Do you ever buy a coin for way more than it's worth?

Betta285

Wether it be on E-Bay or a shop or an auction, have you ever paid way more for a coin than you could sell it for because of whatever reasons? Personally, with a profit not in mind, i do this almost on a regular basis. Most of the time i definatly bargain hunt, but there's always that one coin that just sets off fireworks and you know you must have it reguardless of price or return. Obviously if you're and investor, this would be too outrageous to even think of doing, but any other collectors/hybrids experience this?

razorface1027

Yup!...In fact, too many times I've done it. Izah beeza lernin' thogh...

Rampage

I have done that several times, such as toners, that I really like. Those I don't really care about profit. I recently bought several different series of coins that were all nicely toned. For those, profit is not a thing right now. I plan on holding them for the next 80 or 90 years if I have it my way.

Outhaul

You bet! And you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in collecting who hasn't. Sometimes you just gotta pony up the dough for the one you don't wanna let get away. I've done it many times.

You have to keep in mind. The gray/blue/green/purple sheets and other price guides are exactly that...guides. The value of a coin is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller at a specific moment in time...period.

Of course, there are some beautiful coins out there that defy price guides altogether.

Cheers,

Bob

tonyhar

I would think we all have at some time.
Most times it is because we want the item for a particular reason.

BAJJERFAN

Well if you don't someone else will. He who hesitates is lost. I have hemmed and hawed a couple of times when I shouldn't have. I have payed firm prices a few times but I can't say that I have ever payed what "the banned one" called stupid money!

elwood

Some of the coins I've over paid for the most are the one's I've done the best on financially.
If you have a good eye and you like something that much then the odds are someone else will
like just as much as you, if not more.

GOLDSAINT

Who says you paid to much? All of us have been complaining about the price guides. This past week I paid $4,600 for an 1815 Au bust half. Heritage says its $3,000 to $3,700. PCGS says it might be $5,500. If I went to sell it today I would most likely get the $3,000 and the dealer would sell it for $5,500, but it is one I need for my set and I can't pay for a BU. Look at it this way, keep your over priced coins untill you are real old, and your memory fades, so you can't remember what you paid and you will be happy with what you sell for Ha Ha.

kranky

I haven't (at least not that I know of!).

If my budget was bigger I'd stretch for those gotta-have-it coins, but if I did that now I'd end up with a lot fewer coins.

nwcs

Yes, especially when it is <$10 and I like it.

puff

In my opinion any collector that has ever bought and sold coins, and says they have never lost money on a coin ever, is not telling the truth, are they haven't bought and sold more than a handful and were cherry pickers, and weren't just buying for the purpose of collecting only!

MFH

Yes, there are a few coins I overpaid for at auction, but I had to have that one "right" coin and didn't care if I had go over trends to do it. As mentioned before, trends is only a price guide. The coin is worth what someone is willing to pay for it , on any coin and on any given day.

My 1919-D Standing Liberty Quarter in NGC 66 ( with a 99% FH ) is a prime example.
Full Head examples are in the 30-35K range in a 66. I paid 1/5 of that for mine but
50% more than trends for a "non" full head. Tried selling it recently via Heritage at
their FUN auction, and it didn't sell , even at a low reserve price. Aonther day, it'll go
for more than I paid for it.

JMOORE

but there's always that one coin that just sets off fireworks and you know you must have it reguardless of price or return

One thing to remember too is that if the coin truly "sets off fireworks" chances are if and when you do decide to sell you should get a nice premium for it.

Jim

KAJ1

YES !!!

At least it was a very nice coin.
Sometimes you have to pay a premium.....

MadMonk

yep! and they were slabbed, very solid for the grade, with outstanding eye appeal. At some point they will go in for regrade.

nucklehead

I over paid a few months back on a Buffalo nickel 1938-D/D MS 64 but that's cool,I really like the coin and plan on hanging onto it for a long time.Moral of the story for me is,don't buy in a hurry and ALWAYS check my price guide which I always have with me.

ANACONDA

The best coins to buy are ones that are way over sheet.

