Just when I thought things couldn't get more insane!

Quick revisit: Cosmetic case full of old foreign coins and bills, owner doesn't have a clue as to what he has, I lend a helping hand to ID and value the coins.

I believe that is where I left you in my last entry. So here we go again...

I guess I graded and valued about 85% of the coins and bills this guy gave me to evaluate. Fortunately, most of the grades were in the G to XF range on the coins which my grading skills can handle fairly well at this point. Anyway, that's another story, but suffice it to say the guy had some decent coins that if he could sell them would be a definite financial plus to him given what he spent on the lot of furniture with which the coins came. I even cataloged the coins, carded them, ordered them and put them in a loose leaf binder for him to make his life a little easier. I brought the binder and print out of the catalog to him this weekend to show him what he had. He was pretty impressed. I guess he has never had to deal with the OCD tendencies of numismatists before.

He took a little while to look over the catalog and then page through the binder. He didn't have nearly as many questions as he did when he presented me the coins. But I started to notice that he was developing a perplexed look so I asked if everything was okay. I still have a sore mouth from biting it to stop from laughing at his reply. (Yes, I realize everyone is not a coin collector.) It went something like this, this looks great but what do I do with it now? I asked if he was a coin collector or was interested in becoming one and he said "No." So I said "You sell them and get your money back. You are in business to make money right?" I'm still in a state of shock at this point when the guy tells me that his business mostly just supports his hoarding habit. Then he asks me how you sell coins. I have to explain to him that you can take them to a dealer or auction them off but I would not suggest scraping them because they are worth more than scrap value. (Of course, I would never sell any coins for scrap, it just goes against my grain.) And then, I tell him his best bet is probably eBay. I also explained to him that the area has a very limited number of coin dealers and subsequently a limited sales base so a dealer probably wouldn't offer him a particularly good price on foreign coins. eBay at least has a much broader client base.

Oh but wait, it gets better! He wants to know how you sell stuff on eBay. (Dumb founded look on my face here! There is actually somebody out there that doesn't know how to at least marginally use eBay.) I gave him the quick thumbnail version of about listing, pictures, descriptions, PayPal, yadda, yadda. Then he looks and at me says that sounds like a lot of trouble. I said "Not really, haven't you ever surfed eBay to find out the pricing for things you weren't familiar with? It's pretty easy to navigate and it doesn't take long to get the hang of selling stuff." To which he replies, "Well, no, I don't even own a computer." This guy is my age. Needless to say and to make an already too long story short, I am now a coin broker for his guy. I will be listing his stuff on eBay and shipping it out from my house. It's just a damn good thing I love coins. Who knows if this guy ends up finding enough coins in his travels I make even make this broker thing profitable not to mention getting first crack at any coins he comes up with.

So if anybody is interested in old world coins give me a shout or check out my eBay for this guy's listings. I am getting ready to put up his British coins this afternoon. Everything from Farthings to the Trade Dollar from yesterday with some dates going back into the mid-1800's.

I'll leave you a picture of one of the nicer coins, a sweet (VG/XF) 1879 Half Penny.

Have a great day everyone, you know what I'll be doing today!

Dennis