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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant
    What about the other person?
    One thing I think we tend to forget in thanking the NGC staff for handling our transfers and conflicts so quickly is the person who has the coin registered already.
    Yes the staff at NGC do act very quickly to get the transfers made and we should thank them, but before they can do anything the other person claiming the coin gets an e-mail to respond. In an ideal situation this person responds quickly which enables NGC to act quickly to get the coin moved. If the person does not respond quickly it forces a delay. If they don't respond at all then NGC has to wait 1 week to give them a chance to act (afterall, not everyone checks their email everyday).
    So I would like to thank, not just NGC's very capable staff, but the people who promptly answer the transfer inquiry emails so that the staff can do their job. I've had quite a few transfers go through the very next business day. However, I just had to wait an entire week (5/2 - 5/9) for my last transfer to go through. Why? Because the person claiming the coin in their registry was not taking responsibility for and maintaining their own registry account. So thanks to all those that hold up their end of the bargain, and thank you NGC for going ahead and taking it from their registry when this person didn't have the decency to reply in good time. I'm just glad that the wait time is only a week and not two weeks or a month (which NGC could do at their discretion).
  2. Revenant
    I finally found the right coin for my type set.
    I think it was around October or November of '07 that I decided that I wanted to get myself a nice Merc dime. Now I normally pic a grade that is nice but within my budget. This normally means that I aim for the grade that's in the $40-60 range when I'm wanting a nice coin for my type set. That usually gets me a solid coin that doesn't break the bank. It's not going to win me any registry awards for #1 sets, but it normally places me towards the middle of the pack and I'm quite happy there. With this in mind, I decided on a nice MS66FB and went looking for the coin.
    No coins really jumped out at me and, as often happens when you're ADD, I got sidetracked on my presidential dollars, lincoln cents, and silver eagles and completely forgot about that pretty Merc dime I wanted. It's been on the "short list" ever since, just never a high enough priority. I started thinking about it again recently though.
    As it happens I am working on a deal for the last coin for my 21st century type set with a forum member who happens to be a pretty major dealer. He actually submitted a coin for me and after 2 months (~3 weeks in QC) the coin got the grade I wanted and he's nice enough to sell it to me basically at cost (Have I meantioned how much I love the people here?)
    Just for fun (and to see if I could throw some more profitable business his way) I went looking through his online store... and what did I find but the most gorgeous 1941-S MS66FB dime I have ever seen. I just looked at this coin, and I don't often feel this way, but I just immediately thought "I WANT THAT!" The coin was a little north of my normal price range, but heck, I went for it anyway. It didn't take me long to realize that after seeing that beauty I wasn't going be happy with anything else. It is definitely well struck, full lines and details all over.
    It won't ship out until the 21st century coin gets back from NGC, but I should have it in about 1.5 to 2 weeks and I can't wait. Here's the pic:
    (Have I ever said "sorry" for how wordy I get?... well, uh... sorry? ... and I type horriby, I had to go back and edit out about 4 glaring typos...)

