DWN: How I Became a Collector Again
Boosibri
Posts: 12,166 ✭✭✭✭✭
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Boosibri
Posts: 12,166 ✭✭✭✭✭
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Great story...I miss it already too.
Guess we won't be buying any great seated quarters from DWN in the near future until his set is mature.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
I'm sure lots of dealers (incl. myself) can relate.
You too with the quarters??
It is nice to see that successful dealers still enjoy the fun of coins.
<< <i>I love it. Every new collector makes me seem like less of a freak. Even though I know better. >>
I'm sure Mr. Eureka remembers bailing on his group of 2-3 XF/AU 1847-0 seated quarters with luster for $185 each back in 1988(?) (Doug's favorite sleeper date). I happily bought them from Andy at that time. And within a few months told myself, what am I gonna do with all these? I ended up bailing on them too...lol. I knew I could never fork over the big bucks for the rare CC's and other overrated and common dates to complete a set. So I just went after the top 30-50 coins in the quarters. The 1847-0 was one of the top coins on my list too because you could actually find those.
The second big change is the accessibility of information. In the mid-1970’s, there were hardly any published reference works, no databases of auction appearances, and you had to rely on the small number of experts in the field to figure out what was rare and what wasn’t.
It wasn't all that hard. I was a complete nobody in the seated world in 1974 who knew less than nothing other than what the Red Book said. But after spending an hour or less per week listing "EVERY" seated quarter appearing in my weekly Coin World over the next 6 months, I had a real good idea of what dates were common, what reasonably priced dates never showed up, and what heavily priced dates were overrated. I took that survey out to 12-18 months on the rarest coins in the series. But 6 months was enough to identify 75% of the sleepers vs. their insanely low Coin World Trends pricing. And this was the same information that Kam Ahwash, Bill Grayson, Bill Kamerling, Robert Emmer, Jim O'Donnell, John McCloskey, Maurice Rosen, Leroy Lenart, Gene Edwards, Gene Gardner, and others already knew just by trading the series for years. What I did find out was that even the top experts didn't have a handle on all the dates in choice/gem grades. There were super sleepers that even eluded these guys because all the action was on the very best dates and the highest priced coins.
I doubt I could complete a quarter set to my liking at today's prices. If I were to go after a set, it would probably be the more completable and affordable seated halves (less the 78-s). Doug Winter and I exchanged a number of letters on seated dimes and quarters in the early to mid-1980's. I run across those from time to time. A different era indeed.
Boosibri, did you give Doug your 1838 quarter? That would be a hard one to part with.
Over the last year I started 2 new sets that I have been studying extensively.
At the long beach show last week Northeast coin had a roll of 2 cent pieces in vf-au all leaning one on top of the other like they had just been slid out of a roll.
For me personally I thought that was the most fun thing I saw at the show (even more fun than the pogue coins).
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Boosibri, did you give Doug your 1838 quarter? That would be a hard one to part with. >>
I did! Glad it kicked off his collection.
Latin American Collection
<< <i>Doug Winter: How I Became a Collector Again
Good read though I sorta miss my 1838 25c >>
nice story boo