@J2035 said:
Paid UNC money as a kid in the 1990s for a raw 1928 Peace dollar at the ANA show after saving up for years. Realized after I became a better grader that it was not uncirculated but took me a loooooong time to admit I made a mistake and submit to PCGS. It came back AU58. I finally sold it a few years ago.
Bought a 16-D merc, low grade PCGS G04, sold it for a loss a year later when I realized that owning a "16-D" was not as cool as I thought it would be. Common key dates are often losers for collectors.
@J2035 said:
Paid UNC money as a kid in the 1990s for a raw 1928 Peace dollar at the ANA show after saving up for years. Realized after I became a better grader that it was not uncirculated but took me a loooooong time to admit I made a mistake and submit to PCGS. It came back AU58. I finally sold it a few years ago.
Don't feel bad. Before I could grade; I paid unc. money for a raw1917 S Rev. WLH. I sent it to NGC and it came back body-bagged as PVC contaminated. They didn't even give it a grade but my guess is that it was an AU slider. I sold it for about 30% of what I paid for it. It was a hard lesson and a mistake that I NEVER made again.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
@J2035 said:
Paid UNC money as a kid in the 1990s for a raw 1928 Peace dollar at the ANA show after saving up for years. Realized after I became a better grader that it was not uncirculated but took me a loooooong time to admit I made a mistake and submit to PCGS. It came back AU58. I finally sold it a few years ago.
Au58 is a good grade
Not when you pay 63 money - it was a huge purchase as a YN. Still lost ~$300 even after 20 years of owning the coin! But yes, at least it straight graded.
A recent one that reminded me of the bigger economic picture of trying to buy and sell anything.
In mid-2018, I was able to acquire an early slabbed collection of a dozen rattlers. Original owner, probably hadn't seen the light of day since the day he put them back in the 1980s. Most were consecutive serial numbers even. Mostly morgans, but a saint, a walker, and a barber quarter, too.
I was convinced they were all a shoe in for a green CAC, minimum, and most were likely gold CAC. Some were surely DCAM, too. A real eureka, hot damn kind of moment. I ponied up the $4000 +/- and spent the profits I was going to make a dozen different ways.
Without submission privileges, I worked with a dealer. Shipping plus insurance to them, shipping and insurance to CAC, with CAC's fees. CAC did green and gold sticker a few--but not the ones I really needed to sticker. One or two were even rejected for PVC haze.
Then shipping and insurance back to the dealer, to whom I sold most, and shipping and insurance back to me for the balance. Then individual sales with those efforts and associated fees until the final pieces were gone. By the time the dust settled, I'd lost about $700.
It's ok to take calculated risks. It's fun and there is a potential for reward.
But there are expenses to any business. Don't get caught up in the fantasy and overlook the mundane reality of expenses and fees, shipping and handling, and opportunity costs. And remember, just because it's in a rattler or 1st gen fatty, it doesn't mean it's automatically a premium coin.
We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last. --Severian the Lame
It's ok to take calculated risks. It's fun and there is a potential for reward.
I am a piss poor grader but recently sent in 50 coins, mostly classic commems with a couple of trade dollars. They look amazing to me but then again I'm an idiot. But, depending on outcome, I got anywhere from an ok to a screaming deal and worst case scenario I'm out $2000 in expenses & poor re-sale prices. If I'm right on _one _coin out of the lot it pays for the entire batch and everything else is cream.
Sorry, should have included that info. Like @PerryHall said, it's a pattern. Not nearly as collectable or valuable as the regular issue 1858 proof. It's a different design all together, but I couldn't tell at the time. Now I hope I would know better.
Here ya go. I bought this Silver Ike graded 68 not so long ago. Doesn’t look much like the seller pic and doesn’t look MS-68 to me either. I will say the reverse looks stellar but I can’t say the same about the obverse.
I’ll live with it.
The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
Sorry, should have included that info. Like @PerryHall said, it's a pattern. Not nearly as collectable or valuable as the regular issue 1858 proof. It's a different design all together, but I couldn't tell at the time. Now I hope I would know better.
@BillJones said:
I had an attack of “auction fever” and paid way too much for an 1855-D gold dollar. Yes, the coin is rare, but a joker on the phone took me up to very high bid in a Heritage auction and then reneged on his bid. I should have demanded a re-start of the bidding but didn’t.
The coin is in a PCGS EF-45 holder. It has its original skin, and the reverse is sharper than the vast majority of the Philadelphia Mint pieces with strong date and “ONE DOLLAR.” Still I’m buried in it. BTW, my grade is AU-50, do I guess it has “a gold BILL sticker.”
Several years ago I was at a coin show and for some reason I really wanted a coin that had Isaac Newton pictured on it, and preferably one from the UK. I looked throughout the show and couldn’t believe it when I saw a Condor token with Isaac Newton on it. I believe it dated in the 1700s and it was mint state. I had spent most of my money already that day and had like $100 left. The coin was $125. I asked the dealer if he could go $100 since I didn’t want to have to go to the ATM. He would not budge, and not even go $120. I was surprised as most dealers are usually willing to take some money off. I ended up getting the extra $25 needed and bought the coin for $125. I had no knowledge or knew anything about Condor tokens. I just wanted a coin with Newton on it to go with my British £1 note I had that featured him.
After a year or two I decided to sell the coin. I was surprised when I found out it was only worth $65. If it weren’t mint state they were $20. It was a rather common Condor token despite the fact I never seen others with Newton. I ended up selling it to a collector that liked it and wanted to upgrade their collection so he gave me the full $65 otherwise if I sold it to dealer I would had been lucky to get $30-$40. So I still lost half of what I paid but it could had been worse. I am glad a collector got it and that it went to a good home. Lesson learned: Don’t buy coins I know nothing about even if I like what’s pictured on them.
