Someone's selling the #3 Washington 32-64 set on EBay . . .

DMWJR · October 9, 2003 1:13PM

Click Here

Any comments? I have a few, but keeping them to myself after reading this auction.

wondercoin · October 9, 2003 1:34PM

Doug: Let's face it - the $5 ebay ad is great advertising for a neat Las Vegas coin store. And, it was also kind of cool that they kept all the nice high grade quarters they acquired over the past 5 years. I would personally love to see the set sell at the reserve.

If someone took the time they could do a "tape" on the total prices realized on nearly all these coins in this set when they sold in the former #2 (Stella Colbert) collection at Bowers in Baltimore. But, of course, quality of coins in both sets would be the "wild card".

Wondercoin

DMWJR · October 9, 2003 1:40PM

Mitch, it makes me wonder if there is anyone out there with the financial firepower and the ignorance to click the BIN button. A deadly combination.

As you say, advertizing at its finest.

I don't know the guys at Sahara Coin, but I understand them to be respectable, and I have also been in their shop in Vegas. However, this auction is a poor reflection on them, IMO.

wondercoin · October 9, 2003 2:15PM

Doug: The silver Wash quarter series has really not "exploded" like, say, Lincolns or Buffalos have. Hey, a key date 36(d) quarter in MS67 (pop 5 or 6) is still only roughly a $15,000 coin, while a pop 9 1926(s) Buffalo nickel is upwards of a $100,000 coin and a roughly similar pop top 1919(d) Merc has seen $200,000 levels at one point! Auctions like that at least make a few people think about the series a little bit more. A PR67 1936 quarter (pop 6) is a fraction of the price of the higher pop PR67 Walker, etc., etc., etc.

Wondercoin

redcents · October 9, 2003 8:06PM

Why block out the cert #'s if all the coins are already registered?

JY93 · October 10, 2003 12:56AM

An outstanding set, too bad I'll never be able to afford it. Would the seller be able to make more money by selling the set as individual coins? If that was the case I'd be able to bid on one or two of them.

Russ · October 10, 2003 1:37AM

It's a steal! In 20 years it will be worth $2.8 million!

Russ, NCNE

TWQG · October 10, 2003 1:58AM

This seller SUCKS! They didn't follow their stated feedback policy with me and got snippy when I called them on it. This firm won't get another dime out of me.

Avoid this HYPSTER!

Mikey · October 10, 2003 3:12AM

<< <i>Mitch, it makes me wonder if there is anyone out there with the financial firepower and the ignorance to click the BIN button. A deadly combination.

As you say, advertizing at its finest.

I don't know the guys at Sahara Coin, but I understand them to be respectable, and I have also been in their shop in Vegas. However, this auction is a poor reflection on them, IMO. >>

Excuse my ignorance, but why do you think this is a poor reflection on them?

I do think they'd do better selling them off one at a time.

Thanks

DMWJR · October 10, 2003 4:12AM

Mikey, we are obviously not going to share the same opinion on the value of the set and the sales pitch in the description.

-- Nice bid Mitch!

sonofagunk · October 10, 2003 5:41AM

So how many people has this ebay lot in the sniper programs?

rainbowroosie · October 10, 2003 6:17AM

Well, I like the 58D, but the rest are too plain for me!

wayneherndon · October 10, 2003 10:08AM

the $5 ebay ad

There's also the reserve auction fee of one percent of the reserve price, capped at $100. It will be refunded if the reserve is reached. If not, the "advertising" cost them about $105.

WH

wondercoin · October 11, 2003 12:18AM

Wayne: Good point. That was a $105 ebay ad.

Wondercoin

roadrunner · October 11, 2003 12:59AM

DMWJR has it right. This auction is a joke. They might as well be selling this on Home Shopping for all the PR good it will do them.
Yes, I'll hit the BIN now so that in 10 years I'll be laughing at all you poor folk who missed out on the sale of the century as I collect my $2.8 MILL when I sell the set. What a self-serving diatribe that will do more harm to the hobby than good.

roadrunner

wondercoin · October 11, 2003 3:06AM

RR: I am not going to touch that "$2.8M" comment, other to say if that does happen I might happily be sitting on $10M-$20M worth of Wash quarters at that time

But, I am generally not that lucky.

