I bought a $50 Pan Pac this week. PCGS MS64 CAC (long read)
Weiss
Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
Forgive me to those folks who saw it over on the darkside forum, I don't post chunky gold that often 
My wife has worked at one of the biggest, sprawling companies in town for about 20 years. Parking for everyone except for the biggest big-wigs on the campus where she works is several blocks away. That means parking, then waiting for the overcrowded shuttle, then a 5 or 10 minute shuttle ride, then the whole thing in reverse at the end of the day, fighting everyone else who has the same parking situation. Bad enough in the summer heat and rain, 10 times worse in the winter in office clothes, when it gets dark at 4:00 at night, and it's cold, icy or snowing. And some of the outer parking lots are really, really sketchy at night.
Figure a good 40 minutes every day, 5 days a week = about 15 hours a month of wasted time.
I pick her up pretty much every day for lunch, in part because it'd be that much all over again: wasting her entire lunch just getting to and from her car. Plus I like seeing her, and I'm a big fan of food.
Anyway, one day at lunch six or seven years back I noticed a tiny hand-written "for sale" sign in the yard of a house literally 30 yards from one of the entrances of the main building. The kind of sign you'd see next to a motorcycle or lawn mower. Cute little bungalow, with a huge two bay garage 
So right after I dropped her off, I zipped over to the house and called the number on the sign. Asked the price. Asked to see the inside. They met me there a couple of hours later and I shocked the owners by agreeing to their terms, as is, where is, 30 day close. Luckily I've been a landlord for 30 years, so I kinda knew what I was doing 
Inside the garage the day I visited prior to buying: 
Closed really quickly, and my crew and I spent the next 6 weeks renovating the garage: New roof, framing out the two bays individually, new electrical, insulation. Installed heaters, lighting, new garage door and opener with remote. Even had time to put in a coat hook bar and a big mirror. Surprised my wife with it, for her birthday. A secure, covered, heated garage just a few steps from work.
Just after purchase:
Nearing completion: 
Nice thing was that with a little effort and renovation (the kind I do all the time), the house started to cash flow pretty well. Literally started making money by providing her the most envious parking space on campus.
She's a serious type-a personality, painfully detail oriented. She's been consistently promoted way, way beyond what she'd originally signed up for. Of course, that means much more stress even with a lot more cash.
And we're both pretty frugal. Lived within our means even as those means grew. We both been able to put enough dough away over the years that we've kicked around the idea of early retirement and what that would mean. Reduced quality of life? Or much better without work hanging over us? Would we be bored, or would we be relaxed? The last couple of years reinforced that nobody knows how much time we have left, and grinding 45 or 50 hours a week doing stuff she never wanted to do wasn't what she signed up for. It wasn't making her happy. And with savings, it just wasn't really necessary either. About 6 months ago she surprised even me by saying she was done. She waited until big projects were finished, put in 6 weeks notice, and quietly began "early retirement" a few days before Christmas (COINcidentally, we also celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary last week).
Of course, that left the question of the parking space house. In the portfolio, it's just one of about 25 properties and I would have had no problem keeping it. But I knew something the sellers of the house didn't: The big corporation she worked for owned the rest of the block. And they'd just begun to draw up plans to expand one of their facilities on the end of the block adjacent to the house.
I reached out to them. They essentially said name your price. We closed on Wednesday of this week.
Now one of my all time dream coins is the Pan Pac $50. And, even after capital gains, closing fees, attorney costs, etc., there was just about enough left to get a MS64 octagon. And this was essentially found money!
Six months or a year ago, I would have pulled the trigger and dropped the mic. That's it. My box of 1 coin collection. And believe me, I know how to splurge on a nice coin, or a nice collectible, when the time is right.
But no matter how tempting the coin to end all coins was, having that windfall in liquid reserves, knowing the unexpected is always out there...? Especially now without her income? I just couldn't do it. So after depositing the comically oversize check, I withdrew a couple thousand dollars in crisp $100 bills and visited one of the local shops.
So here's my $50 Pan Pac PCGS MS64 CAC.
Ain't she pretty?
--Severian the Lame
Comments
Great story!
Knowing you could though…… That’s pretty fun too.
Can we get a pic of the other side of your coin? Very cool coin.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
What a great story and I appreciate that Pan Pac.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Yep.
1859 8 Escudo
Fineness: 0.8750
Weight: 27.0700g
AGW: 0.7615oz
--Severian the Lame
The most interesting click bait story I've ever read.