Ahh...the 1916-D I bought when I was a kid. Merc's have always been a favorite of mine and even though I read my dad's Coin magazine I was blissfully unaware of the chicanery that exists in the coin world. So after saving from my paper route earnings was what then a lot of money for a 15 year old kid I rode my bike to the place where I had a previously purchased number of coins, the local flea market. Well the rest of the story is what can be expected. My wallet was lightened by $200.00, if I remember correctly, and my collection was enhanced by a 1916 Merc with a glued on D. I still have it somewhere I think...have not seen it in a long time. Although bad from a collecting standpoint it is a good memory for me about the fun I had when I was a kid!
@Smudge said:
Ok, I was a kid and bugged dad to take me to a coin store. I found a rare old Roman coin that I could afford and bought it. I felt pretty good with myself. Dad didn’t collect coins but after we left he said take a good look at that coin. I did and it said copy. I asked if he knew that when I bought it. He said yes and I asked why he let me buy it. He said to teach you a lesson.
You should have said "I'll remember this when I find you a nursing home to put you in some day."
I'll bet it did, too. It should go into the Best coin purchase category.
Oh wow.. worst ever? It was a lot of junk coins some with plastic cases that looked a little like an NCG but were not.
These were not the exact coins I bought, but it was probably the same scam, different huckster. This was ages ago.
“When you don't know what you're talking about, it's hard to know when you're finished.” - Tommy Smothers
@rays said:
I bought this PGGS AU55 1812 small date large cent from CVM, ex: Husak (Heritage 2/2008 lot 2295) in 2009 for $10,000. When I sold my large cent collection via Goldberg’s in June 2017, as lot 292 it brought the princely sum of $2938, the worst performing lot in the entire 156 coin collection.
That's a nice looking Classic. Sorry about your loss on it.
"Vou invadir o Nordeste, "Seu cabra da peste, "Sou Mangueira......."
Five coins come to mind. Two were mistakes made by mentors that I didn't raise questions about.
The worst was a raw 1931 D dime I bought when mastodons were still around. The coin looked all there.
Thirty years later, when I went to sell it, I noticed a tick mark on the neck that I did not see when I first bought the coin. Instead of a FB MS 67, would grade MS 63 FB. $50 bucks bought a lot of coin back then.
"Vou invadir o Nordeste, "Seu cabra da peste, "Sou Mangueira......."
I did take a rather big hit when I bought a gold one ounce Buffalo Proof 69 for $1900 when gold was at an all time high in 2011. I sold it when gold was way down at $1100 so I lost $800. Contrary to this experience was my first gold coin buy in 2004 for $625 (1927 MS63 $20 gold coin). I kept it for a very long time, and in 2016 sold it for $1300, making $675. Still doesn’t make up for the $800 loss though, but cushions it a little.
When I started collecting ancient and world coins I relied on one single dealer since he was the only one I knew that sold world coins and ancients. I remember paying like $400 for a really beat up Elizabeth I shilling which turned out to be worth under $100 when I went to upgrade. I also paid like $200 for a low grade Domitian denarius which was like a $30 coin. An interesting odd Roman coin I purchased was a silver washed debased denarius that was used in the late Roman Empire. I paid like $30 for it when it was only worth $10 and the person I sold it to thought it was a modern counterfeit (I still do not know what it was, I never saw such a coin like it again). The coin looked silver plated to me. The dealer bought it with the thought that it might be fake. I didn’t want to try selling it elsewhere once I heard that it might be fake and I thought it looked weird myself so I let the dealer have it for $10 since I didn’t want it anymore. Not really big losses here but several similar purchases like this until I bought that gold Tiberius coin that I wrote about earlier in this thread where I had a huge loss. That was the last coin I bought from that dealer, and I had since discovered more ancient and world coin dealers at different coin shows.
Ok here is one....bought an 1853-c half eagle raw. Easy 40 or 45 grade. Took it out of the flip and played with it for awhile when I noticed that a chunk fell off. Turned out to be soldered on the rim to hide a test cut.
@BillJones said:
I had an attack of “auction fever” and paid way too much for an 1855-D gold dollar. Yes, the coin is rare, but a joker on the phone took me up to very high bid in a Heritage auction and then reneged on his bid. I should have demanded a re-start of the bidding but didn’t.
The coin is in a PCGS EF-45 holder. It has its original skin, and the reverse is sharper than the vast majority of the Philadelphia Mint pieces with strong date and “ONE DOLLAR.” Still I’m buried in it. BTW, my grade is AU-50, do I guess it has “a gold BILL sticker.”
Picture? I want to see that one!
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
About 1995 at a major show I bought a copper frame that had held a 1915 Pan-Pac set of gold and silver: $50 round, $50 octagonal, and 50c silver. I paid $2500. I hadn't seen one in several years and it's condition was very attractive. I figured it's value was 4K or 5K.
What I didn't know was that slabbing of the individual coins had eliminated need for the case. Noone wanted one. I lost about $700. Wonder what the value is now.
I bought this thing from a dealer at a Long Beach show about 7 years ago. I was making a new foray into copper and this dealer was highly recommended as an expert on the series. We chatted, I looked at the coin, he went on and on about its virtues, and eventually I purchased it for what seemed like a fair price (for a nice example) and I went my way. When I got home the thing had a HUGE spot on it right in the middle of the portrait. It's abysmal. Epic. Totally disrupts the luster. Unforgiveable, and I hadn't seen it. For a type coin, it was perfectly useless.
A couple of years later I shopped the coin around the bourse at Long Beach again. I visited the same dealer who clearly didn't remember me or the coin. When I showed it to him, he just laughed and said "That thing has a huge ugly spot, there's no way I'd ever buy that." I guess that means he acquired it from the mint in 1835.
