I been a poor man that was happy with a poor mans coin collection most all of my life. The last eight years or so I finally could afford a few "nicer" coins and here I am feeling all good and satisfied about my coin collection..... And just now the Great Collections email hits my inbox. Talk about letting the steam out of my trousers.... Even if I had that kind of money I couldn't bring myself to spending it selfishly on coins..... Well, maybe just one....
Yeah, really I am too. It was just deflating to see today's email goodie list with coins ranging from 71k down to 3k..... I felt like such a minor leaguer.
I'm a big fan of Great Collections as well. Most all of my coin "window shopping" is on their site these days. I was a regular at Teletrade years ago and followed Ian when he split off. When you get away from the higher dollar "featured" stuff, there's some decent coins to be had at lower prices.
I seldom bother with the "goodie list" coins, either. Doesn't keep me from drooling over the ones in my price range, usually from 3 to the low 4 figures. Lately, though, I've noticed an increase in lots starting at higher opening bids than I feel are warranted. Edit to add the omitted word higher
I love Great Collections. I have sent a few special request emails over the years, and some question emails, and pointed out some listing issues, and they even pulled a listing once based on something I noticed. Every time I got a personal response to my satisfaction, many times the emails were from Ian himself. I am always pleased with the selection, photos, listing details, ease of use of the site, fast shipping, etc. It's my 1st destination, even before HA, which I also have all the same nice things to say about. I too drool over many of their coins.
My wife thought I had absolutely lost it when I told her I bid $15000.00 (my bidding limit at the time) on a 1797 bust half until I told her that it would end up going for somewhere in the $70K range. Actually, IIFC it went for over 85K.
I was just at the Long Beach Coin Expo last week and talked to Ian for a good long while. He's always super helpful, along with everyone on the GC team. It would be amazing to join their crew one of these days. I enjoy their coins, but yes, I know many of them don't fit my collection....$$. Always good for Coin Porn......remember that old thread by Amanda Varner I usually talk to her Dad Malcolm at the shows too. Fun stuff!
I had a guy ask me after an auction once, why did I run the price up on him if i wasn't going to buy it. Kinda got under my skin a little. The next auction that came up that he was interested in, I made sure he paid more than it was worth.
I remember meeting Amanda Varner in a Las Vegas coin show. She was good looking and very nice, but the only problem was...the coins she was selling were very high end.
Never met her but did talk to her some and did buy a coin from her this one always been a sucker for pretty redheads
The way I look at it is how much important/useful stuff could I buy with that amount of money. $3k would have put me through a semester of school $12k would pay for my rent for the year $25k would have paid for all of my school $35k would buy me a nice brand-new car $50k would pay for my living expenses for years $71k would buy me a nice airplane $100k would buy me a nice little house $200k would buy me the airplane and fund its operation for 10 years $300k would buy me a very nice large house (where I live) or the small house and my expenses for many years. etc. etc. etc. Put in perspective, such expensive coins seem ridiculous. If you have the money to burn, so be it. I won’t judge (unless you pay $100k for a Franklin half or $350k for a Mercury Dime). I’m happy with my plethora of $5-100 coins. If I need a fix for $500k coins, then I just go to a major show I talk with dealers who have them. If they aren’t busy, ask to see some of the coins. Usually they are more than happy to share them with you.