I Bought This on eBay

OP - Original Post (Start of thread)

 

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Also, if I'm not mistaken, did you buy that coin from L&C? It looks like one of their pics. I like L&C because they frequently run Sunday night auctions on eBay with a lot of high-grade PCGS moderns, and they're true auctions - low starting bids, no reserve, the bidders decide the value of the coin. You will almost always get coins for much cheaper than the PCGS price guide in auctions like that.

 

Small world, indeed! The very same coin.

Until a few days ago, my only common theme for purchasing a coin was for investment purpose, long term, of course. After becoming a member of CT, I'm starting to find out that there's a whole different world of coin collecting that I wasn't aware of. What impressed me the most is that experienced collectors like you willing to help newbies like me. I have seen sharks and crooks who's out to cheat me so this is very refreshing.
I'm enjoying this very much. I don't remember when was the last time I got excited like this just to log onto an website. Thanks @John Anthony

 

I bought it from a small seller, dbrpthinker2012 (403) but I'll certainly check out L&C

 

Yeah, check out their Sunday night auctions - if you're looking for investment value, you've got to buy as low as you can, of course, and true auctions are the way to go.

BTW, I'm not that experienced. I only started collecting a few years ago, but I do know a little something about collecting Kennedy Halves - but not anywhere near as much as the experts like Lee, or Caleb, or Giorgio. Those guys are sick.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/361028088494

I had this Kennedy collection posted on eBay and took it down after a few days.
I don't think I should sell it so cheap. Any opinions?

 

About the coins you want to send in - consider getting opinions about them first (here, LCS, etc.). I mention this because it can be quite expensive to send in coins for grading and that will be money that you may or may not get back.

 

It's really impossible to make a determination of the value of an album like that without grading the coins individually, and you don't really get a good idea of the grades from those pics. Personally I would never buy an album that's already filled, because the fun of collecting is in the hunt. But each to his own - I know guys who want exactly that.

 

I hear you Doug, and have thought about this question quite a bit too. I have come to the conclusion that the 64 Kennedy didn't help the situation, but the real culprit IMO was the fact they kept silver in halves after 1964. So, quarters and dimes went back into circulation when they became clad based. But, non-collectors heard ALL halves, whether clad or not, had silver in them. This led to nearly all halves to be hoarded, even those after 1970 that no longer had any silver in them. After a good decade or so, people simply were out of the habit of using them, and the denomination died.

It really is sad too, since most modern collectors do not realize the half dollar was WAY more popular over the year than the quarter. The quarter was always considered kind of an odd denomination, whereas the half dollar was a backbone of commerce.

 

Those are cellpics and I know they look just horrible. I need to invest in a good coinpic setup. I'm glad I decided not to sell cause I'm going to try and grade some of them and have fun with it. The album came as a part of a package that I bought from a widow and I really didn't thought much of it since my main interest was in silver and that whole album doesn't have much silver in it. Thanks for your opinion.

 

The half dollar had nothing to do with moving Proof set production. They really were not sure if they would ever make proof sets again at the time they stopped making them in 1964. Many collectors have forgotten how villified we were in the 60's by the mint and the general public. The government put all of the blame of the coin shortage, caused by Gresham's law, on coin collectors. So, to "punish" us, they removed all mintmarks from coins and discontinued proof sets, blaming all coinage issues on us instead of the very normal reaction under Gresham's Law for silver coinage to disappear from circulation.

To be a little fair, the bag hoarding craze was going strong, and this could be somewhat disruptive to commerce on occasions, so we were not completely innocent. However, Gresham's Law was 100 times more powerful of a cause for what was going on, but coin collectors were a convenient scapegoat.

 

I'm the living proof of your theory, now these are just the ones I have accumulated here in Dallas in last couple of years, I'm sure I got more back home in Cali. unless my kids got to it but, like you said, they really don't like going to the store with halves.

 

Yes, Gresham's law was fully in play. But the commemorative nature of the halves also inspired a lot of hoarding. Kennedy was quite popular and I think a lot of people who weren't even collectors hoarded the 64 Kennedy's as keepsakes. It's one of the reasons you find them with so many different toning patterns. I suspect a lot of them went into grandma's mahogany dresser, right next to the potpourri - or some such storage arrangement.

People would simply prefer to keep the coins than spend them, even today. Case in point: I had a handful of clad mint-set rejects, not worth more than face, so I decided to spend them. The cashier I gave them to immediately set them aside, took out her purse, and replaced them with bills. So much for trying to put them into circulation!

 

What is LCS?
I need to pick 4 coins first to be graded. There are couple of coins, 1909-S VDB penny and 1919-d mercury dime, seem to be easy choices but I have no idea what else I got that could be worth the trip. I definitely need more time to look through my stuff and I'll have fun with it.

 

Local Coin Store. Sometimes gets called B&M, brick and mortar.

 

Right under my nose and never thought about them, in fact, I have never been in to a coin shop. Now, there is another realm of possibilities that I need to explore. B&M, Wow!

 

If you can get your hands on a decent camera with macro focusing and post the pics of the coins you want to submit, the forum can give you advice. A lot of very experienced submitters here can instantly size up a coin and tell you whether it's worth the expense. With coins like the 09-S VDB and 19-D there is always the possibility of fakes, and then you've wasted your money sending them to a grader.

 

Yes, but caveat emptor. Not all dealers are created equal. If you get any estimates or offers, don't accept them until you've asked the forum. There are a lot of straight-shooting guys here.

 

I don't think that I would necessarily agree with that analysis. The coins were large and bulky and virtually disappeared due to their silver content.