  3. Revenant
    7/17/2007 to 7/17/2008
    Well, 1 year ago I started tracking how my registry was changing and growing using several different meter sticks (# of sets, # of coins, # of points, rank) as well as the total number of ranked society members (as a point of reference).
    1 year ago (plus or minus a few hours), I had 14 coins in 7 sets. This earned me 1374 points and a rank of 2557 out of 3220 ranked members.
    Today, I have 154 coins in 35 sets. 36 coins and 13 sets are part of my project with my step-father (and they're his collection even if I did arrange all the purchases). This gives me 23,043 points and a rank of 1301 out of 4087 ranked members.
    Now that is one pretty big change (at least in my opinion). I'm pretty proud of what I'm building. Many of the sets I'm working on are more in my head than fact right now, but getting there is 90% of the fun (the remaining 10% is "look at and admire"). At this point, I'm about as "branched out" as I want to be. I don't think I'm going to be adding many more competitive sets in the coming year, just working on the ones I have. I may soon get a Signature set off the ground in the next few months, but I'm not sure exactly what form that's going to take... yet. I'm also looking forward to the possibility of winning a registry award or two for some of the mint sets I'm building with my father (hey, the sets are my brain-child, even if he is paying for them ).
  4. Revenant
    I just keep getting wierd years.
    As some of may more may not know (depending on how closely my "Bio," sets, and forum posts are followed), I'm helping my step-father build mint sets for all the years in which immediate family members were born in. The things that has made this job really interesting are the years I keep getting given.
    1920, 1924, 1932, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1965, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2007.
    1924, first of a 3 year interruption in the mintage of half dollars. Other than that I think its biggest crime is being expensive.
    1932 was the last year of circulating gold coinage in the United States and the first year of the Washing quarter, home of the 1932-D and 1932-S key dates. It is also a year without nickels, dimes, or half dollars because of the deepening depression. This set has been an adventure! 7 coins, 2 of them gold.
    1955 brought us the "Bugs Bunny" Franklin half, and the 1955 DDO cent, and the 1955-D is a key date for both the nickels and the quarters.
    1958, last year of the lincoln wheat cent.... That's all I got.
    1965, first year after the coinage went clad and the first of a short run of years where the mint decided that mint marks had gone out of style. A 5 coin set.
    1981 was the last of a 3 year mintage for the SBA dollar, but they weren't minted for circulation that year if memmory serves.
    1982 was the year the lincolns went cRaZy. 7 different varieties... that'll be fun.
    1992 saw Wide "AM" varieties on Lincoln cents because some civil servant decided that it was a good idea to use proof dies to strike business strike cents... That was a good idea. There are Close "AM" cents for the "D" mint also, I think.
    2007, here come the presidents.
    1956, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, and 1993 where all pretty typical and uneventful years as far as I can tell, but it's always fun to spice things up, right? For example, I'm expecting a 1989 "P" MS67* RD cent. It is the ONLY 1989 cent that NGC has ever given a star. I think it'll give the set a unique touch.
    The other remarkable part about this project is that it keeps growing. I was initially given a core group of 8 sets. Then it was 10. Now it's 10 sets that we want to complete, 4 sets that we may or may not go into too deeply, and 2 sets that we'll probably get a few representative coins for but aren't likely to complete (totaling 16 sets)... oh, and plus a Texas Commem Half Dollar set.
