Would it be a mistake to reholder a Pop-3 Mercanti First Strike Gold Buffalo?
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I recently acquired the last PR70DCAM First Strike Gold Buffalo (2008-W $25) to complete my Proof and Unc Gold Buffalo sets in all 70's. All of them except this last one are First Strike with Buffalo labels. I'm a little OCD and care that they all have the same label.
The last one I bought at auction is a First Strike label with Mercanti signature, coin number 684911. When I look it up, I now see there are only 3 Mercanti First Strikes for this coin. I don't believe I paid any premium for the Mercanti signature (although hard to tell with an auction on a coin that doesn't sell that often any more), but the amount is in-line with historical sales from what I can tell.
The question is: Would it be a mistake to have this coin re-holdered in a standard Buffalo First Strike holder to match the rest of my set and lose the Mercanti? I personally could care less about Mercanti signature, but with only 3 in existence I wonder if I could be making a mistake financially? The reasoning is that even though I bought it at auction and do not feel I paid a premium, perhaps in the future these will gain in value as perhaps someone who cares about labels will pay a premium for it that I would be throwing away.
Thoughts?
Comments
Wouldn't be a mistake imo. Have PCGS send the Mercanti label back to you if possible. Then a future buyer could have an autograph to go with their First Strike Gold Buffalo!
You could pick up this one with a FS Buffalo label if you've got $5k burning a hole in your pocket. collectorscorner.com
Reholdering it would be a waste of money. Keep it as is.
Sorry, can't have an oddball slab. I factored a re-holder fee into the purchase.
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Ask the two holders of the other Mercanti labels to pay you to reholder since the value of their slabs will go up
HMMM. Never thought of that scenario, Zoins.
LOL
Pete
I believe you had the answer before you asked the question. It doesn’t seem you were asking for input about what to do but it’s interesting that you did receive a nice way to save the signed label. Funny how things work out. Are you going to send it in or give it in at a large show? Good luck 👍🏼
🎶 shout shout, let it all out 🎶
do you FEEL you can get any label you want when you reholder? hace you asked customer service?
id the cert numver stayed the same, it would still probably say Mercanti but show the new one .
I thought the Black Diamond Buffalo labels were an APMEX exclusive label? I guess you are after the PCGS Buffalo. My set is a mix of labels.
Congratulations, it looks like with yours, there are 6 complete sets of these in 70 grades in the Registry now. A few other set collectors did not get the 2022 yet, probably due to the high premium.
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@ProofCollection... My choice would be keep it as is.... I know....some collectors are OCD about labels/slabs/boxes etc., etc., etc.. Your collection, your money.... Above all, have fun and do it your way. Cheers, RickO
Well no, I didn't really get the answer. I guess I what I was asking is, are there any instances where a coin with a Mercanti label is worth significantly more than a non-Mercanti? I am not aware of any. But, this coin is an example where the First Strike is worth considerably more than the non-First Strike. I've just never noticed that a Mercanti signature was that important.
If someone had indicated that the Mercanti signature was precious, I'd probably hold onto this one and seek out a replacement rather than just re-holder.
All I know is that you can request and get the Buffalo label if you ask. Black Diamond label is a different label I'm not interested in. I guess I could ask CS about that scenario, I'm expecting they wouldn't do it though.
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Cannot help regarding any incremental value for a Mercanti label on this specific coin.
However, you have piqued my interest. What is a "buffalo label"?
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When there are pops of labels that low, there are not enough auctions to know the premiums some will pay. I can give you many other examples where Mercanti labels do sell for a significant premium over regular Flag First Strike labels.
There are registry collectors of the 5-ounce America the Beautiful coins who have entire sets ONLY in Mercanti labels and they drove prices for them up to double regular label values. There might be some Buffalo collectors that way, I did not check all the sets.
Also, keep in mind PCGS does not show price guide values for some labels that do have significant premiums. I have several David Hall labels for example, that do have significant premiums in the after-market, but show zero values in the price guides because they do not want to show a bias or conflict of interest.
I personally would not reholder a Mercanti label with a pop of 3. Also, the coin you have in the Mercanti label is in the Top 100 Modern coins registry set which many are starting to collect. Demand for these rare fractional buffaloes is increasing especially in First Strike. Maybe PCGS will do Top 100 labels as well.
Either way, if you got a good deal on this, I recommend keeping it as an investment and looking for another one already in the label you want.
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Thanks for posting an image of your "buffalo label". I appreciate it.
This one is not included on the 'PCGS Special Labels' webpage. So, I was not aware that it was an option available to 'Collectors Club' members on Buffalo submissions. Thanks for the info.
Don't get me started on the information that PCGS holds back from us. You have to be "in the know" on so many things...
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