These showed up on my desk this morning. A co-worker had said he had some books stored away from an estate that I could have if he came across them again. Well over the weekend they resurfaced and they made it to me after a year of waiting. I love the 1936 "The Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia." If I could only go back in time and pick up a few of these coins listed at the prices in the book. Example - 1856 FEC - copper - $5.00 to $10.00. today's prices $7,000 to $20,000. $500 short of $1,000,000 in profit. Imagine opening that roll today I can dream a little. The "Major Variety and Oddity guide of United States Coins" is also pretty cool. Had 2 non coin related packages show up today that I also post in the General Section. It was a good day, felt like Christmas.
As I've said before, even if you could go back to that time you couldn't buy those coins at those prices. Those were Mehl's BUYING prices from an unknowledgeable general public and thy were typically way below the going wholesale prices. Today we would consider it a scam of the first order. Get the sucker to pay you close to the equivalent of a days pay to get a list of prices that he will pay you that are well below what you could probably get for them from a local dealer. And them because of all your advertising they are convinced you are giving them good prices so they sell you their coins anyway.
It's always nice to dream about what you would do. However, its only a dream. The reality is that if you cannot afford the coins today, then you could not have afforded them back then since you'd have to have purchased them with yesterdays salary. Back when 90% Kennedy Half Dollars were .50 cents each, I could not afford to stick a $10 roll of them away! Heck, I had to save up the $7.00 fee for my High School Yearbook which, BTW, amounted to better than 7 hours of work at minimum wage after taxes. Back when Eisenhower Dollars first came out, I could not afford to put a roll of those away either! Matter of fact, I had a difficult time paying my monthly rent at $150. I remember getting my first job at $5.00 and hour! Holy Carp, that was $200 a week! However, 1970 US Mint sets were selling for $20 each which happened to be, a lot of money back then! Yes, its always fun to dream as long as we know...............it's only a dream. Remember, there was once a time when the 1793 Flowing Hair cent only cost a cent.
Very interesting - have to wonder what the cost was for a 1856 FEC back in 1936. You would think Mehl's business practices would catch up to him but in those days word didn't travel like it does today.
Oh people in the coin community knew it, but the general public didn't. And if word travels so well today, why are the TV shopping channels still doing so well, and not just in coins but everything else as well. Besides while Mehl's buying prices were very low I'm not sure he even cared that much whether or not he bought anything from the public. He made a bundle just selling the books at $1 each. He probably made 80 cents apiece on them and he sold millions of them. He was a millionaire many times over just from selling the books.
Hey wait a minute! Are you trying to say that B. Max Mehl was the Coast to Coast dealer of the day?? Or perhaps the World Monetary Exchange dealer of the day??
bigger! there is an estimate that 70+% [I forget the exact %'age] of the mail into Fort Worth was for him.
Frank, glad you chimed in. I have been meaning to ask you if there was anything special about the 1998 red book? Seems thicker than normal and the embossing on the cover is slightly different. The copy that came with these books is extra fine. Doesnt look like it was ever cracked.
Not quite. If you were part of the knowledgeable coin community you would find him to be an honest dealer that paid fair prices and sold at decent prices. He also ran well conducted mail bid sales including major collections and top quality coins. It was only the unknowledgeable general public that ran the risk of being lowballed. Interesting thing about Mehl was that he would only do business by mail. John Ford told a story about how one time he learned that Mehl had just bought a major collection and Ford flew down to Ft Worth to try to get a jump on the competition. So he flew down and took Mehl to lunch. But every time he tried to bring up the subject of the collection Mehl would change the subject. Finally Ford just asked outright about some of the items in the collection. Mehl told him, John, when you get back to New York write me a letter and we'll discuss it.".
