Buying more than one complete set of the same coin, taking the best from both sets and selling the l

SanctionII · October 2, 2006 6:00AM

........... has anyone done this and if so have you had success in selling the duplicates?

I am curious about the above because I have an opportunity to do the same. I picked up an MS set of silver and clad Roosies (1946-68) in August. Many are very, very nice. However, a few are sliders. Today I saw a second set of the same coins in another shop. I looked at this second set. All of the silvers are MS (no sliders) and many of them have developed some nice rim toning. I am thinking that picking up this second set and taking the best of both sets would be fun. I could then sell the leftover set to recoup at least some of my purchase price and have a much nicer set with higher quality coins.

What do you think?

xbob · October 2, 2006 6:34AM

I never did it with dimes but twice I have bought Silver Washington Quarter sets with circulated various grades AG-AU. I pulled upgrades out and looked through them carefully. With each set I discovered a DDO. Other than keeping the DDO's I took the coins that got replaced and filled the holes in the sets and sold them off on eBay (incomplete - keys individually). I almost broke even on both occasions for money in hand. Only now my some of my quarters have been upgraded and I have two cool DDO's. So I consider each set "pickin" to be a success.

Therefore, my opinion would be - Go for it!

SanctionII · October 2, 2006 7:04AM

xbob, I may just take the plunge.

The cost of the second set is not a budget buster. Even if I lost $20.00-$30.00 on a resale of the leftover set, the upgrades and the possible variety discoveries would make it worthwhile.

mcheath · October 2, 2006 7:19AM

ive done it with washington quarters as well, i kept the doulble dies and upgraded any coins and kept the keys to sell individually. i then sold the rest as bullion. after selling the keys and the nonuprgrades i made a nice profit as well as getting a double die or two and a few upgrades. however if your selling a low end (slider) bu roosevelt set (after taking any upgrades) it would be better to mention that up front.

lonelyp · October 2, 2006 3:10PM

I was kind of wondering if buying one of Coin Vaults 10, or 20 different date,and or mintmark deals. Just for picking, and sending back, might be worth the price?

Probably not.

onlyroosies · October 2, 2006 3:38PM

I think I have bought at least 5 silver Roosie sets to get my one raw set.

Smoker · October 2, 2006 7:26PM

I'm doing similar with two sets of Franklins. Both are/will be MS. After selling the lesser set I'll own the better set free and have some extra AUs to sell too.

BAJJERFAN · October 2, 2006 8:56PM

<< <i>I could then sell the leftover set to recoup at least some of my purchase price and have a much nicer set with higher quality coins. >>

You would of course reveal these shenanigans if/when you put the extra coins up for sale wouldn't you?

Hyperion · October 2, 2006 9:10PM

edited because I jumped the gun. again.

lathmach · October 2, 2006 9:28PM

Buying complete sets?
You're missing the point of coin collecting. The pleasure is in building the sets.

Ray

19Lyds · October 2, 2006 11:03PM

No difference in buying a complete set vs buying rolls and searching those. I think that if you have the opportunity and the resources then why not?

I hope you find some nice upgrades. Be sure to post the results.

SanctionII · October 3, 2006 1:25AM

I can appreciate the comment about building sets instead of buying a complete set. I have built sets from the ground up.

However, buying a complete set of MS coins at a modest price and immediately having multiple coins to look through, compare and learn about is fun. Fun is what this hobby is about for collectors right? To me it is. Then once a complete set is in your hands, you can then upgrade individual coins either by doing so one at a time or by buying a second complete set, taking the best of both sets and selling the less desirable duplicates. This is also fun.

Variety is the spice of life and so it is for me in collecting. Acquiring singles or acquiring a complete set, both can be lots of fun.

Bochiman · October 3, 2006 4:34AM

<< <i>I was kind of wondering if buying one of Coin Vaults 10, or 20 different date,and or mintmark deals. Just for picking, and sending back, might be worth the price?

Probably not. >>

Also, that isn't morally acceptable, imho. I've wondered if it were done as well, though. I mean, I've never boought from them, but when they send you "bulk" silver (by the pound) or the groups of morgans, would they know what they are getting back?

labrams · October 3, 2006 5:15AM

<< <i>I never did it with dimes but twice I have bought Silver Washington Quarter sets with circulated various grades AG-AU. I pulled upgrades out and looked through them carefully. With each set I discovered a DDO. >>

What years are DDO in Washington Quarters (and better yet, can you point me to a good reference on this?) Thanks!!

lkenefic · October 3, 2006 5:43AM

I've never done this with complete sets but I've bought lots of Large Cents before...6-12 coins per lot... cherrypicked the best ones or filled in dates and then sold off the rest. The best I ever did with this was a six coin lot with one Half Cent I purchased for around $80. I kept two of the large Cents...one was an 1845 in VF that I still have and sold off everything else individually. I basically got two free Large Cents out of the deal.

