would you pay for a coin? I recently paid about 7.5x pcgs guide for a coin that I "needed." Granted, it's less than 4 figures, but still, the specter of "overpaying" rears its head. What would prompt you to pay way over what a dealer would (probably) offer you for a coin, so that you are, in effect, buried? Rarity? Beauty? History? Coolness (getting subjective here)? Post an example if you have one, or just reply. I'll post the coin that prompted me after a few replies as I don't want to bias anyone.
Not sure if I could do that.......it would have to be an exceptional opportunity to own something rare and exquisite......off the top of the head, it ain't happened yet.
I'm really not much of a coin collector at all as most of my money goes to gold and Tokens. That said, there are some rarities that you have to pay the price for or go without it for a long, long time. And if you're already up in years, then you gotta hit the iron when it's hot!
Eye appeal usually does the trick. Also some guide values are extremely small (like low MS graded wheat cents...guide might be $4 and nice toning will push the coin to $40-$50...a whopping 10x+).
I've also paid well above guide and not been buried as eye appeal can push up the market value of certain coins well above generic guide.
For myself its either the rariety of a variety,or a rare die marriage. That I would consider to pay a premium for above its value. However since I am a cherry picker ,I seldom if at all pay up as I am always on the hunt and do get lucky in finding a specimen that I am hunting.
Depends on the coin. I usually look at auction prices more then price guide. There are many gold coins that are way off in the price guides compared to recent sales. I have no issue at all paying over guide price for an exceptional coin. There are a number of ugly coins that auction at guide prices. The great ones deserve a premium and those are the ones that I want.
If it helps any, there are some coins worth a lot more than price guide. As a dealer I paid 400% of bid for one coin in particular and 300% of bid for several, but those were admittedly very rare instances (we're not talking about paying $20 for a $5 coin . . . think $2000 for a coin that's $500 in CDN). If there's something that special out there, the price guide is better left in your back pocket, but if you are running into those instances more than just a few times a decade, you're probably paying too much.
Eye appeal and rarity have a big influence on me. I don't know about paying 7 times the PCGS price guide, which is high for many items. Still, I understand the collectors' mentality. I going through it at the moment.
Well, the time has come. Thanks for all the opinions. I collect classic commems with Virginia connections, and like ones with animals/plants, and some that just pique my interest. The Monroe is really hard to find nice looking, AUs are usually splotchy with brown toning, and most of the MS examples frankly aren't so hot. so when this one came up for sale, it hit all my buttons. AU58+ CAC, ex Lee G, before that CRO inventory.
