Star City Homer

If you could make it work on a Kindle or e-pub platform that would be great.  Self pubbing on those have a lower cost of entry...but they'd have to be optimized for a tablet if you have any kind of nice diagrams, graphs, or photos.

Penny looks like she is supervising.  Dude at the NGC table looks kind of like Charlie Sheen.  Always fun to read even if the reports make me hungry.

15 hours ago, Zebo said:

The archive feature will be nice. i never used their platform to bid, almost did a couple of times - but the St. James folks handled my bids for me. 

I don't use it to bid as often, mostly to find things.  Maybe 20-30% of the time.  It's great for figuring things out and certainly has expanded my usable footprint of auction houses.  And, considering some of the weirdo stuff I want to buy, that is very useful.

@Zebo 

And today I had to re-log into their 'new' website and create a new password (with all the normal IT requirements like 920 characters, letters, numbers, special characters, in the form of a haiku, etc--I exaggerate only slightly).  So, only my email, name, address, and phone number were on the account information.  Sigh.

On the plus side it looks like they are working on an archive.  That will be useful.

When they first flashed the warning along the top it wasn't obvious that it was their system that was hacked.  In fact, it's still not.  I'm guessing this means they have people's preferences, bookmarks, names, addresses etc.  I am very unhappy as it's not a stretch to think passwords too.  My password there is not totally unique (I use it at a couple auction places).  The only saving grace is I have no credit cards stored with anyone other than Heritage...and Heritage does have a different email AND password on file for me.  But ugh.  I mean, I did change a bunch recently but I get tired of that.  Seriously tired.

Thanks for the heads up that it's a more extensive breach.  Sigh.

If you are talking a nice reference book with color photos, then I would prefer the 81/2 x 11.  More of a narrative with the occasional illustration, then smaller is okay.  

And, totally not trying to be rude, are you publishing to make money or to share information? (Not that these are mutually exclusive of course).  You have enough books and information have you ever considered a website?  Some of the reference materials and the parts that would truly benefit from the aforementioned zoomable pictures (maybe the Kindle app can do this...but that has to be specially formatted by the publisher IIRC) could be featured.  Plus a small shop and/or links to your books for sale on Amazon or at Wizard Coin Supplies where I've seen your books.  And bought a few...

You could have shorter essays or a featured chapter for some of your topics (like from Mine to Mint for example), and then refer to the book for more information.  You could have whatever it is that the large color plates are for too.  Those who want the book can buy it, but the better images would be available online. 

It would be a pretty extensive website most likely, and there are carrying costs of course.  And depending on your level of comfort with sites (developing and maintaining) it might not be something you want to do.  That said, there are some pretty savvy folks on these boards who can probably give guidance if that seems interesting to you.

Especially for a bullion coin. 

People who buy bullion want it as close to spot as possible.  Some want it in slabs for an added layer of safety I suppose, but a diehard 'stacker' doesn't even want that.  As an internet buyer though, and/or one worried about the fakes out there, a low cost genuine slab is worth it for some I suppose as a small insurance policy for the downside risk of a fake.

On the other hand, people who do the 'collectible-bullion' (of which I have done and still have some of the Britannias left, so sincerely not casting aspersions on anyones favored way of collecting by any means) are generally interested in the highest quality.  They'd rather have a 70 than a 69. 

And I am very unsure how much crossover there is between error-collectors and collectible-bullion collectors.  The mind set is different.  One wants perfection, the other wants the opposite.  Not that collectors aren't a little scattered in their approaches, but these are two very different groupings.

Plus, these were not made for circulation so you have to wonder how they got through.  I'm pretty convinced that the British Mint does this on purpose every few years to stimulate collector interest, with their 'mule' coins for example.  I have no proof of course, it just seems 'to happen' to them...

Add in the fact it's a quarter ounce of platinum and that instantly throws the budget way up.  That said, all it takes are 2 people who decide the reeeaalllly want it and bullion errors are the wave of the future. 

The real value will be in what the coin sells for.  You can either do a true auction, or list it with a reserve.  Or, put on a large BIN with 'make offers'.  Or, if you want to do a bit better fee-wise than eBay, and with less hassle, try Great Collections.  They get plenty of eyeballs these days and the coin should not be overlooked there.  

At risk of spoiling anonymity (as there are three responders so far..), I had to choose 'other' for two of the answers. 

I have a several things I do the date sets on (not so much mintmark as they are non-US coins), I love a good type set, and my mind is easily distracted by design or country or theme....  It was too hard to decide what is the main driving force as all can play a factor on any given day/coin/mood. 

I also picked 'other' for metal.  I love gold (and my adult coin collecting was started by looking for bullion, then world bullion, and so on).  However, that is not my main focus as that is too limiting for my interests (and too expensive for my pack rat tendencies).  So silver and copper/bronze and even some base metals.  My collecting does not use metal type as a parameter.   So, I guess the answer to what I favor is 'all of the above, plus a few more'. 