These coins have special and unusual characteristics like unusually strong strikes, fantastic color or remarkably clean surfaces. While everything has it's price, and one can overpay for anything, buying coins at 20 times sheet is not all that unusual especially for fabulously toned Morgans and modern material.

adrian

XpipedreamR

Who, me? Never!

cointagious

<< <i>Do you ever buy a coin for way more than it's worth? >>



Every once in a while we make a mistake and pay 'too much'. We only learn that when trying to sell.
If you buy/sell alot of coins, it will happen.
On the flip side, do we pay over 'sheet money'? Of course, Ananconda is ight on target with his assessment.

291fifth

I once bought a major shield nickel variety because I was certain it was ready to explode in value. I ended up selling it for 10 percent of what I paid for it.

segoja

You bet I've bought coins for less than what they are worth...mostly raw ones. Some of the bigger profit items come with some of the lofty grades, but you certainly can't pay the lofty grade price because you never never know what PCGS will do with them.

Example Paid $12 each for 3 1970 proof sets (the dealers asking price). Sent in the halves. One grades PF69DCAM worth about $400. The other two, grading PF68DCAM are worth about $35 each. Paid $12 + $10 grading fee I make $13 per coin on the 68 and make good money on the 69, but would you pay the guy $300-350 for the coin raw? I venture to say not one person on this board would do that.

These nice pops help offset all the coins taht you loose money on (we've all done that) and cover grading fees on thoses coins that just don;t make the grade.

The real measure of profitablity is total proftiablity over the year (factor in all the good and bad and th grading fees + postage) When that happens, the profit numbers don;t look like your ripping folks off.

jdimmick

I agree with Elwood, the coins in which I have paid super strong money for just to aquire them , have actually done the best financially. More importantly is, had I not stepped up to buy them at that level, and hesitated about it, I wouldnt own several of them today.

jim

Dog97

Since I own a lot of my coin because I was the high bidder in an auction I clearly think they're worth more than everybody else does.

Newmismatist

<< <i>Do you ever buy a coin for way more than it's worth? >>



Betta, you Betcha I refer to those as WOW coins, as in WOW, its the NICEST coin I ever saw, (I keep finding those things I can no longer keep track of which one is REALLY the nicest one I ever saw & besides a lot of the nicest ones are owned by someone else.)

Did I just pay stupid money for a drop dead gorgeous toned Morgan? You betcha! Did I over-pay? Yeah, but who cares?

The ones I paid too much for? They're all the bargains! They look the best and when I go to sell them, they sell the quickest, often for the most.

Shamika

When the coin is really nice, I've never regreted paying "too much".

Stuart

No. I will sometimes pay a 10%-40% premium over Greysheet ask, but I try to buy most of my coins somewhere between the Bid & Ask spreads. Every now & then I'll see a coin worth a small rpemium over ask, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I find that alot of dealers tell me that I'll have to pay way over Greysheet ask for a specific coin, but through experience I've found that if I wait, and pass on that coin, another will turn up in the right condition at the right price...

The way I look at it, I vote with my wallet. If I pay over ask for a coin, then I'm contributing towards coins prices escalating. I'd prefer that they do not escalate so that I can keep buying at these (not higher) levels. If we all stop paying crazy money for nice coins, eventually prices will equilibrate when dealers can't sell them to collectors for crazy prices...

clw54

<< <i>Do you ever buy a coin for way more than it's worth? >>


Yes, regrettably.

coinkat

Yes I have paid more at the time and I have held the vast majority of them to the point where I can honestly say it was a smart move... even though at the time it didn't appear to be. Confused yet? Well, perhaps Yogi Berra should have collected coinsHe could explain it better than I can...

BigD5

A few years back I purchased an 1849/6 half dime, pcgs ms/63 and paid "stupid" money, as one dealer friend put it. I believe at the time, it was over double bid, definitely in that ballpark. The coin just had a great "look" to it. Blues and orange color at the rims. Came straight from an album, and the collection (there were some other very attractive coins in the set also) was purchased by the dealer, and sent off to pcgs. I caught the man on the right day, believe me.

