Missed Auction Opportunities...

MrEureka

Since the day you started collecting, you've probably missed some great opportunities to buy coins at auction for your collection. Tell us about the ones that you most regret not buying.

Name a specific auction, a specific coin, and the price realized. If you can post an image, even better!

majorbigtime

Missed a circulated 1876 CC 20 cent piece at the "Carson Collection" many (20?) years ago for $16K. Ditto re a 1794 Dollar at about the same time, a G-VG with a weak date for about $8K.

Life is full of missed opportunities.

Barndog

ebay 1832 LM-9.2 (I know of one person that owns one) capped bust half dime in choice VF to XF, I don't recall. I think it was in 2004 and sold for $850 or so. Had I known now what I know then, it would have sold for much higher -- and I may or may not have won it but would have still been the underbidder at a minimum.

roadrunner

My very first auction: A gem 1867-s quarter.

Stacks March 1975. James A. Stack sale. I had no clue how these worked. I drove down from school and arrived late to the auction room. Didn't even look at the coin first. But the catalogue said it was a "pristine gem" and from the photo it looked all of that. Anyways, the RED BOOK listed an UNC of this date as $300.
Not knowing what a gem should be worth I just figured 3X that.
I had done 2 years of research by this time and knew this coin rarely showed up for sale....in any grade.

I was shaking like a leaf when it came up and I never even raised my hand. Bidding got over $1000 very quickly. It hammered for $1800 as I recall: 6X RED BOOK. I.K. purchased it (I. Kleinman I presume). Very much regretted it when in 1977 it showed up on the market in Corky Vena's inventory for $5000 or something. I passed on it. It was really nice but that price was "crazy." It turned out Jim Halperin bought it for $5500 and placed it into his RCFund 1.
Fast forward to 1980 and NERCG is auctioning the piece as MS65 gem (an undergrade!). It brings $30,000. Now I really regret buying it for $1800. Fast forward to 1986. Shows up at Auction '86 along with a 2nd specimen from Davis-Graves also called gem.
I can't attend the sale but Jay Miller bids for me. I told him it was my #1 want and bid to $14,000 (with juice). Coin sells for just under $10,000 and Jay flips to me for 5%. The other 67-s was a cleaned problem coin, brought $3-4K.

Regretted buying it in 1975 and 1977. It got away. Took me 11 years to finally get it. It became my dream coin. Sold it in 2004.
Auction photo below. Finest known by 3 pts. One of only 4-6 UNCs currently known. Only Norweb (63), Eliasberg (64), and Stack (67) are decent pieces to my knowledge. One of my the top dozen or so seated quarter condition rarities. Of all the monster gem S mints known, this is my favorite condition/rarity-wise. The gem 64-s,
65-s, 66-s, 68-s and 72-s (2 pcs) are the runner-ups.

1867-s 25c NGC MS67 ex. James Stack

the photo seems to show a lot of field chatter - not the case.
Now residing in probably the finest seated rarity collection known.

roadrunner

roadrunner

At the 1988 Cincy ANA I had the opportunity and the cash to go after the gem 1876-cc 20c piece. In the end I got cold feet because it was going to tie up a lot of my working cash. It ended up selling very reasonably (or cheap) to Rick Sear. My recollection was that
it sold for either $65K or $85K. It now grades MS66 and is finest
graded. Probably will be my first and last opportunity to own one of the true US Coin rarities. Well, maybe not until 2020 when things are cheap again.l

roadrunner

rec78

This 1822 25/50 Bust quarter--Probably my only chance to fill this hole with a reasonably nice coin.


And this
1793 Liberty cap large cent
Both these coins may now be permanently out of my buying power range.

RYK

This ex-Bass 1861-D $5

Peaceman

Before using a snipe program I missed plenty of cherrypicks on Peace $ VAMs trying to bid at the last moment... either my computer would lock up, page woudn't load...

O, and then of course there's the snipe program that doesn't work sometimes.....

ack.

coinlieutenant

This census quarter. Very tough coin...I know where it is but it is in strong hands....

PhillyJoe

I don't remember the particulars, but on July 28, 2003 Lot # 8104 in the Heritage Signature Sale #328, I bid $9,000 with 2 minutes left in the auction on a 1964 SMS Kennedy which was given the grade SP69 by NGC. It sold for 1 increment higher at $9,250. Including the juice and the divorce attorney, it would have set me back about $20,000 altogether.

Maybe someday I'll be able to forget it if you cruel people would stop asking these hurtful questions.

Joe

coinut1799

This coin still haunts me. It was at the New York ANA, 1997, I believe. Heritage still ran bullet auctions then, and I saw a gorgeous toned 1936 Proof Buffalo nickel in a first genertion PCGS holder. I thought I could be "smart" and snipe it at the end of the auction, but the site was so jammed with bidders at the end of the auction that I never got the bid in. Went pretty cheap too. Oh well!!

roadrunner

Another coin that haunts me is a gem 1854 silver dollar from the
1976 ANA auction in New York. It was a wonderful coin from my recollection with smooth fields, nice color, and a single bag mark of note. I still kick myself for not bidding on it. It was early in my career and it sold for a mere $3600. Assuming I knew what I saw,
it could have been a $50,000 coin today. No photos available and I have never seen the coin since.

roadrunner

coindeuce

Only two pieces eluded me then and probably forever:
Heritage 8/18/1995 A.N.A. (featuring the Anita Maxwell Trust collection)
Lot 7469: 1878 7TF Reverse of 1879 PCGS PR-64. Price realized:$25,000(actually may have been a buyback)
The only PR-64 specimen of this Date/Variety to appear subsequently at auction: DLRC The Richmond sale March 2005. NGC PR-64, Price realized: $155,000. Aquired by S. Contursi. Immediately repriced at $275,000.

seateddime

top 100 or top 1000?

If you are not watching, someone is

coinkat

An MS 64 PCGS graded 1688 James II Crown... likely one of the finest known. I bid...I just did not win...