    Ah well, it's a hobby.
  5. Revenant
    ...they know how to treat people well.
    Recently I arranged to buy an 1883-O Morgan dollar from another forum user. It wasn't a big deal really. The coin was a MS63, so not expensive. I paid the seller and spent the next week waiting on the coin. After a week I decided to ask if the seller had any info on where the coin was (like a tracking number) because I was afraid that the coin had been lost in the mail.
    Long story short, through a sequence of events that was kinda funny, the coin had spent a week in an envelope in his girlfriend's car. What wasn't funny, was that he was willing to look into this, and find out what had happened to the coin for me, at 2 AM (We're both night owls it would seem). Most people (understandably) wouldn't have dealt with me until the morning. To top things off, he repacked the coin, with an "extra goodie" tossed in, and shipped it out - priority mail this time.
    Given the nature of the coin, the low price I paid, and the cost of shipping, I know he couldn't have made any money off of this but he was never grumpy or irritable in his messages to me. Then I got the extra goodie.
    I had been expecting something like a raw Kennedy half. I opened the package to find not 1, but 2 slabbed Morgans in the package. 1 was the NGC MS63 I'd paid for; 1 was an 1883-O PCGS AU58. That really just stunned me; that he'd sent another slabbed coin with $14 of silver in it, as an apology for making me wait a week on a low dollar purchase (and it really wasn't even entirely his fault).
    This is the 3rd time I've purchased a coin from him. It's really unlikely that this will be the last. I hope he isn't embarrassed by this post, but then I don't even know if he reads the journals so I guess we'll see. (I don't think his Registry Id and his forum Id are the same).
    My mother really likes the Morgans. Maybe I'll let her have the AU58 (I'm just not sure what to do with it with the MS63 around).
  6. Revenant
    The issue of emotional ownership of the set...
    When I first started to try and build a certified set of silver eagles about a year ago, I noticed that there were several dealers that would sell the entire series as a set. This option was actually in some cases cheaper than buying the coins 1 by 1. At the time I could have not bought any of them, saved up the cash and bought them as a set. In the final analysis, it would have saved me about $200, but I'm glad I didn't do it.
    It occured to me then, that buying the entire series as a set, just one purchase and "BAM! It's done," would have taken all of the fun out of it. 11 months later, when I finished the set, I realized what the real problem would have been. The set never would have been mine. I would have possessed it but it never would have belonged to me; it never would have been MY set. It would have just been one more thing that I bought from a store. As it was, I spent 11 months saving up the money here and there for the next coin in the series, hunting for the best deals, having the excitement of winning auctions where needed. Most importantly though, I had the pleasure of seeing the set go from just 1 or 2 coins to a set lacking only a few coins to a complete run.
    I remember when I ordered the last 2 coins as a pair. These were the last 2 coins I needed to make the set complete from 1986 to the 2008W. I actually hesitated for days. After 11 months part of me didn't want it to end. Part of me didn't want to face a set with no more holes to hunt down. I thought that was so strange at the time.
    I don't think I'll ever understand people who buy these entire collections of old coins for millions of dollars. You can possess coins in such a way, but I'm not sure the collection can ever really be yours after that, It'll still always be the product of someone else's blood, sweat and tears.
  7. Revenant

