Ungraded b u Morgan Dollars

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by chascat, Jan 8, 2016.

  1. chascat

    chascat Well-Known Member

    I watch Rick Tomaska on his weekly T V show. He is selling b u Morgans in plastic capsules and compares these coins with graded pieces. If they,re so rare and hard to find as he says, then why aren,t they graded? Is it possibly because they have counting machine rub? Could it be they would grade low or "genuine with details"?
     
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  3. cpm9ball

    cpm9ball CANNOT RE-MEMBER

    I don't watch his show (for no particular reason). There are some who've said they like him and some who don't. Maybe others will give you more specific feedback.

    Chris
     
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  4. Markus1959

    Markus1959 Well-Known Member

    Probably grade low as his BU silver dollars seem to have a number of hits and bagmarks on the coins
     
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  5. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Lets put it this way, just because someone writes a book, they aren't your friend
     
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  6. messydesk

    messydesk Well-Known Member

    A list of the top 10 places to buy a BU Morgan that would get you a better deal than buying one from a TV show of self-graded coins would likely include a strip joint run by the Russian mafia.
     
  7. Santinidollar

    Santinidollar Supporter! Supporter

    That is a favorite of all the TV coin peddlers. I always smell cleaned coins emanating into my den.
     
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  8. rzage

    rzage What Goes Around Comes Around .

    I've watched him a couple of times , but never saw anything I would buy or that wasn't overpriced . There's plenty of good dealers around where you can see the coin you're buying and get them for a fair price .
     
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  9. JPeace$

    JPeace$ Coinaholic

    I've watched him when he was on Art & Coin and now his new show. I do wonder why these key date morgans weren't sent in for grading. He has an Everest I, II and today a third set of morgan's he sells raw AND asks big $$$.

    I actually wrote him back in either Nov. or Dec. It was right around the time Miles Standish went to NGC. Anyway, Rick had been sending in proof ASE's and getting a special label with Miles autograph on it. He hyped this one coin as "the last" blah, blah, blah and then auctioned it off. It went for like $4000. I think it was a PF69 DCAM. I was outraged. I know it was an auction, but as a numismatist, PNG member and self proclaimed coin good guy on TV, I thought he was betraying his customers.

    If you ever have watched him, he'll thumb his nose at Barry's antics from Art & Coin and profess to be above "pumping" silver bullion. Anyway, Rick will also paint these pictures of rarity using all kinds of charts with mintages and graded numbers, find the most expensive examples on eBay for comps and basically stretch things a little so he can then sell his product to his audience.

    I thought he went over the top with this one Miles Standish signed common Proof ASE. I wrote him a scathing e-mail. I was shocked that he responded. I will say he was fairly professional in his response. He tried to justify this coin auction to me and I told him I just wasn't buying his explanation. We traded a total of 5 e-mails (3 by me) before it ended.

    Anyway, I give him credit for responding at all. I thought and still do, that he was being a hypocrite when it came to hyping that particular coin and basically burying someone in it. Not just 6' deep, but like through the mantel deep.
     
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  10. chascat

    chascat Well-Known Member

    I must say that in the last few years I,ve also seen many of his shows, and learned a LOT from him. As for buying coins on T V, I don,t. I live in a rural loc. so its a long trip to a decent shop. I can always get a much better deal on the Net.

    Remember when Rick said "buy the coin, not the holder" Those were the good old days!
     
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  11. JPeace$

    JPeace$ Coinaholic

    I've learned a lot about Franklins and Kennedy's watching his show. I just don't like it when he stretches the facts to enhance his sales.
     
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  12. SuperDave

    SuperDave Free the Cartwheels!

    There are still uncounted thousands of Morgans, perhaps millions, that aren't in slabs. Keep in mind we minted 80 million 1921's alone, and they didn't get melted, and there were still a quarter-billion Morgans left after the Pittman Act melt.
     
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  13. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    realize that TV time is expensive, and someone has to pay for it
     
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  14. Morgandude11

    Morgandude11 As long as it's Silver, I'm listening

    I think most of the TV promotionals are in general, bad choices for acquiring coins. They tend to be overhyped, and overpriced. Morgan Dollars, being as popular as they are, tend to get overblown by TV coin shows, and the various less scrupulous mail order houses online. I would say learn the series by reading and watching, and go for certified coins that one can afford. Take a serious look at your budget and buy from a reputable dealer only--not a TV huckster, or one of these "buy these treasures of the 1880s" promos that we all see online and in print.
     
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  15. SuperDave

    SuperDave Free the Cartwheels!

    This is the key. They hype and overpricing are necessary to their business model.
     
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  16. JPeace$

    JPeace$ Coinaholic

    I completely understand this, but I still shake my head at the prices.
     
  17. JPeace$

    JPeace$ Coinaholic

    True, but in many of his offered sets, he's not offering the common dates. I don't think, in Rick's case, the coins are cleaned, etc..., but I'm guessing they aren't exactly the best either.
     
  18. Mainebill

    Mainebill Bethany Danielle

    I'm sure what you'll get is bu common date Morgans that are ms 60-63 and not worth even sending in. Low end 79-82-s 84-5-o many p minted from the 80s as well as 21s the commonest of the common
     
  19. SuperDave

    SuperDave Free the Cartwheels!

    The thing is, after the Pittman Act melt, mintage figures don't really correlate to survival rates.
     
  20. Santinidollar

    Santinidollar Supporter! Supporter

    I am respectfully somewhat of a contrarian on this point: TV coin dealers don't account for their production costs through high prices. Rather, they pay those high costs because the business of selling overpriced coins to an unsuspecting public is so lucrative and easily covers the production costs.
     
  21. Kirkuleez

    Kirkuleez 80 proof

    I've never understood why some think that all coins with any value at all need to be in a TPG holder. Coins have been collected, traded, bought and sold for a couple of thousand years before TPGs ever came around, so why are they so necessary. The truth is that they are not necessarily if you educate yourself. Sure I buy some graded coins, but I also buy plenty of raw coins without fear quite regularly. As for Rick, well he's not your typical coin salesman. He, unlike most of the others, is actually a collector and dealer and knows what he is talking about. TV time is very expensive, so the coins are usually overpriced, but I've never seen any evidence that he is misrepresenting them.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2016
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