Mr. Carr is a "Perfection" Freak!

I learned this lesson when I was a kid. There was a local coin shop ran by an old guy named Al. I was probably 13 or so and I would go there on the weekend and visit with the guys that hung out there and buy the occasional coin. I remember asking him what coins he collected and very clearly explained that one cannot be a successful dealer and a collector. I remember at the time being surprised by that but today I understand what he meant.

 

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You obviously can do both. Unless of course there is a rule against taking the money you make from being a dealer that is disposable income and spending it on collecting coins. There do seem to be a lot of rules to numismatic that I don’t know and maybe that is one of them.

 

His point was that if you kept all the nice stuff you would never make any money. You can either be a collector who offsets some of the hobby by dumping the lesser coins or you can be a dealer who exists to make money. You can't be both because a collector would not let the good stuff go...and the good stuff makes the money. He was dealer who made a living selling coins and as a result didn't collect. I agree with his line of thinking.

I'm sure you will disagree and that's OK.

 

There is no or not....as numbers dont lie.
The last show I worked in December of 19 .....there were like 20 dealers in the room. None were buying carr items as again there were over 5 customers trying to unload Carr crap.
They only offered 5% under spot on" silver items", as they were not wanting to carry them in their inventory.
So most attendees of that show who had hopes of unloading thier Carr items left the show with them....as none of the dealers wanted them.
I witnessed the same a few years back when a guy came in with a very nice set of Franklins.
He came to me and asked why none of the dealers were making him an offer?
The reason was again no need to carry an item that you already are over stocked.
Being totally honest with the man I told him that they wont make an offer as they #1 dont want ,or need....but most of all making an offer so low that it would upset him.

 

Oops wrong thread.

 

That is why this is all so interesting to me. I would have never thought that to be a collector you needed to only collect the good stuff, I would have thought you could just maybe buy a coin with your profit and not say a boat or a trip to Mexico. But it makes sense as it does seem to be addictive and I do know that it is not a wise move to get high on your own supply. So I think strictly speaking I am correct but you are correct that it is usually not practical and could lead to danger that just isn’t worth it.
Thanks for explaining it that way.

 

Paddy,
There are other markets and those markets are up at the moment. The coin I got was 50$ out of the box. I will never be able to sell it for that I don’t think. I’m sure that you are right that people other will lose money too, they always do, but not all and that was the point of my post.

Markets are up in places and if you believe Paddy sell now

 

I've done pretty good this year so far.
I'm out of DC stock and need more.

Did I make money on each sale? NO.
I did make enough to cover those losses though....plus some.

I have about 55 Carr Medals. If I sold today about 6 maybe 7 would lose money.

 

I would love to know where this "dumping" has begun. From what I see on the secondary markets, sale (not asking prices) are at values well above initial sales prices.

Please PM me with where this is being seen.

Z

 

I know of two sellers that "dumped" some stuff last month.

They heard Ebay was stopping coin sales. I even got a notice from Ebay about their managed payment program.

 

That was discussed in another thread.
The consensus was that eBay was not doing it cause they would lose too much $$$. I was, not surprising, of the opposite camp that if the Feds think there is money laundering going on that it will be shut down.

 

I dont allow or do PM's
However I live in central Maryland and attend shows from Souther Pa. , Va. , & De.
Ive been collecting coins for about 60 years, I know personally or know of just about every dealer in those areas....as well work security at shows.
I'm not saying that Carr items dont have a following....im saying a fool and their money always part. In the 60 plus years of collecting I've witness this first hand.
Walk into any show with these 3 items set of Jeffersons nickels, Roosevelt dimes,Franklin halfs.....and see what your offered.
And they are REAL coins.....not fake,altered restrikes ,counterfeited or fantasy pieces.
Your most probably to young to remember but ....there were thousands of people in this country who purchased a Yugo's!
Hinde sight being 20/20 ask a former owner of one how good a decision that was.
It is your hard owned money.....do as you please with it.....but Real coins can loose value as the market rules.... so do altered, counterfeit, and fantasy pieces do only faster....as people realize they purchased something that has lost its place in their collection.