    Never Satisfied

    By Revenant,

    Maybe it's the perfectionist in me....
    After just over a year on the registry I've come to one inescapable conclusion about myself: What I do is never good enough. The pictures I take of my coins are never quite as good as they could be, the descriptions on my sets and coins are so lame but I never change them because all alternatives seem equally bad, the text of my bio could be much better written
    (but at what point does it become too long and at what point am I sharing too much information?), and on and on it goes. I was the same way when I used to draw or do anything else that requires a little creativity and personal flare. I'm just never good enough for myself.
    I think this must be a pretty universal problem. I observe it in others all the time but it never seems to make it easier to swallow on a personal level.
    Ah well, nothing will ever be good enough but that's not going to stop me from tring anyway; I'm getting close on some sets.
  8. Revenant

    USPS Delivered

    By Revenant,

    It arrived at the right place
    The coin I spoke of last time arrived today, in about 3 different layers of protective packaging. It's a NGC MS63 1932 Gold Eagle. It's a real beauty too.
    Sorry the image is so small, I had to really size it down to get under the size restrictions.

  9. Revenant
    Hopefully USPS will be on the ball this week...
    Well, my step-father and I just ordered a major coin today for what I've dubbed the "Wright Family Collection." I'm not going to let any of you know what this coin is (yet) but It's going to be nice I can promise you that.
    I just worry about 1 potential problem with this purchase. Where all the other coins we've bought have been shipped to my permanent address, this one is going to be shipped to his. He lives on Harvey Blvd. There are 3 streets in town called "Harvey" followed by either "St," "Blvd," or "Ave." Whatever insufficiently_thoughtful_person came up with that deserves to be beaten thoroughly (someone really likes 6-ft Pookas?). The post office has and does deliver some of his mail to a house on another of these streets, just as he receives other people's mail. I swear that if this package goes to the wrong house some mail carrier is getting a piece of my mind and a big bill. The package is being shipped with insurance, delivery confirmation and signature required though so that should limit some of the risks... we had better get that dang coin. It's taken me months of discussion just to get him to order it....
  10. Revenant
    "The worm has turned and is now packing a uzzie."
    Back in December I bought some Madison dollars and brought my Presidential dollars set up to date, complete for 2007. I was fairly proud of what I'd done. The set had 7 MS65FD coins with MS66FD for the Jefferson "D" coin. The set was ranked 80th but with all the ties and such I was really around the 100th position, not bad for a category with 451 sets.
    Well, after that I started trying harder to finish my SAE set and finish my 21st Century non-proof type set and work on my Australian Lunar Dollars set and... well, you get the point. It was at this point that my Lincoln cents and Presidential Dollars were largely forgotten for 6 months. Earlier this month I spent a considerable amount of effort (and money) growing the Lincoln cents set by about 50% (from 15 coins to 23, 1045 points to 2141) but then I realized that I was 2 Presidents behind in my Prez Bucks set and ranked 103rd. I've always mentally warned myself against getting more than 1 or 2 presidents behind; If you do that, you risk just giving up. So I resolved to bring the set up to date.
    Up to this point I'd been aiming for MS65FDs because the MS66FDs had tended to be just a bit more than I wanted to pay. When I went to "the Bay" to see what I could find and for what price I was shocked to find that I could buy James Monroe and John Quincy Adams dollars in MS66FD for about the same price I had been paying to get MS65FDs in 2007. I made it my mission to win the coins in this slightly higher grade (I've always wanted the MS66FDs but I just couldn't get myself to pay $50/coin). Well I won my JM (in the mail) and JQA (delivered today) dollars but I didn't do just that. I found a great deal on some MS66FD Washingtons, and now I might be able to get som MS66FD Madisons. With a little luck, I could go to having a set of 9 MS66FDs and 3 MS65FDs, ranked around 50 (60th position). Sure it's not a "Top 10" set but it's still nothing to sneeze at.
  11. Revenant
    I apologise for how long I expect this will be...
    I love the lincoln cents. I hope to have a very nice set of them one of these days. I have what some have pointed out as being some rather tough grade standards for the set but that just means the set will take longer to build and be better in the end.
    Almost ever since I got my first certified cent and started down the path of building this set I've wanted a nice certified 1943 steel cent, only MS66s or MS67s would do and in truth it was the MS67s were what I wanted all along. The MS66s were so expensive and I always figured, "why get 66s when for the price is so close to that of the 67s?" And it's not like the MS67 pop of these coins is small, they range from 1800 to 2800.
    I've gone through months of hunting for the coins, frustration at pictures that told me nothing about the coin and gave me no confidence to bid, opportunities coming up when I'm not in a good place to buy, and losses to sniper bidders at the end. It has been a long and frustrating road. Just last week I suffered a last minute loss on a steelie that I'd really had my hopes on.
    Tonight there was a 1943-P and a 1943-D available. They were both MS67s, ending about 10 minutes apart from each other. 1943-P was first. I bid on it first; I was only after 1 coin at first. The price rose close to the point that I was going to have to abandon it but I guess God was feeling nice tonight. I won the coin for $64.49 (Numismedia lists at $68.75).
    After that I turned my attention to the 1943-D. I had won my coin, I mostly just wanted to see what it was going for. With 9 more minutes left it was only going for about $28. I couldn't resist. I bid $35, just to up the price on the other bidder, I still wasn't really expecting to win. His max bid, as it happens was only $35.01. I decided to go for the coin. I waited until the last minute. I kept expecting the price to go up but it didn't. I then bid $40.01. I still wasn't expecting to win, surely someone else would snipe for more than that. As it turned out another bidder entered in $40.01, the exact same bid I'd entered, but he did it 3 seconds after I did, so I was still winning. With 40 seconds left I was still waiting for the other bid to come, to lose the coin, but it never came. I won the coin, for $45.01 after S&H&I (Numismedia lists for $85).
    I was stunned. My heart had been racing through both auction endings expecting to be cheated of my victory again, but no! After months of searching and effort I had not 1 but 2 of these wonderful coins in MS67! I'm still kinda in shock.... WOW! Just WOW!
    ... I said this would be long didn't I?

