Bowers Auction, Jim Gray Collection

koinkrazy · July 9, 2004 12:51PM

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Check out some of the prices these coins went for!!!!!!!!!!
I did buy a comple online with the live bidding, did anyone else??? If so how was your experience with it, I had to bid fast or else they closed the bidding and my slow dial up never got there in time. Better date coins went for unsightly prices, way above even trend. I would like to hear some peoples thoughts on these prices. Thanks

Catch22 · July 9, 2004 1:08PM

I went through the lots just now and believe this must be very disappointing results for some really difficult coins. The super rare coins did well, but the remainder of the collection should have brought stronger prices. Some real bargains were had from this collection.

mrearlygold · July 9, 2004 1:28PM

<< <i>I went through the lots just now and believe this must be very disappointing results for some really difficult coins.

This is one sale I wasn't watching. Would you mind saying which seemed disappointing ?

Thanks!

Tom

Catch22 · July 9, 2004 1:37PM

Just start with the half dimes and head down the list. The prices realized were nowhere near what I would have expected. From the very first lot (2001) the price realized was less than half of current Trends prices. The Dimes seemed a little better, but the halfs were weak as well.

mercurynut · July 9, 2004 1:42PM

As strong as prices are they are only going to get stronger the next couple of years.

mrearlygold · July 9, 2004 1:49PM

<< <i>Just start with the half dimes and head down the list. The prices realized were nowhere near what I would have expected. From the very first lot (2001) the price realized was less than half of current Trends prices. The Dimes seemed a little better, but the halfs were weak as well. >>

Thanks! That stuff is generally out of my realm.

Rgrds
Tom

Catch22 · July 9, 2004 1:53PM

Tradedollar is likely correct. I certainly hope so anyway. That would explain the appearance of low bidding on this fine set of coins.

koinkrazy · July 9, 2004 2:08PM

I think trade dollar is correct. For instance, I think the 1871-s quarter had an internet bid of only $1350 and it ended up selling for $2700 or so plus the juice. Iknow most of the better date seated quarters sold for way over trend. I did buy the 1858-s half dollar, I thought it went for a reasonable price. One thing that homked me off tho, the computer had a glitch on how much it would let me spend, Had $25000 credit and it only let me bid only about 25% of it, so I was unable to bid on any of the dollars

lava · July 9, 2004 2:35PM

The final bids have only been tallied for sessions one and two; I think the Gray collection was session three, and you are not looking at final prices, as someone suggested.

RYK · July 9, 2004 8:06PM

Go back now and look at the prices realized. I was following several No Motto branch mint isues in choice AU with low overall pop numbers, and these coins did very well. Even at Trends, I thought some of these issues were good values, and obviously, others felt the same way.

JoyofCollecting · July 9, 2004 9:17PM

Is there any place on line that I can see the prices realized for the Jim Gray collection? Edited to add: Found it on the website...thanks.

Thanks.

RYK · July 9, 2004 10:56PM

Link to prices realized

toyonakataro · July 9, 2004 11:36PM

I think bids were strong for half dimes. I asked a reliable person to view lots in person and he placed bids on 4 lots(all half dimes) for me.
I thought my bids were strong enough but I lost 3 out of 4.

Barry · July 10, 2004 12:10AM

I bid on 8 dimes in the auction and was high bidder on 2 of them.

geb209 · July 10, 2004 12:21AM

I picked out the 2 dimes that I wanted and made sure that I got them.

Catch22 · July 10, 2004 3:11AM

Just checked out a few of the prices realized and obviously...much better. The half dimes still seemed a bit soft, but the dimes looked solid. I haven't checked out the entire sale yet, but I will as I have a number of seated coins in the ANA Auction.

RYK · July 10, 2004 3:59AM

I had a very strong bid on the 57-S quarter and was the underbidder.

I had some lukewarm bids on the 57 dime and half dime and won them.

From the perspective of my limited knowledge of seated coinage, the market, and the few coins that I followed, the better date coins seemed to sell for strong prices, and the more common coins sold fairly cheaply. (Enough disclaimers?)

