Buying comes easier than selling...

The latest Whitman Expo in Baltimore is now "history". As usual, I took Thursday and Friday off work to attend the show. Well, actually I did go to work on Thursday, since the show didn't open to the public until 2PM, and there wasn't anything calling for my money in the B&M auction to get me to spend the morning viewing lots. Thus, the company got some free labor.

Ever since the Goldbergs' sale of the Naftzger middle date large cents in February 2009, I've been kicking myself for being late and missing the 1828 cent in which I was most interested, and which sold for less than I was willing to pay. But I have also wondered why I did not bid on one of the nice 1832 cents in that sale. Those of you who have looked at my middle date set in the past year will have noticed that my 1832 cent is graded notably lower than all my other cents from the 1830s.

A nice NGC MS66BN 1832 N-1 cent appeared in an April 2009 Heritage auction. From the on-line photos, it appeared comparable to the Naftzger example of the same variety (in PCGS MS66BN). Unfortunately, shortly after the Naftzger sale, I did not have enough money to win that lot.

At the Summer 2009 Baltimore show, I noticed an NGC MS66BN 1832 N-1 cent in a prominent EAC dealer's case. I asked to see it, and took notes, including the certification number. Indeed it was the same coin, and did look as nice as the Naftzger specimen. Unfortunately, with the dealer's 30% markup, it was priced even farther out of reach, slightly higher than the Naftzger cent realized. But at least I knew it was out there.

The months passed, and I bought a few coins here and there. That 1832 cent remained on display, unsold, for a couple more shows that I was able to attend.

But going into this weekend's Baltimore show, things had changed. With some numismatic dollars saved, plus the benefit of a smaller tax burden than I had budgeted, I had enough at least to make that dealer an offer. But did he still have the coin?

At 2PM Thursday, the crowd was let in to the show. I made a beeline to that dealer's table. The dealer was there. The coin was there. I asked to see it one more time. Still liking it as much as ever, I made an offer. The dealer said he normally doesn't give discounts (which is my prior experience with him), but in this case would reward me for my patience. I wrote him a check and now have the coin!

Now don't run off to view my new acquisition in the context of the Registry set. It's not there. It's still, after almost a year since being consigned to auction, registered to another member. So it should appear in my set within a week.

That's the buying part of my story. Having purchased that 1832 cent, I had a duplicate to sell. In an NGC MS63BN slab, and grading a solid 55 or better, Average+ by EAC standards, I had hoped to make a little money over my purchase price. After all, recent Heritage results have been about double what I paid, and CQR (Copper Quotes by Robinson, a price reference and source of other good info used by EAC folk) has it listed at more than I paid as well. No luck. My asking price is just too close to the CQR price for the EAC dealers to want it. And dealers who do not specialize in copper won't touch it. They tend to look only at the Grey Sheet, which is way low on essentially all early & middle date large cents - by factors of 2 or more. So I may hold on to it until I have a batch of coins to consign to auction.

The show seemed pretty good overall. In addition to Thursday afternoon, I was at the show most of the day Friday, including the Liberty Seated Collector's Club meeting, and for a couple hours Saturday, including the Early American Coppers club meeting. There were a lot of people on the floor all the time that I was there. Dealers with whom I spoke indicated that business was good, but not as strong as, say, a year and a half ago. It seems that people are starting to spend on coins again. I never stopped...