Leo

seanq · October 3, 2006 5:57AM

I'm doing something very similar with a set of gem Jeffersons, I pulled out about 15 coins for myself, I'll then replace them and resell the entire set. Plenty of other times I've bought an entire lot of coins just to obtain one coin within the lot. I think it's pretty standard practice.

Sean Reynolds

majorbigtime · October 3, 2006 9:22AM

i did it w/Barber halfs--but kept both (an A and B set).

morganbarber · October 3, 2006 10:02AM

My observation has been that most complete sets for sale were put together by dealers who assemble complete sets no better than the beat up keys. Partial sets (although some are lousy) often come from a collector with very discriminating taste. A nice partial set can consist of many upgrades to your collection, while complete sets are just keys surrounded by junk. Of course every rule has exceptions.

tradedollarnut · October 3, 2006 10:22AM

I have done it both ways. I built the trade dollar set up one coin at a time. I built the seated dollar set up by buying set after set to get the right coins. The difference is that nobody was ever really serious about trade dollars, whereas seated dollars had many serious collectors and most of the really good coins were locked up in major sets.

Here is the story, from my website:

I started on this set in 2003 when I had the opportunity to purchase the Sterling Collection intact. This collection was nearly complete [missing only the 1870-S] and ranged from AU55 to MS64. Because Legend already had a customer [JFS] starting a top grade set of circulation strike coins, I intended to keep it mostly intact and upgrade it only to midrange unc, but alas - circumstances later arose that changed my direction. The Rudolf Collection came up for auction at Stacks a few months later. This was an amazing set with many beautiful coins. At the very same time, the Share Collection was available privately - this set consisted of a complete MS and Proof set, along with Patterns and Gobrechts. The Share Collection was not as high grade as the Rudolf Collection and the coins meshed with the Sterling Collection almost perfectly - keeping half of each set created a mid range uncirculated collection - with the exception of the 1870-S, which consisted of the Eliasberg AU50 specimen. In addition, it contained three coins that really struck my fancy - the finest known gem 1872-CC and 73-CC seated dollars, and a rare upgrade to the Trade Dollar set - the finest known 1878-CC Trade! Because of JFS's focus on the Rudolf Collection, I decided to purchase the Share Collection and to focus on only two specimens at auction [the Norweb 1845 and the Stack 1871-CC] as I knew this customer was going to be quite aggressive. This meant that I passed on a dream coin - the Stack 1870-S [the finest known example and the only unc]. True to his form, JFS bought up many of the choice unc coins from the Rudolf sale, including the 1870-S.... fortunately I was successful on the two I pursued for myself.

Many months followed with a coin here or there from auction - always in mid range uncirculated condition. I passed on several chances to buy gem specimens as I had no intention of starting down that path as long as JFS was intent on buying them all up for his set. After about 9 months, I was a bit frustrated and considered offering many of my expensive coins to JFS as they were head and shoulders above the rest of the set in value and if the set wasn't going to be improved then why have those coins? Fate intervened.

At the 2004 FUN show, Laura just happened to walk past David Akers' table. He had two of his personal seated dollars for sale - magnificent specimens [the MS66 1848 and 1854] at magnificent prices. Normally, she would have told me about them that evening when she updated me on how the show was going, but this time she called me from the table. Now, I had never seen those coins but I knew about them - David Akers' personal set was quite famous to dollar enthusiasts. Boy, was I excited! I told her to get the best price possible but not to leave the table without the coins ... a fortuitous act as unbeknownst to me Oliver Jung had eyes on the 1848 and was on his way back to the table to buy the coin! Not an hour later, the Fairfield 1849 was offered and purchased... another monumental coup! Later that evening, Laura stated JFS was considering selling his set and asked if I was interested. Funny how things worked out - I was ready to sell my key coins a day earlier and in the span of 24 hours not only picked up some once in a lifetime coins, but now was being offered all the coins I was forced to pass on earlier in the year! Amazing.

After purchasing the JFS's set, the Legend Collection was complete in uncirculated condition - the first seated dollar set to ever achieve this milestone. A few magnificent coins have been added in the time being, some from auction and some privately. The end result is a seated dollar set so magnificent in quality that has been entered in the PCGS Set Registry Hall of Fame.

RickMilauskas · October 3, 2006 11:14AM

Wow....fate sure has a way of making some of the most improbable sequences of events just fall into place.

Great story!

You certainly have a heckuva collection.

SanctionII · October 5, 2006 2:43PM

Update time.

I went back to the shop today and picked up the MS Roosie set. I also picked up two sets of MS 1938-64 nickles. All three sets were assembled in the 1959-1964 time frame. The coins in all three sets look very, very nice. I will have lots of fun looking at each coin in detail.

Buying more than one complete set of the same coin, taking the best from both sets and selling the l

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