What was your best "right place, right time" moment?

Onedollarnohollar · May 21, 2016 4:56AM

Tell us about your best coin buy ever that only happened because you were in the right place at the right time. My personal best is finding an original 2000p sealed Cheerios dollar and penny package on Ebay a few years back. It had just popped up as a buy it now as I was scrolling. Right place, right time that day....Sold it, but will always remember that Eureka moment.

fivecents · May 21, 2016 5:05AM

One of mine was reading about Mr John Nanney's discovery of the 2008 Rev of 07 ASE on these PCGS forums. Walked across the room and opened my sealed box of 2008 ASEs. All 90 coins were the 2008 Rev of 07 ASE from the mint.

fivecents · May 21, 2016 5:11AM

I first started selling them for $75 each. The open market prices quickly started going to the moon.

roadrunner · May 21, 2016 5:12AM

2003 pre-ANA show in White Plains NY. Was looking for some nice type coins to buy. I ran into George at Legend who was manning the booth at the time. He happened to mention he just got in a MS65 seated dollar. I had always wanted to own one yet never could afford or find one that was all there. He showed me a wonderfully original 1870 PCGS MS65 that was available within the bid/ask spread at $19,500. Within a minute I knew I wasn't going home without it. And I knew if that coin made it to the ANA show the following week, it would sell immediately.

Just lucky I made the 90 min trip to the show that week and George mentioned he had the coin. It could have been shown to someone else, or held for ANA. Pure luck it found its way to me. That coin is now part of TDN's seated dollar set. And I was also lucky that I got the coin just shortly before TDN went strongly into seated dollars....or he would have gotten the coin first.

TDN dollar set

halfhunter · May 21, 2016 6:17AM

Originally posted by: roadrunner

2003 pre-ANA show in White Plains NY. Was looking for some nice type coins to buy. I ran into George at Legend who was manning the booth at the time. He happened to mention he just got in a MS65 seated dollar. I had always wanted to own one yet never could afford or find one that was all there. He showed me a wonderfully original 1870 PCGS MS65 that was available within the bid/ask spread at $19,500. Within a minute I knew I wasn't going home without it. And I knew if that coin made it to the ANA show the following week, it would sell immediately.

Just lucky I made the 90 min trip to the show that week and George mentioned he had the coin. It could have been shown to someone else, or held for ANA. Pure luck it found its way to me. That coin is now part of TDN's seated dollar set. And I was also lucky that I got the coin just shortly before TDN went strongly into seated dollars....or he would have gotten the coin first.

TDN dollar set

Beautiful coin and wonderful set!

HH

CommemKing · May 21, 2016 6:47AM

Bought a newly placed into inventory 1966 Kennedy half. Priced at $4.50. I really thought nothing at the time because I was just buying a bunch of cheap stuff. After second look and it looked nice, why not send it in for fun. Came back PCGS MS67, Pop 2/1 I think. I posted a pic and many thought it looked like an SMS. Nevertheless, I sold it for a trade/cash equivalent to around $3000. This was early in my collecting career. It really gassed my collecting objectives. On that lesson, I have made several more. That forged my interest that has been narrowed to early commems and a very Dansco type set. That's it!

PRECIOUSMENTAL · May 21, 2016 6:58AM

Originally posted by: CommemKing

Bought a newly placed into inventory 1966 Kennedy half. Priced at $4.50. I really thought nothing at the time because I was just buying a bunch of cheap stuff. After second look and it looked nice, why not send it in for fun. Came back PCGS MS67, Pop 2/1 I think. I posted a pic and many thought it looked like an SMS. Nevertheless, I sold it for a trade/cash equivalent to around $3000. This was early in my collecting career. It really gassed my collecting objectives. On that lesson, I have made several more. That forged my interest that has been narrowed to early commems and a very Dansco type set. That's it!

WOW!

A gain of 66566.67%.

That had to have been your best ever, right?

Walkerguy21D · May 21, 2016 6:59AM

Getting first shot from a dealer friend at a large cent collection that had been assembled back in the 1950's and 60's, that he had acquired
as part of an estate from the long time heirs. He kept a few for his personal set, the rest he planned to sell, and I was invited to his home to
look over the collection.
He used EAC grading and Greysheet pricing to me.....I bought a LOT of coins that day. A few went to forum members, but most of them I still have.
When he broke up his personal set a few years later, I got first shot at that, but many had been slabbed, and prices were quite a bit higher, but I still
purchased a fair number of those also.

braddick · May 21, 2016 7:20AM

Buffalo nickel junk roll purchased on eBay (back in the day when you could leave feedback on a seller without even purchasing from them!).
Had not one but TWO three-legged. One graded AU50 the other VF35. Just a fun little find and totally unexpected.

topstuf · May 21, 2016 7:21AM

The FINEST KNOWN 1871 dollar that I've bored you all with that I got at an out-of-the-way shop when I had no money but the guy took my check because I had a CCW and it was only $200 that PCGS ...originally stuck in a 64 rattler and I stupidly kept it there for years just pissed off at such a rotten low number when it was such a GEM but also too damn dumb to resubmit and instead sold it whereupon it got NGC'ed a 66 and then CROSSED to same at PCGS and still bugs me that I didn't listen to my inner voice but at least got a BUNCH of gold real cheap for it in trade that SOMEWHAT took the sting out of it.

puff puff

cladking · May 21, 2016 7:46AM

In late-September 1982 I was standing in the lobby of a bank that I knew had a vault full of nice gemmy 1982-P quarters waiting for the vault manager to bring me up a $1000 bag on the elevator.