  12. Revenant

    Light Weight :)

    By Revenant,

    Neverman doesn't know the half of it.
    I have always loved some of the topics that Neverman has picked for his journal entries but when he talked about spending 2 dollars to get 4 rolls of pennies to search through I laughed my rear end off... but in a good way.
    Last year, just about everytime I was on vacation I would spend time (sometimes entire weeks) going to the bank, getting one of those $25 boxes of pennies (50 rolls) and spend the next 4/5 hours searching through pennies. I would then roll them up (after having removed the wheats and the coppers) and take them back to the bank the next day, and get another box. I searched through over 40,000 pennies this way last year. I hate to break it to Never but I never found anything older than 1919 (but I found 2 of those, 1919-P and 1919-S). I did see many things though. Rolls with 49 pennies in them; Rolls with 53 pennies in them. Rolls with 1 or 2 dimes in them. Once, I found an old paper wrapper with "47" written on it. It only had 47 pennies in it. 47 Wheat pennies, the whole roll was wheats, and this was from a bank in 2007. I have canadian pennies for more than half of the years dating from 1950 to 2007 (I forget the precise list). All from bank rolls in Texas.
    It's kinda a thankless job. Pennies are dirty. Your fingertips turn black. Copper kinda stinks. Your eyes and back will hurt. Your family will hate you. They'll tell you how you should do something "more productive." But who listens to them anyway....
    I've been through $100 boxes in nickels too. I've never gotten around to the boxes of dimes and quarters though.... And you can do all kinds of fun things with the coins... which your family will also hate you for, but they really love you for your "eccentricity."
    (Ruler included for size comparison)

  13. Revenant
    Nothing can get finished...
    Lately I'm feeling kinda trapped by my collecting projects. I have started large sets that I want to build and while they're great for long-term goals, it doesn't give much gratification to fill one more hole in a sea of holes in a set. I'm currently pursuing the following:
    Lincoln Cents [MS66-68RD](250+ coins)
    Statehood Quarters [MS67-68] (~180 coins)
    Presidential Business Strikes [MS65-66FD] (80 coins, 8 more years)
    Presidential Proofs [MS69UC] (40 coins, 8 more years)
    20th Century Type Set, non-proof, no gold (~40 coins)
    See my problem? I've picked sets that'll be really cool, when they're finished, but it'll be a very long time before I get that satisfaction. This is part of the reason why finishing the Silver Eagles (27 coins) was so important to me, to finish something. It's why I've been pursuing the last coin I need for my 21st century type set (9 coins) and the last few coins for the Australian Lunar coins (12 or 13 coins depending).
    I'm also looking into some smaller projects that aren't such a major investment of time, money, and energy. These include a 1967 SMS set (5 coins), and a 1986 proof set (5 coins) for my birthyear, something to let me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with some of these sets.
  14. Revenant
    Why not capitalize the word?
    Maybe it's because I'm a WASP; maybe it's because I go to the most conservative university in the nation, a school that values tradition above just about everything else, but I think that some things deserve to be continued and protected.
    The line "In God We Trust" first appeared on our coinage over 140 years ago and if I recall correctly the law that authorized it was one of the last laws signed by Abraham Lincoln. About 40 years later T. Roosevelt felt much the same way as you do but for different reasons. He wasn't able to kill it and the phrase made it on to the lincoln cent that he helped push for.
    Now? The phrase has been present on our money off and on with various denominations for over half the time our country has existed as an independent nation. Something with that much history from a time when the country was overwhelmingly christian shouldn't be cast away readily. The saying of prayers and the swearing of oaths to a Christian God has been defended in the Supreme Court in much the same way I would expect this phrase to be protected. I believe the saying is that it "has become 'wrote.'" The phrase has been minted so many times, the prayers said so many times, and the oaths sworn so many times that they've lost almost all of their original meaning. Now they are simply a part of how things are done. They are part of the national tradition.
  15. Revenant

