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A Wild Ebay Ride

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jackson64

1,313 views

cleaned out my "impulse buys"

At least once a year I try and take the time to go through my various cubbies, drawers, safe and SDB and pull out all of my impulse buys. It is amazing how many random coins I acquire each year that don't even come close to fitting into any of the sets that I am "actively building." Not just my impulse buys but also doubles from coins in my real sets that I've upgraded, coins I purchased to help a friend out, ones I've been holding until bullion values rose etc.

I could easily turn this into a discussion about whether we Numismaniacs actually have a "Hobby or Habit", however I'm going to try and stay with my original topic for once.

There have been 3 wonderful advancements to our great hobby in the past 20 years or so ( although you'd never guess by some of the negativity you consistently read in the forums and here in the journals). The 3 great changes? First came the advent of Grading Services and slabbed coins..the security of having coins authenticated and assigned an "official" ( yet not always accurate) grade was huge.

 

Secondly, there is the introduction of the registries. We all know that the point system is not perfect, heck, last week I turned down a chance to own the 12 Presidential Dollars in PF70UCAM for $299 ( just not my taste) the only thing that tempted me was the OVER 10,000 points for these coins. I have coins I've paid $300 for that don't even get 300 points..go figure. What we do have though is a great community or Coin Club whose foundation is its members/collectors, not just the NGC letterhead ( at times we can even resemble a dysfunctional family with all of our infighting and diverse personality and opinions) but in the end we all are joined by our appreciation and enjoyment of these hand sized pieces of amazing artwork.

Thirdly, and sometimes overlooked in its huge importance to our great hobby's advancement are the on-line auctions. As a kid collecting, when I had a slot in an album to fill and my one and only local coin shop didn't have it?...I'd have to wait and hope that he might get one in the future, there were no other options for me. Now if I want a date-even in a particular grade or slab- I don't need to do anything more than surf through the 2-3 dozen auction sites, on-line sellers and inventories of dealers. Usually I even get to be picky.

Which brings me back to the Ebay wild adventure. So I realize that I hadn't sold anything on the bay in almost a year and wasn't sure what to expect since I've been hearing how far it has fallen. I listed 24 lots/auctions last Friday of all of my doubles and impulse buys..by Sunday night I had bids on 15 of the 24 but most were just opening 99c bids. I figured I'd spent around $650 on all of the stuff and wanted to get around $800 in the end considering silver was around $11 when I purchased a lot of it and is now at over $17.

Anyhow, to cut this short, I have now gotten bids on all 24 items and they are slowly inching up in price with the mad rush of snipers ( I hope) coming later tonight. I am no big fan of fees and find the "paypal only" rule offensive, however if you want to get rid of stuff quickly and get paid quickly..it really is hard to beat.

Speaking of impulse buying...here's a picture of a pretty Franklin Half that I "had to buy"...as a friend of mine likes to justify his flighty actions with the phrase "it was a moral imperative"..especially since it cost only $21..

SPAM: for those who care to follow the ebay story to its conclusion and verify that ebay still works ( and I don't make this stuff up) http://shop.ebay.com/jax462/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

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