what is your worst horror story (biggest loss} in all the years you've collected u. s. coins

barberlover

mine happened last year when bidding on a .s. 64 red half cent at an online heritage auction. the enhanced image of the coin made the coin look full red and the brightness of the lighting used for the image made the luster look unbroken, i won the coin, and including buyers fee, it cost me 2600. now i was fully aware that i was bidding more than sheet levels, but at that time i was not aware of the no return priveledge policy on heriages signature auctions. when i got the coin and complained that the enhancing image made the coin look better than it was, thats when they told me i was stuck with it. i didn't wan't the coin so i sent it back to heritage to sell it for me at an upcoming auction and this time they didn't use the inhanced image and the coin had a reserve of 2000. 3 days before the auction the bid as nowhere near my reserve and i just wanted to get rid of it so i decided to take off the reserve and sell the darn thing, i lost over 1000 on this one coin because of a combination of an inhanced image by heritage and no return priveledge on auction coins. god! what a bad experience that was!!!

09sVDB

Mine wasn't quite that bad. In 1985 I bought a raw 1909 VDB in XF with a lovely appoxied S MM for $300.

Elcontador

If you factor in the time value of money, and opportnity cost, here's mine:

In 1968, I bought what I thought was a gorgeous BU Gem 1931 D Dime. It had FB, a sharp strike & had "the look." I paid $75 for it. Thirty years later, I wanted to upgrade my collection & took it into a dealer.
Under magnification, I saw the coin had a light scratch all along the jawline. It was probably a 3, or maybe a 4 FB if I was lucky. I unloaded it for $55.

For perspective, that year I also bought a 36 S Walker and paid $35 for it. The coin is now in a 6 holder & probably worth $1,100 or so.

cladking

I've never really taken a bath on a coin, but have a disconcerting tendency
to sell far too cheap (to the market) or right before it's value soars.

I once sold a very rare Mexican 8R in high circulated grade for only about $40.
It was worth a few hundred at the time but I couldn't find a buyer and I was
being offered some nice coins in trade. I took it and then the market took off.
It's probably a two thousand dollar coin now. ...and buyers are everywhere!

cointagious

i'd be really p.o. if i didn't at least get a 'thank you' card signed by jim halperin & steve ivy.

coppercoins

Selling a raw 1794 large cent in original chocolate brown with hints of luster all around, perfect strike, EF45-AU50 in 1988 for a measly $1,000. That same coin now would be worth a bucket of money! I was a greedy kid then, bought the coin for around $300, and the profit was better than the coin at the time. I have kicked myself since for selling it.

DoubleDime

In 1983 I placed a bid of $70 on a 1973-S Silver Proof Eisenhower Dollar. I didn't win it so the next time I bid $75 and did. Today the coin is around $30.

nwcs

My biggest homer simpson move in coins was this year. I slowly got back into the hobby in 2000, but really started to learn this past May. And I was so naive. I found an auction for raw uncirculated morgan dollars on ebay. I didn't have many and I believed the seller. I bought 12 at $24.95 each. I didn't know how to grade, either, very well so they looked fine when I got them. Sent them all to PCGS dreaming of MS-63 and 64 and PLs and such. Well, every one was either AU-55 or AU-58 and two were bagged for harsh cleaning. It was a very painful and expensive lesson. Turned me off from collecting for a while, and dashed my dreams of being able to work in this hobby. But I got over it and got smarter. And will never buy from that seller again.

1956Quarter

Bought a slabbed 1950S Franklin half graded MS65. The slab was well scratched. When I cracked it out, the slab looked better than the coin. Lost $200. I've since sworn off slabs because of that, and the fact that I've rarely seen a slabbed coin that I agree on the grade given, and therefore the price asked.

Singapore

The year is 1974 and I'm debating between 2 1837 No Stars Half Dimes - a toned BU from a local dealer at a coin for $250, or a (and I quote) Gem Brilliant Uncirculated coin from our good friends at (then) Bowers and Ruddy galleries for $749 (an obscene price at the time).

I bought the local coin, which when we fast forward to 2001 was slabbed as an AU58, making it worth about $250 dollars, while the Bowers coin, which was purchased by a friend all those years ago, now resides in a PCGS 67 holder.

Darn.

Unfortunately, I had several similar experiences like that - though there were a couple that turned out OK.

dbldie55

barberlover, got to hate no return privilege. I think Heritage uses the fact the Signature sales are sight seen when they do not allow these. They do allow them on the internet sales, although with a return fee. What I hate is the slimes on Ebay who have no return policy. These are the true scums of the world, knowing they are selling trash and then trying to make sure they do not see it again, thinking a scan (which everyone knows can be enhanced) means it is sight seen.

barberlover

one thing i've learned the hard way since getting back into the hobby a few years ago is that buying a coin evaluated solley on the sellers image is not really "sight seen" because the quality [meaning clarity & lighting & angle of the coin when the image was taken} can affect the appearance of the coin making it look better or worse than it really is. when the incident with the half cent with heritage first happened i was upset with them to the point of thinking of raising a legal fuss with them, but someone at heritage asked me if i thought they had done it deliberatly, and i relly didn't know that so i reauctioned the cointhrough heritage and took my lumps. i later got proof that it probabley wasn't intentional deception when a coin that heritage put in a bullet sale which was not inhanced for the image of an 1861 seated quarter in p.c.g.s. 65 made the coin look dull & the luster on the reverse washed out but i trusted my instincts that that image was due in part to poor lighting and put in a low end bid on the coin, i won it, and was happy to find clean surfaces, origonal color, and full unbroken luster on both sides of the coin.
the fact however that this has gone both ways for me does not in my opinion dismiss a sellers responsibiliy to take an accurate [not] enhanced image of a coin. this should be the new auction policy of major firms like heritage example; while there is no automatic return privledge on auction coins, you may appeal to an independent panel if you feel the image used was not an accurate representaion of what the coin lookes like, if the panel rules in your favor we will give you the choice of reauctioning the coin with 0 percent buyer or seller fee or will buy it from you if its slabbed by p.c.g.s. or n.g. c. at blue sheet bid.
i would love someone from heritage or any major dealer to comment on this idea.

