Did the marketplace tell me I made a blunder? posted by Yankeejose

[CSJournals-migration]

Or were there fewer bidders on Super Bowl Sunday?

 

My wife and I each had 4 $5 dollars squares for the super bowl. I assume most people know what squares are so I won't go into details about how it works. Basically the winning score after each quarter gets one quarter of the pot. Since we had no allegiance to either team in this year's Super Bowl we were mainly watching to see if we won any money. Going into the end of the second quarter it was 21-3, I had 1-6. I needed a field goal by San Fran to win the second quarter pot. Sure enough they drive down and kick a field goal right at the end of half so I won $125 (my wife won the third quarter so I did not have to share my winnings). So what is the first thing a coin addict on a budget does with a sudden cash windfall? He looks for coins to buy!

I will regress back to a previous journal where I mentioned I lost a heritage bid on a 1936D NGC AU53 quarter when it went to live auction- hammer was $282 with buyer premium. I was almost relieved I lost because the more I looked at the coin it appeared to have damage on the reverse on the word dollar. Since I am not a grading expert I would have to assume there was a reason NGC did not grade it as damaged, but still it was a cause for concern for me. So after that I set up an email notice from Heritage on any new 36D quarters that come to auction. Sure enough another NGC AU53 came up. I put in an initial bid of $202 (with BP) which lasted a while as the high bidder. Each email I received from Heritage continued to show me as high bidder.

Back to Super Bowl Sunday. After the second quarter win, I remembered the auction so I checked my bid. The auction closed that same Sunday night. Now I was outbid so I bumped it up a little to $211. Now I was high bidder again. Still after my last experience I expected to be outbid. I looked at the coin again and from a wear standpoint the grading seemed to be consistent to the 5 other previous auction examples. These had gone from a low of $253 for an ANACS up to $345 for an NGC, with 2 PCGS at $299. The coin had some distracting black tarnish spots that the more I looked at it the more I did not like. Still I thought I would be outbid, so I decided no more bidding. Even though I really wanted this coin for my slot I thought I should wait. One more bid level would have outbid me so I went back to watching the game.

The auction was online only and it closed at 10:00 CST. I checked it about 10:20 and it still showed me as high bidder, yet it did not show that I won. I figured it was still catching up to last minute bids. I checked again at 10:45 and it still showed me only as high bidder. Then I looked at the sales history and sure enough I won it at $211.50. Obviously mixed feelings, I do not have the coin in hand yet so I can't make a final call on how bad it looks. Unless I attempt to sell it I will never know if I got this coin at 30-40% off the previous auction prices because the market felt it was that bad, because it was Super Bowl Sunday and fewer people were bidding, or since there was no live bidding afterwards no dealer could scoop it up cheap to resell. Unfortunately I am afraid I fell into the buying the holder and not coin syndrome.

 

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=131306&lotNo=24139

 

Maybe I should find a hobby with less drama- like needlepoint- yeah right!

Great wishes to all for the New Year and best of luck in your coin endeavors! Dave

 

See more journals by Yankeejose

[Kaiser14]

Remember, it's an AU53, not an MS65. There are going to be things you don't like about any AU coin. Price was low. It happens from time to time that you get a coin lower than you expect. Don't read anything into it. Super Bowl may have played a part in bidder disinterest. I'm sure there are lots of coins you missd out on over $25, $250 or $2,500 that you now kick yourself for having whimped out. It's happened to me many times. Enjoy the coin.

[jayman1970]

Based on the Heritage images your coin is not as clean looking as some of the previous sales,but I think you did ok with your purchase.I would have no problem adding that coin to my set!

 

 

Jason

[Yankeejose]

good points guys-maybe I was expecting too much- thanks for the reality check!

 

Jason- great quarter set you have going there- you have some tougher dates in MS66! I like the way you did your pictures, just the coin. That has to be my next project.