I wasn't really mad at him, and I did eventually sell it at GC for a 30 or 40% loss, but that didn't really matter. What bugged me was that I had somehow missed that enormous flaw.
Well, while shopping it around at Long Beach, I discovered that the bourse lighting hid the problem pretty well. That cheered me up a little, but I paid plenty of tuition to learn that particular lesson.
@BillJones said:
I had an attack of “auction fever” and paid way too much for an 1855-D gold dollar. Yes, the coin is rare, but a joker on the phone took me up to very high bid in a Heritage auction and then reneged on his bid. I should have demanded a re-start of the bidding but didn’t.
The coin is in a PCGS EF-45 holder. It has its original skin, and the reverse is sharper than the vast majority of the Philadelphia Mint pieces with strong date and “ONE DOLLAR.” Still I’m buried in it. BTW, my grade is AU-50, do I guess it has “a gold BILL sticker.”
I bought this 1916 D dime (see pic) from a reputable dealer, thinking it had a shot at a bump to VG. I cracked it out and sent it in raw (I know, I gambled and lost BIG time). Came back as counterfeit.
I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector. Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
@BryceM said:
I bought this thing from a dealer at a Long Beach show about 7 years ago. I was making a new foray into copper and this dealer was highly recommended as an expert on the series. We chatted, I looked at the coin, he went on and on about its virtues, and eventually I purchased it for what seemed like a fair price (for a nice example) and I went my way. When I got home the thing had a HUGE spot on it right in the middle of the portrait. It's abysmal. Epic. Totally disrupts the luster. Unforgiveable, and I hadn't seen it. For a type coin, it was perfectly useless.
A couple of years later I shopped the coin around the bourse at Long Beach again. I visited the same dealer who clearly didn't remember me or the coin. When I showed it to him, he just laughed and said "That thing has a huge ugly spot, there's no way I'd ever buy that." I guess that means he acquired it from the mint in 1835.
I wasn't really mad at him, and I did eventually sell it at GC for a 30 or 40% loss, but that didn't really matter. What bugged me was that I had somehow missed that enormous flaw.
Well, while shopping it around at Long Beach, I discovered that the bourse lighting hid the problem pretty well. That cheered me up a little, but I plenty of tuition to learn that particular lesson.
I wish NGC had given me an MS-64 for this one. I paid too much for it almost 40 years ago, but if it had gotten the MS-64 it deserved, I could get the nominal amount of money back. As an MS-63, I'm still losing money. Some people say that NGC over grades everything, but this is an example of where they did not. Now the NGC walks away from the grades on copper coins after 10 years, I guess this is a raw coin again.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
@UtahCoin said:
I bought this 1916 D dime (see pic) from a reputable dealer, thinking it had a shot at a bump to VG. I cracked it out and sent it in raw (I know, I gambled and lost BIG time). Came back as counterfeit.
Some painful experiences and lessons here!
I have a handful- for sure.
Could be my OGH 1934-S Peace MS-62 which is net graded for a scratch across the lower neck. The coin has booming luster and would easily be gem if it weren’t for that scratch. I thought the booming luster would overwhelm that scratch in my mind, but my eye is drawn towards that scratch everytime I look at it. I was likely buried in the coin until the recent market strength.
Or, it could be my 3-legger Buff PCGS XF-45 and my not considering the buyers premium when setting my lofty bid.
Then yet another, it might be a raw UNC 14-s Buffalo purchased on EBay- where the seller’s very stealthy photo techniques very tactfully concealed the numerous cleaning abrasions.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
About 20 years ago I approached coins as an investment. Reading a coin magazine, Ellesmere Numismatics was advertising high grade investment/big potential coins, mostly Morgans. Talked up the coins very well, quoted pop reports, etc. Spent $5200 on 3 Morgans - a 1885-O in 65, a 1900 in 66, and a 1921-D in 65. Waited several years and they were not performing well, waited some more, even lower. Sold the 3 for about $1800-2100 roughly 7-8 years ago.
A couple of lessons: Don't approach coins solely as an investment, don't buy from the big boys in the coin rags, and do your OWN research.
I had worked in all the date ranges in my Lincoln collection and this one was the last one to fill!
I knew counterfeits existed, but I had NO IDEA to the magnitude, I just thought they were cartoony tokens.
Through a series of events that transpired around the time I acquired it I was led to this forum for help.
The crap deal on this coin almost caused to me to just give up on the collection altogether, but what really happened is I ended up spending the next year gathering information about counterfeit/altered 09SVDB's and I got back the itch to fill that vacancy in my collection.
I looked at so many for so long on ebay and other places that even after I bought a genuine one I'm still looking for fakes
In the end a year after I bought the fake, and after I had cut the coin in halve and sent it back to the person I got it from, I got a check in the mail for $200.00 and a promise for $200.00 more sometime WAY later on. I told him he could forget about it and that I would split the loss with him, he claimed to have bought it at a estate sale??, he contacted me back and said NOPE! he wanted to make it right and that he felt really bad about how the whole deal went down. That's been over a year ago and I never got anymore money from him.
"I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery"
Thomas Jefferson!
@UtahCoin said:
I bought this 1916 D dime (see pic) from a reputable dealer, thinking it had a shot at a bump to VG. I cracked it out and sent it in raw (I know, I gambled and lost BIG time). Came back as counterfeit.
Really!
Wow!
Its been stated that the King Of Lincoln's (SVDB) is the most counterfeited of ALL US coins and the coin that holds the #2 position is the 16-D Dime!
"I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery"
Thomas Jefferson!