    100%

    By Revenant,

    The joy of completion...
    As of today I have received all the coins and my Silver American Eagle set is complete! Finally I have a complete registry set! A coin for my 21st Century type set is also on the way which will bring that set and that goal 1 coin from being complete until '09. I'm also waiting on a few new coins to help move my project with my stepfather forward. This week has been very productive for my coin collecting.
  16. Revenant
    They aren't worth their plastic. An indication of lack of popularity?
    Like several others out there, about a year ago I decided to start collecting the Presidential Dollars in MS65FD for the business strikes and PF69UC for the proof strikes. I like the set on historical grounds and I wanted to get them, and get them in a form were I could look at them without having to worry about anything messing them up. I want these looking nice when my nieces nephews and children grow up and start learning US history right?
    Anyway, I've been so focused on other sets recently I haven't gotten any of the 2008 releases and I decided to go on The Bay mostly just to check prices. I won a PF69UC set for just under $36 after shipping, about $9 per coin. Now, I know that it always will be the 70s that get the big bucks, but this seems like an indication to me that people are not exactly "in love" with this set. I don't think this is true of the Statehood quarters, in popularity or price. It's not like one is more numerous than the other.
    So what's the problem with this set? Do we really care about cheesy symbolism of our state so much more than our past leaders? Inspite of what's been claimed lately I don't think it's because the coins are more expensive (4x). 1 dollar is not that much every 3 months or a couple of dollars if you're making several sets (they actually come out less often then the statehoods which is another mitigating factor). If you go the collectable route they're actually cheaper. I think this stems from a general American apathy for our own past, a general sentiment of "I don't care about history," or "how does this impact my life?" If true, that's just really sad.
  17. Revenant
    Did you think I was gone? First journal in over a month.
    Well, I've been staying busy lately with school and work and the next two weeks should be "interesting." (Finals are fun) Even so, I'm still alive and I'm still here. (amazing isn't it?)
    I've been giving some thought to where I want to go with my collecting. Sure, I'm going to continue my Prez dollars sets and my type sets. Yes my Lincoln cents continue to figure prominantly into my long term goals. But when I think back to when I was really young (about 10) the thing that really caught my imagination were large silver coins. I'm talking about 38mm+ diameter coins. They are really great presentation peaces; They're large enough to support some really impressive designs. This means I'm interested in things like the Morgan and Peace dollars, but also in the modern bullion coins put out by America, Mexico, Canada, Great Britian, China, and Australia.
    One of the things that I've always loved about coin collecting is that you can take a coin type that is fairly universal and compare what different countries were making and putting on their coins at a given time. You can compare the different coins and the symbolism of the images, why program got started in the case of the bullion coins, and how the images were chosen. In this way the coins become points of comparison and ways of understanding the differing cultures (although I must admit to a certain dislike for China in general).
    One of the things I'm really looking forward to going forward is making sets of some or all of the silver bullion coins from the various countries that are producing them. My American Eagles are almost complete. I'll probably order the last 2 coins I need this weekend. After that I'll just be buying 2 coins a year to keep them current. I have about half of the Australian Lunar coins and I just bought my first Chinese Panda a few days ago. Not all of the sets that I want to build have registry sets, when I get to that point I'll be making signature sets for them. I don't really care about points; I just love the coins. I think that this will be a major focus of mine for several years to come.
  18. Revenant

    Victory at last!

