From a seller in Germany:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=290206436425

I took the trouble of adding up 2008 Red Book prices in MS-63 and MS-65 for all of these coins (just the ones in the auction) and came up with these totals:
MS-63: $8,286
MS-65: $27,150
I didn't even count the "Oregon Trail" piece because it is low grade.

EUR 6,000 is worth $8,794.68 today. Although (IMHO) most of the coins pictured would grade MS-63 with no problem, it is questionable whether or not any of them would grade as high as MS-65 (although that Isabella Quarter is a beauty! ). Of course, none of them are slabbed.

What do you think ... is this a fair price for a collection like this? Don't forget that the coins are located in Germany and there would be customs/VAT + shipping to deal with.

Not sure about the commemoratives.

He also has some "graded" morgans in a group. One is a bald chested "MS65" 1921 s he lists with the red book price of $1400. A 1880 o bagged face liberty MS67 with a red book price of $25,000. But it does appear he knows it is not a realistic grade since the buy now for all the coins is $9,000 U.S. Now some of them are graded by pcgs and ngc but most are graded by nnc, two by wcg, and one by ntc. And the grading is pretty loose. My eyes started crossing when I started to look at figuring out a realistic price on these. It may be close but it could be way off also.

Looking at a couple of the past sales people have gotten some pretty good prices on coins from him. 1906 s $20 pcgs ms62 for 900.

BTW that does look like a real nice Isabella.

Thanks, Mark! I won't be buying here because the price is way out of my budget, but I was curious to see what others thought of the grades. I also saw his Morgan dollars ... I think he might have been better off selling them raw, especially if he (or whoever took the commem. pictures) could make nicer photos of them. Even the MS-64 PCGS coin comes out looking like AU in those pictures.

If the seller has listed bigger photos, they might have a better chance of selling it. The pics are way to small for me to grade any of them. And $8800 is way out of my range.

Clicking on the small images will bring up larger ones. Of course, if you're like me, they can never be large enough!

Hard to be positive from photos, but my guess is that many would come back BB for altered surfaces. Several look wiped/dipped and retoned. Am very suspicious since all have a very similar tone. The big money pieces all seem to have problems - the Grant has problems including a nasty spot, the Texas is wiped, the G'burg is very unnatural, etc. Even the commons have visible issues - note the severe hairlining on the Bridgeport. Altho the Isabella appears nice, it has several rim nicks, etc. and the luster looks odd. Maybe 60 or 63, but I wouldn't risk it based on the photos. I'd wanna see these in hand.

Lastly, this guy is a dealer. He knows what he's got. If any of these coins were worth it they'd already be slabbed.

I agree... while it may be tempting... the coins are all the same color for the most part. Thats a big ole red flag... save your money.

Thanks for the feedback!


Being in Germany, this isn't necessarily so. In general, European dealers aren't "slabbers" -- although it seems to be catching on in some quarters. Over here, the slabs are very unpopular with most collectors. FWIW, I've seen lots of slabbed Morgans offered by European sellers on eBay, but very few slabs with any other kind of U.S. American coins inside.

Interesting that they'd slab Morgans but not others. Possibly an opportunity to cherry pick. 'Course they might be pretty well picked clean by now. 10 yrs ago dealers mentioned going overseas and cherry picking to me, haven't heard that lately.

Looks like they found a buyer!

While I agree with everything else you said about these coins, I have a hard time finding any rim nicks on the Isabella. Could you point them out to me, please? There are some areas on the rim which look a little irregular, but I would have attributed these to the manufacturing process, not rim nicks.

Well ... does anybody else see the rim nicks?

My sugestion is to avoid any such expenditures. For a small amount of money, purchasing from someone in another country may be worth the risk. However, for any substantial amount of money, your really taking a chance. What I mean is if you purchase anything for a large amount and either don't get anything of a pile of junk, just what are you going to do about it. Go there and have him arrested? I don't think so. Call the German Embassy? Yeah, right. Oh I know, call the better buisness organizations. I dont think there is much you could do so if you lost thousands of dollars, you just loose thousands of dollars. Sometimes even here in the USA there are scams that have unhappy endings but at least here there is a chance. From anothe country, forget it.

That wasn't what I was asking!

Besides, since I live in Switzerland, it would be a very short trip to Stuttgart for me to pick up the coins in person. However, as I wrote in my last message, they were already sold.

So ... do you see any rim nicks?