About 20 years ago I approached coins as an investment. Reading a coin magazine, Ellesmere Numismatics was advertising high grade investment/big potential coins, mostly Morgans. Talked up the coins very well, quoted pop reports, etc. Spent $5200 on 3 Morgans - a 1885-O in 65, a 1900 in 66, and a 1921-D in 65. Waited several years and they were not performing well, waited some more, even lower. Sold the 3 for about $1800-2100 roughly 7-8 years ago.
A couple of lessons: Don't approach coins solely as an investment, don't buy from the big boys in the coin rags, and do your OWN research.
Those were the days! I remember that newsletter very well. Unfortunately, the coin market did not work out as many expected ....... until maybe now....
Not my worst purchase but definitely the one that got away:
I bought the Gem 1797 Half Cent 1 over 1 out of the Superior 6/1981 sale for $12,500. To raise taxes the next year, I sold it into the collapsed coin market at a loss for $8,500. It ended up in the R. Tettenhorst Collection (Missouri Cabinet) and it sold for $299,000 in 2014.
@BestGerman said:
Not my worst purchase but definitely the one that got away:
I bought the Gem 1797 Half Cent 1 over 1 out of the Superior 6/1981 sale for $12,500. To raise taxes the next year, I sold it into the collapsed coin market at a loss for $8,500. It ended up in the R. Tettenhorst Collection (Missouri Cabinet) and it sold for $299,000 in 2014.
Not US coins but I figured it related to this topic since these actually ended up being bad coin buys.
I recently went to a coin show after 7 months of not attending any shows. I decided to sell two of my ancient coins. A Julius Caesar denarius and a Greek owl.
I bought the Caesar for $1200 ten years ago. I decided to sell it since I felt like it was time to give it a new home. The coin had a very poorly struck reverse so you couldn’t see much on it but the obverse was pretty nice. It was a lifetime portrait issue. I thought I hit a home run when I purchased it and during the years I owned it I thought it was probably worth $2000 or even $2500. The original price was $2250 but the dealer let me have it for $1200. So when I went to sell it last week I was surprised only one dealer actually was interested in purchasing it (turns out it was the dealer who originally sold it to me). All the other dealers declined it due to poor reverse. He offered me $1000. I accepted that so I ending up losing $200 on the coin.
The Greek owl I was selling so I could upgrade it to a better one. I paid $800 for it last year and sold it for $600. I upgraded it to a $900 coin, so I look at it as paying $1100 for the new coin since I used the $600 I got from the other coin plus $300 of my own money. I thought I wouldn’t have a loss since I thought I got a very good deal on the original Owl for $800 last year (most similar coins were $1200). Turns out the recent “hoard” found produced even more coins and they went down even further so I took a loss. Coins that were $1200 were now selling for $800 so dealers were paying $600 to sell for $800. The coin I purchased for $900 was previously a $1500 coin. I am happy with it so I don’t think I will need to upgrade it any further.
Most of what I've bought from the mint falls in the "worst coin purchase you ever made" category if you're comparing what I paid vs. what I could sell them for.
I’m probably in the minority as I rarely buy expensive (well to me expensive coins). I try to pay around greysheet. And when I can I do. I have paid more than I wanted for 2 coins but I don’t look at it as education or a failure on my part. They were 2 coins I wanted and I liked the appeal. Will i lose money? I don’t know I’ll probably be dead when they are sold. I’m actually more annoyed about a fancy dinner in Hawaii that the food and service was so bad I actually disputed the charge on AMEX.
Paid $475 for an raw 1909-S VDB... nuff said.
My story is very similar to @MarkW63 Except I wasn't able to get a penny back, even after I'd blown another $60 on sending it to NGC as proof for the seller, said she would reimburse me for the whole thing+ grading fees and never did, after dozens of messages and promises of settlement I finally gave up and was out $535 after the whole deal
Hard lesson but well-learned: DON"T BUY KEY DATES RAW!!
I had worked in all the date ranges in my Lincoln collection and this one was the last one to fill!
I knew counterfeits existed, but I had NO IDEA to the magnitude, I just thought they were cartoony tokens.
Through a series of events that transpired around the time I acquired it I was led to this forum for help.
The crap deal on this coin almost caused to me to just give up on the collection altogether, but what really happened is I ended up spending the next year gathering information about counterfeit/altered 09SVDB's and I got back the itch to fill that vacancy in my collection.
I looked at so many for so long on ebay and other places that even after I bought a genuine one I'm still looking for fakes
In the end a year after I bought the fake, and after I had cut the coin in halve and sent it back to the person I got it from, I got a check in the mail for $200.00 and a promise for $200.00 more sometime WAY later on. I told him he could forget about it and that I would split the loss with him, he claimed to have bought it at a estate sale??, he contacted me back and said NOPE! he wanted to make it right and that he felt really bad about how the whole deal went down. That's been over a year ago and I never got anymore money from him.
."It's a dangerous business... going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to" -JRR Tolkien_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Outstanding BST transactions as a seller, buyer and trader with: ----- mustanggt, Kliao, claudewill87, MWallace, paesan, mpbuck82, moursund, basetsb, lordmarcovan, JWP, Coin hunter 4, COINS MAKE CENTS, PerryHall, Aspie_Rocco, Braddick, DBSTrader2, SanctionII, Histman, The_Dinosaur_Man, jesbroken, CentSearcher ------ANA Member #3214817
I've overpaid on a few (with only a couple being bidiot mistakes) but all the cherrypicking I have done more than makes up for it thankfully. It doesn't make me feel any better about the mistakes but it is good to know. I sold my biggest mistake about seven years ago and am happy I did. Staring at a mistake too often doesn't make me happy. A clean break and moving on having learned from the mistake makes me feel better.
"If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64 Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
The ones that have frustrated me the most are the times I’ve rebought a coin that I already own when being lazy and trusting my memory instead of taking a moment to look at my records on my date/mint mark sets. It took a few instances of this happening to finally learn my lesson.