 

I deal almost exclusively in Jefferson Nickels. The easiest way to make money is to buy a complete set and sell it piece by piece. The problem is that most dealers don’t have the time to deal with all that, they are usually only going to be interested in the coins from 1938-1945 which is why every offer will appear to be a low ball offer.

Admittedly, most of my past experience in the series has been with registry quality material, but in that realm, I have not seen this “crash” that you are talking about and I’ve been buying & selling registry Jefferson Nickels for over a decade. War nickel prices have depressed a little, but that is because there are a ton of raw premium gem war nickels still out there and the populations are constantly rising.

BTW, I love in SE PA, can you point me to some local shops that have decent Jefferson Nickel inventory?

 

I'm quite flattered that you would think that I wouldn't know about Yugo's. I was long driving when they hit the market. I'm not a car guy, but it was right around the time that "Datsun" wanted everyone to start calling them "Nissan."

I don't see Carr's pieces as investments, but I do know that the pieces I am interested in are impossible to find below their initial selling cost. I'm not intrigued by all of his work, but there are select pieces, both fantasy over strike and original that I wouldn't mind owning. I was just hoping to discover where you saw them selling under initial sale prices without alerting everyone on this board.

Trying to avoid additional competition.

Z

 

Extraordinary examples of creativity/craftsmanship! As a trained scientist/craftsman whose primary "hobby" is developing/constructing new patentable technology/devices in my private well equipped "shop", I couldn't begin to duplicate any of those artifacts. I have the equipment/material/knowledge, but not the "where-with-all". Kudos to Mr. Carr!

I understand the critical comments of those with lesser capacity, who probably couldn't begin to fathom the N.C. code, C.A.D. efforts, and tooling for generation of those pieces, much less the patient labor effort. I wish I could locate an occasional similar effort piece from our mint, after the 1907 St. Gaudens effort.

Please, let's give the guy some respect.

I'd be pleased to purchase any/all of those posted pieces.

JMHO

 

Reminds me of my fav show:


Major Charles Winchester: Don't you see? Your hand may be stilled, but your gift cannot be silenced if you refuse to let it be.

Private David Sheridan: Gift? You keep talking about this damn gift. I *had* a gift, and I exchanged it for some mortar lfragments, remember?

Major Charles Winchester: Wrong! Because the gift does not lie in your hands. I have hands, David. Hands that can make a scalpel sing. More than anything in my life I wanted to play, but I do not have the gift. I can play the notes, but I cannot make the music. You've performed Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin. Even if you never do so again, you've already known a joy that I will never know as long as I live. Because the true gift is in your head and in your heart and in your soul. Now you can shut it off forever, or you can find new ways to share your gift with the world - through the baton, the classroom, or the pen. As to these works, they're for you, because you and the piano will always be as one.

 

The sports card market is actually very vibrant and recently set a new record for a 4 million dollar card

 

You can do both, you just have to collect in areas that you don't sell in such as be a token collector or world coin collector if you're a US dealer etc.

Just because some local or smaller dealers at small local/regional shows don't want something doesn't mean there isn't a market. His items generally do well at Great Collections and on eBay. There's plenty of "real" numismatic items those same dealers would give horrible offers like that on or not want them at all. Just because some minuscule local market doesn't want something doesn't mean there isn't a market for it or that it's crap.

I also wouldn't be the least bit surprised if at least half those dealers offering under spot would then turn around and sell them for the real price touting how unique they are

 

The majority of the sports card market tanked about a decade ago and didn’t recover. Vintage classic cards held their value which is where a lot of the auction prices are. Moderns are poised to tank again in my opinion.

 

50$ for this dude’s childhood collection. Thousands of cards.
Not one bid.
Ends in an hr.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Childhood-...tem4b80cb662f:g:l9gAAOSwjShfIJxf&LH_Auction=1