You should sticky this post   

Personally I try and add my own photos because then there is more coin and less slab.  That said, I have several with slab photos too.  I haven't gotten around to having the NGC photos added to all the coins, and not all the NGC coins have photos.  I also haven't photo'd all my coins yet...too many so that is part of my upcoming retirement project.  Eventually.  

1693 6P, silver, William and Mary, Great Britain for the next player.  My photo is 1.6 MB, see how it gets rendered here...

That Great Collections sticker won't hurt it I hope.  

IMO a few dupes are no big deal.  Each coin (or slab ) can have its own character.  

@Matt_dac  Got gold for you, go for it!

I love one!  One of my favorites, and why sometimes I wish I was just a big crown collector.  

Happy I picked up another Japanese coin for my varieties, the 1871 M.4 gold 1 yen.  There are two varieties, the 'high dot' and 'low dot' which is pretty self explanatory.   

Found this one in the Heritage auction.  The cataloguer had stuck it in the later/internet only section, with an estimate consistent with the more common high dot (and put a common condition high dot in the fancier live auction).  I was hoping it would escape notice, but no such luck. 

There are many graded and in better condition, but I never see them for sale, and this MS-62 is good enough.  Plus a nice gemmy one would cost a ton more.  As it's merely a variety for me, I'll take this one.  It's a bit flashier than my photos suggest.  My current lighting set up is not the best at luster and flash.  

edited to add:  I still don't know what is going on with my photos, the resolution really seems to get dinged uploading here.  Oh well, you get the idea on the coin anyway.  If nothing else my file sizes are getting reduced tremendously.  1.8 MB to 357 KB.  So very odd.

On 4/16/2019 at 6:38 PM, Travis Hale said:

I came back in the ‘90s with 12 of these & sent them to be verified & they were all considered fake. I believe I have like 6 left, I’ve never cleaned them, but I do notice what you’re talking about because I see differences in the variety which makes me suspicious as there validity. If I get them from storage & take pics & send, might you be able to answer this? Ty. 

I'm no expert on the fakes.  The first thing is to check weight/diameters (which can vary by year).  If you sent them to any of the big services I'd expect if they called it a fake, it's a fake.  Go ahead and post (or send me a message), if I can help I will.  

Newish.  I took a few coins to Baltimore to get slabbed or crossed.  They made it back and this is one of my favorites.

Here's one I got from a recent Heritage auction.  I had no intention to bid, but happened to log on right as the lot was coming up and realized the color had some potential.  I accidentally bid live (hah!) and somehow it landed in my mailbox.  It's my FOURTH one of this date, but if any coin is my ultimate weakness, it is the Japanese 50 sen double phoenix.  They come in frosty blast white all the way to star-slabbed color.  This one is a mere straight 67, but I do not regret the buy one bit.  My excuse...'I need to learn to photo colors better'.  Favorite coin, awesome tarnishing  .   Hopefully the photos are uploading in higher res these days.  Edited to add, nope the resolution is degraded some.  I still don't know why that is--is there a setting on my end or the forum end?  Ah well, the pretty colors are still there.

A few newer ones.  I was super lucky to have a guy with a fabulous collection decide to downsize a bit in my direction.  A bit of a toner theme, but oh well.  And, they really do look better in hand.  I'll include the 'long view' of the one slab just to show how much better it can look.   Getting the lighting right on these has been a challenge!

I've been known to send in pocket change.  As you say, sentimental sometimes.  Plus I tend to have slabbed coins and I like \consistency on some series that may have a few higher valued items 'worthy' of slabbing...so I'll send in the low value stuff too.  Plenty of '$5' values on my submissions.  I'm sure the graders wonder why, but oh well.  Then again, I've been known to crack out the higher value stuff at times too...some things need to be in albums!

Love the East Africa coin.  That one I personally would not send in.  Looks too nice free and clear like that, and it's a 'touchable' coin.  My aforementioned 'pocket change' is 'high-grade-if-theoretically-common' type of stuff.   

My latest--an elusive deep scale variant of the first 5 sen coin.  From the recent HA Hong Kong auction, and the toning was probably frowned upon over there.  A white one would have been much more costly.  Not exactly the best rendering of the coin as toning is hard for me to get right.  Especially with slab glare.

edited to add--is it just me, but why are my photos looking so blurry when I post them here?  They seem to be getting reduced from 1.5 MB range to a 135 kb range.  

Okay, trying to drag the photo to the upload box instead of 'choose file' option.  Nope didn't help.  Uploaded the right size but posted at the reduced file size.  Sigh.

Oops, wrong thread and I can't figure out how to delete the photo (which is looking oddly fuzzy anyway...).  Carry on.

On 2/26/2018 at 10:40 AM, Maribeth said:

 

Thank you for the requests.  Would you please send your certification numbers and please include the country, denomination and date range for consideration to registry@ngccoin.com?  This will assist us in determining the best way to display your coins.

Hi Maribeth,

I sent the email (with KM#s), any idea if this might be approved?  I may have gone SLIGHTLY overboard with the details, the with/without gold, etc. 

Thanks!