Catch22

I don't have any particular coin that I have taken a beating on. However, I do pay a bit too high of a premium every once and awhile. Far and away, my failure to properly inspect a coin has disappointed me more than any other thing I do when buying a raw coin. You know, missing a tiny scratch on a deeply toned half dime, or not noticing an old light cleaning. I really should use a 10X loop more often.

jdimmick

My worst deal was a couple of years ago when the populations of some of the modern washington quarters were real low. Someone I knew, wanted me to find him a super high grade 1983-p washington quarter. He had this insane idea, that it was going to be worth about 1000.00 in the near future.

I happen to see a PCGS-66 on e-bay for sale, and I mentioned it to him. He asked me to bid for him (because he was not registered) and that he was willing to pay what ever it took to obtain it. (At the time, there were less than 5 coins graded at PCGS and none at NGC). I was bidding it up with a few other folks, it broke the 400.00 mark which I personnaly thought was insane, and he told me to go ahead.
At about 15 second prior to the auction end, I said well Ill just punch in 1000.00, no one can be willing to pay that.

I was right, but not far off, someone about the same time punched in 675.00 or so, and I ended up getting it for 680.00 or so?

Well now the worst part, When I went to collect the rest of the money, the guy that I thought I knew was not able to come up with the money. I gave him a few extra weeks, but never herd anymore from him. So here I was stuck with a high grade super inflated price 1983 modern quarter. So, I contacted the second and third runner up bidders and informed them what happened and that I was willing to honor thier lower bids if still intrested. Well, both of course were no longer intrested. So I relisted and it brought 75.00, boy was I out of some cash. I did have 200.00 of the money that Phillip advanced me plus the 75.00 from the new e-bay sale, but still lossed about 400.00 and wasted a lot of time.

Because of this I, there are three lessons that I learned.

1) never buy anything for anybody with out full payment up front
2) stay away from super high grade modern (which I really wasnt into buying anyway)
3) be more cautious of people who i do not know that well?


jim

dorkkarl

i won't repeat the whole story again, but my biggest disaster was w/ pcgs-graded buff-nickels. i'll summarize by simply saying: no matter what they (pcgs) say, vf MUST HAVE a full-horn.

K S

dakra

The Year is 1999-2000-2001-2002.... I purchased a huge load of Commemeratives, Proof Sets, Silver Proof Sets. Some will most likely never be worth more than I paid...but ya never know.

Purchasing Business Strikes from the mint when I could have purchased a few outside the mint for cheaper.

Buying those Hallmark State Quarter Ornaments.

Sorry I have to say this but trusting PCGS with my 2002 $10 Gold Eagle.

Going into a hobby head first... not researching it more prior to getting into it.

There was happiness though. I bought the first day coin covers just to bring my order total up for free shipping and then to just have a set.... but then I made a killing on selling the ones that went out of stock.

Pocket Change makes me happy too... Sometimes you find hidden treasures along the way.

Wheat Pennies... So easy to collect and they cost just about a penny each... in pocket change or rolls from the bank.

It was a good year on the most part, 2003 I hope I will be smarter and wiser.

My New Years Resolution is to start collecting Pennies and Nickles by date and hope I can accomplish a whole set.

-Dave

paigowjohnny

I lost well over $1500 by being "uneducated" and trusting. Bought numerous Morgans and Walkers from a couple of the "big advertisers" in Coin World, including a few tough date Carsons. It was just too easy and the prices were good...and besides...these guys must be good...they advertise in all the big pubs and have been in business for years.

As I started to go to shows and see more coins, and also listened to folks complain about mail order, I started to get suspicious. Plus...why did my Morgans all seem to have a weak strike ??? Decided to try and send a few in for grading. Took them to several local dealers for submission....all of them told me not to bother...they were overcleaned/dipped and would be bagged...plus they were AU anyway.

Sold almost all of them back to the same company...ate the loss but I just couldn't look at them any more without getting mad at them and myself.

I also have a complete short set of Walkers that I built the same way...and I'm now sure 90% or more of them are in the same category.

I really like buying raw coins...but I should have read and talked to folks a lot more before I started going hog wild.

homerunhall

In early 1980, at the height of the Bull market, I bought a complete set of BU Barber dimes from American Coin Company (Alan Van Vliet and Leroy Lenhart) for about $180,000. There was a 1905-S dime that I costed in at $2000. The coin never sold, even though I kept lowering the price. By early 1982, my wholesale asking price was down to $100. I took the coin to a coin show and Jim Halperin offered me $50 for the coin. I took the offer...the loss being 97.5%, my biggest ever on a percentage basis. As a side note, Halperin sold the coin that day to Casey Noxon for $90.

David Hall

Spudmasher

David - I still can remember though the 1904-O Eagle that you had that I saw in your case at the Baltimore Show I believe in the late 80's or early 90's. in an PCGS 67 holder. Whatever happened to that?

cdmead

The worst one I ever saw (thank goodness it wasn't mine) was a well known dealer crack out a High Relief St. Gaudens in MS66 NGC hoping to get an MS67. It came back in a body bag for cleaning.

Ouch.

IndianHeadMan

Was at an auction and bidding on 2-cent pieces that were in rough shape. I was going to pay $8 a piece for them. I thought I was bidding on a lot of 2. Got one for $15. Didn't realize it untill later when they auctioned the other one.