So my Barber Halves just sold at Heritage...

rld14 · June 4, 2011 12:07PM

I haven't been around much lately, however some recent events have brought me back

(And no, selling my coins was not one of them!)

Crazy as it sounds.. back in the spring I thought that I would like another challenge, and I am not yet sure what that will be.

So I no longer own any nice Barber Halves. I consigned them to Heritage and they all sold, the whole collection, between yesterday and today. I just finished watching them sell.

I have to say that I was surprised by some of the results. My 92-S and 04-S went rather cheap and I lost money on them, but oh well.

Some notes... some of the sleeper dates went for tremendous money, quite frankly, as expected.

My 04-S in PCGS VF25 that was "Approved by a guy I know named John" got bid to $800 while my 93-S in VF30 also "Approved by a guy I know named John" did $1,100 plus vig. Screw the price guides, I think that it's an accurate thing. The chances of finding a VF 93-S are MUCH MUCH lower than finding a nice VF 04-S. As us Barber guys know, the 93-S is a VERY rare coin in VF/XF.

My 01-O in XF40 "Approved by a guy I know named John" did $1,100 which exceeded my expectations by some degree to say the least.

And I'll also note that PCGS plastic plus a coin being "Approved by a guy I know named John" can make a tremendous difference.

As examples...

My 94-O in PCGS VF35 that was "Approved by a guy I know named John" was bid to $280 while an ANACS XF40 did $260, as we know, Barber Halves jump a lot when they hit XF.

There were two PCGS VF25 96-Ss tonight. Mine, "Approved by a guy I know named John", sold for $577 while the other coin, which also looked nice at a glance, sold for $360. Quite a difference that a sticker makes, huh?

1904-O: My PCGS VF35, "Approved by a guy I know named John", sold for $750! Meanwhile a decent looking NGC VF25 did $220!

1905-P, another "sleeper date"... my PCGS VF20, "Approved by a guy I know named John", did $325 while an NGC VF30 that followed it did $170.

I have to say that it's clear, you want your coins in our host's holders, and it's a good idea to have this John guy inspect your slabs. I am very pleased with the results, Win Callender is great to work with and Heritage really did deliver. A big reason that I consigned them to Heritage is that I wanted to see if this set would live up to the "hype".

Was the VF/XF Barber Market really still hot or is it a bunch of puffery and silliness?

It's not hype. Here's why...

I watched all the Barber Halves sell tonight, not the high dollar stuff at last night's live sale (Because I fell asleep haha) but all the ones that sold at Heritage Live online tonight, which included my whole set save my 92-S in XF45 and my VF25 04-S.

Here's what I saw for those who weren't staring at a computer screen..... OI think that, literally, TWO of my coins did not elicit Heritage Live bids, maybe 4 but virtually every single one had live bids on it. The details and AU coins? Very few had active bids. Some of my coins really shot up during the live bids, a couple doubled in price!

So the market remains healthy it would seem.....

Now that my hobby funds have been very healthily replenished I have to decide what to work on next, and also I think it's time to start hunting for either a 56 Lincoln Premiere or maybe a 59-60 Continental

COALPORTER · June 4, 2011 12:10PM

How much would you make if you just sold "to a guy named John"?

They do promise to buy at any time, dont they?

TomB · June 4, 2011 12:13PM

I had looked at your coins, too, and had many of the same conclusions. The one thing that should be added is that not only were many of your pieces in PCGS holders with a certain sticker on them, but they were nice, too. That might seem odd to write, but they were better than the vast majority of similarly graded coins.

roadrunner · June 4, 2011 12:14PM

Congratulations on your results! Scarcer date Barbers in problem free middle to upper circ grades are quite scarce. But I don't think it's necessarily a sign of the strength of the coin
market. If one added up all the dollars involved in nice better date VF-XF Barber halves (esp. PCGS CAC), it would amount to a very small amount of money, and probably <2-3% of
the entire Barber half dollar market where all grades and prices are considered (Poor 01 to MS/PF69). This small segment of the Barber market will always do good. It's still
underrated and somewhat affordable when compared to the prices high end MS/PF pieces bring. The overall coin market could be in the tank and this area would still be solid.

