12. Auctioning of the Dreier collections

This past week was sensory overload for collectors of Armour coins. A fellow named Dreier had his colelction up at auction and quite a collection it was. Inside word was that there were over (700) 1955 coins included.

It was broken up into sets by color including complete ( 37 coins including the newer variations like Haddix tight, Snider and Finigan) set in blue. Near complete in aqua (36) and pale green (35) and less complete in red (27) and orange (26) and black (27). There was a lime partial set of 15 and a yellow (all 3 shades) set (28).

Then there was a giant "Basic master set" [the six common colors (red, orange, yellow, navy, pale green and aqua) of each of the non variation coins (24) ] missing one Mantle. 

A multi color complete set which included a GOLD Berra .

Auctioned seperately were:

-  a black Mantle trifecta error, correct ( L or R) and correct (L-R) although the L-R was damaged.
- a silver graded Berra PSA 7
- a tan graded Antonelli (N.Y.) PSA 9
- a Berra gold pair translucent and transparent

What have we learned from auction of this hoard ?

From lots this large we clearly get input into whether we are correct about our variation and color rarity conclusions.

Here are my conclusions:

1. Black may be popular but it is NOT one of the rare colors. Black is available for all the coins and variations (which I already knew having a near complete black set).

2. We are correct about which variations are rare. The sets missing coins were all missing the rare variations.

3. The rarer coins are even rarer in the red/orange/yellow end of the spectrum. No Mantle correct in these colors in 700 coins from someone obviously looking to aquire all the colors (but he had multiples of the blacks).

ADDED 3/15/2013

As of today there are 1412 1955 Armours graded at PSA. Lets see what happens after these Dreier coins settle into the system.

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