A classic eBay example of, "Gee, you never can tell"

lordmarcovan

And one of why it's important to offer worldwide.

Exhibit A is the lousiest piece of junk I currently have listed on eBay. It's a Portuguese colonial coin that looks like it was attacked with a ballpeen hammer. The only redeeming factors it has are that it is dated in the 1700s and it's moderately scarce.

I started all my other auctions at 99c with $2 shipping, but figuring this wasn't even worth that, I started it at a penny, with $1 shipping.

Well, whaddya know. I forgot to factor in homeland-collectors' interest. A bidder in Portugal has run the price up to $6.50, barely on day three. That's more than six times what I hoped to sell the coin for, and at least three times more than my wildest expectations.

You never can tell. I remember having some booooring modern West German coins do really well once. Naturally, they went to a fellow in Germany. (A doctor, as I recall). And though they were in nice grades, these were the sort of coins I would have trouble giving away on this side of the pond.

WillieBoyd2

When I was selling world coins on Ebay,
I found that many coins "went home".

laurentyvan

I bought a South American piece at a flea market for $12 and sold it for $124 recently. You're right, you can never know what homeland interest will do for you.

The booksellers forum on eBay has a list of "books that don't look like anything" but will reward you if you can find one. Perhaps we need the same thing in coins?...

Gazza

I've brought several pieces home from the States for a few dollars or less and sold here in the UK for tens of pounds. Most of the time the American sellers just don't know what they have got.

lordmarcovan

I've noticed some homeland interest in Dimitriland (Greece), as well. I listed a 1973 coin that had a Krause value of barely a dollar. This piece was a high-end AU, now, mind you, not some MS65 gem. It was a handsome coin but according to Krause, as I said, it was a $1.00 coin... at best.

It sold for $11 or $12. I had pennies in it, having gotten it from a bulk lot, of course.

While I'm only getting pennies sometimes by listing these cheapozoids, I have fun with them.

I am "a lover of life but a player of pawns", to quote Jethro Tull's "Bungle In The Jungle" (only because I am an enormous Tullhead).



<< <i>The rivers are full of crocodile nasties
And he who made kittens put snakes in the grass.
He's a lover of life but a player of pawns ---
Yes, the king on his sunset lies waiting for dawn >>

laurentyvan

And one of why it's important to offer worldwide.

Truer words were never spoken. A $6 brazillian coin in Lustrous UNC (pretty I admit) went for 17x my Krause to a knowledgeable bidder who noticed the importance of 2 initials under the chin of the bust on the obverse that weren't supposed to be there, a fact I managed to add (without any hoopla) to the auction after posting it but before 1st bid, during periodic auction reviews (so important if you can't get it right the first time)! but good result.

lordmarcovan

OK, who else has turned a silk purse out of the proverbial sow's ear?

Our Good King Aethelred may well remember the time when, after I visited him and pawed through his junkbox, I went home with a tiny, heavily-corroded, hideous billon coin with a flan crack. It was a thin, hammered piece, perhaps Eastern European, but attributing it proved beyond either of our skills. It was in such miserable condition that not only did Michael refuse the dollar he'd had it marked at, but thrust it upon me as though he was glad to be rid of it. About the only design detail that was clear on it was a date in the early 1700s.

On a whim, I stuck it on eBay for a penny, hoping for two or three bucks, in my wildest dreams.

It closed for $20.51. I about fell out of my chair. When I told Michael about it, we laughed uproariously. But for all either of us knows, the new owner could be laughing merrily about his "cherrypick" from the dumb American. (Then again, maybe not. It sold to somebody in the US). We'll never know.

Gee, you never can tell.

I wish half my stuff were pleasant surprises like this. Usually, when I list a big enough assortment of things, I will get at least one (mildly) pleasant surprise, and at least three or four disappointments. But the ones that exceed expectations exponentially are a lot of fun, even if they're still cheapozoids in the long run.

ajaan

<< <i>OK, who else has turned a silk purse out of the proverbial sow's ear? >>


I have. It was a Greek coin I picked out of a dealer's 3/$1.00 bin. I sold it for something like $30.

lordmarcovan

That's what keeps me addicted to bulk lot cherrypicking, even if all I end up with is an overabundance of cheapies.

At risk of repeating it ad nauseam, here is one of my favorite stories about turning sow's ears (in this case, some nice sow's ears) into silk purses. (Not very nice silk purses, either, but a pair of key dates that got the Litesiders frothing and slobbering, anyway.)

shirohniichan

I have a number of sows ears that haven't been transformed into silk purses via eBay yet, but I'm glad I have them. A local dealer puts decent Japanese coins in his 5-for-a-buck box, and I've pulled 1950's 50 sen coins, recent 100 yen coins, and even a Meiji 30 10 sen in VF out during one of my searches. It takes about a year for the decent coins to make it back into the box, though.

Dentuck

Medals and tokens also provide their fair share of silk purses.

