Buying The Best - Pricing
National’s business model is to purchase mostly superior coins. In order to do this, we need to pay more to obtain the coins we want. Therefore, our prices may not always be the lowest. If you are looking for the lowest prices for top coins, it is not likely you will be buying from us.
If you purchase the proper coins, someone will pay a premium for them years later. Sure, if you are very patient you might be able to wait and save money on one coin here and there. However, if you want to spend $200,000 on Barber Quarters over the course of three years it would be very difficult to find enough top coins at bargain prices. By the time the third year came around, the price of Barber Quarters would probably have appreciated so you would have been better off paying a higher price in the initial year.
Time has shown that collectors of ANY item who have paid top prices for superior pieces have done exceedingly well. Most collectors who buy from us intend to hold their coins for 5-10 years.
If a beautiful coin is $10,000, $10,500 or even $11,000, we do not believe that the price difference is relevant. We firmly believe paying an additional 10%-15% for top coins is immaterial in the long run.
We have to pay above market prices in order for dealers to offer us superior coins. If we were consistently making low offers, dealers would stop calling us first when they acquire special coins. If we offered collectors low prices, they would sell to someone else.
Auctions
At times we will offer coins that were purchased from fairly recent auctions. You might be thinking that you could have purchased the same coin from the same auction. Our response would be, “Why didn’t you?”.
Purchasing from auctions takes knowledge. Did you ever purchase anything from an auction (besides coins) and when you received it you were unhappy? This happens ALL the time. If you buy at auction your goal should be to purchase coins that appeal to many people. Buying an obscure coin that few people collect does not usually make sense. There are also other pitfalls that auction buyers encounter that can be avoided.
Substantial savings can be realized by buying from a knowledgeable dealer who purchased the coin from an auction. We try to look at the individual coin or have a trusted associate do it for us.
For example: Not all MS65 DMPL's are the same. One could be much nicer than the other and sell for thousands more. We would prefer to buy the better one and pay the higher price. Is the cheaper one a bargain? Most times NO!
Many times a coin is rare and will bring a record price. This should NOT always indicate that the coin was worth the money or will bring a similar price the next time. Two people could have both wanted or needed the coin and had a war of egos. Basing what you pay for coins on previous auction results is not always the correct way to buy.
Many times photos in catalogs for ANY collectible do not accurately represent the item. Did you ever buy a coin that looked stunning in the photo and when you received it you had to tilt it in certain light to see the toning? Again, buying from a knowledgable dealer who purchased the coin from auction can help avoid this issue.