An Unexpected Sale and Purchase

[coinsbygary]

This past weeks Central States Numismatic Society show was full of unexpected surprises. For me, the unpredictability of this years show made it one of the most exciting CSNS shows I have attended.

 

The day started off Thursday morning with a 2 1/2 hour drive to Schaumburg, Illinois where I met a collecting friend who was to sell some of my excess coins through his E-Bay store. One of those coins was a 1924 MS-62 double eagle that I bought about ten years ago. As I recently posted, I just upgraded the St Gaudens Double Eagle in my 7070 type set. Since I bought the old coin when the spot price of gold was much lower, I was looking to make a handsome profit even if the coin would only fetch slightly more than today's spot price.

 

As we talked about the fees I was facing to list this coin on E-Bay, we came to the conclusion that we might be able to sell it at the show, avoid the E-Bay fees, and net slightly more money. In fact, my friend already had a dealer in mind and asked me if I would take a check in payment for the coin. Since I had no plans to spend a lot of money at the show this year, I told him a check would be fine.

 

While my friend was attempting to market the double eagle I went about to look for any Laura Gardin Fraser medals I might find on a predetermined $200 show budget. Window shopping around the bourse, I walked up to a dealer selling National Currency notes. When the dealer asked me about my collecting interests I told him that I didnt normally collect notes. However, I explained to him that I was interested in buying a note from the city where my children were born and perhaps a note from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Sifting through his inventory, I found a $10 note from Green Bay and a $5 note from Baltimore, Maryland where my children were born.

 

The Green Bay note was outside my show budget and I was going to pass on it when my friend walked up to me and placed the cash proceeds from the double eagle in my hands. Let me just say that a collector with an unexpected bundle of cold hard cash on a bourse floor is a dangerous thing! Thus, since I am a Packer fan and I own a share of Packer stock, I bought both notes and blew my show budget sky high! Now what was I to do? Call it a show and bring the money home, or buy something else? Well, I must say that buying something else was far more appealing to me then to just simply bring the money home!

 

When I thought that I might be able to upgrade an MS-62 quarter eagle in my type set, I went about the bourse floor looking for a nice MS-63 or 64 example. After a bit of searching, I found a dealer with eight coins that met this criteria. Of four MS-63 and four MS-64 coins one coin stood out to me and it was a sale.

 

Later, my wife and I went out to eat and shopped at a local Ikea store where we bought two lamp stands for our living room. The next morning I went to the meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Numismatists. Finally, my wife and I spent about two hours looking over all the collector exhibits. Perusing the exhibits is one of our favorite things to do at a show with the added benefit of not spending any money to do so!

 

When we got home I went to my bank and deposited the $200 I took down to the show and... $250 more from the proceeds of the double eagle sale. All in all, I bought a couple of notes, a quarter eagle, and two lamp stands returning with $250 more than I took with me! That has never happened before and may never happen again! Incidentally, I didn't find any new medals for my Laura Gardin Fraser set, but returned with items I had no intention of buying before going to the show.

Gary

 

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[tommy44]

What a great story and WOW! what a great looking quarter eagle.

[Six Mile Rick]

Good trade off and cash to boot!!!

So you like those Ikea items?

[Lucky One]

nice day show sure and congrats on the two point upgrade. But if it was me, I'd have come home scrambling to cover my busted budget, and the auctions associated with this latest show were so outstanding that I DO find myself scrambling to pay for the 12 beauties I was able to pick up at decent prices this weekend!

[RWB]

Nice QE !

[Revenant]

nice day show sure and congrats on the two point upgrade. But if it was me, I'd have come home scrambling to cover my busted budget, and the auctions associated with this latest show were so outstanding that I DO find myself scrambling to pay for the 12 beauties I was able to pick up at decent prices this weekend!

 

I think if I tried taking that approach the wife would kill me.

[johnny9434]

nice quarter eagle.