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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,579 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
I spend countless hours closely looking over ebay Morgan dollar listings for unattributed VAMs and have had a good amount of success. My last acquisition was a 1921-D VAM 1G in MS that has dramatic die breaks on both the obverse and reverse. I got the coin for $26. Here's the funny thing ... about an hour after the auction closed I received an ebay message from one of the other bidders informing me that this was a VAM 1G and directing me to the VAM webpage. He congratulated me on my win. How nice! Even after I sniped his bid.  I responded that I was also a VAM'er and listed some of more recent catches. He wrote back with a list of his. He and I could be evil twins  ... short story long ... I let him know of this website and the VAM interest here. I wonder if he will show up? |
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Valued Member
United States
330 Posts |
Be careful Dave, you might have added an ebay stalker! Congrats on the VAM-snipe. Jim |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
That's great SeatedNut! I hope he shows up. I envy you variety-savvy collectors. It must be loads of fun to hunt for undiscovered gems.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2797 Posts |
USArmyParatrooper, Don't envy ... join in! You already have all the tools: ebay account, VAM homepage, and a little time. I've focused on 1878 and 1921 because the two guys that got me started just a couple of months ago (Bryan and SuperDave) gave some info on these dates. It started with long nock 1878's and then 21-D's because they have such visual diagnostics, I know right where to look. Now that I know where the dies tend to deteriorate or clash characteristics present themselves, I can look at all dates and spot anomolies. It's like treasure hunting right in your own home. Do it now before it starts warming up outside.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
How cool...but how did that guy contact you? I thought ebay normally blocked such correspondence. Lord knows how many times I've tried to warn people of bad auctions to no avail. Btw--I do the same with IHCs--it's a great way to kill a cold winter day! Edited by KurtS
01/25/2008 2:23 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
quote:
but how did that guy contact you?
Uh OH ,,twilight Zone stuff ! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
KurtS, He sent me a message thru ebay messaging. Once the auction was over you go to the winners userid and click on it. That will take you the " ebay My World" page for that person and select "contact member". As the receiver of the message you can choose to respond of delete. The only way he knows me is by my userid. When responding always select "hide my email address" until you know what you're dealing with. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
SeatedNut,
Do most of your finds come from raw coins? Do you often attribute a rare variety that a top grader missed?
Also, which website would you recommend for a beginner?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
USArmyParatrooper ... I have to get you a nickname. Your userid is wearing these old fingers out.  I use Windows IE tabs and open ebay and this VAM site: http://www.vamworld.com/Morgan+VAMs+By+Date There is another one for Peace dollars linked from that page. In ebay, I go to coins/dollars/morgan and search by a specific date ... let's say 1878. When first starting out, limit yourself to just one year and preferrably one mintmark. If you get too specific in your search criteria, you'll exclude some of your target listings because the seller wasn't specific enough. If you open the VAM page and select 1878-P you'll see more than a page full of listings: a group for 8TF; one for 7/8TF; one for 7TF B1 Reverse (long nock); one for short nock parallel feather; and finally one for 7TF slanted feather. Yeah there were that many reverses in 1878. If your looking for long nocks, go to the VAM 70-84 listings and look at the pictures of a 'long nock' ... here's an example  then just look for 1878 with just this type of nock on the end of the arrow. Once you've found one in the listings, look for other diagnostics from the VAM page. Once you get the nack, it's easy and fun. When you start doing this you'll need to remember to get up out of the chair at least hourly ... otherwise you're going to go blind. p.s. - I find most of them raw, but there are a few in slabs. PCGS and NGC only attribute the top 100 and Hot 50 Edited by SeatedNut
01/25/2008 10:51 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
Thanks, SeatedNut! If it's easier on the hands my name is Sean :)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
quote:
Here's a test on an active listing. Tell me what you see.
We're about to watch Psych (DVR'd), so I'm going to try it later. Any suggestions for knowing which varieties to look at first? Or do simply view each one-by-one |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
Sean,
I first looked through the list of VAMs and saw things that interested me and I knew I could spot from a picture. Most have the rarity listed from R1-easy to R7-really hard to find. Start with an R4 or R5 and look for a particular characterstic.. For me it was the long nock. Then I saw all the neat die breaks on the 21-D ... I was hooked.
Edited by SeatedNut
01/25/2008 11:29 pm
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,579 |
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Posted 01/25/2008 10:56 am
