Know Your Dealer

So I went to the local club show today. Nothing special, 20+ tables @ the VFW hall, but have to show up and support the club.

One of the largest dealers in the area was there. No real clue why - he had the same four cases of semi-random stuff as everyone else. He asked what I was looking for and I said nothing special just looking at stuff. He said "oh, I have some miscellaneous stuff" and grabbed a doublewide box of 2x2s.

It turned into a great experience.

He wasn't expecting much business so he had brought his work to catch up on - the two doublewide boxes of 2x2s that represented his recent purchases which he needed to grade, reholder and price. So I was basically looking at the 'stuff' that he had bought for resale but hadn't yet gotten around to placing into his inventory. This from a dealer who buys 7-10K of 'stuff' a week. At least.

I found three possibilities and ended up with just one. He offered very fair prices because of the fast turn and limited time he had invested in each item (basically he hasn't even entered them into inventory yet).

#1 - 1859O SL 10c in VF30. It might go VF35, but it won't quite make XF40 (we both agreed on that). Greysheet bid/ask is 65/100 and he offered it to me in the middle.

#2 - 1858 LL FE in MS-63 RD. It had been broken out of a 1st generation PCI MS-64 slab (from the time when they almost graded honestly) and he didn't think it really was a 64. but it was a very honest 63 and one of the nicest FEs I've ever seen. I agonized over it but at $700 I couldn't justify something that doesn't fit in my collection. And $700 is, well, $700.

#3 - 1846 SL $1 in VF25 or 30. I'd have thought harder but couldn't quite get past the large rim ding on the reverse. Otherwise it was a lovely coin.

If nothing else, I got to match up my novice grading eye against a real pro and learn some things.