A large sum of E-Bay Bucks leads to a dilemma and windfall of Eisenhower Dollars.

Greetings all, because of several large purchases on E-bay last quarter I amassed $242.37 in E-Bay Bucks. For more than a month, I planned to purchase a MS-68 1976-S Eisenhower Dollar to upgrade a MS-67. I had coins from two different sellers on my watch list and both were ?Buy it Now? listings. One coin listed for $439.00 and the other for $475. Originally, my hope was to subsidize the cost of an upgrade with E-Bay Bucks.

My dilemma though is that a MS-68 1976-S ?Ike? has a FMV of $400, and I have a problem with buying an overpriced coin simply because the cost is subsidized. With about a month to decide, the seller with the $475 coin ran a sale on it for $418. Although the $418 coin was still a little high, it had a ?Best Offer? option, and I considered offering him $400 for the coin. However, shortly before the E-Bay Bucks award, his sale ended and the coin went back to $475.

Then just three days before the award, I noticed a MS-68 coin on Great Collections for an opening bid of $330 including a 10% buyer?s fee. Unexpectedly delighted, I now had another choice. The question was, do I buy the $439 coin on E-Bay with my E-Bay Bucks and pay $197 or do I put a maximum bid on the Great Collections coin and pay as little as $133 more than the E-Bay listing minus the E-Bay Bucks subsidy. After some thought, I decided to take a chance and placed a maximum bid on the Great Collections coin. When the hammer went down Sunday evening, I found that I won the coin as the only bidder and at a cost that was 16.6% lower than FMV.

Now Left with a large sum of freed-up E-Bay bucks, I bought three MS-66 Ikes Monday morning. Added to my collection were the 1977, 1974-D, and 1972-D Eisenhower Dollars with the 1972-D coming in at almost 50% FMV. The end cost to me for three very nice coins was $5.63! Even though this route cost me more, I am very pleased with the value I got. Furthermore, the 1976-S is a spectacular coin with lots of eye appeal.

Starting a high quality Eisenhower Dollar set has also allowed me to upgrade up to four coins in each of my type sets that have Ikes. This has enhanced the quality and point values of each of these sets. A MS-68 1976-S Ike garners 1886 points for my type sets.

Copper-Nickel Eisenhower dollars are rare in MS-67. However, the 1971-D comes in with a FMV of $880 and is the least expensive to collect. A month or so ago Heritage had a 1971-D up for auction. Confusing the FMV with the MS-66, I put in a maximum bid based on the value of the MS-66 coin. Later, I discovered my mistake and thought I could never win an $880 coin on my current budget, so I ignored the auction. To my surprise, the final hammer was half the FMV value and I could just kick myself over letting that one get away. Realizing now that I can get the coin much cheaper than FMV, I adjusted my goals to add a MS-67 1971-D Eisenhower Dollar into my collection. Remarkably though, there is a seller on E-Bay that has two of these gems as a ?Buy it Now? for $4000 each!

On another note, thanks a thousand, ?Gary Golden Wilhelmina Guldens? hit a thousand views yesterday and as such is the first set in my collection to do so. Additionally, my 9-11 medals came back from the graders as a mixed bag. The West Point medal graded at PFUC-70, while the Philadelphia medal came in at PFUC-68. Generally, I have come to expect US Mint products to grade no less than 69, and I was left scratching my head. At any rate, in a side-by-side comparison, I cannot tell the difference. Oh well, for now, please enjoy the picture of my MS-68 Ike; I think you will agree that it is a beauty. Until next time, happy collecting.

Gary