I've gotten auction fever a few times. Some headline auctions have a lot of interest and demand so prices go high. Either pay to play or sit out and possibly never get a coin.
My sorta embarrassing poor purchase came before I knew anything about what the labels meant on graded coins, and when I was 1st starting to send in my coins for grading. I bought a coin I already had.
I bought a P70 2016W ASE "Limited Edition" PCGS graded coin from HSN - and paid a premium for it - forget how much by now. I thought it was a special issue that had the 30th Anniv etched on the side. I already owned a few of these, but thought they were plain-Jane reeded edges. After I made the purchase I looked at the coins on edge in their capsules and saw the lettering.
I sent all but 1 of mine in to PCGS, as even the PCGS slab makes it not all that easy to see the edge-lettering. I still have 1 kept in its US Mint capsule / box.
I suppose I coulda returned the HSN coin, but the reality of the "Limited Edition" designation took a little longer to realize the hype behind it, and I paid the idiot tax.
I won't say this is my most expensive mistake. However, it is my LESSON coin.
I moved to a new town when I was 18. One day there was an add that there was going to be a coin dealer along with a coin auction. I was beyond thrilled. In fact, the day of the auction I showed up a little early. About 3 hours.
The only thing going on was there was a man on a ladder methodically removing all the florescent lights except for a few. This man of course turned out to be the coin dealer/auctioneer.
To show how stupid I am, I not only stayed but I bid on and won a 1916-D Barber Quarter purported to be mint state. In light other than a cavernous basement with like 3 working lights the coin is not mint state, is harshly cleaned, and took about 6 hours to start turning black.
I still own this coin and any time I start selling myself on how desperate I am to get a certain coin, I will take it out and admire how much blacker it has gotten since the last time I looked at it.
Paid $900 for a blast white MS66 1936-S Rhode Island commemorative coin in 2006. I had looked for a long time and all the ones I saw had what I would call a "haze." The coin does not tone well. Today's value $275. I still have not found another one as nice.
Back in the pre-internet days, I purchased a 1839 seated liberty half dollar and a 1856-S seated liberty half dollar from the same dealer from a coin world add. I did not like the 1856-S from the start, but I kept it anyways because they were so hard to find. Turns out that the 1856-S was tooled and very poorly at that. Too late to return it, So, I kept it to remind me not to be so nieve when purchasing coins. The 1839 also has problems with but not as bad and I still have it also. I hate the 1856-S (I have since gotten another one), one of these days it will be on eBay, properly described and photoed.
Worst eBay buy (A long time ago-way before they had buyer protection), was a huge lot of about 150-200 liberty seated coins. There were not as many as I thought there were and some of the dates that I saw in the photos were not included in the lot. I paid about $8,000.00 for the lot and when I got it determined that the value was under $1,000.00. Due to the price increases of old seated coins in the last few years, I got some of my money back but only about $3000. I am still out about $5,000.00 on this lot. All sold last year on eBay.
Well, I blame the Pandemic and having no coin-shows, so some purchases on online auctions (I was weak..). Paid the auction premium, shipping and had to pay taxes... The total = too much!
Comments
Therapist told me to not think about it. Hypnosis really helped.
Au58 is a good grade
Bought a 16-D merc, low grade PCGS G04, sold it for a loss a year later when I realized that owning a "16-D" was not as cool as I thought it would be. Common key dates are often losers for collectors.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
Don't feel bad. Before I could grade; I paid unc. money for a raw1917 S Rev. WLH. I sent it to NGC and it came back body-bagged as PVC contaminated. They didn't even give it a grade but my guess is that it was an AU slider. I sold it for about 30% of what I paid for it. It was a hard lesson and a mistake that I NEVER made again.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Not when you pay 63 money - it was a huge purchase as a YN. Still lost ~$300 even after 20 years of owning the coin! But yes, at least it straight graded.
A recent one that reminded me of the bigger economic picture of trying to buy and sell anything.
In mid-2018, I was able to acquire an early slabbed collection of a dozen rattlers. Original owner, probably hadn't seen the light of day since the day he put them back in the 1980s. Most were consecutive serial numbers even. Mostly morgans, but a saint, a walker, and a barber quarter, too.
I was convinced they were all a shoe in for a green CAC, minimum, and most were likely gold CAC. Some were surely DCAM, too. A real eureka, hot damn kind of moment. I ponied up the $4000 +/- and spent the profits I was going to make a dozen different ways.
Without submission privileges, I worked with a dealer. Shipping plus insurance to them, shipping and insurance to CAC, with CAC's fees. CAC did green and gold sticker a few--but not the ones I really needed to sticker. One or two were even rejected for PVC haze.
Then shipping and insurance back to the dealer, to whom I sold most, and shipping and insurance back to me for the balance. Then individual sales with those efforts and associated fees until the final pieces were gone. By the time the dust settled, I'd lost about $700.
It's ok to take calculated risks. It's fun and there is a potential for reward.
But there are expenses to any business. Don't get caught up in the fantasy and overlook the mundane reality of expenses and fees, shipping and handling, and opportunity costs. And remember, just because it's in a rattler or 1st gen fatty, it doesn't mean it's automatically a premium coin.
--Severian the Lame
I am a piss poor grader but recently sent in 50 coins, mostly classic commems with a couple of trade dollars. They look amazing to me but then again I'm an idiot. But, depending on outcome, I got anywhere from an ok to a screaming deal and worst case scenario I'm out $2000 in expenses & poor re-sale prices. If I'm right on _one _coin out of the lot it pays for the entire batch and everything else is cream.
That is a calculated risk and yes it is FUN.
Sorry, should have included that info. Like @PerryHall said, it's a pattern. Not nearly as collectable or valuable as the regular issue 1858 proof. It's a different design all together, but I couldn't tell at the time. Now I hope I would know better.