Trying to compare PCGS prices to coins with the same grade in other holders is a futile game. There's generally a fairly wide divide that can make a huge difference in price, esp. when
some guy named John has approved of them. And I don't think one needs a guy named John to offer bids on these scarce circ Barbers to keep their prices up. There are plenty of
collectors willing to buy them.

roadrunner

DIMEMAN · June 4, 2011 12:14PM

Please tell me you didn't sell your Barber's to buy a "CAR"!

shorecoll · June 4, 2011 12:19PM

I will wait to comment some until I get an official notice of wins, but I think the 05 and a few others will be going to an appreciative new home.

Some coins were about right and only a few went nuts. Teaparty posted a set of mid-grades they bought yesterday and most were gone in an hour. Mid-grades are still hot and I'm glad I'm almost done. I thought seated halves were also quite strong, if I try to put that set back together, it will likely cost me 5x what I sold my set for many moons ago.

PS. You got hosed on the 04-S. I wish I had been watching yesterday. The last 2 nice 04-S's I have seen were $400+ more than yours.

MonteCarlo · June 4, 2011 12:49PM

I am now the proud owner of your 01-S VF35 and your 04-O VF35 from tonight's auction. I already have a near perfect 01-S XF40, but your VF35 was so nice that I decided I needed a duplicate.

I also already have a 04-O VF35, but the appearance of yours is so much better than mine that I just had to get that one too.

And I agree wholeheartedly about the 93-S. Toughest date in VF and XF in the entire set bar none (with the 05-O and 01-S logging in at #2 and #3). Even with that scratch on the neck, your coin brought $1100 + the juice. Just goes to show that mid-grade examples of that date are just nearly impossible to find. When I found the 93-S XF40 that's now in my set, I damn near soiled myself - it was in a guy's type set that he was breaking up!

TomB · June 4, 2011 12:56PM

Agreed about the 1893-S. Toughest coin in the regular set.

MFH · June 4, 2011 1:12PM

I watched and recorded all the Barbers - both the LIVE and the Floor Auctions -
and will be making my own notes tomorrow. Its been a very bumpy ride; some
coins went for alot less than I expected - and only one high grade Barber Half actually sold
[ bought by our friend BEAR ]... all the other pricey coins didn't make their reserves.

I bid on my old 1901-S in your set, but I stopped bidding at what I sold it to you for.
I never expected MonteCarlo to be bidding on that coin after he bought my old
AU 50 - and after he sold his XF 40 on eBay last week. Monte's right - its a great date
and that VF 35 was a nice coin - everyone who has owned it has made money on it.
[Right Tom ? ]

I also had my eye on a few others in your set but didn't bid. There was a
very nice 1912-S in PCGS 45 that I did bid on - but - didn't win [ the scar over the
eye bothered me enough not to go over PCGS values...]

BTW - if you'll notice - all the PCGS coins and Certified by your friend John - went for
double PCGS prices. Looks like its time to revamp the price guide here - again.

HRH said in his recent weekly Market Report, that next Tuesday we'd see changes -
lets hope it reflects the true amounts on Barber Halves.

rld14 · June 4, 2011 3:30PM

Leon and Monte, glad you guys got some of my now old coins!

The reason I sold them was, well, it kind of got to the point where there were only a handful of coins that I would have wanted to change, and I liked all of the good dates that I had. Truth is, chasing them down to complete the set was the most fun that I had with them.

My friend Carl Feldman told me a couple of years ago (He's a Barber Collector too.. oddly enough, we met when we worked together at a Lexus store about 8 years ago) that I couldn't do half the set in five years in VF.

I did it in less than a year and like Tom said (Thanks for the kind words!) I don't want to brag, but I did have some nice coins in there

Also, I "made" about 35-40% of that set, including some tough coins like the 07-S, 03-O, 10-P, 05-P, etc. I also got lucky, Mike (MFH), Glenn Holsonbake and Larry (SeaEagleCoins) helped me a lot as did Barberman55, JJ Teaparty and others.

I don't think that I got hosed on the 04-S per se, someone got a very good deal on the coin, I think that it was a bit dark for some people's tastes, and I also think that it's an overvalued, overpriced, overhyped coin. It's not a rare coin in VF IMO, anyone with a few bucks can buy a VF one in a PCGS holder. Right now.

It's really not about the money, but seeing the 93-S bring a big price made me happy, if only because it was great for me to see one bring a strong number at a public auction, nope, it wasn't perfect and I wasn't 100% convinced at all that it would get "approved" but I loved the look of the coin and it's one of two that I regret selling, I came VERY close to not sending the coin to Heritage.

