Taking a lesson from the one that got away, I snagged a great coin at a good price.

About a month ago, I opined about a very nice coin that slipped through my fingers because I hesitated. While I cannot take back the actions of the past, I can take the lessons learned from the past and apply them to future opportunities.

One of the lessons I learned when buying coins is to try and buy the hard ones first. For example, I am working to assemble a high grade Morgan Dollar collection of MS-65 & 66 coins for a set average of $200/per coin. I have targeted 22 coins that will fit into this definition. Within those 22 coins, I am working on an 1879-S to 1882-S short set of MS-66 coins. Since higher grade Morgan?s are likely to rise faster and higher in value, I have endeavored to populate those slots first. This has proven to be a wise strategy as the Numismedia Fair Market Values have risen in just the past month. I have also noticed higher closing bids on Teletrade and E-Bay. Furthermore, the ?Buy It Now? prices on E-Bay seemed to be set a little higher.

With my buying strategy in mind, I have set up several E-Bay and Mr. Wantlist notices for the coins I want. While on a break at work surfing for coins on my want list, I found an NGC MS-66 1882-S Morgan that I had not gotten a notice for yet and listed as a ?Buy it Now? for 5.6% less than Fair Market Value. Furthermore, as icing on the cake, this coin was CAC verified. Needless to say, I snagged up that bad girl without hesitation. This coin verified as solid for its grade is as close to MS-67 as I am likely to get since there are no coins in the Morgan Dollar series' grading MS-67 that fall within my budget.

This coin represents the third of four coins I owned, leaving me with only the 1880-S left to purchase. Last Monday evening I placed a bid on a PCGS MS-66 CAC verified coin for auction on Teletrade. Unfortunately, the closing bid was higher than I was willing to pay and I lost the coin. However, I had a couple of other 1880-S examples on my watch lists.

A new seller with no feedback rating listed one of those coins I was tracking on E-Bay. The starting bid on the coin was reasonable and well below the Fair Market Value for the coin. I know that people are sometimes suspicious of new sellers, but I thought to give him a chance when I noticed he had several other coins for sale. For days, I had monitored this coin, noticing that no one had placed a bid on it. This was likely due to the seller?s feedback rating, so rather than place a bid I set up a ?snip? to bid the lot with six seconds left. It seems another person had the same idea, except that my bid was higher, and I won the auction today. This coin won for 13% less than Fair Market Value was a full $90 below the coin I lost on Teletrade! Now the coin is on its way to me and will likely arrive next week Tuesday.

For now please enjoy this picture of ?the one that didn?t get away?! Happy collecting all!

Gary