997 ---- completed : 1/21/2004
Laura she seems like she has a fragile ego.
Latin American Collection
Nah. Ever met her?
Feels dissed I'm guessing.
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
She shouldn’t be. It’s quite common in business to not talk about your suppliers and vendors. It’s more common for the vendors to try and talk about their customers.
I believe publicly criticizing former customers to be poor form and says more about Laura than Bob.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
We don't know if the people who made the video edited out comments about the dealer(s) who helped Mr Simpson build his collection. Maybe they didn't want to appear to favor an individual dealer. We don't know. I could see how Ms. Sperber might feel slighted if Legend wasn't mentioned in the video.
If her comments seem harsh, I think we should remember that she is still recovering from major neurosurgery, and is being hooked up to a dialyzer 3 times weekly. These things just might affect how someone reacts to slights, whether real or perceived. Under the circumstances, I'll reserve judgement.
Nice quote on quality.
Laura is good.
She knows it.
Bob Simpson knows it.
We know it.
Simpson did not criticize her in the published video.
Seems a bit thinned skinned to complain.
Maybe she’s not complaining about Bob...
Laura certainly deserves a lot of credit, but you have to admit that a collector building a collection on his own makes for a more inspirational story.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Correct. Basically, if you're willing to pay extra for the upgrade, you don't have to worry about downgrades. It's a win-win.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Overall, there's not a lot of time in the video and you can't everything with a small amount of time. It's like converting a book to film. They are different formats and you just can't make a book shorter for a good film, sometimes you have to remove entire plot elements and characters. It seems like they wanted to focus on Simpson's own perspective and experience in it. It's worth Laura reaching out directly to Simpson and Heritage on this.
I started collecting coins around the age of 7. The video had a great deal of impact on me as I could see my personal journey a bit through Bob’s narrative. Including, perhaps, the end of my collecting story as Bob is ten years old than I am right now. I thought the video was very well done.
In a perfect world, I think we all might agree that Laura could have, or should have, been mentioned in the video. But, the world we live in, at times, is often far from perfect.
In my near (55) years involved with US coins, I do not recall ever meeting a pure collector (not a collector/dealer, but a pure collector) who built what I thought to be a world class collection without the assistance of a dealer or fellow collector/dealer. In fact, what I most often saw from collectors doing it alone was an uninspiring collection at best, and a disaster at worst. I carried this knowledge with me as a watched the video. To those without my perspective, most will learn soon enough what I learned over my (55) years.
As always, just my 2 cents.
Wondercoin
I think it's possible to get some nice pieces here and there without a close dealer relationship, but if you want to build a major collection, a dealer relationship is certainly very useful to have, especially for those with a day job.
Who were the dealers for other recent major collectors?
Link...
https://www.legendnumismatics.com/market_reports/kaboom/
TIME TO SET THINGS STRAIGHT-SIMPSON
There is a video interview of Mr Simpson on a certain web site. It discusses Mr Simpsons desire for coins and how acquired them. The video is NOT truthful. due to a little editing.
Mr Simpson clearly is one of the top coin collectors in the world. Working with him was one heck of a journey.
We wish to note that Mr Simpson did NOT buy coins himself-it was a team effort. We are certain over 99% of the collection consisted of coins we found, vetted, and offered him. We delivered the $36 Million dollar South West Pattern collection and did all the leg work. We’re the ones who found coins like the $20 1865 Gold pattern worth millions or a deal of 50C 1877 Patterns. Further we were 100% his eyes and buyers at EVERY major auction (we would use his bidder card). He started some of his collections on our suggestion.
Legend Numismatics was Bob Simpsons ONLY dealer since he came back into coins in 2001.
We were never given a list or speech of how he wanted his coins, He knew we were the right people to build the set he wanted. The only part of the video with some truth-the man actually does know something about grading and he craves great eye appeal.
We are extremely proud of the collection we built for him and don’t like being kicked to the curb. Its kinda rough that its really not the right time for him to be selling, but it is what it is. Some of the worlds greatest coins are now coming back and are giving many collectors new opportunities. We just want it clarified that Legend Numismatics exclusively built his collection and worked very closely with him all these years. Other people are just day dreaming.
My Saint Set
Latin American Collection
Thanks for posting @ReadyFireAim.
When listening to the interview, using or not using a dealer doesn't really seem to come up. I mostly recall his fondness for eye appeal, CAC, going from accumulation to selling, buying the best, the best being the most expensive, and the perspective of being a YN and buying coins risk free because he was buying them at face value.
At the end of the day, it's a short interview focused on getting into Simpson's mind to help Heritage sell his collection. It may have been nice to mention Legend, but would it have added to or detracted from that goal?
At 10:45 he says he's going to keep his saints & something else but I couldn't catch it.
My Saint Set
Indian $10 pieces / eagles.
After hearing and reading all of this l am proud to be in the "Other people are only day dreaming" group.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Many collectors have done very well working with multiple dealers, or even buying wherever they can. On our own forum, just look at what Boiler78 has accomplished. Or StewartBlay, who might buy and sell on rare occasions, but not so much that I’d call him a collector-dealer. And in the EAC world, most of the great collections have been built by “playing the field”.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Newman - Burdette Johnson, then of course eventually Newman the student became Newman the master
I believe Hansen had the advisement of Stuppler prior to JB; this constituted a significant part of his acquisitions and bears mentioning
In the end, the dealer is forgotten and the collector or the collection is remembered. Dealers that have build high quality collections for their clients are well aware of this.
Thanks for the info @Boosibri and @Nap.
Here's an updated list:
Ira Goldberg helped Tyrant build his collection
Tyrant uses Ira Goldberg for ancients at least, maybe for US too.
Thanks @Gazes!
Just 1 more to go: