"With a tone, tone here and a tone, tone there; here a tone, there a tone.......

[cpm9ball]

In the five previous years of attending FUN, I don't think I have seen as many toned Morgans as I did today, and some of these were carrying hefty, 4-figure price tags for common dates. I guess more and more dealers are trying to cash in on the feeding frenzy. But, where are they finding all of them?

 

At one table, I spotted a nice irridescent, sea green 1886 in a PCGS MS65 holder and the dealer wanted $450 for it; at the same table, was an 1881-S PCGS MS64 with irridescent blue and rose toning. I told him that I thought the '86 was overgraded because Liberty had a pretty substantial gash on her cheek, whereas, the '81S was virtually clean. I guess he must have thought I knew what I was talking about because he offered me the '81S for $140, and I took it.

 

Chris

[tejas1836]

How was the show compared to the others you've attended? I don't think anyone has posted a show report yet. What's your theory on the increased toner population?

[Schatzy]

You have to post a picture of the pickup

[kryptonitecomics]

I actually didn't see as many toners this show as in the past and the vast majority were overpriced by 3X to 4X....and I am dead serious....

 

There may have been more toned Morgans as Chris pointed out but most were not selling due to the prices. I managed to pick up 14 Morgans at the show....5 were blast white and the rest were toned. Outside of two coins I had to pay over what I felt was market value to get them and I wasn't even grabing monsters

 

I think a lot of the dealers are way behind the times.....when the hight of the toned market hit in 2005, there were still plenty of dealers not charging premiums for toners or just a small premium. Now that the market has dropped dramatically and the AT scare is all the rage....the dealers that weren't charging premiums now are ignoring the grade on the slabs and are simply adding a big chunk of color money to the price. It's pretty silly really and I would expect dealers to have a better feel for the market they are in but.....

 

I tried to educate several and I pulled out a few nice toners that I had paid $50 to $100 dollars for outside of the show and compared them to some pretty average coins in their inventory with price tags above $200....I think it was a real eye opener for them but alas...they did not lower their prices so they will be packing all those coins up and taking them to the next show were they won't be sold either

 

I thought the traffic was pretty good today.....not a ton of people on Thursday which was nice as I got to room the floor without the crowds.

[cpm9ball]

Since I was only there about five hours, today, I wouldn't be able to judge it with any degree of accuracy. What I did see while I was there, despite the rather chilly climate, was a pretty good turn-out. I saw a lot of people, who didn't lead me to believe that they were coin collectors, looking to buy bullion - silver - gold - U.S. - foreign - it didn't matter just as long as it was a precious metal. I also saw and/or overheard a good number of people looking to sell. One fellow brought in a baggie full of heavily circulated Morgans, and he was haggling with a dealer trying to get a better price. Another fellow was looking to sell SAE's that come in the tubes you find in the green monster boxes. He had about a dozen tubes of SAE's in an enameled cookie can. A dealer I overheard was trying to explain to another couple the difference in value of collectible coins vs. generic bullion. I guess the economy has a lot of people worried - some are needing to sell for financial reasons while others are looking for another investment vehicle.

 

Since I wasn't there on Friday, I missed the annual SSDC meeting, but I was fortunate to be able to track down Ash Harrison and get the 2010 copy of VAMView, the retail price index for Morgan varieties. These values are published by the SSDC based on actual sales results. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my favorites, an 1885CC (PCGS MS65, VAM-4, Hot 50) increased in value by 67% and 108% over my original purchase price.

 

The NGC Luncheon had a very good turn-out, too, in spite of the fact that some of the members who said they would be attending, didn't. This year NGC used two of the meeting rooms instead of using just one as in the past and it was about 90% full. Those in attendance got a couple of cool gifts from NGC. One was a 2009 Lincoln Cent "Formative Years" slabbed with the "Members Luncheon" label, and the other gift was an "NCS Challenge Certificate" for a free NCS conservation and NGC grading with NGC even paying the return postage. All the submitter must do is complete a survey when the coin, either U.S. or foreign, is returned to them and allow NCS to post the results and comments, if they choose, on their website.

 

The only drawback to the Lincoln cent gift was that it wasn't one of the DDR's, but it did have an extra chunk of metal on the "N" of CENT.

 

Chris

[michael]

with lots of the toned morgans overpriced looks like the show should be called

 

the fun museum

[physics-fan3.14]

I had a great time at FUN - and it was great meeting you guys. I'll post a full report tomorrow, right now I'm going to crash after driving back home.

[HiHoAudio]

I guess he must have thought I knew what I was talking about because he offered me the '81S for $140, and I took it.

 

I hate to belabor the obvious Chris but you do know what you are talking about.

[cpm9ball]

I guess he must have thought I knew what I was talking about because he offered me the '81S for $140, and I took it.

 

I hate to belabor the obvious Chris but you do know what you are talking about.

 

Joe Pesci's line from My Cousin Vinny................."What?"

 

Chris

[cpm9ball]

You have to post a picture of the pickup

 

I drive a Chrysler T&C.

 

Sorry, Jaime, but my photo program became corrupted somehow, and I haven't replaced it yet. I don't like Photobucket.

 

Chris