I want to hear some good true stories. I'm a small-time coin dealer so I don't deal in 5 figure coins, but here's mine: I bought a 1809 capped half in PCGS XF45 old green holder. I thought it would grade higher so I resubmitted it and it came back as AU50 (no big deal, right?), BUT to my surprise it also came back as the XXX Edge variety! So my total investment was $410, and I sold it for $3,200. That's my story, what's yours?
I found a silver quarter and dime in a CoinStar reject bin. Making my ROI greater than yours. Haha just kidding nice find!
I was going thru a friends penny jars and found several IHC most were ho-hum but found a nice f-vf 1862 and a vf 1872. made a good buck from those. I was just looking for wheaties and pre 82s. turns out the jars were ones her father had been saving for years.
biggest home run also turns out to be my Favorite coin too. The story is here http://www.cointalk.com/t215411/ but simplified, bought it in front of my local dealers on a day he was closed early (just good timing) for $25/melt value. Sent it out to ANACs and got back (http://www.cointalk.com/t217800/) AU55 VAM 15A, an R-6 (fewer then 30 exist) While only a $300ish coin is still my 1st and only R-6
walked in to the coin shop, dealers says just bought these coins, $200 and they are yours and theres money to be made. i saw 2 seated halves, 2 capped halves, an AU barber dime, and a few other misc. i bought it went home and looked at the purchases, one of the seated halves was an 1844 O double date. went back to the dealer and told him to look at it, his reply "i've never owned one of these before, guess i have a customer for life now". it ended up selling on the bay for $2,000.
I bought a coin at the bank for a buck and sold it for over $6,000 and thats all I'm gonna say about it.
I pulled this 1910 P Barber Half in Fine from a Junk silver bin, paid $14 for it which was around spot at the time. It's not like winning the rare coin lottery, but I see them on ebay going for $100 to 120 range. So I think I did OK.
I bought these 2 gold pieces already NGC slabbed from an estate auction in Wisconsin for a total of $40.
My friend and I bought a $500 barber dime in 65, got a gold sticker cac now worth about $1200. My grandma gave me a 1928-S Quarter worth about $1,700. I wanted to sell it, but have decided against it.
I found a Delaware Spitting horse in circulation and sold it on Bidville a couple weeks later for $9. My ROI annualized, and assuming I calculated this correctly, would be 93,600%. Step aside Soros. :hail:
I bought a Proof 68 Cameo 1964 Kennedy Accent Hair for the price of the non-accent hair variety. That saved an easy $100.00+. But very recently I got the 1998 Matte Proof for $50-$100 less than these usually go for in SP69. But it took me 1.5 years to accomplish that, so I am kinda proud of hanging in there, LOL.
I took 36 (36 quarters in $9) X 100 (each quarter 100%) equals 3600. Then 2 weeks holding annualized --2 into 52 equals 26x 3600 equals 93,600. It's the annualizing bit that I'm not sure about.
Years ago at a yard sale I bought a box of old coin stuff for $5. There were 5 old Whitman coin boards, some empty albums, old redbooks and some Scotts stamp catalogs. Just sold one single coin board for $85 to someone who had to have it.
Ancient Coin in Antique Furniture Store On 7/24/12 on a whim I decided to stop in an Antique shop couple towns over. I walked in asked what they had for coins, then gentleman directed me to a few US Morgan dollars and pre-1965 silver quarters...the usual. Then I had to do it, I had to ask, do you have any ANCIENT coins? The guy said "you mean like BC coins?",I said yea yea he goes, "ugh I might have one in my desk", 5ft away he tossed it over to me and told me its mine for a $20 bill. Made a quick decision and here it is. I ran home and did some quick research and came up with T. Quinctius Flamininus, AR denarius, 3.82g c.126 BC. ROMA obverse and Twin horse riders. One old auction description of the same coin, says that the TQ is the monogram of the moneyers ancestor, the Titus Quinctius Flamininus that defeated, Philip V of Macedon, in the final conquest of the Greeks and Phoenicians. The coin is dated after the death of T. Quinctius Flamininus in approx. 174 BC. Roman Republlic Denarius Commemorating the defeat of the Greeks.. T. Quinctius Flamininus, AR (Silver) denarius, 3.82g Struck c 126 BC Rome Mint. obverse: Helmeted head of Roma. Star, Flamen's cap behind. Reverse: Twin Horse back riders,Pollux & Castor over Macedonian shield TQ ROMA ref: Crawford 267/1; Syd 505. Price $20 Value $350 -------------- Bottom line.... Priceless
I remember this story. It's not a coin but a pretty good home run and with borrowed money to boot. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...riffin-rock-and-gemstone-show-gemstone-broker
I found a nice AU-53 1942/1Mercury dime in a pawn shop junk silver bin. It was about 1985 and I paid about 60¢ for it.