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 Replies: 28 / Views: 2,514 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
I really didn't think I'd see this happen as an overnight thing, but in the past couple of weeks I'm watching the rarer date 3CN start making VERY aggressive moves on ebay. The prices I'm seeing are even more aggressive than some dealer's prices I've recently seen and I thought the dealers were already being a bit optimistic. I'm actually quite surprised. The common dates aren't moving, but if more date sets are being put together this will likely change as well. Who knows, this may be just a blip. If you're interested in collecting all the dates you should strongly search out the 1879-1889 dates sooner than later; especially 1880-1887 (minus 1881). I watched one coin (1880 barely XF) sell for over $500 which last month would have a hard time selling for $250-$300. I saw another (1882 VF-) go for $300 which I wouldn't have thought to get $150-$175 or so. And, oh yeah....I've seen virtually NO 1875 3CN for sale...any where. Now, that said, yes I know where a couple that are for sale and have been for a little while, but no fresh inventory. I don't understand why this jump all of a sudden. Any ideas? Will these prices realized retreat just as quickly? Just an anomaly? Edited by Prethen
07/28/2007 7:23 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
IDK, why the sudden jump but I know that I have gotten on the bandwagon too. I saw the 1880 and was surprised that it went for $500.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3233 Posts |
I was blown away when I saw that price realized. There was a lot of active bidding on that one. I would grade it a VF35. To be honest, it sort of scared me. I don't want my beloved pieces going out-of-whack pricewise. I'm still not done accumulating them!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
Same here. I just started collecting. I probably will have to stop for a while until next year. I hope prices will be reasonable.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
675 Posts |
I think that 3CN are making a move because you own half of them now Prethen!  Seriously though, I am looking for a nice example for a type set, common date AU-55-Low MS. Even in the common dates, finding a nice well-struck example seems to be hard. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire series continued to rise, (the common dates due to type-set collectors, and the rarer dates due to the fact that they are underpriced based on very low mintage). |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
Amazon99 - it might be smart to not set aside buying the coins if you intend to keep collecting them later just because prices started to move. The axiom works across all U.S. coin series. Once a coin or series starts moving I think it's pretty rare if it ever retreats unless it's some strange major spike that occurred. You might not be able to afford some of the rarer dates, but I wouldn't hesitate at the dates you could afford.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
Prethen, I have been snagging Trimes and 3CN at auctions for quite awhile, now. I am adding any decent Bustie to that group as I think they are all undervalued. As you have pointed out on 3CN, and carrying over to other groups, the world is catching on. It is now or never.
Jim
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
I hope so. Maybe the one I way overpaid for will catch up. It's an 1888, only 36,500 minted.
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Valued Member
United States
459 Posts |
I have also noticed the recent price jumps as I have been searching for an AU1880 but, I think that ship has sailed. I think a lot of collectors have been putting together these sets under the radar without their popularity being mentioned in blogs, market reports, or numis news articles. I can see these sets being put together on the side due to their, at one time, ease of availability. That is the only explanation I can come up with.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
Prethen, your right. I guess now I have an excuse to buy more. Do you have any suggestions as to where I can find some 3 cent coins to buy online? Heritage seems to be too expensive for the quality of some of the coins that are being sold (Ex: 1884 EF Details selling for at least $850 not factoring in the buyer's premium or shipping). I was thinking that for around that price I could get a nice high grade AU, low grade MS.
Edited by Amazon99
07/21/2007 3:17 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
Throw the price guides out! Especially when it comes to 1884 and 1885. Basically, if you see one for any price and you can remotely afford it (and, of course, the coin is "all there"), buy it. As for the other 1879-1889 dates, I would be reluctant to count on any price guides much at all, especially 1880-1887. All bets are off now. I admit that it's hard to determine if you're getting something "of value" which is how I normally buy. Then again, things might very well calm down and retreat. Buy what's comfortable for you. As a rough guess you should expect to pay up to 3-5 TIMES what the price guides say for 1884-1885. That's why a cleaned one is going for so much. You might want to check out http://www.briangreerrarecoins.com/ and http://www.3centnickel.com/ for starters. Stay away from the really big guys that you always see in the papers (PM me and I'll tell you more specifically who) but those guys have junk in their stock and you won't know until you get it in hand. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
I did a search on them and couldn't really find ANYTHING from 1879-1889. I found absolutely anything from 1883-1885. A lot of 1881. And the very few from 1879-1889 were all high grade MS that were way too expensive. And I found a lot of proofs. I knew of the 3centnickel.com and they seem to be the ones that have the most, have pictures, and aren't too expensive. I wonder if I can try to talk them down on some of the prices. Prenthen, if you can send me that list, it would be great. When I buy them, I plan on keeping them for a while, so if I don't get a too great of a price that's OK by me. Thanks for all the advice.
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New Member
United States
16 Posts |
Thanks for introducing this site to me Prethen. I'm working on getting some really great shots of all those circulated proofs for you. Thanks for all the help on figuring out those coins as being proofs and not business strikes. This is one cool series that I should investigate more time into.
Later.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
I've been actively searching many of the big dealer's sites all over the Net, not to mention looking at their mailing lists and inventory shown in the computer rages....you're right...nothing there. The material is just not out there. Sometimes it does appear on ebay but you have to be careful about what you're bidding on. The prices are still relatively inexpensive compared to the coins' mintages and surviving populations, even taking the "jumps" we've been seeing into account. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
Oh, I agree with you that the prices are still cheap for the mintage. I don't like ebay too much for raw coins, because you never know what your getting. Do you know the survival percentage of surviving 3CNs? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
Well, the Gifford book takes a stab at that for every single business and Proof strike for every year. I don't know if I agree with him, but it's kind of interesting what he says about various years. I totally disagree with what he thinks exist for 1875. He thinks about 10% of the total mintage exists. There's NO WAY that's possible based on the other relative surviving numbers. I can tell you that from experience that 1875 is MUCH more difficult to find than 1888 and 1889 and they minted about 10% of the number of 1875's minted!
You can roughly figure 3%-10% of any given mintage still exists. However, certain coins with really low mintages may have a much higher surviving rate simply because the people at the time knew of the low mintage and a number were either kept or later pulled from circulation.
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Replies: 28 / Views: 2,514 |
Posted 07/21/2007 12:05 am
