Just an interesting and kind of funny story

[MikeKing]

I went to a local coin show today. Picked up three neat coins. I brought three pcgs holdered busties with me that i wanted to cull from my collection. two of them are AT , the other one 1827 is a beautiful organically toned bustie with nice satiny cartwheel luster au55.

 

I offered the 1827 to a dealer in exchange for two of his coins. He wouldn't do it. Of the three coins, he disliked the 1827 and liked the other two much better. In fact, the one he like most was overdipped and probably AT.

 

OK, so what's the moral of the story here?

 

Yes, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but the more you collect and study, the more you know what is generally acceptable to serious numismatists.

 

And we're all serious here...no???

 

So, what I'm saying is, my top tier organic coin which has beautiful untouched surfaces, relatively mark free, IS a higher end coin than the other two, because of what I stated above.

 

The dealer does not know busties, what is of value in busties, and therefore the dealer does not know their merchandise.

 

So what do you do in this case?

 

Scour their inventory, pick out all the great coins knowing they'll be priced less than the truly ugly ones!

 

Ain't that somethin?!

[EZ_E]

It's Cherry-Pickin' time!

[cpm9ball]

Mike, there could be any number of reasons for his reactions. Just because he told you one thing, doesn't mean that he is being 100% honest with you. He could have been downplaying the 1827 to try to save himself some money. Maybe his higher-end customers (relatively-speaking) have "gone south" and the rest of his customers can't afford pieces like your 1827. The economy is having serious affects on the spending habits of a lot of people, and maybe he can't risk carrying it in his inventory for any length of time. Perhaps, he knows that it would be easier for him to resell the lesser coins. Maybe he does or doesn't know his Busties, but he probably knows his market better than you.

 

Chris

[TomB]

Something I learned a long time ago at my own table; pretty sells.

[braddick]

Something I learned a long time ago at my own table; pretty sells.

 

Totally agree. All one needs to do is read Mark Feld's Morgan thread to have that validated.

[Conder101]

He may also just know his customers and he knows it will be much easier for him to move the dipped and AT pieces while the NT coin would sit in his stock for awhile until someone comes along that actually understands the coin. If I can flip the two AT's next week, but the NT is going to sit for six months, which one do I want to buy?

[James_OldeTowne]

Although busties are very popular with us as collectors, my experience has long been that the "general service" dealer prefers coins that are easier to sell as "commodities" than the bust coins. In other words, bright, shiny Morgans and walkers, and mint red Lincoln cents from the 1930s are easier to buy and easier to sell, because there's always someone looking for them. But with bust half dollars, there's so much activity outside standard dealer channels that it's tougher for them to keep their fingers on the pulse of the market.

 

Good observations, and a good thread!

[Dcoin]

So, how did it end? Which coins did he take, of any? Enquiring minds what to know

[Oldtrader3]

Sell the 1927 bust to someone who appreciates it for what it is. Some dealers may not understand or deal in that niche of coins. Plus, some just move what sells in a few days or less. Sell the 1828 at auction if it is a nice coin. I have not had much luck with selling quality coins to many dealers at shows. Many it seems, would not know quality if it smacked them in the forehead. They don't want to pay for quality and could care less about it unless they can turn the coin in a couple days. They just do the verbal snuffle, shuffle and try to buy the coin for less because they don't know how to sell it, they don't realize what it is, or they don't have the right clientele, or all of the above. Sell him your AT coins then just walk away and don't do business with him again.