Any stories of buying then selling/trading only to discover it was rare
Ppp
Posts: 549 ✭✭✭✭✭
this one hurts
The other day I picked up a bunch of one ounce UNC silver Libertads from a dealer I know well.
I am not into Libertads but my friend likes them so over two days they went to him through trades. Four of the Libertads were dated 1991 and valued over melt for trading purposes. 1991 had a mintage of 1.6 million and as far as anyone new there was nothing special about them.
The day he received the last two I am messing around on my iPad and what shows up is the 1991 Libertads had two Types I & II. Type II used upper and lower case letters and had a reeded edge vs the type I and its estimated that less than 50,000 of them where minted.
After I picked my jaw off the floor because I knew my 1991 Libertads all had reeded edges, I immediately contacted my friend. He didn’t know and he researched and found one sold recently for over $800- and it was not a pretty coin compared to our UNCs.
I told my friend the coins were his and good for him, he scored because I am a big believer once a deal is done, its done. I was pleasantly surprised he felt the need to give one back to me but he only had one left because he got rid of two of them. We estimate our 1991s were maybe $1000 each or $4000 total for about $200 total cost.
In the end having one is better than none.🙂
Any other stories out there?
Comments
@Ppp
Ouch!!
Luckily I don't have a story like that. Not saying it never happened to me, but if it did, I never found out.
My wife got a proof set for a tip from an elderly client
As an esthetic professional she was confused and laughed it off.
It sat in a drawer for several years.
Turns out to be the close AM error.
Sold the set for around $250 raw.
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Just wondering - are you sure the Libertad is genuine? I believe there are counterfeits of that date.
Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
Life is roadblocks. Don't let nothing stop you, 'cause we ain't stopping. - DJ Khaled
Probably the wildest story for me was looking for a particular scarce VAM.
Found one within the first dozen or less coins. Fuzzy Pic, slabbed... $60 coin turned into $2k.
Spent the next six months looking day and night.
Estimated 200k auctions. Found two more MS graded coins and three raw. Fourth if you count the dealer who swapped the coin after a contested auction alerted him.
1 in 100,000
Go on a bender at times looking again but is exhausting
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I have told this before. In 1997 I purchased an NGC AU-55 1876 Seated Half as my intial coin fpr my Seated Half set. I then used that coin for the next decade and a half as the comparison coin for each new coin i added to my set.
In 2016 I purchased a copy of the Bowers Redbook on all Seated Silver coins. That is when I first heard of the 1876 overdate coin. I had a dual reaction when I discovered my coin was indeed the over date version.
I was elated at my windfall. I was sick to my stomach and embarassed; in all those years I never noticed this fact. HAD to have looked at that coin at least a 1,000 times. James
Ouch
Especially if you have multiples
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Appears only the OP actually sold a valuable coin by mistake...
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
@jmlanzaf . i guess first you have to define valuable. Around here anything over a $100 makes meets the mark. Second, anyone who bought one of my coins and then reaped a huge profit would have to let me know about it. none so far. james
I had a Lincoln cent proof True View as my screen saver for years.
One day I notice the date looks doubled.
Sure enough I submitted it without noticing the DDO nor obviously did not pay for the attribution.
It was a beautiful toned cent that probably would have boosted the normal $150ish coin quite a bit
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Not quite the same but I have bought and sold a handful of coins/slabs before the premium exploded. Some examples include: Compugrade slabs, Mexico Caballito, and a gold CAC rattler.
I’ve also sold a few toned coins for breakeven or even a profit and then watched them sell for more (some were surprises as it wasn’t moving for me at my price while others made more sense as the market kept increasing).
I sold this one a while back, then one day looking at it as my screen saver I noticed it has a repunched mint mark.
I couldn’t find any info about a 68 D/D and realized it could have been a discovery piece.
I'm not so sure about that one (but I have zero experience with modern varieties so maybe I guess).
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
I don’t remember seeing any machine doubling anywhere else on the coin and it doesn’t look flat. Just a guess as well.
Another of mine with a very straight forward looking D for comparison.
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That looks like die erosion doubling (late die state).
I always assume die erosion doubling when the direction of the secondary image is towards the rim (in a radial direction from the center of the coin).
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There was a story floating around here back in the mid 2000s, a couple board members had traded or sold coins back and forth and eventually the coins went elsewhere.
That’s when someone realized that one of the coins was an as yet unknown Overton die marriage for a bust half dollar.
I believe it was in pretty bad shape and might have even had a hole in it, but it was the discovery coin for a new die marriage!
This is a job for @lordmarcovan !
If not needing to repeat the story, he probably has the links to the story told here or elsewhere a couple of times.
Seems like it was an 1806 half from his holey hat or vest.
"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
Here you go!
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-one-that-got-away-story-the-1806-o-129-draped-bust-half-discovery-coin.409380/
A lot of buyers will never relate their huge successes. And I've seen those who've bought coins at a small fraction of actual value warn those who saw their purchase on ebay to not try to interfere with the transaction. Ultimately the law and practical circumstances will determine whether title really has passed from one person to another. If buyers have a right to return things certainly sellers may have some wiggle room on deals.
They do not.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
One example, you list a $1000 item by mistake for $100 and someone buys it; or you get the grade wrong, etc.. There is plenty of legal boilerplate the auction companies and grading services include in their terms, to cover "mechanical errors" or even coins given an erroneously high grade. No one should expect a business to foot the bill for mistakes that violate good sense.
Years ago, I let a NY theatre token go out in the dollar box at shop. Didnt know what it was and didnt bother looking it up, thought it was just another token.