A few years ago I bought a Scottish medal for $0.30, and sold it for more than $200.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Medals and tokens also provide their fair share of silk purses. >>

Something I'm (slowly) discovering. For the most part, I found exonumia the only good pickins' at the Charlotte Show this spring. I mean, I bought a few beautiful, expensive coins, but in terms of things I could resell at a profit, there wasn't much. With the exonumia and its wide array of items for which there are few published prices, it's sort of a wild, unpredictable market. (In a fun way, I mean. At least for the cheaper stuff I've played with. Love tokens and the like.)

Dentuck

I like the untamed aspect of the exonumia market. I agree, "fun" is the perfect word for it.

True, sometimes it means a seller expects $200 for a $20 item, but more often -- if you know what you're looking for -- those numbers are reversed!

lordmarcovan

I am learning to like it for that untamed aspect, as well. It's got a pure-market feeling to it. Buy it because you like it, name your best price, and who's to say you're wrong? It it's priced too high, it won't sell. Pull a number out of the air and if it is snapped up immediately, you probably undersold yourself, but that's the breaks. It's fun for that reason. Even after Rulau's work, I doubt there will ever be a comprehensive, Krause-style exonumia work... the sheer scope of that realm makes it impossible. So the buyers and sellers are left to themselves. This makes exonumia a natural for the auction format.

In all these years of owning Rulau's token encylopedia, I believe I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've actually found a token of mine listed in it. Which doesn't mean I don't enjoy owning the book, though. Of course, the fact that its coverage cuts off at 1900 limits things considerably. I doubt anybody would attempt to catalog twentieth-century tokens across the board like that. Such a work would surely run to scores, if not hundreds, of thick volumes.

dgreene56

I love searching the dealer bargain bins, what a blast. Here's an article on my website that tells of a recent outing where I made a few nice buys.


Kaleidoscope Coins - Bargain Bin Searching


David

Hussulo

Great article David.

LordM the coin does look a bit beat up and is probably worth less but I guess its still a small price to pay for something with so much history. Maybe he needed it for a type set.

lordmarcovan

Aaah, I see David has the disease, too. Jolly good- I wish there were more souls like us. (Just enough, that is, to kindle more interest in world coins amongst the masses, but not too many, or the cherrypicking odds would drop!)

lordmarcovan

<< <i>LordM the coin does look a bit beat up and is probably worth less but I guess its still a small price to pay for something with so much history. Maybe he needed it for a type set. >>

If so, I hope it isn't in a store-bought album with perfectly round ports, 'cause that battered beauty wouldn't fit in the hole!

dgreene56

Thanks Hussulo, I appreciate that. And, you're right LordM, I too suffer from this terrible affliction. And, there seems to be no cure in sight.

David

lordmarcovan

Wow, now up to $10.50 on a coin I was gonna ask a dollar for locally, and three days left to go!

I wish the others were doing as well, but I can't complain.

kiyote

LordM, I am surprised you sell this stuff! Do you ever get sentimental and keep items? It makes sense, actually, but collectors are so rarely rational.

lordmarcovan

Sentimental? Once upon a time, yeah.

But when you have, quite literally, SIXTY POUNDS of coins lying beneath your bedside table, where they trip you up in the middle of the night, well... the sentiment changes.

I am sentimental about my metal detector-dug coins. And some of the holey coins on my Holey Coin Vest. Which is fine, because for a lot of those coins, sentimental value is all they have- few others would want them.

I have grown slightly sentimental about some of the Roman coins in my current, growing collection, but one day I'll likely sell them. (Not anytime soon, though).

Beyond my digs, my holeys, and my Roman collection, it's just about all for sale.

PS- if you were referring to the castoff 1901 Victorian coins here from that collection (which I am building for my daughter), well, it's only because I have made upgrades and have even nicer ones of those particular types for her set now.

lordmarcovan

And now, the biggest silk purse I have ever made from a sow's ear!

Bought from Aethelred for something like three dollars. Ran flat all week. Was at $7.05 a minute prior to auction end.

I just about fell out of my chair.

tonyhar

Looking at his feedback he is buying items from that time period and seems to know what to go for.
By the way it is a super item.

lordmarcovan

Yes, I noticed he was a dealer who'd sold a lot of Charles I and 17th century material.

theboz11

<< <i>Medals and tokens also provide their fair share of silk purses.

A few years ago I bought a Scottish medal for $0.30, and sold it for more than $200. >>




SHHHHH! You will not believe what I have been offered for the Medal sets that I recently Posted. Approaching 10X! And that was basically sight unseen, negotiations continue. IT is a GOLD mine so to speak for those with a sharp eye

The Edward set is an A. Fenwick Designer specimen set with three unlisted mules.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Medals and tokens also provide their fair share of silk purses. >>

Dang, you're tellin' me! I'm still in shock!

ajaan

<< <i>But when you have, quite literally, SIXTY POUNDS of coins lying beneath your bedside table, where they trip you up in the middle of the night, well... the sentiment changes. >>

rhound1977

This one went for nearly 2x catalog Auction