Once I started really getting into these and learning about what's truly rare and what isn't, I thought about putting the set together and sending it off, complete, to an auction house and running the whole set at no reserve, just to see what would happen. Ya know, a sort of test to see how the coins would perform in a true no holds barred sale.

The 05-O did kind of surprise me, only the 93-S is tougher to locate and I thought it might ring a bell. Regardless, IMO someone stole it and I hope they like it as much as I did.

And no, I didn't sell them to buy a car...

but if anyone knows where a clean driver 56 Lincoln Premiere 2 door exists with factory air I'm all ears!

USAFRETWI · June 7, 2011 1:11AM

I'm suprised you let the 93-S go in the first place.......

Ken

dogwood · June 7, 2011 4:26AM

Intersting to think that the ceiling on available PCGS Barber Halves for a complete set in mid-grades grants that no more than 20 sets can be made at any one time.
Quite an accomplishment and thanks for giving everybody a market window into the coins at the present time.
There was the 01-O in 40 I was watching that brought 12 hundred. More than I would spend but probably commensurate with it's place in the set. Definitely my value pick for the series if you can steal one at the guide price.

curly · June 7, 2011 4:48AM

That guy named John that you know seems like a good feller to know.

MonteCarlo · June 7, 2011 5:12AM

<< <i>I'm suprised you let the 93-S go in the first place.......

Ken >>

Ken, did you land RLD's 93-S for your hoard?

USAFRETWI · June 7, 2011 5:49AM

No, I was looking at it earlier in the week and totally forgot about the auction......

JMW · June 7, 2011 6:03AM

Congratulations on a successful sale, it was certainly a well put together set. I did not bid but enjoyed looking.

BarberFanatic · June 7, 2011 1:07PM

From one Barber Fanatic to another, congrats on the sale. I enjoyed bidding on and winning a few of your pieces and I'm looking forward to the Hayes collection being auctioned in August!

MFH · June 7, 2011 1:12PM

<< <i>No, I was looking at it earlier in the week and totally forgot about the auction......

>>

... can't believe it !!

BarberFanatic - Welcome to the Forums - I see the above is your first post.

AnkurJ · June 7, 2011 1:16PM

<< <i>That guy named John that you know seems like a good feller to know.

>>

Nice to see you on the boards again curly!

CircOnly · June 7, 2011 1:31PM

Rld14, I was tracking some of your more common date halves, but like USAFRETWI I forgot about the auction. You had some really nice VF halves.

breakdown · June 7, 2011 1:40PM

Congrats -- it seems like the sale went well overall. I knew you said you were selling your set but I didn't realize they were in the Heritage sale. I sold six Buffalos and Walkers in the show and did about as expected. A couple suggestions for your next pursuit: commems, seated quarters or halves. Forget the collector car -- it's a bigger money pit than a boat!

Dave99B · June 7, 2011 3:07PM

That was an amazing set of mid-grade halves!

I ended up with just the 1899-P and 1902-P, as upgrades to my VF ANACS examples. Great coins!

BTW, I chased the VF35 04-O HARD. HARD! I wanted that one bad!

Dave

USAFRETWI · June 7, 2011 9:20PM

Hey C, was wondering what happened to you, been a while since you posted.

Ken

PonyExpress8 · June 22, 2011 3:31AM

RLD14 I watched along and bid on a few, a couple of mutual old friends and was underbidder on 3 of the 9 or 10 I had bid on. It looks like the results were overall very good.

Good luck on your future endeavors and thank you for mentioning me.

Glenn

Bear · June 22, 2011 3:43AM

I do seem to remember a Barber Half , 1905 in MS-66+.

I do believe that it is somewhere around the cave. Perhaps

under my donutes.

MFH · June 22, 2011 4:51AM

Bear:

Save your sheckles - there's another round of
nice Halves coming up at the pre ANA.

The Elbesaar Collection

Bear · June 22, 2011 5:00AM

What makes you think that there are any left to save?

Any way, If I told people what I was bidding on at the next

Heritage, I would probably have to kill you all. That would indeed

be most unfortunate. Thus, We will all have to wait until the gavel

falls on the last lot, for me to divulge.

So my Barber Halves just sold at Heritage...

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