DMPL 84 CC I Bought For $225...I'm Shocked By The Beauty!!

TMCD75, I am just noticing from your posts that you seem to be talking about what you paid and what you think it is worth, rather than focusing on the coin itself. It seems as if you are getting into this at least party with a profit motive in mind. That being my impression, I am just giving you honest feedback on what I feel these coins are worth and what you paid. If I am off-base, please let me know and I will cease to comment on the value of the coins you purchase, or the grades of them as well.

As for any semblance of envy for him getting a "good deal", I can assure you I have none. I have purchased misgraded $10,000 coins for $550 before, made $5,000+ cherrypicks, came darn close to a top pop on a raw coin several times, bought coins at one table at a show, walked a couple tables over, and doubled my money. When it comes to most of the cool things you can have happen to you in this hobby in terms of making money, I have been there, done that. I make enough money off this hobby per year to nicely accentuate my regular income to the tune of about 10%, and I am a professional who has had a stable career for 24 years now.

And to edweather, no I do not think I am being a bit harsh. I may be blunt, but that is just the way I convey my point. The content is entirely relevant and truthful.

You really should not consider coins (especially ungraded material) an investment until you have several years of experience under your belt. You do not need, say, ten years experience, but you should certainly have at last a few years experience in handling and assessing/grading both raw and certified coins on a regular basis before you go and spend thousands of dollars on them. It is both financially imprudent and reckless.

I can tell you that two or three years is sufficient to develop substantial expertise if you focus on any one given series. My nephew, who just turned 26, is following in my footsteps as a Morgan collector, and he can grade almost as good as I can after only three years, keeping in mind that I have been collecting Morgans for well over 30 years.

In lieu of experience, the best thing you can do is spend a bit more money to purchase TPG-graded, CAC approved material. CAC has a standing bid on any coin they sticker, which gives you a price floor limiting the amount of money you can lose, and that floor is usually relatively substantial compared to, say, dealer wholesale on that coin. Do you pay extra for that security? Absolutely, but it is well-worth it for the inexperienced collector.

I look at the coins I bought when I first got into collecting and I laugh at myself and my notations on what I thought they graded and the values I assigned to them. You will someday too, in all probability. A wise dealer once told me, "The easiest way to get a million dollars in coins is to spend 2 million."

Do yourself a favor and save $3,000 and take a few ANA Summer Seminar classes next year. That is an investment in your ability as a grader, your knowledge as a collector, and the network you can build around yourself as a numismatist.

My "two" coin buying guidelines for non-investors (i.e. most collectors); these do not always apply to cherrypickers, VAM, EAC, etc. where buying a scarce variety of an ugly coin might be a good idea!

1. If you like it, and you can afford it, buy it. You won't regret overpaying a bit for a coin you love; you'll always regret paying anything for a coin you don't.

(Corollary, the "Noyes Rule": If you don't like it as soon as you see it, you won't like it any more if you look at it longer. In other words, don't try to justify the purchase of a coin you don't find appealing by looking for reasons to "like" the coin.)

2a. If you don't like it, and you're not a gambler, don't buy it, even if it looks like an amazing deal.
2b. If you don't like it, and you're a gambler, buy it if you think you can make a profit on it later; otherwise, don't buy it.

OP liked it, and bought it ahead of other choices; therefore, it's a good deal, and the price is reasonable. Could he have found a better coin, cheaper, later? Maybe. But there's no guarantee, and in the mean time someone might buy THIS one, leaving him with even worse choices than the one he bought.

My (opinionated) guidelines of investing in coins:

1. The greater the bullion value, the lesser the risk. In other words, risk correlates with numismatic premium + the inherent risk in bullion trading. This must be balanced by the fact that low-risk often means low-return.

2. Your opinion of the coin is less important than the market's opinion of the coin. It doesn't matter what you'd pay for it, it matters what other collectors would pay for it. Research is critically important.

3. Always buy the best coin in the best grade with the highest scarcity and the best pedigree that you can afford, even if you don't like the coin or care for the series. Investors set a budget of $5,000, go to the ANA show and buy a $5,000 coin with a growth upside. Wealth generates wealth by virtue of its capacity to be re-invested; you can sell the $5,000 coin later for $7,000 and then buy a $7,000 coin that you couldn't have previously afforded. Eventually, you'll be buying a $100,000 coin you couldn't afford after flipping one you bought for only $85,000. The amount of your budget and the wisdom of your purchases determines the speed at which this growth occurs.

4. If you're going to take a loss, take it as soon as possible, and get the money back into the market working towards a profit again. The longer your money sits on the sidelines, the longer it takes to re-develop its earning power. Don't sit on a loss expecting it to make a turnaround unless you're really sure it's gonna recoup; money tied up in an asset you won't sell at a loss is money that's not working for you towards a profit elsewhere. In the long run (and you need to be in it for the long run for coins) a strategy of taking a loss and reinvesting towards a profit will almost always outperform a strategy of sitting on depreciating assets waiting on them to get "hot" again at some unknown point in the future.

Just my Two Cent Piece. AB

Like most of life's lessons you learn the hard way, I made some bad decisions before finding CCF and even being here awhile still make the occasional mistake, such as having to learn the hard way about "buy the coin, not the slab." But I make a lot less mistakes now than I did before I joined CCF. Whether you're collecting, or buying for investment, or whatever, being a CCF member and participant you will make better decisions either way.

Much like Cartwheel I've got a couple of binders of 2x2's from 10-20-.. years ago full of both cheap and not-so-cheap bad decisions, even though I love some of the coins within and have held them forever. Most of them have memories associated with them and looking at some of the more egregious ones is always a good reminder to me that just like market investing, the more you know, the more you earn, and CCF is a vast treasure trove of knowledge.

Your best bet would be CCF sell/trade or other avenues that let you directly deal with buyers, once you get enough "forum rep" to have access.

For higher grade coins, consigment with a major auction house, but the fees can stack quickly.

ebay is a gamble but can pay off if you have a good listing and find the right bidders.

LCS - dealer is buying low and selling high. Only sell to your coin dealer if you can't sell somewhere else.

Coin show -- see LCS, only worse, because now that dealer's competing against the other 30 or 40 in the bourse and is not going to pay a premium for your coins when he can buy them at wholesale or greysheet ask from the guy 3 tables over. Exception is if you have fresh coins that have not been on the market and might give the dealer leverage in resale.

Avoid at all costs: craigslist.

IMO we still need better pics. It is no doubt a beautiful coin. I'll reserve judgement 'til we get them.
Although the advice offered is sound, the OP looks to be off to a great start.

Um, I'd just like to say I like the coin. It appears to have great eye appeal with significant cameo contrast plus strongly reflective fields. There are some really baggy GSA Morgans languishing in dealer's cases and this is not one of those. You got an excellent deal IMO.

Love to see better photos, but in the meantime, congratulations!