    By Revenant,

    I have it!
    Last week VUMC409 noticed that I was going to try and build a set of Australian Lunar dollars in MS69. Since he wanted to sell several 69s that he had after upgrading to 70s he offered the coins to me. Being the great guy that he is, he gave me a really great offer for buying all 6 of the coins that he had.
    What he didn't know was just how good the timing of this was for me. I had actually been thinking about buying 2 coins for that set (1 of which was among what he was offering) and I probably would have acted on it in the next few days to a week. Then he came along with a much better deal on a per coin basis than I've found anywhere else.
    Well, I mailed off payment which he received and sent out the coins on Monday. Wednesday I saw that the coins had been processed out of North Houston (the regional hub for the Postal Service) at around 5:30 AM. North Houston is maybe an hour to 90 minutes away from here and I thought surely the package would arrive at my P.O. box that day. My dorm (and most of my classes) is less than 5 minutes away (walking) from the town's main post office where my P.O. box is.
    So I went at lunch, no box. Fine. I went back at about 3 PM after classes, no box. FINE! I went back at 5 PM, no box. DANG IT! In case you hadn't guessed by now I really wanted that box Wednesday and I couldn't figure out why the Post Office couldn't get it to me. Wednesday is the best day in my schedule to get to there because I have nice breaks in my schedule at the right times of day. Well, today, still determined to get that box ASAP, I ran back by the Post Office and the box had come! I got it!... And then, box in hand, I ran my off to catch the bus so I wouldn't be late to work (and I wasn't).
    At work I showed them to my supervisor (She wanted to know what was with the box). She doesn't understand why I collect coins but after seeing these babies she's so jealous I think she could fall over dead. Normal people seem to have a very hard time understanding these coins. Are they really Australian? (No! They just say that to confuse you.) Why didn't you buy American coins? (If the US Mint could make these and have them not look like then I probably would) Are they just a dollar? *incredulously* (HELL NO!!! They're bullion.) How much they really cost invariably comes up and then people who will agree with you that they're beautiful can't understand why they're worth that much money, and they probably never will.
    I have to say that these are absolutely stunning coins and I'm hoping to finish the set before too long. Thanks a lot, VUMC409! It would have taken me much longer to try and pull this together without you.
  19. Revenant
    Precious Metals are way down.
    As I type, gold is down $90 from its high ($920 from $1010), Silver is down over $3 ($17.1 from $20.7) and Platinum is down about $400 ($1860 from about $2250). Is the economic/panic bubble that has been running them up collapsing? Are we just seeing a massive sell off from people who have hit their target numbers and are doing profit taking? Did a miracle occur and the dollar has started to rebound?
  20. Revenant

    Joining the 10K club

    By Revenant,

    I finally made it!
    I finally made it to 10,000 registry points! Yay! This is one of those nice landmarks. I also just achieved an all time high in the overall rankings. Over half of my points are concentrated in 4 sets (Silver Eagles, Prez Dollars, Lincoln Cents, Statehood Quarters) with over 1000 points each but I have other up and coming sets.
  21. Revenant
    When we're at our best...
    I collected raw coins for about a year before I bought my first "slabbed" coin. Shortly after I bought my second slab (first NGC coin) I tracked down the NGC homepage and then started seeing things about the registry.
    I initially thought that this place was some kind of super competitive environment where only people with $100,000+ invested in their collection should even dare venture for fear of being laughed to scorn and humiliation. When I started looking into it more, I found out it was a place for discussion and sharing what we all love, a place where friendly people come to chat. So I registered and started adding coins, sets and posts. I'm easily one of the youngest and least experienced members here but I'd like to think that my perspective is valued by at least a few.
    But there's a problem... this is also a place of competition.
    This may be an over-simplification but the vast majority of the petty bickering that occurs in the Collector's Society starts when we start thinking of ourselves first as fellow competitors instead of fellow community members. I'm guilty of it too, so don't think I'm pointing fingers here.
    At times like this I feel the importance of the text that is at the top of every member's "Control Panel" page:
    "Rule your own sets. Set your own rules. This is your page, so personalize your profile, bio, journals and friends, and create and manage your sets from here."
    We're all left to approach our collection and our registry in the way that makes us happiest. How everyone else chooses to do things is ultimately none of our business.
    I'll get off my soap box now. Have a good week everybody and happy hunting.
  22. Revenant

    One left.

