There was a lot of small change left to be had on the ground!

Rarely do I get excited to the point of being downright effervescent when I buy coins. First, this is not a good negotiation strategy when dealing face to face with a coin dealer I much prefer a poker face with a wrinkled brow thrown in here and there just for effect. Second, when you are bidding on a coin in any auction, live or on-line, you run the risk of blowing your budget and chasing a coin well past your "logically set" upper limit. Finally, if I don't have the money, I just don't buy or bid on the coins. Adding coins to my collection is a methodical hunt that in driven by my love of coins and my lack of funds. If I'm lucky I might find and get 1 coin for every 100 coins at which I look or on which I make an offer. But I've managed to put together a nice set, raw and certified, on a very thin budget. (Well, in my opinion anyway) All that great thinking went out the window for a couple of coins earlier this week.

Anyway, earlier this week I was paging through EBay during lunch and I ran across a 1999-S Silver PF70UC New Jersey and a 1999-S Silver PF70UC Georgia quarter both were languishing well below FMV and well below what I would normally put in as a low end bid. Okay, so its Christmas time and I still haven't finished buying presents and there sure isn't any extra money to be had in the budget but these two babies were screaming my name at me from the computer screen. What else could I do but run a couple of quick calculations and figure out the low ball bids I think I can afford for the two quarters and enter the bids? Afford, yea right, I completely forget about the fact I'm going to have to pass this little cash outlay pass my wife in the middle of the Christmas gift buying season if I manage to be the high bidder on these babies!

I have about 6 minutes between each class so between classes I'm calling up EBAY to check the status of the two quarters. By the end of the school day my bids were still holding and I was pinging off of the walls with anticipation. It was kind of like having a lottery ticket before the drawing and thinking about all of the things you could do if you have the winning ticket. Of course, I still had that niggling in my gut about getting my bids nipped in the last 10 seconds of the auction and the logical realization that my bids were so low that there was a very high probability that these quarters would go by the wayside like most other coins on which I got outbid. But the anticipation of adding these two to my set was a nice euphoric buzz.

Fortunately, both coins were closing during my drive home so there was no way I was going to be able to get that last minute itch to up my bids to fend off any bid nippers thus avoiding the urge to break my second rule of chasing coins above my "logically set" upper limit. Since my wife teaches at the same school I do, I took the opportunity of the ride home to tell her about the impending potential purchase. Of course, I also explained that my bids were "VERY" low and the chances were very slim that the bids would hold up. (Okay, so I'm by that hurdle without too much trouble. Thank goodness my wife is very understanding.)

We get home; let the dogs out and just sort dump our stuff to unwind after the day. I'm still buzzing so I bee-line to the computer fully anticipating disappointment because I got outbid. But darn, sometimes it's just plan better to be lucky than good! I ended up being the high bidder on both coins for a total outlay with shipping of less than $140! These coins could drop half their value tomorrow and I'm still good for doubling my money, well on the books anyway. With those two quarters my State Quarter Set now has 5 of the 6 key coins PF70UC coins in it. Yea, I know ... I still need a Silver PF70UC Delaware Quarter. (Most folks do.) Who knows, maybe if I keep looking long enough I can find a steal on one of those as well.

It didn't take long for the coins to show in my mailbox and I have dutifully entered them into my set. Between the recent point adjustments and the quarters my total is now well over 40,000 and I have my sights set on 50,000. I sure don't know what happened but I am sure glad it did because I figured it would be a long time before those slots were filled. I guess Christmas just came a little early for me either that or with everyone's attention focused on the soaring ASE's the small change has been getting over looked.

I've rambled enough so I will leave you with a picture of my new 1999-S Silver PF70UC New Jersey State Quarter.

Dennis