Washington Rare Coins--What's the Deal?

dpoole

Washington Rare Coins seems to find all of these top grade coins, especially Lincolns, and then puts them up on Ebay for stratospheric prices. Seems like they only sell one once in a while using that tack, but I guess it's enough to make it worth their while. They don't even have an inventory on their website anymore. Very frustrating to see coins in these kinds of grades at those kinds of prices! And you'd think at those prices, they'd provide some decent photography?

Where do these guys get this stuff? What's the story here?

wayneherndon

James has been doing Lincolns for a long, long time. He's developed sources for both buying and selling. I'm sure most stuff trades hands without being listed on the website or eBay. Without doing a comparison, I don't think his prices are that different from say Angel Dee's. Each has really developed this specialty and know the collectors who will pay premium prices for the coins. That enables them to buy at premium prices which assures they'll get the good coins.

WH

wayneherndon

PS: BTW, I still see inventory on their site--perhaps you have the wrong link.

WH

BigE

Wayne, the photography on that site is just as bad as the other one-----------BigE

NoGvmnt

Dpoole, what I find really suspicious is the fact that almost all of their auctions have had on;y one bidder, AND, when there was 2 bidders the first one was "billbee23, AND none of their auctions has gone on to be completed (non-pays).
Get the picture?
Jim

toothpuller

Recently I won an auction from James on ebay for a PCGS 1908s MS65RD IHC. The coin was not even listed with the IHCs, but was buried in with his Lincolns. The reverse was not imaged at all. The coin was decent and his email correspondence was good. If I recall his feedback was all positive, but with a number that would indicate that he wasn't a very big or long term ebay seller.

His ebay listings are the type that will attact either one or no bidders, auctions in which he would be happy to sell at the opening bid.

I would include WRCC on my recommended list of copper dealers.

dpoole

perhaps you have the wrong link

Wow, I guess so. The link I put up was through the Coin World site, and was the one I'd been using for awhile. As you can see, that site now shows an empty inventory. Apparently, they changed their site. I'd presumed they had gone to all-auction format. Thanks!

Prices still seem awfully high to me, though.

And why can't the guy afford a decent camera after all these years??

wayneherndon

billbee23 is a real bidder. He's the hottest, faster buyer in Lincolns right now and has the Registry Set to prove it.

WH