Hobo nickel question

I am looking for a gift for a friend that collects hobos. I ran across this little beauty featuring a beautifully carved Hunter S. Thompson skull. I found it really cool, but I have no idea what I should expect it to go for. Any advice as to what I can pay for it without going overboard would be appreciated.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221257147230?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1431.l2649

 

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While I think "original" hobo nickels can be rather cool, I dislike these modern products immensely.

 

It makes me sick to see a buffalo nickel ruined like that. And think of all the buffs ruined by people practicing how to do this.

 

Tisk, tisk, I think your friend would appreciate originality! Sure anyone can buy a well made artistically done hobo, but few will go the extra mile and pick-up something different with a rather avant garde flair. I just ran across this one on the Bay.....and it could be all yours cause surprisingly no one else will take it.
Sorry for the hijack...... couldn't resist lol

 

I think that hobo looks very cool. some modern carvers get huge amounts of money depending how great it is.

 

Here's a recent thread about Hobo nickel pricing:

http://www.cointalk.com/threads/hobo-nickel-record-price.221047/

There's four hundred + auctions currently running on eBay for Hobo nickels. The quality, as well as the pricing, varies dramatically:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Coins-US-/253/i.html?_ipg=200&_from=R40&_nkw=hobo+nickel&_sop=1

 

Alright.....you just insulted an entire subset of the hobby. Thank you for that . I have seen first time hobbos made by YNs that quite good, so not a lot of waste there. I'm no expert, but I do have friends who collect/carve these things and to my knowledge the only rare dates that have been carved are those by classic hobbos. In fact a hobbo from a famous carver recently brought 60,000(and I do believe that it was a rare/semi rare date)!

 

I agree with viaha.

 

Yep... I think gunnovice is taking the hobby way too serious if seeing a hobo nickel makes him "sick". I really love the darn things... so "carve away, boys".

 

if you look out there... there are NOT that many modern carvers out there. I have seen some off Ebay and Google. some of them are small works of art.