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1858-1c-j-203/11869
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1858-1c-small-letters/2043
Not to hijack the thread but the same poster could start another thread about our winners!!
Here ya go. I bought this Silver Ike graded 68 not so long ago. Doesn’t look much like the seller pic and doesn’t look MS-68 to me either. I will say the reverse looks stellar but I can’t say the same about the obverse.
I’ll live with it.
I honestly would like the pattern more but I know nothing about that coin.
Picture? I want to see that one!
My YouTube Channel
Several years ago I was at a coin show and for some reason I really wanted a coin that had Isaac Newton pictured on it, and preferably one from the UK. I looked throughout the show and couldn’t believe it when I saw a Condor token with Isaac Newton on it. I believe it dated in the 1700s and it was mint state. I had spent most of my money already that day and had like $100 left. The coin was $125. I asked the dealer if he could go $100 since I didn’t want to have to go to the ATM. He would not budge, and not even go $120. I was surprised as most dealers are usually willing to take some money off. I ended up getting the extra $25 needed and bought the coin for $125. I had no knowledge or knew anything about Condor tokens. I just wanted a coin with Newton on it to go with my British £1 note I had that featured him.
After a year or two I decided to sell the coin. I was surprised when I found out it was only worth $65. If it weren’t mint state they were $20. It was a rather common Condor token despite the fact I never seen others with Newton. I ended up selling it to a collector that liked it and wanted to upgrade their collection so he gave me the full $65 otherwise if I sold it to dealer I would had been lucky to get $30-$40. So I still lost half of what I paid but it could had been worse. I am glad a collector got it and that it went to a good home. Lesson learned: Don’t buy coins I know nothing about even if I like what’s pictured on them.
Ahh...the 1916-D I bought when I was a kid. Merc's have always been a favorite of mine and even though I read my dad's Coin magazine I was blissfully unaware of the chicanery that exists in the coin world. So after saving from my paper route earnings was what then a lot of money for a 15 year old kid I rode my bike to the place where I had a previously purchased number of coins, the local flea market. Well the rest of the story is what can be expected. My wallet was lightened by $200.00, if I remember correctly, and my collection was enhanced by a 1916 Merc with a glued on D. I still have it somewhere I think...have not seen it in a long time. Although bad from a collecting standpoint it is a good memory for me about the fun I had when I was a kid!
K
I'll bet it did, too. It should go into the Best coin purchase category.
Tom
Oh wow.. worst ever? It was a lot of junk coins some with plastic cases that looked a little like an NCG but were not.
These were not the exact coins I bought, but it was probably the same scam, different huckster. This was ages ago.
That's a nice looking Classic. Sorry about your loss on it.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
Five coins come to mind. Two were mistakes made by mentors that I didn't raise questions about.
The worst was a raw 1931 D dime I bought when mastodons were still around. The coin looked all there.
Thirty years later, when I went to sell it, I noticed a tick mark on the neck that I did not see when I first bought the coin. Instead of a FB MS 67, would grade MS 63 FB. $50 bucks bought a lot of coin back then.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
Just thought of a few more experiences.
I did take a rather big hit when I bought a gold one ounce Buffalo Proof 69 for $1900 when gold was at an all time high in 2011. I sold it when gold was way down at $1100 so I lost $800. Contrary to this experience was my first gold coin buy in 2004 for $625 (1927 MS63 $20 gold coin). I kept it for a very long time, and in 2016 sold it for $1300, making $675. Still doesn’t make up for the $800 loss though, but cushions it a little.
When I started collecting ancient and world coins I relied on one single dealer since he was the only one I knew that sold world coins and ancients. I remember paying like $400 for a really beat up Elizabeth I shilling which turned out to be worth under $100 when I went to upgrade. I also paid like $200 for a low grade Domitian denarius which was like a $30 coin. An interesting odd Roman coin I purchased was a silver washed debased denarius that was used in the late Roman Empire. I paid like $30 for it when it was only worth $10 and the person I sold it to thought it was a modern counterfeit (I still do not know what it was, I never saw such a coin like it again). The coin looked silver plated to me. The dealer bought it with the thought that it might be fake. I didn’t want to try selling it elsewhere once I heard that it might be fake and I thought it looked weird myself so I let the dealer have it for $10 since I didn’t want it anymore. Not really big losses here but several similar purchases like this until I bought that gold Tiberius coin that I wrote about earlier in this thread where I had a huge loss. That was the last coin I bought from that dealer, and I had since discovered more ancient and world coin dealers at different coin shows.
Ok here is one....bought an 1853-c half eagle raw. Easy 40 or 45 grade. Took it out of the flip and played with it for awhile when I noticed that a chunk fell off. Turned out to be soldered on the rim to hide a test cut.
About 1995 at a major show I bought a copper frame that had held a 1915 Pan-Pac set of gold and silver: $50 round, $50 octagonal, and 50c silver. I paid $2500. I hadn't seen one in several years and it's condition was very attractive. I figured it's value was 4K or 5K.
What I didn't know was that slabbing of the individual coins had eliminated need for the case. Noone wanted one. I lost about $700. Wonder what the value is now.
I bought this thing from a dealer at a Long Beach show about 7 years ago. I was making a new foray into copper and this dealer was highly recommended as an expert on the series. We chatted, I looked at the coin, he went on and on about its virtues, and eventually I purchased it for what seemed like a fair price (for a nice example) and I went my way. When I got home the thing had a HUGE spot on it right in the middle of the portrait. It's abysmal. Epic. Totally disrupts the luster. Unforgiveable, and I hadn't seen it. For a type coin, it was perfectly useless.
