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Hypothetical: Two collectors with opposite goals

Say you were a man (or woman) with essentially unlimited means to acquire any coin, at just about any price for the set you are working on.
Let's also say that with this great financial freedom you have assembled the very best collection of YY series.
Not every coin in your collection is a Top Pop, but your never-ending goal is to upgrade with the higher grade when an example comes to market (auction, dealer, etc)
You are insatiable in your quest (& many know this) and will stop at almost nothing to acquire these upgrades; your wantlist is given to every major (and/or minor) dealer in the country.

One day, you hear rumor of one of these Top Pop (say 1/0) coins at a dealers table on the boure of a large convention.
You hastily make your way over to Dealer XX's table and ask if the dealer truly had the coin and if so tell him you would liketo buy it.
Dealer XX reply's back that he just sold it minutes earlier to another collector who after purchasing responded with:
"I will not let the collector (you, the insatiable collector) of series YY ever have this coin because I don't want him to ever reach his goal"
(The individual who bought the coin does not collect the YY series)
(The End)


Now for the questions:
1) Does anyone know of something like this ever taking place for a similar circumstance?
(bought from a dealer for the same reason, or someone bid higher and higher in the auction just to see if the other collector would break at some point)

Comments

  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,447 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not exactly, but I did have a dealer tell me that he was competing with Eliasberg and was promised the 1870-s $3 that Eliasberg bought. This basically destroyed this guys collection and ended his collecting (as opposed to strictly dealing) forever. And he still carried the grudge more than 30 years later.

    He recently died, so I guess the grudge is over.
    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • The collector who bought the coin simply to prevent the other collector from evr getting it would have to be carrying a serious grudge or have some major emotional issues.

    I have never heard of this happening- but I guess it's possible in the coin world.
    image
    "College men from LSU- went in dumb, come out dumb too..."
    -Randy Newmanimage
  • Collecting for spite? Maybe I should try that
    I like cheese, notes, and coins. In that order.
  • BochimanBochiman Posts: 25,556 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If dude #1 was that rich, then a hitman would be affordable.....

    I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment

  • WalmannWalmann Posts: 2,806
    Opposite goals?

    One collector wishes to put the highest grade set together and the other wishes to prevent the set from being formed?

    Sounds like a good reason to avoid Registry participation.
  • JRoccoJRocco Posts: 14,277 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Collector number one needs to do a little homework and find out what spiteful collector number two really hungers for in life and then go out of his way to purchase the best of whatever that is...check and mateimage
    Some coins are just plain "Interesting"
  • jfoot13jfoot13 Posts: 2,677 ✭✭✭
    hmmm would this be considered Extreme Numismatics and would it be considered a sport?
    If you can't swim you better stay in the boat.......
  • Not a coin but the same principle.

    The British Guyana 1c stamp, one known, was shown pictorially to have been two different
    stamps. Rumors, never verified but almost certainly credible, were that the owner of the first
    one bought the second and either destroyed it or put it away in a safe place.
    JET
    It is health that is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver. Gandhi.

    I collect all 20th century series except gold including those series that ended there.


  • << <i>1) Does anyone know of something like this ever taking place for a similar circumstance? >>



    Something like that but not in a vindictive way. A dealer I know has a top pop super key date. A real one of a kind. When he used to do the "registry thing" he had the #1 set. He is well acquainted with Mr. #2 and doesn't really care for him. He once told me almost anyone with a ridiculous over priced offer might be able to get the coin, unless that offer came from Mr. #2. Not because he would lose #1 status but because he just doesn't like the idea of the other fellow ever owning this hollowed coin. Well maybe that is a little vindictive.imageimageimage
    OLDER IS BETTER
  • LanLordLanLord Posts: 11,723 ✭✭✭✭✭
    collecting is a hobby to me, hobbies are supposed to be fun.

    As soon as this sort of spitefulness gets involved, I'll just satisfy myself with something else.
  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭
    I doubt I will ever have the financial means to be a party to this scenario on either side.
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • BillyKingsleyBillyKingsley Posts: 2,661 ✭✭✭✭
    I don't know about that, but last year I was working on the last two cars I needed for my 1/64 RCCA Legends NASCAR set. I had some money and bid up to $80 for one of the cars. In the last half hour of the auction myself and another bidder must have traded 15 bids back and forth. I couldn't afford to go over 80, but I was quite happy that I made the other bidder pay into the 80s. (This same person had outbid me on several other items-back then you could see who it was!)

    The best part of it all is that I got the car for $40 from a friend a few months later.

    So-I would not do something like this specifically TO do that, but when I loose a bidding war with someone, I take solace in the fact that I made them pay more for it then they would have otherwise image
    Billy Kingsley ANA R-3146356 Cardboard History // Numismatic History

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