In May of 1980 I was sitting in the Denver Mint souvenir shop looking through sets that were lousy with Gem 1980 dime.

Life is very much about being in the right place at the right time.

DNADave · May 21, 2016 8:06AM

1923 Kiangse

I picked up two of these at a local auction house, along with a piece of local ephemera. All three for $7.50. I wish I could say I new what they were at the time of purchase, but I didn't know the value until later internet searches. The one I still have is nicer.

messydesk · May 21, 2016 8:30AM

My story doesn't involve Obscene Profit™, but I still think it's cool. Several years ago, I was studying the VAM book, noticing all the repunched dates for 1896. The 1896 VAM 1A, which was at one time called a 6/4 (either by Breen or Fivaz, can't remember who was first), was listed as a gouge in the 6. I thought it looked like a repunched date with a large offset, but I needed a coin in AU to study so I could prove it. A local club show, where the same 30 dealers stand in front of their same, tired stock for 5 hours, was that weekend, and I decided to go to try and find one. As luck would have it, I found one in AU within 20 minutes of arriving. The dealer I bought it from wasn't a regular. I did some overlays to show the repunched date, sent it to Leroy Van Allen, who agreed, and now it's listed as VAM 19 and in the CPG and part of the Hit List 40.

spacehayduke · May 21, 2016 8:48AM

The day I bought this from DWN on the bourse and paid 70% over pcgs market value, the Gold bean was added after purchase, below. One of 3 Dahlonega QEs with a gold bean, and the rarest of the 3.

Best, SH

LanceNewmanOCC · May 21, 2016 8:51AM

.

i like that one messy. have seen a few. never an unc in-hand though.

ive got so many right-place-right time instinct moments, they have all but removed the word coincidence from my vocab.

for my budget; an impressive amount of first-graded varieties at the various tpg and my most expensive vam discovery a few years back due to an ebay special on top of it being a .99 auc that ended low. sent to messy, then leroy, now is 79p ms65 pcgs toner vam-73.

right place right time for some big cud groups with big cuds. i'd like to hit 1,000 cuds sold within 10 years but really only buying them as i come across them. kinda fun that way.

that reminds me.....

.

Cougar1978 · May 21, 2016 9:14AM

While setup at a show, I had been searching the bourse room for a PCGS MS65 Gettysburg Half Dollar and no luck. An investor came up with a box of coins for sale and there was one, the price was right, and I purchased it.

MrHalfDime · May 21, 2016 9:43AM

Actually my best “right place, right time” moment did not involve the purchase of a coin, per se, but involved the purchase of an incredible and very rare piece of Americana, with obvious numismatic connections. Rather than recount the entire story here, I will simply provide links for those who are interested in learning what it is, and how the incredible story unfolded. What I acquired was a beautiful print of the well known John Ward Dunsmore painting, properly titled “Washington Inspecting the First Money Coined by the United States”, which can be seen here . The story of how I was able to acquire the print, with the help of a few others, can be read here , as it appeared in the January 14, 2007 E-Sylum. According to our own Coinasaurus, coauthor of the historic account “The Secret History of the First U. S. Mint”, there are just two copies known of this print, in a calendar format, one permanently impounded in the Frank H. Stewart Collection museum at Rowan University and the other in my collection (“The Secret History of the First U. S. Mint”, Joel Orosz, Len Augsberger, Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, GA, 2011; page 252.

AUandAG · May 21, 2016 1:56PM

Typed my story and it just disappeared before I could post.

Would have bored you anyway.

here's the results of a chance buy:

Cert Number PCGS No. Date Denom Variety Grade Status

08573134 7286 1903-O $1 MS64

08573135 7226 1893-S $1 VF20

08573136 7228 1894 $1 AU58

08573137 7232 1894-S $1 AU58

08573138 7156 1884-S $1 XF45

08573139 7148 1883-S $1 AU55

08573140 7131 1881-S $1 MS63PL

08573142 7186 1888-S $1 AU55

08573143 7356 1921 $1 High Relief, Peace MS64

These were in a bag of silver dollars I bought with silver at $8 silver

bob

stealer · May 21, 2016 1:58PM

An early date gem proof morgan, raw for a couple hundred dollars.