A couple of years later I shopped the coin around the bourse at Long Beach again. I visited the same dealer who clearly didn't remember me or the coin. When I showed it to him, he just laughed and said "That thing has a huge ugly spot, there's no way I'd ever buy that." I guess that means he acquired it from the mint in 1835.
I wasn't really mad at him, and I did eventually sell it at GC for a 30 or 40% loss, but that didn't really matter. What bugged me was that I had somehow missed that enormous flaw.
Well, while shopping it around at Long Beach, I discovered that the bourse lighting hid the problem pretty well. That cheered me up a little, but I paid plenty of tuition to learn that particular lesson.
That's a splendid coin at least!
My YouTube Channel
I bought this 1916 D dime (see pic) from a reputable dealer, thinking it had a shot at a bump to VG. I cracked it out and sent it in raw (I know, I gambled and lost BIG time). Came back as counterfeit.
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
I wish NGC had given me an MS-64 for this one. I paid too much for it almost 40 years ago, but if it had gotten the MS-64 it deserved, I could get the nominal amount of money back. As an MS-63, I'm still losing money. Some people say that NGC over grades everything, but this is an example of where they did not. Now the NGC walks away from the grades on copper coins after 10 years,
I guess this is a raw coin again.
Really!
Some painful experiences and lessons here!
I have a handful- for sure.
Could be my OGH 1934-S Peace MS-62 which is net graded for a scratch across the lower neck. The coin has booming luster and would easily be gem if it weren’t for that scratch. I thought the booming luster would overwhelm that scratch in my mind, but my eye is drawn towards that scratch everytime I look at it. I was likely buried in the coin until the recent market strength.
Or, it could be my 3-legger Buff PCGS XF-45 and my not considering the buyers premium when setting my lofty bid.
Then yet another, it might be a raw UNC 14-s Buffalo purchased on EBay- where the seller’s very stealthy photo techniques very tactfully concealed the numerous cleaning abrasions.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
About 20 years ago I approached coins as an investment. Reading a coin magazine, Ellesmere Numismatics was advertising high grade investment/big potential coins, mostly Morgans. Talked up the coins very well, quoted pop reports, etc. Spent $5200 on 3 Morgans - a 1885-O in 65, a 1900 in 66, and a 1921-D in 65. Waited several years and they were not performing well, waited some more, even lower. Sold the 3 for about $1800-2100 roughly 7-8 years ago.
A couple of lessons: Don't approach coins solely as an investment, don't buy from the big boys in the coin rags, and do your OWN research.
$500.00 for this phony!
I had worked in all the date ranges in my Lincoln collection and this one was the last one to fill!
I knew counterfeits existed, but I had NO IDEA to the magnitude, I just thought they were cartoony tokens.
Through a series of events that transpired around the time I acquired it I was led to this forum for help.
The crap deal on this coin almost caused to me to just give up on the collection altogether, but what really happened is I ended up spending the next year gathering information about counterfeit/altered 09SVDB's and I got back the itch to fill that vacancy in my collection.
I looked at so many for so long on ebay and other places that even after I bought a genuine one I'm still looking for fakes
In the end a year after I bought the fake, and after I had cut the coin in halve and sent it back to the person I got it from, I got a check in the mail for $200.00 and a promise for $200.00 more sometime WAY later on. I told him he could forget about it and that I would split the loss with him, he claimed to have bought it at a estate sale??, he contacted me back and said NOPE! he wanted to make it right and that he felt really bad about how the whole deal went down. That's been over a year ago and I never got anymore money from him.
"I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery"
Thomas Jefferson!
Wow!
Its been stated that the King Of Lincoln's (SVDB) is the most counterfeited of ALL US coins and the coin that holds the #2 position is the 16-D Dime!
"I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery"
Thomas Jefferson!
Those were the days! I remember that newsletter very well. Unfortunately, the coin market did not work out as many expected ....... until maybe now....
Not my worst purchase but definitely the one that got away:
I bought the Gem 1797 Half Cent 1 over 1 out of the Superior 6/1981 sale for $12,500. To raise taxes the next year, I sold it into the collapsed coin market at a loss for $8,500. It ended up in the R. Tettenhorst Collection (Missouri Cabinet) and it sold for $299,000 in 2014.
Ron Guth, Chief Investigator
The Numismatic Detective Agency
Brutal.
Not US coins but I figured it related to this topic since these actually ended up being bad coin buys.
I recently went to a coin show after 7 months of not attending any shows. I decided to sell two of my ancient coins. A Julius Caesar denarius and a Greek owl.
I bought the Caesar for $1200 ten years ago. I decided to sell it since I felt like it was time to give it a new home. The coin had a very poorly struck reverse so you couldn’t see much on it but the obverse was pretty nice. It was a lifetime portrait issue. I thought I hit a home run when I purchased it and during the years I owned it I thought it was probably worth $2000 or even $2500. The original price was $2250 but the dealer let me have it for $1200. So when I went to sell it last week I was surprised only one dealer actually was interested in purchasing it (turns out it was the dealer who originally sold it to me). All the other dealers declined it due to poor reverse. He offered me $1000. I accepted that so I ending up losing $200 on the coin.
The Greek owl I was selling so I could upgrade it to a better one. I paid $800 for it last year and sold it for $600. I upgraded it to a $900 coin, so I look at it as paying $1100 for the new coin since I used the $600 I got from the other coin plus $300 of my own money. I thought I wouldn’t have a loss since I thought I got a very good deal on the original Owl for $800 last year (most similar coins were $1200). Turns out the recent “hoard” found produced even more coins and they went down even further so I took a loss. Coins that were $1200 were now selling for $800 so dealers were paying $600 to sell for $800. The coin I purchased for $900 was previously a $1500 coin. I am happy with it so I don’t think I will need to upgrade it any further.
