Ever try to corner the market and buy all the graded examples?
Panda4456
Posts: 362 ✭✭✭
Has there ever been a coin out there that you tried to buy all the ms examples or all of the au example to try to push the price up? For example, maybe you try to buy all the highest graded walking liberty halves of a particular year and if they want to buy an ms example you charge thousands of dollars?
Is this feasible? Has anyone tried it? I always pictured some billionaire owning like 50% of the 1895 proof Morgan dollar examples.
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People have tried this at various times over the years; not sure what their reasons were.
One of the recent examples was a guy who accumulated a large hoard of the 1909 VDB matte proof Lincolns.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/928292/collector-owns-53-1909vdb-matte-proof-lincoln-cents-with-link-to-cw
I think you would normally lose money doing this.
You start paying more buying the last several.
When selling, you have to sell only a few at a time, and the price will be heading down.
Makes sense! I was always wondering this myself. What if you sold one 1909s vdb proof that covered the cost of all the others though? I’ve always wondered if that would be possible
Too many coins to really do this. You would lose your shirt trying.
There is the guy that is hoarding all the State Quarters muled on Sacajawea Dollars. I think he has all of them. Here is a link to the coin in a PCGS Top 100 coins.
https://pcgs.com/top100/coin6
Only way I can think of that you could pull it off is to pick a series that isn’t too expensive, doesn’t have many examples, and using different people to be agents for you so it won’t be tracked to you and doing it in roughly the same time. Even so, it would be very hard and as someone mentioned very expensive for the last few. I doubt it would be worth it. The risk would be (if you pulled it off) that people would lose interest and move on.
If you have really deep pockets, you can do it with something like 1894-S dimes or 1913 Liberty nickels where there is a very limited number. But what is the point?
For anything inexpensive that needs a price boost, there are simply too many out there to make it likely.
Interesting!
I did once start accumulating and hoarding 1931-S Buffalo Nickels in circ grades. I was buying VG examples for $3 each. Then they spiked up to $10 each and I sold the entire hoard. LOL
Here is an article in CoinWorld about him. The article is from 2013. Now if you could find one of these mules in pocket change this guy pays pretty good.
https://coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/collector-continues-his-quest-to-corral-mules.html
Oh yeah. Tuvalu Bald Eagle 1 oz silver proofs in 2016.
At the last Baltimore show last year, I came across a dealer with about 150 1875 Philadelphia 20c and another 50 or so 1876 Philly 20c.
This was clearly an attempt to corner the market that failed
Most were cleaned or damaged, but it was an impressive hoard by someone who wanted to corner the market on P mint twenty cent coins.
Even with the low production numbers if these, and the attrition after 150 years, these were a hard sell.
So many P mint 20 cents have been on the market for the past few months, I highly doubt that the original hoarder (or their heirs) will realize any positive return.
Have any succeeded?
The hunt bros come to mind on this one
No. I have never tried to do that.
About 15 years ago I thought that going after as many 1934-D PCGS MS64 Washington Quarters might be doable since the population was around 150-200 and the price was $200-250. MS65's were around $1000. It's a popular date with strong collector interest.
But, then again, how many would one be able to buy at current levels?
I tried to corner the market on SBA dollars.
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Now I live in a box under the overpass.
This has been discussed here many times.... and the consensus is still the same... basically, an exercise in futility. Cheers, RickO
The Hunt brothers actually would have made a fortune if the government hadn't stepped in and stolen their money.
Some other famous targets of hoarding over the years have been 1844 dimes, 1804 quarters, and 1793 Liberty Cap cents. The guys with the 1793 cents had 50 of them at one point, making it a "roll."
A smarter decision for the prospective market cornering specialist would be to buy up all the nice examples of a given rare-date coin (price is no object) and leave the dreck floating around out there. After about 10 years, the coin will have a reputation for "never" turning up with nice surfaces.
Yes.
Many times.
Always worked out great
At 1 point I have in control 1/3 of all the American Memorial W Early Find quarters.
But I decided to spread my love and just kept 1 common MS65, thinking alot more would come out in seeding new collectors.
Gets more joy in discussion with new collectors this way.