Auction prices?

Okay, I just checked out Regency Auction 31 and some of the bids shock me. Can I take the current bids as being realistic? What I'm talking about, for example, is a 1891-O Morgan MS66 with five bids currently at $55,000! How does that relate to the real world? I guess the thing is I have a 1891-O Morgan, among others, and I wonder if this auction means my coin can realize the same worth? If it's true, as others here have said, that we should look to auction prices to determine the value of a coin, what does that mean for me? Does it matter if it is a VAM for the value?

 

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I have a hard time pricing VAMs meself... I have my eye on a 1884-O VAM 5, but can't for the life of me actually identify which VAM 5 it is, and frankly, I like it as a nice example of the year, not for the VAM. Price is currently 2x its MS value.

For a wild auction, all it takes is a couple of crazies like myself to drive things way up. As for a 55,000$ coin, I can think of 110 500$ coins I'd like to have

 

MS 66 if the top grade for 1891-O Morgans, yes those bids are real world prices. As for yours no you wouldn't get that value unless PCGS also said it was an MS 66.

Legend is a very good place to sell if you have material that they're interested in.

 

@John Skelton

I've seen auctions where two bidders went nuts like this, and a couple of weeks later another almost identical coin came up for auction and it sold for 1/4th to 1/3rd the first price.

Chris

 

For the last few years high-income people have been doing extremely well and many of them want only the best. If a well-struck MS66 is the best, they will pay very high. You didn't say what grade yours is, but if it is MS65 or less, all bets are off. It is not the best. Then, only mere mortals want it and they will probably react just as you did, thinking super high prices are unwarranted.

 

When discussing top pop coins in popular series, one must have MUCH more information. Is the 66 the highest graded one? If so, are there any others with that grade? How many 65's? If someone is getting into an epeen contest over "best" graded collection, they will seriously pay up to claim that. Popular series, having 1 of 1 in the top grade, will always lead to very high prices.

 

It's the only PCGS 66 Pop 1/0. NGC has a Pop of 3/0 and the two I've seen weren't very pretty.

 

Scratch the two comment. I did something I always say not to do going too quickly and took a bad picture at face value. That said I do believe the buyer is probably presently surprised as the total pop looks to be no more than 3 for both companies combined with at least one double counted and wouldn't be surprised if it was actually only two.

 

Hey, my son inherited this coin, so even at 1/4 the price it's all good!

Tomorrow I'll post a pic.

 

Thank you for this extremely relevant information. very explainable then. Each person chasing best Morgan set, (most popular series in the world probably), wants THIS coin. Lots of money chasing it, so price is not surprising at all.

Not my type of collecting, but I never throw stones at anyone's collecting desires.

 

I promised pictures, you got pictures!



Okay, no luster, and certainly not what I expected, and nowhere near what that coin in the auction would get In fact, I'm wondering if it's even real Let me know what you think!

 

It appears to be real (I'm NOT a Morgan guy so don't depend on my assessment only) in XF or so condition and worth about 25 bucks.

 

I had actually spoken too soon. With the total pop of 4 at least one of the coins is double counted. There is only 1 at PCGS but there are no more than 2 at NGC even-though the pop lists 3.

The 65+ PCGS ones have generally been 5 figure coins as well with a 65+ CAC going for just shy of 20k a couple years ago

I get the feeling the buyer was probably quite pleased at the price for the 66.

 

I'm good with that.

 

@ToughCOINS can you check this coin for me? I do have doubts about it being real. I know it certainly isn't MS anything as far as grade.

 

One thing that drives super high prices is the PCGS registry. A lot of people, with money, want to be the top dog and to do that you have to have the highest graded certified coins. That can drive prices to very high levels, sometimes for very common coins that are “condition rarities.”

The thing about Morgan Dollars is that many of them are expensive in Mint State, but no big deal in the circulated grades. The survival rates for Morgan Dollars are very high relative to other coins from the same era. They were made for political reasons to provide a market for silver, which was in an over supply position during the second half of the 19th century. Most people didn’t want them because they weighed down their pockets and purses. Therefore they sat in mint vaults in Mint State for almost a century.

As a retired dealer, I can tell you that none of the Morgan Dollar date and mint combinations are rare, not even the “big dates” like 1893-S and the 1895 Proof. If you want them, you can get them if you have the money. For other coins, you might have to wait your turn, even if you can afford them.

 

I was just concerned because of the way the stars looked. Some aren't very distinct.