I was perusing Heritage, as I often do on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I saw the upcoming sale of the Skidaway Island collection on Heritage. This appears to mostly be Bust Halves - and there appear to be a very large number of them. Anyone know who this is, and who's selling their collection? Is there a lot of interest or buzz being generated for this collection? Any thoughts on the quality, looking through it? I have some very strong opinions, but they are strongly negative: After looking through nearly 500 Bust Halves, I saw only 3 that I am interested in. There are a few nice coins, but not many. Nearly every single coin in the collection is cleaned, spotty, damaged, unorignal, or unattractive in some way. This is a huge collection - but it is a terribly unappealing one. Let this serve as encouragement when you collect - focus on quality, rather than quantity. When it comes time to sell, there will be a huge difference between a collection assembled with care, and one assembled with ugly coins.
Yes. It looks like a significant number of varieties (although only about 2/3 complete). But even common R.1, R.2, R.3 varieties which should be plentiful in an attractive, original condition are more often represented by ugly coins.
This my be by a person trying to get the most varieties he/she could afford. I have done the same with large cents !
Actually it depends on what you are looking at. Looks like the collection has 341 coins in the AU range all graded by NGC. Only 30 of them are in NGC details holders. Granted a few more of the coins look like they were treated by sulfer in some manner, but just my opinion. Now I did not look at every coin like you did, but I did see more than a few that I would not mind having. Now if the person was collecting by variety - then an AU range bust half collection is pretty impressive. Granted not all are what I would call choice AU, but still I would consider it a nice collection. While you say focus on quality - well quality means something different to everyone. I am happy having a large cent collection in the PO - XF/AU range. All I need is a 1793 liberty cap - I am sure that will not be a very high grade, and maybe even a details coin. While I wait on it when I see a middle date or later date I can upgrade I do it. The middle dates I am looking at the VF range and XF/AU for later date coins. All a personal choice.
While only a small number are in details holders, a significant number of the rest probably should be. There are a large number that have been cleaned, dipped, messed with, or otherwise treated. NGC and PCGS both consider these market acceptable - but I don't. I'm not denying the fact that 300 AU bust halves is impressive - but I would be significantly more impressed by 100 quality coins.
I don't think I looked through them as closely as Jason did, but I have to agree that probably 75% of them don't appeal to me very much. I think that a lot of the coins are original, just deeply darkly original which obscures the design. I don't find that desirable, nor the headlight bright ones that have been cleaned or dipped to death. Some of the lightly dipped upper AU ones that have retoned actually look pretty nice. I'm guessing that this collector was focusing on Overton #s in XF-AU and was either in a big hurry or had a budget that forced him* to make certain concessions in the pursuit of a goal. I expect that the rare varieties will generate some competitive bids, but the common ones will not do too well (hope I'm wrong). Being in NGC holders does not help either, the market being what it is. *gender assumed
I have to admit I did not look at them all, but I did see several I thought should be in details holders. So I do agree with you and know what you mean - I just don't want other people to assume AU is not a quality coin. Not all AU's are equal. A nice original AU is a quality coin in the Bust half realm - but so are some VF's in my opinion. You can have a quality collection in just about any grade - as long as the coins look original.