Well my "stupid" money is now 20% below current Greysheet bid, and the man writing, or working on a new half dime book saw the coin recently, and exclaimed "it's the most attractive example of that date I've seen".

Coins with eye appeal always hold their value and what they are "worth" is a loose term, at best.

Coins also don't have to be super high grade monsters to have "eye appeal". Plenty of eye appealing lower grade "gems" out there. You just have to look a little harder.

relayer

Pretty much all mine are like that

tradedollarnut

Note: the following is written with a 18/19th century classic slant. If you collect coins of a more available gender, kindly ignore.

IMO, blindly trusting the Greysheet and refusing to ever pay more than a few % over 'ask' simply ensures that your collection will be filled with mistakes. You will either end up with mistakes of grade or mistakes of Greysheet pricing....aside from the occasional score when the seller knows even less and makes a bigger mistake.

Know your grading, know your series and know your pricing. Be aware of what has appeared at auction over the past decade or two. Be aware of what the scarce pieces actually bring in the market place when they are offered. Greysheet is horrible for coins that rarely appear - know more than Greysheet. Know more than the seller. Know when price is of secondary concern... know when to jump!

Do this and your collection will be filled with coins that are irreplaceable.... not with mistakes.

ARCO

Yes, all the time.

I went almost two years without seeing a single 1896-O in any grade above VG10 in orginal condition. Finally one came on Ebay and I paid $260.00 for it. We are talking about a F12 1896-O that goes for about $110.00 in retail.

Two weeks later I found two more, one at my local coin shop, the other an NGC VF20 at Heritage coins. One was a F18 and the other a VF20. I paid less for both or the latter coins than I did the F12 for $260.00.

I lost about $80.00 when I sold it again on Ebay. Ticks me off to no end when I want to BUY a coin there are goobers bidding it up high making me pay so much, but when I sell the same coin on Ebay but six months later suddenly those same bidders have disappeared...disappeared only until the next nice coin comes up that I want, then they are back at it again. LOL

Tyler

paigowjohnny

Paid too much for a low EF 1890 Liberty nickel today....those nickels are darn hard to find in nice problem free circ condition.

jeffnpcb

All of the ones in a nice plastic shells have been overpaid. Market graded coins suck!

Bear

What Anaconda said. I have spent more, I am spending more, I will spend

more then Gray Sheet Ask in the future. There are some coins that are beautiful

to the point of being unique. These then are the coins that will sooner or later

have run away prices at auction. You want Gray Sheet bid, you will get coins that

are just barely acceptable, maybe. While you wont be buried in the coin, it wont be a champion either.

Conder101

OF course! I'm a collector. Why would I consider what I can sell the coin for? I'm not interested in selling, I'm adding it to my collction.

JoyofCollecting

I guess I'm conservative...I really don't want to ever overpay for a coins so I only buy from Coinvault. This gives me the confidence I need to "pull the trigger" and know that if I ever had to liquidate I wouldn't lose that much money.

I don't understand why everybody doesn't go this more conservative route...

JoyofCollecting

fcloud

Yup! Some coins are hard to find. I probably over pay about as much as I get a deal, so in the long run it averages out.

hughesm1

I have several times, though a couple didn't quite measure up in the end.

Trime

Of course, we all have. My greatest hit was a number of lots of uncertified proof gem coins from a very significant Bowers auction a number of years ago. I was developing a trime collection and these coins were on my want list. I did not view the coins ( they were 3000 miles away) nor assign the task to another experienced trustworthy collector/dealer; the descriptions were glowing, the pictures seemed OK, the cataloguers grades tempting. I sent the stack to PCFS and most came back a grade and several 2 grades below catalogue grade. I was furious at myself for being so stupid and disappointed at Bowers and Merena for nailing me. I had a very idealistic view of these things ( lol). These were expensive coins by most standards. An expensive and valuable lesson.
Don't ever buy uncertified coins ( or certified for that matter) sight unseen even if God is selling it. Religion in coins is a tricky business. If you are by nature a believer, select your God's carefully.