Did I get soaked? $40 for a learning experience or what?

I'm not so sure I'd call the OP coin F12, even. Close, maybe even just barely there, but certainly not "better than F12". I'd go VG10, personally. Though mostly there, LIBERTY is mighty weak.

Here. Look.

By Numismedia trends, an 1872-S with mintmark above bow trends $17 in VG8 and $21 in F12, which was much more in line with my original thinking before I looked it up. Your piece I would call a $20-ish coin at retail, at best. However, if one found a specialist who might be interested in the variety that @Paddy54 mentioned (good luck there), then someone might pay more for it.

I dunno if you got soaked, but specialist variety or no, if one pays 2x trend price for a coin in the lower circulated grades which, while not ugly, is not really all that special in eye appeal either, then... well... maybe you're just slightly damp on this one.

 

That's good, and your positive attitude about that will serve you well. Better to learn a bit this way, and save yourself much bigger mistakes in the future. As far as overpaying for a coin goes (and we've all done it), you could've done a lot worse than this transaction. The fact that you're willing to chalk it up to experience is a good sign.