I lost about $250.00 on a 1934-D Buffalo I thought was a 65 lock.
It came back PCGS 64.
I learned a lot on that one.
Pete
Most of what I've bought from the mint falls in the "worst coin purchase you ever made" category if you're comparing what I paid vs. what I could sell them for.
Overpaying for an ms63 pre-33 $20 gold from a pawn shop before I understood the grading system... 'it's close to the top as it only goes to 70'
https://www.the4thcoin.com
https://www.ebay.com/str/thefourthcoin
I’m probably in the minority as I rarely buy expensive (well to me expensive coins). I try to pay around greysheet. And when I can I do. I have paid more than I wanted for 2 coins but I don’t look at it as education or a failure on my part. They were 2 coins I wanted and I liked the appeal. Will i lose money? I don’t know I’ll probably be dead when they are sold. I’m actually more annoyed about a fancy dinner in Hawaii that the food and service was so bad I actually disputed the charge on AMEX.
My current registry sets:
20th Century Type Set
Virtual DANSCO 7070
Slabbed IHC set - Missing the Anacs Slabbed coins
Paid $475 for an raw 1909-S VDB... nuff said.
My story is very similar to @MarkW63 Except I wasn't able to get a penny back, even after I'd blown another $60 on sending it to NGC as proof for the seller, said she would reimburse me for the whole thing+ grading fees and never did, after dozens of messages and promises of settlement I finally gave up and was out $535 after the whole deal
Hard lesson but well-learned: DON"T BUY KEY DATES RAW!!
."It's a dangerous business... going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to" -JRR Tolkien_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Outstanding BST transactions as a seller, buyer and trader with: ----- mustanggt, Kliao, claudewill87, MWallace, paesan, mpbuck82, moursund, basetsb, lordmarcovan, JWP, Coin hunter 4, COINS MAKE CENTS, PerryHall, Aspie_Rocco, Braddick, DBSTrader2, SanctionII, Histman, The_Dinosaur_Man, jesbroken, CentSearcher ------ANA Member #3214817
I've overpaid on a few (with only a couple being bidiot mistakes) but all the cherrypicking I have done more than makes up for it thankfully. It doesn't make me feel any better about the mistakes but it is good to know. I sold my biggest mistake about seven years ago and am happy I did. Staring at a mistake too often doesn't make me happy. A clean break and moving on having learned from the mistake makes me feel better.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
The ones that have frustrated me the most are the times I’ve rebought a coin that I already own when being lazy and trusting my memory instead of taking a moment to look at my records on my date/mint mark sets. It took a few instances of this happening to finally learn my lesson.
I've gotten auction fever a few times. Some headline auctions have a lot of interest and demand so prices go high. Either pay to play or sit out and possibly never get a coin.
My sorta embarrassing poor purchase came before I knew anything about what the labels meant on graded coins, and when I was 1st starting to send in my coins for grading. I bought a coin I already had.
I bought a P70 2016W ASE "Limited Edition" PCGS graded coin from HSN - and paid a premium for it - forget how much by now. I thought it was a special issue that had the 30th Anniv etched on the side. I already owned a few of these, but thought they were plain-Jane reeded edges. After I made the purchase I looked at the coins on edge in their capsules and saw the lettering.
I sent all but 1 of mine in to PCGS, as even the PCGS slab makes it not all that easy to see the edge-lettering. I still have 1 kept in its US Mint capsule / box.
I suppose I coulda returned the HSN coin, but the reality of the "Limited Edition" designation took a little longer to realize the hype behind it, and I paid the idiot tax.
I won't say this is my most expensive mistake. However, it is my LESSON coin.
I moved to a new town when I was 18. One day there was an add that there was going to be a coin dealer along with a coin auction. I was beyond thrilled. In fact, the day of the auction I showed up a little early. About 3 hours.
The only thing going on was there was a man on a ladder methodically removing all the florescent lights except for a few. This man of course turned out to be the coin dealer/auctioneer.
To show how stupid I am, I not only stayed but I bid on and won a 1916-D Barber Quarter purported to be mint state. In light other than a cavernous basement with like 3 working lights the coin is not mint state, is harshly cleaned, and took about 6 hours to start turning black.
I still own this coin and any time I start selling myself on how desperate I am to get a certain coin, I will take it out and admire how much blacker it has gotten since the last time I looked at it.
Paid $900 for a blast white MS66 1936-S Rhode Island commemorative coin in 2006. I had looked for a long time and all the ones I saw had what I would call a "haze." The coin does not tone well. Today's value $275. I still have not found another one as nice.
The one that never arrived. But thank you for reminding me. 😤 🥵 🤬 🤯
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Back in the pre-internet days, I purchased a 1839 seated liberty half dollar and a 1856-S seated liberty half dollar from the same dealer from a coin world add. I did not like the 1856-S from the start, but I kept it anyways because they were so hard to find. Turns out that the 1856-S was tooled and very poorly at that. Too late to return it, So, I kept it to remind me not to be so nieve when purchasing coins. The 1839 also has problems with but not as bad and I still have it also. I hate the 1856-S (I have since gotten another one), one of these days it will be on eBay, properly described and photoed.
Worst eBay buy (A long time ago-way before they had buyer protection), was a huge lot of about 150-200 liberty seated coins. There were not as many as I thought there were and some of the dates that I saw in the photos were not included in the lot. I paid about $8,000.00 for the lot and when I got it determined that the value was under $1,000.00. Due to the price increases of old seated coins in the last few years, I got some of my money back but only about $3000. I am still out about $5,000.00 on this lot. All sold last year on eBay.
Well, I blame the Pandemic and having no coin-shows, so some purchases on online auctions (I was weak..). Paid the auction premium, shipping and had to pay taxes... The total = too much!