What I can say is this. Yes, I believe there is a "set premium" which arguably might be attached to this collection, but at the reserve price (assuming the reserve is around $115k-$120k), the premium might be roughly 33% or so. While somewhat on the high end of the range of "set premium" IMHO, that figure has been used in the past I believe to market other top collections. Under certain circumstances, a 33% set premium may be justified.

But, with respect to silver Wash quarters, right now I believe there is ample supply of coins - even MS68 coins are routinely coming to auction now. As a general matter, at this time, there is probably no need to pay a set premium at all for many of the collections out there (not commenting directly on this particular collection). For example, when the former #1 variety and #2 overall Wash quarter (Stella Colbert) collection was just sold in Baltimore, it was sold piece by piece and no "set premium" whatsoever came into the equation. Likewise, any bid I would place on the ebay collection would be calculated as a "break up" bid. But, no question, to someone else, there might be real "added value" in being able to buy (83) coins at one time to start a quarter set. What often makes these sets difficult to value is addressing the "set premium" that should or should not be figured into a collection

Wondercoin

Robgetty · October 11, 2003 1:33PM

Yes, there is probably a little excessive hype on this auction.

However, they have a good set; they are trying to sell it as a
complete set, and their price is not completely out to lunch. Plus,
they have a really nice shop in Vegas. Give them some slack and
benefit of the doubt.

ScarsdaleCoin · October 13, 2003 1:10AM

without spending more than a few sec looking at the auction, my thought would be this....how could the #3 set have only a 32-d in ms64?
that to me says the most about the entire set.....

wondercoin · October 13, 2003 2:20AM

"without spending more than a few sec looking at the auction, my thought would be this....how could the #3 set have only a 32-d in ms64 that to me says the most about the entire set....".

From what I see, #1 has not been adding to that collection in quite a while, so either #2, #20 or #28 could possibly move into the top slot before the next Registry deadline.

Wondercoin

onlyroosies · October 13, 2003 3:06AM

"I believe the top 4 MS collections are currently showing as #1, 2, 20, 28"

I concur, I rated the ebay set as number 5. But still, Owning a top 5 Wash set is a great accomplishment. Even
if your just buying the whole set.

Onlyroosies

DLG · October 17, 2003 7:09PM

After careful analysis, I have determined that, at this time, the top 4 sets to be #1, 2, 3 and 4. In that order!

mintluster · October 19, 2003 11:01AM

I think the thrill of building it yourself should mean something.

dpoole · October 19, 2003 11:14AM

Didn't meet reserve. I'm glad they put it up there, though. It was interesting to see if a quality complete set would do well on the open market. Should would have saved them a lot of trouble if they'd gotten their price!

wondercoin · October 19, 2003 12:08PM

Entertaining auction.

Will be interesting to see if the owner considers an offer around that top bid level, consigns it elsewhere or decides to keep it a bit longer.

I believe the series still has great potential. When the lowest mintage coin in the entire silver Wash quarter series (besides 32d,s) in the exceptional grade of MS66 can still be bought for around $500, the series still has me, personally, very interested in adding coins to my collection/porfolio of Wash quarters.

Wondercoin

DMWJR · October 20, 2003 4:19AM

I think the other factor is the set of Washingtons that has just been posted on Heritage for their upcoming auction. You could build a top 5 set right now from that auction, and who knows what it would cost you.

wondercoin · October 20, 2003 4:40AM

Doug: Yes - I have now heard of at least (3) major sets of MS silver Wash quarters that are for sale/heading for sale. This is often a good time for some folks to decide if they are in for the "long haul" or not.

I personally love opportunities like this and can only hope for a opportunity to pick up a couple coins at good buy prices.

Wondercoin

wondercoin · October 20, 2003 7:39AM

Craig: I was including the nice set Sahara coins had up for sale.

Wondercoin

wondercoin · October 20, 2003 8:19AM

Craig: No, I don't. We have established that I am not selling mine and you are not selling yours though

Wondercoin

onlyroosies · October 20, 2003 8:31AM

I not selling me set either.... Oh wait, Your talking about wash quarters. I guess my set doesn't count.

Someone's selling the #3 Washington 32-64 set on EBay . . .

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