Ah, man...what click bait!
Nice Mexican gold, but
I think you should go back and buy the Pan Pac, Weissmeister. You only live once!
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
It’s no Ike but it will do
Congrats on your wife’s retirement!
Awesome and congratulations to both of you! Enjoy life, this is the most important thing there is.
A one helava sweet coin
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
Calling a @dcarr emergency!
Beautiful coin and nice story.
You did a great job on that garage too !
You know, somewhere someone is saying :what a lucky guy"......
But we all know, luck is nothing more than preparation meeting opportunity......
BTW, Seth (Witter Coins) has an octagonal Pan Pac in 64 on his website if you change your mind.
Great story, and I like the coin you actually bought a lot more than a $50 PanPac.
It’s got CAC too.
The garage was brilliant, but I can't give a Like due to the clickbait title.
Such is life in the US Coin forum, oh well.
Ah, a new twist.
Buy the story, not the holder.
@Weiss Are you going to get your coin slabbed by one of the major grading services? A nice coin like that deserves a better holder.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Great story, I could really relate to all the decisions you made.
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
great story and awesome result
Top 10 Cal Fractional Type Set
successful BST with Ankurj, BigAl, Bullsitter, CommemKing, DCW(7), Downtown1974, Elmerfusterpuck, Joelewis, Mach1ne, Minuteman810430, Modcrewman, Nankraut, Nederveit2, Philographer(5), Realgator, Silverpop, SurfinxHI, TomB and Yorkshireman(3)
I have to ask! Did you take possession of all the stuff in the garage? Looks like what was in it could be a small gold mine in and of itself!
I gotta tell ya….you had me thinking I was having a stroke.
I was even looking for the Pan Pac next to the motorcycle.
MY GOLD TYPE SET https://pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/complete-type-sets/gold-type-set-12-piece-circulation-strikes-1839-1933/publishedset/321940
@Weiss .... That was a great story.... and a really nice gold coin. Cheers, RickO
Great story, but not so great (to use) click-bait.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I kinda doubt it. I actually like the old school flip and cardboard insert. But maybe. I've got another raw and another slabbed one.
--Severian the Lame
No. Had mixed feelings. It'd been a local shade tree mechanic who worked exclusively on SAAB and Volvo. He hadn't touched this "inventory" in a few years, was really more storage for him. But he managed to get it all out by close:
--Severian the Lame
The house (with garage).
I sold two other properties a few months back, almost the same circumstances. They'd been afterthoughts, really "insulation", when I'd bought and remodeled a 10,000 square foot, 3 story historic building about 12 years ago. During that project I'd kept watch on other adjacent properties so we could have a buffer against what was then a sketchy neighborhood (as it happens, my renovations completely changed the fabric of that neighborhood). With my crew still assembled, I bought two single-family homes across the street. We remodeled those, too, and they became just additional properties in my holdings. As with the parking space home, I'd researched who owned the rest of the properties on their block, and these were the only two properties on the block NOT owned by a huge national name-brand company. Yep, that company came knocking last year wanting the whole block for a huge new development. It was a much more complicated close, but it happened in September 2021.
So that earlier sale really put us in great shape for my wife's early retirement. The parking space home was the final block in that pyramid, which is why I just couldn't pull the trigger on the Pan Pac.
But I do have 2 dozen other properties...
--Severian the Lame
Love the truck been on the hunt for one.
Hoard the keys.
Great story, Weiss! Fun surprise at the end too.
With 2 dozen other properties that could be sold, you could get a roll of the Pan Pacs.
But then where would you find a tube?
You take the truck and I'll take the Jag!
Enjoyed the story and the coin.
I love Weiss landlordin' stories.
Whatever happened to that contingent of houses (some back to back) you were putting together on one block?
Six contiguous, 1 full acre recently rezoned for redevelopment.
It's casually on the market, but we're 100% leased for August 2022- August 2023 and we're still renovating about 1 unit out of the 14 in the group every semester.
--Severian the Lame
I'm dying to know what is the value of your most expensive coin. : )
I guarantee you the nicest coin I've ever held, let alone owned, is just a tiny fraction of what some of the forum members have in their collections.
--Severian the Lame
At the major shows I've actually had some really nice dealers unexpectantly pull out their most expensive coins for me to hold, one after another, knowing full well their coins were completely out of my league. : )
Knowing you had all that money burning a hole in your pocket I do admire your self restraint and had to ask.