    By Revenant,

    Just 1 left before the set is complete.
    Even though I really probably shouldn't have (I've bought way too much lately) I saw a 2000 Millenium Set MS69 Silver Eagle going for a pretty nice price and I decided to go for it. Now I have 23 coins in the set, with the 1994 and the 2000 MS coins ordered. The only one left is the 1996 coin and then the set will be complete.
    Edited to add:
    Apparently I got one of the lower prices achieved recently; about $101.50 after shipping.
  23. Revenant

    Subdivided Registry

    By Revenant,

    Getting 1 registry account to represent 2 different (separate?) groups of coins.
    When I originally joined the registry I was joining just for my own fun and to list my own coins. I started with 1 set, my eagles. My registry grew to contain 17 sets. Only 3 of which are anywhere near finished but almost all of them are sets I hope to one day complete. I'm getting off track though because I don't want to get caught up in that subject. The point is that this was my collection.
    Several weeks ago my Step-father asked me if I'd help him with a project he had in mind, building birthyear sets for 8 (possibley 12 later) family members. To help me think about and plan this I added 8 new sets. They've spent several weeks as empty shells but this week I was finally told that I could begin hunting down coins (They'll soon have 3 coins between them). If everything goes well, all 8 of these sets could be complete in about 6 months. By coin count and point total, this group could quickly grow to be from a third to a half of my registry, if not more.
    So now my registry has 2 distinct groups of sets; my sets (anything where the name starts with "Revenant's") and the collection I'm helping my step-father build (which I've named "The Wright Family Collection"). The naming system I've set up lacks the imaginative flare that I've seen displayed by some, but it serves the practical function of dividing sets between these two groups. The two groups come together under one account so that the collections can stand together as a united family of sets (The coins for both are actually stored together). I have an on going decision-making process to try to find what I feel is the best way to get the two groups to mesh well and best represent the collection(s) and my plans for it. I deleted one of my own sets (That I'd put a lot of time and thought into), going down to 16, because it would have become pointless and redundant in the face of a new upcoming set that'll be in the "Wright Family" arm of my registry. Another might soon follow. In total there are 25 sets currently in my registry, a number that's bound to change (and not necessarily go up short term) and though it may take years the sets that don't disappear will all grow and expand.
    The name on the account remains Revenant. I'm still the only person with the password to this account. I'm the only one that speaks from this particular soap box and I don't represent multiple people.
    I think I've been rambling for a while now... ah well. I get my Senior ring in 20 days! Thanks for reading and Gig'em!
  24. Revenant
    It's bad enough when they say it to your face...
    Just yesterday, while I was out of the room, one of my family members turned to the others and expressed concerns that I'm "obsessed" with my coins. They also underestimated how well I can hear and I came into the room and made no secret about hearing them.
    Now, I've always thought to "obsession" as taking something to a clearly unhealthy level and I don't think I'm anywhere near that. I still work a part time job, I still bring home mid to high As on nearly all of my major assignments in classes, and I buy coins only with available money, never on credit. I may spend a lot of time hunting down, talking about, and looking at my coins but I'm not obsessed. I still know what my other obligations are and I have always met them.
    I don't know how obvious it is, but I really resented this comment, especially since they didn't even make it to me. The rest of my family? They either accept that I could be doing many worse things, or *gasp* they actually approve of it! I don't understand why this 1 person continues to insist that there's something seriously wrong with what I'm doing.
  25. Revenant
    Something funny the look at/think about.
    AJ Biddles noted earlier the Gardner is in a league of his own but I've long thought it was interesting that the relationship between points and rank followed a really nasty exponential decay model. Only the first 4 people have over a million, only 19 have over half a million, and only 357 (less than 10% of all registry members) have over 100,000. This is a crazy drop-off. The thing that I find interesting though, is that when you take this data and several other important points (50000, 25000, 10000, 5000, etc) and plot them with the points axis using a base 10 logarithmic scale you get a really nifty curve! Check it out I've attached it below.