Coinosaurus · July 10, 2004 4:02AM

The truly tuff coins (high grade branch mints) generally went for strong money. Some generic material (common date AU dollars) seemed cheap.

During the bidding for the 1873CC NA dime, one of the B&M reps kept going "hello? hello?" on his cell phone, much to the amusement of the audience. It sold for 775K hammer, so I think they did OK on it.

Catch22 · July 10, 2004 4:18AM

Ok, I finally finished going over the prices realized for the entire sale. Needless to say they were much healthier than I first thought. Having said that, I still think that quite a number of difficult coins went cheap...often times the hammer price was 2 or 3 grades lower in price. I think some people got some really great coins for a really attractive price in this sale.

Barry · July 10, 2004 4:41AM

While it looks like everything sold in the Jim Gray auction, there were quite a few coins that didn't sell in the first auction session. Too high hopes with too high reserves?

jdimmick · July 10, 2004 5:01AM

After reading the early posts on this thread, I decided to go look at the auction results and I sensed the same. The better quality rarer pieces and the coins that don't come around as often which were premium quality did very well, while some of the others were marginal. I did notice Barry's comment about the Jim gray collection having buyers for all the lots while the other parts of the sell had a lot of un-sold's. I think this may have been due to cosigners setting high reserves in anticiaption of continued strong prices across the board. However, this may be an early indication that only the better material with the right eye appeal is still bringing the strong prices expected, and the other starting to soften a bit or relax some.

jim

koinkrazy · July 10, 2004 5:02AM

Was there any one person bidding up the branch mint seated quarters, they all went for way over trends? Does anyone know who bought the 1856-s seated quarter, that one went especially high?

coinlieutenant · July 10, 2004 5:19AM

I think that I won the 1859-O and 1888 Half dollars...

Cant remember exactly what I bid...

I bid VERY STRONG on the 1888. Nearly 64 money for a AU58... or as I like to think of it... 2 and a half time AU money... that sounds better...

John

lloydmincy · July 10, 2004 6:19AM

The sale was EXTREMELY strong, in my opinion. 1878-s half, 1851 restrike dollar, and to me, personally the 1853-O no arrows half dollar. Sold for $310,000. DOUBLE WHAT IT SOLD FOR LESS THAN TWO YEARS AGO!!!!!!!! Who are the buyers on this stuff????????

coinlieutenant · July 10, 2004 10:07AM

I dont know... but they are rich!!!

Coinosaurus · July 10, 2004 11:11AM

To answer the question on the 56-S quarter, this was one of the most primo coins in the quarters. If you went to the viewing you know what I mean, the images did not do it justice. I was not at all surprised to see it go strongly.

During the bidding for one of the "power" coins (I won't say which one), a B&M rep kept going "hello? hello? are you there?" on their cell phone, presumably to a phone bidder, and much to the amusement of everyone in the audience.

Fountainhead · July 10, 2004 12:16PM

What have buyers been smoking? As I am a collector my interest was focused on less than two dozen coins; but after the lot viewing, I decided not to bother with this auction -- that's how disappointed I was.

I am very surprised that the auction prices are considered strong and I suspect a lot of buyers who bid high based solely on internet pictures will be sorely disappointed.

tradedollarnut · July 10, 2004 1:42PM

could of bought the coin $150,000 cheaper less than two years ago. ?

Could he have? Parrino bought it and he has a reputation for being tough to beat when he's bidding [for instance, he once stated he was prepared to go all the way to $1.5M on the Eliasberg 1885 trade dollar - it hammered at $825k]. I was very surprised at how low the 53-O realized two years ago [I had it figured at $200-225k] and I suspect that Jay's max was quite a bit higher than he actually paid. He got a good deal, but that doesn't mean that anyone going against him would have gotten the same deal.

Just like the 1870-S half dime this time around. I know for a fact that the collector was prepared to go much higher. Two years from now it would be a mistake for someone else to say "wow, I wish I'd bought it then for that amount" because in reality it just couldn't have been done.

fountainheadgold · July 10, 2004 1:49PM

Money is only paper and our gvmt has been printing and spending at a rate never seen before, i believe, buy a great great coin or Antique, painting, ect it does not matter the price.

Bowers Auction, Jim Gray Collection

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