What would you have bid? One that got away...

This is a coin that I was following, but didn't win.
What do you all think? Do you believe the obverse looks DMPL (or just PL) based on the photo? Do you trust the photo or could the cameo be enhanced in the editing process?
How much would you have bid?
This one ended up selling for $260 (about $80-$100 more than a generic MS 66) while my max was around $240.

 

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Man! I would've taken that for 260 no questions asked. But that is me not knowing what the real value of the coin is.

 

I’m not sure that much of runup on the bids was due to whether or not the obverse was interpreted as PL or DMPL. What was it? I think it was the CAC sticker. If it was, I think the winner paid too much. CAC stickers do that in a lot of auctions.

Just one guy’s thoughts.....

 

I would have to do some research on this date before U could answer your question. Photos can be deceiving but it looks PL bytnit dud not receive a PL grade. It did a green bean. I would have been interested in this coin.

 

It certainly looks nice from the photo.
I was also struggling to put a value to it. Generic 66s have been as low as $140, with the majority falling into the $160-$220 range.

 

I think the CAC sticker played a role, but not a huge one. In this grade, a generic 66 might receive a $10-$20 boost from a sticker. One sided pl/dmpl coins do have their fans (I like them too). I believe the obverse had more to do with the price than the sticker.

 

I think it’s a clear pl and I’d have probably paid $260 though not much more

 

If it had been in a NGC holder it would have gotten a star. Common date in PL and DMPL.

 

Obverse DMPL if the photos aren’t messed with. $260 is FMV for this one in my opinion, neat coin but luckily there are lots of PL Morgans (even halfsies like this one) in the sea.

 

I was looking at some ANACS DMPLs and found one on ebay that was MS 65 DMPL that is now in PCGS MS64, not even PL designation. What a hit. Fella was trying to get 65 PL money for it, or @600$.
I'd say this is a really nice coin for 260, I would've jumped. Also much nicer than the coin above at 2.5 x price.
Edit: and I agree with @TheFinn that she would get a star over at NGC. And merit it.

 

Looks nice, nicer than many that get graded MS67. I'm guessing it did not (or would not) get a DMPL/PL due to the reverse not being reflective. I noticed one seller on eBay who seemed to enhance all his Morgans so that they looked more reflective than what you see in hand. Not sure if this happened here. For a MS66 with CAC, the $260 was probably a fair price for someone who wanted it in their collection. Don't worry, there will be more nice 1879-S coins coming around and you'll have another chance for one.

 

A nice coin whatever the price. I'm wondering if the green bean caused it to go higher. Or maybe the winner already had the 1879S with the parallel arrow feather and wanted the slanted arrow feather for the year.

 

To my eye, and from those photos, I don't think the reverse is PL, in which case it wouldn't be a PL coin.

 

Without seeing it in hand I would be conservative in any bidding I did. Coins like this can easily be made to look much better by proper lighting than they would in hand.

 

I think conder nailed it. The pictures make it look really nice, but PCGS saw it in hand to get the grade and attributes. It might look different once you had it in hand.

 

I don't think he's asking if it would grade PL/DMPL because it clearly wouldn't, just if you think the obverse is DMPL which I think it clearly is based on the picture which I don't think is juiced (been wrong before!).

Personally I'm not a fan of one sided PL/DMPL morgans so I would have passed on it but think it was well bought at $260 still.

 

That is correct. I am confident it is not PL as the reverse isn't close (from the photos and almost certainly in hand too). The obverse is what I was wondering about. I know there are some sellers that juice every Morgan to make it look DMPL. This one does not look like those, but I'm still not fully confident in how nice the obverse is.

I'm drawing the conclusion that $260 was an ok price for a keeper. However, it would be high if the photo was exaggerated or if someone was looking to resell. Also, given that it was an auction, I would have needed to bid more than $260 to win (and I have no way of knowing what the max bid was for the high bidder).

For now, the hunt continues for an ideal one sided DMPL Morgan...

 

I saw a string of 4 in a row of those last night ending on ebay from the same seller. A few had trueviews or sold at heritage recently. It was just embarrassing how bad the pictures were in comparison. One sold at heritage for $93 and was at $145 or so with an hour left on ebay with the awful juiced pictures.

What I don't get is who receives that coin in the mail and keeps it aren't they just constantly taking returns or getting negatives with these awful pics?

 

That was a good price. A one-sided DMPL is worth a premium over a normal coin, especially if it's on the obverse. A 2-sided PL is $375-$525, and a normal coin $225. CAC sticker probably adds a couple bucks at this grade, too. NGC would grade it 66*. If you were the underbidder at $240, then the buyer may have gone $300 or more had you raised, so don't sweat it too much.

 

Toliver James is one of those sellers that I notice has these auctions up almost every day. And yet his feedback is very high. Some people likely do return those coins, but enough must keep them since the seller continues doing it (if the return rate was very high I'd imagine it would eventually shut down his eBay business). Why do they keep these coins? I'm just as baffled as you are.