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

MS63DMPL all day long.

Source: I have 2 in PCGS MS63DMPL.

Nice buy at the price.

I bought my 1st GSA CC this year too. Just so happened to be an '84. Welcome to the club.

I picked up an 83-CC a few years back that is DMPL as well. Paid the same you did....exactly $225. The dealer had a stack of GSA dollars in a bin and the one I picked out was by far the nicest looking one there. Its in the SDB so I cant get pics right now, but moral of the story is they are out there.....all you have to do is look!

If the dealer makes money on a sale, and the buyer perceives that they got a good deal on the same sale, who exactly is losing in the transaction?

If you think you got a great deal on a coin, and you're happy with the coin, does it matter to you if the dealer or seller made a profit or took a loss?

You CAN still pick up great deals from less-informed sellers, although it's nowhere as easy as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

Being able to "read" the dealer or seller is also a tremendous asset; are you negotiating with a 40 year collector/ANA life member who has been running a LCS for 20+ years, or are you buying from some 19 year old college student that just inherited Grandpa's collection of old Morgan dollars and is looking for beer and pizza money? The former is more likely to know the true market value of his items than the latter.

It's a bit grumpy to think that someone else can't have gotten a great deal on a coin just because you don't think it's a great deal on a coin; dealers and non-dealer sellers both make mistakes from time to time, undergrading or understating or just not selling correctly, or you just get lucky and find out you picked up a rare Snow variety of RPD Indian cent or a scarcer VAM on a Morgan dollar. I do get a slight bit of "Dangit, I missed that one" envy, but I can still appreciate that someone got a great deal, even if it's a better deal to them than it would be to myself.

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.