Have you ever been in numismatic equivalent of what athletes call "The Zone"?

SanctionII

For example when Tiger Woods is winning tournament after tournament by 7-8 strokes or more over the guy who comes in second; or when Bill Walton shot 21-22 in an NCAA March Madness hoops game; or when an NFL quarterback completes 20 passes in a row; or when a baseball player hits back to back to back homeruns?

Have you ever been in "The Zone" while participating in the hobby?

Did you cherrypick great coins on the cheap and make a large profit on a resale; did you pick up a raw coin and slab it only to receive a top pop; did you buy a bulk collection only to find a rare variety when you went through it; did you receive an heritance/gift of a collection from a relative only to find that it contains gems of all kinds instead of the usual dross?

If so tell us your story.

STONE

Although I play on the cheaper scale of what coins I am comfortable purchasing, in 2008 I was on a great role for cherrypicking $1000 (+) coins for $100 or under.
I believe I found 6 total, and three were within 1 month of each other. I still have 5 of those 6 coins in my collection; the 6th was just something I knew I could flip

This is as close as I have ever got to being in "The Zone"

MidLifeCrisis

I have experienced a different version of "the zone" in which I was able to acquire a number of great colonial rarities for my collection in a very short period of time - probably about six months or so. Some were expensive; some were not...but all were rarities that normally only become available once in a great while. For the expensive ones, the stars aligned nicely and I was able to trade pieces from my collection for strong money to get them. It was big fun.

BlindedByEgo

I seem to zone out a lot. Does that count?

cladking

That's where I'm at almost all the time I'm not in the Twilight Zone or
among "those who make the way of twilight mount up".

I can search mint sets, rolls, and bags at a pretty remarkable pace. Com-
bined with my ability to sense silver, mint sets, and scarce coins, tokens
and medals from great distances I'm often very comfortable in the zone.

Billet7

I think I was almost in the zone once, it scared me, so I shook it off!

RaginsteveK

a different kind of zone - had just lost a "heartbreaking" auction* ...

went looking at coins I figured I'd just dream about.

(bought one of those "dream coins"- the low end, but for more money that I would have considered at any time, for someone in my circumstances)

*losing that auction was a blessing: "we" went up there! I hope he made out. I spent twice as much for my Dream Coin, and almost certainly got a better deal!!

Elcontador

In 2002, I picked up the second most nicely toned Liberty Nickel I've ever seen at type price for the grade. This is the only time I bought a coin for significantly less than my max bid at any auction.

UtahCoin

Yes, today as a matter of fact! Cherrypicked an R-8 for under $300

RichieURich

<< <i>Yes, today as a matter of fact! Cherrypicked an R-8 for under $300 >>



Cool! Want to give us details and a picture?

UtahCoin

<< <i>

<< <i>Yes, today as a matter of fact! Cherrypicked an R-8 for under $300 >>



Cool! Want to give us details and a picture? >>



Coin will be in hand in a few days, then I'll post for all to see.

relicsncoins

Yes, I once purchased an 1804, 1913 and 1894 S all in this span of one week.

Longacre

Not in numismatics, but a few years ago I shot a round of golf that was WAY beyond my athletic ability. I am not sure what happened that day, but I have not been able to recapture it since.

Bayard1908

Here's something that seems to recur over and over again.

I search for a particular item for 5 or 10 years without success. Then, within a period of days or weeks, multiple examples come on the market or otherwise fall into my lap.

soty27

I have been in the "zone" once that I would call pretty amazing. I had word out around town that I was buying coin collections. I got a call a few days later from a lady who's grandmother had recently passed away and had some coins. I asked what kind, type, the lady had no idea. I asked her what kind of a price she wanted and she said she would like to get 350.00 for the collection. I met her at a local starbucks where she had a grocery bag about 1/4 of the way full of coins. I just did a quick look, saw some wheats, indians, couple proof sets, 1 morgan, 1 peace, war nickles, walkers, franklins. I didnt have time to take a real good look but at quick glance I figured the 350.00 was pretty close. Well when I got home and started to look through the collection I realized that there were several whitman books in the bottom under all the pennies. There was also several bags of mercs, walkers, lots of misc silver. I started going through them very close, after searching I ended up with about 130.00 face value of silver. I browsed through the whitman albums until I got to the mercury dime album. There was a 1916 in the 1916 s slot. Well just to be sure I pulled out the supposed 1916 s and it was a clear (D). I had no idea there was all this stuff in the bag when I first looked. I emailed the lady I bought it from and told her there was several hundread more dollars worth of stuff in the bag then I paid for and asked her if she would like to seek another avenue of selling it. She said she didnt have time for something like that and was very happy with the 350.00. I was okay with it at that point and went onto break up the collection and sell it. By the time it was all said and done I ended up with about 2400 after sales. I wish I could do that all the time but I have yet to have anything that good come my way since.

pmac

<< <i>I have been in the "zone" once that I would call pretty amazing. I had word out around town that I was buying coin collections. I got a call a few days later from a lady who's grandmother had recently passed away and had some coins. I asked what kind, type, the lady had no idea. I asked her what kind of a price she wanted and she said she would like to get 350.00 for the collection. I met her at a local starbucks where she had a grocery bag about 1/4 of the way full of coins. I just did a quick look, saw some wheats, indians, couple proof sets, 1 morgan, 1 peace, war nickles, walkers, franklins. I didnt have time to take a real good look but at quick glance I figured the 350.00 was pretty close. Well when I got home and started to look through the collection I realized that there were several whitman books in the bottom under all the pennies. There was also several bags of mercs, walkers, lots of misc silver. I started going through them very close, after searching I ended up with about 130.00 face value of silver. I browsed through the whitman albums until I got to the mercury dime album. There was a 1916 in the 1916 s slot. Well just to be sure I pulled out the supposed 1916 s and it was a clear (D). I had no idea there was all this stuff in the bag when I first looked. I emailed the lady I bought it from and told her there was several hundread more dollars worth of stuff in the bag then I paid for and asked her if she would like to seek another avenue of selling it. She said she didnt have time for something like that and was very happy with the 350.00. I was okay with it at that point and went onto break up the collection and sell it. By the time it was all said and done I ended up with about 2400 after sales. I wish I could do that all the time but I have yet to have anything that good come my way since. >>


And now you are having a givaway. Thanks again.