ASE Complete Set Purchase

You guys are doing such a great job educating me, here's a question. I'm looking at this coin on ebay; http://www.ebay.com/itm/331585229197

I looked up the coin on NGC and their price guide says it should be worth, in the vicinity, of $48. Why would they sell it for $30 and why wouldn't I buy it for $30 and be up $18? It raises questions in my mind because typically "buy it now" prices are not the greatest ones.

Yes it is possible to find them and you'll generally pay a premium versus the current year. However, beware. Many if not most of the rolls offered will have been fingered through numerous times or even put together from other partial rolls. This is because people have already searched through them in order to find the best coins. The coins in these rolls are likely to have imperfections or dark spots caused by fingers or spots that might show up later. The best way that I've found to determine the quality of a roll prior to going through it is to look at the side of the roll. The sides of the coins in an unmolested roll will all be perfectly silver without any black. If you see black on the edges of the coins, then the roll has been picked through. That's not to say that you can't find an ASE in that roll that will be nice, but the odds are not as good as if it was an unmolested roll. If I was going to buy an older date roll, I absolutely wouldn't buy one unless I knew for sure that it had never been fingered through. You pay a premium for ASE's. You don't want to pay a premium for ASE's that someone has culled out.

Sorry. You ultimately won't be able to tell for a long time. Keep them sealed up tight. If a reaction is going to take place, sealing them up tight will likely slow it down.

I've had my sights on a anniversary set of two 2012 ASE, the one that has the reverse proof like this one; http://www.ebay.com/itm/19167106046...parms=gh1g=I191671060465.N105.S2.R3.TR18&autorefresh=true

Somehow I've come to the conclusion that $120 tops for both proofs most ebay auctions are well above this, and all of my offers have been denied. Can you guys take me through how you'd go about finding a bargain on something like this? Where you'd look etc.

Bret,

In this instance, is it better to buy a graded set? It seems like if its graded by one of the big grading houses, that could eliminate some of the guess work. While they will sell at a premium, perhaps it's a safer bet?

I've purchased many coins on ebay over the years (just about all of them graded Morgan dollars and interesting silver issues) and, if I remember correctly, only two issues with sellers. One was the wrong coin shipped and the other had a cracked slab. Both were returned and money refunded without a problem.

I buy new ASE issues direct from the Mint eliminating the middleman completely. You should have started there before yesterday and the end of sales. I usually have the best of my purchases graded and have become pretty good at determining which has the POSSIBILITY of getting the 70 grade.

I have also sold MANY, MANY coins on ebay and, while not a dealer by definition, still sell near 5 figures worth every year. I have had to refund only one purchase when the buyer decided he overpaid for an item (he did... )

I noticed you are looking at a NGC69 SF set. Nice set and in that grade $167 is at the top range of prices. You can probably do better by trolling the auctions and getting single coins (with matching labels) to make your set (or finding a set at or around $150 shipped). I sold two of those sets this year. BUT...you have to decide if you are going to go at this willy nilly or have a plan...

I would suggest getting a set of burnished W's first..one by one...graded or not and THEN move on to the special sets.

That said, it's great to go to a coin dealer if you can find a reasonable one. The ones I visited didn't seem to care whether I bought anything or not and were not warm fuzzy people and had little interest in "modern crap"

There are also MANY reputable online dealers out there that submit coins in bulk and sell graded specimens at a reasonable price and before the 3rd party local dealer markup.

Yes, this is all in reference to slabbed items which, I think, is the safest way to insure what you see is what you get and the easiest to sell because they are a known grade and value is defined. Can some proofs develop spots? Absolutely...but there are some ungraded coins out there with occult issues also..

As was mentioned look at pictures, look at feedback, use a reputable seller (or dealer) and do your research to get the present price range. It can be fun and you will miss some auctions because of underbidding...but better than getting the coin because of overbidding. There WILL be another for sale and the game continues.

Bullion, burnished, proof, reverse proof, enhanced finish, S, W mints, OGP or not, slabbed (69 or 70 grade, PCGS or NGC) or just plain raw. A lot to explore....

I will shut up now (I never should respond right after my morning coffee )

Great post Fox!

So you're right; I need a plan. Basically I was dazzled by the proof and reverse proof side by side. Very beautiful contrasts! I was wondering if you'd be able to help me come up with a good plan for a beginner in the ASE Coin World. You mentioned some burnished "W" coins. First, some clarification, I've been buying the 20 coin "BU" rolls since 2013. It seems the term "BU" is used synonymously to mean "Brilliant Uncirculated" and "Burnished Uncirculated". I have googled, and read some articles on it. Is it correct to say that the way to distinguished "Brilliant Uncirculated" and "Burnished Uncirculated" or "Uncirculated" is the mint mark? Second, when did "burnished" coins officially being? From what I can tell it started in 2006, so my goal would be to locate 2006-Present burnished coins with a "W" mark. That seems like a manageable task for a newbie. Loving the input folks!

Pat

I had a bunch of leftover 2015 words to use before the year was over