AUandAG · May 21, 2016 2:02PM

Originally posted by: stealer

An early date gem proof morgan, raw for a couple hundred dollars.

Trolling ebay at just the right time, 'eh Steeler?

bob

goodmoney4badmoney · May 21, 2016 3:03PM

Second coin I ever bought in my life;

Walked into a local coin shop for the first time and asked if they had any error coins. Dealer immediately reaches over to a back counter, then holds up 2 slabs and states that they had just come in. I was a real newbie and still learning the ropes, but I bought one of them, because I thought it looked cool and was priced VERY inexpensively. Later as I was learning and researching more I realized that I had bought a very rare and choice coin. A decade later I finally parted with it and made 4 figures. That coin would have sold very quickly if put out for public view. To date it's still my best "cherrypick" even though it was completely accidental.

seanq · May 23, 2016 1:56AM

I have had quite a few, from getting first shot at coins that had just walked into a coin shop just before me, to seeing a new pick-up diagnostic in a picture then using it to find one on eBay a week later. The most unlikely one was probably at a WESPNEX show in the mid 2000s, I had checked in with an error dealer with whom I have a long relationship and about half an hour later someone walked up to his table with a clipped 2003 cent. The guy wasn't an error collector, he'd just found it in his change. My dealer friend flagged me down and I bought it on the spot, it was the first I'd seen of the date and I've only ever seen one other since. Another time I was at the same show and very disappointed that most of the error dealers were not in attendance. I started walking out and stopped to look at one last case by the door, where I spotted a really nice 1919-D Lincoln with a tiny unattributed rim clip. At the time it was the first I'd seen and it went straight into my date set.

Sean Reynolds

TigersFan2 · May 23, 2016 5:26AM

Back in the late 1990s I was in line at the credit union when the guy in front of me had around 50 Eisenhower Dollars he was exchanging for paper money. Then when I got to the teller, I exchanged paper money for the 50 Eisenhower Dollars. Probably not to the level of many of you, but it was a fun exchange as I hadn't seen an Eisenhower Dollar in quite awhile.

TwoSides2aCoin · May 23, 2016 8:50AM

A dealer who sees bullion as bullion and dipping as saving a coin, once traded me quarter eagle gold coins for a one ounce gold coin. Trading gold for gold. Gram for gram.

Bullion prices in exchange for what turned out to be "nicer" coins. I submitted a couple of them, and for the price, it was what I considered being " in the right trade."

These graded MS 64, MS 66, and MS 65 respectively.

Buying on eBay sort of got me in the "search for good deals /trades anywhere" mode.

EagleEye · May 23, 2016 1:52PM

Just by chance I spotted a XF 1888/7 Indian cent unattributed on eBay with a .99c opening bid. I posted a $20 initial bid to lock it in and a $8,000 nuclear bid to snipe it. No one else noticed it and I won it for $47.

PCGS graded it VF30 and before I could retail it to my customers, Harry Laibstein bought it for $10K. After he upgraded it to XF, I bought it back for $13,000 and sold it to my customer for $14,500.

coinkat · May 23, 2016 8:05PM

interesting stories

pmac · May 23, 2016 10:53PM

When I met my wife. I know, a little sappy, but it's the truth.

metalmeister · May 24, 2016 2:35AM

Finding a 3 legger Buff and a 1909S IHC in a dealer junk box. Both came back ANACS VF

Oh and picking up a 1799 Bust $ in PCGS OGH in XF at a "friendly" discount

derryb · May 24, 2016 3:07AM

Jacksonville, FL, home of the great Washington dollar missing edge lettering in Fed wrapped rolls discovery. Hit every bank in town for them. In many cases the banks were able to procure me 1,000 coin bricks. Probably searched over 30 bricks. Hundreds of good results.

SanctionII · May 24, 2016 3:33AM

Too many to remember.

Many of them centered around looking for, finding and purchasing at local shops, coin shows and on the internet OGP proof and SMS set and 1947-1958 double mint sets for bid (or even back of bid) which contain high grade Cameo or DCAM coins, or which contain varieties, or which contain fully original multicolored coins.

Kept the nice coins and resold the left overs.

Last year I cherrypicked two 1959 proof sets containing Cameo half dollars.

A nice feature of collecting in this niche area is that there are lots of OGP and after market sets and there are also raw singles of these coins which are raw (and thus modestly priced) that you can find and look through. While finding cherries is getting harder and harder, they are still available and a collector can still experience the thrill of a successful hunt.

oih82w8 · May 24, 2016 3:39AM

One of these days I will have a positive story to tell...

cmerlo1 · May 24, 2016 4:57AM

At a show years ago, a dealer I frequent because of his lack of knowledge/caring about varieties told me had put a bunch of new coins out in his boxes of 2X2's. One of them was a 1942/1-D dime (that ended up grading PCGS AU58+ FB) for $10.

What was your best "right place, right time" moment?

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