Hi all, i am originally from Australia and have migrated to Cleveland Ohio. Just as my cointalk username says...oz_in_ohio Many years ago when i was in cub scouts, i started collecting stamps and coins when i was 8 years of age...I am now 60... I did it with my late dad. I kept the collection intact simply as a reminder of how the both of us spent time together years ago but now i want to sell them off.... I learnt when i was young that no matter what an item is: EG House , Car , Furniture, Coin, War Medal, Banknote, Painting, Gun, Flag etc etc etc has on it in any store , shopfront , online site like this , trade show and so on that it is only worth what a person or persons are willing to pay for it. When in cub scouts i once asked a dealer at a small stamp and coin show what is the best item on his table? He simply replied "the last item he had sold". My dad understood but i did not.... Like he was speaking with me, he was also serving other customers.... As soon as he took the few dollars for an item, he then said that is the best item and so on. He then explained no matter how many thousands of dollars he has in stock, if he has just sold something for $2.00 then that $2.00 item is the best item he has as it is now gone and he has the money. That is then i realized as he was selling the low end of the hobby, the people with all the upmarket items were sitting around twiddling their thumbs.. I was very intrigued by that and used that theory all of my life.... I have been collecting stamps, coins, medallions etc for 52 years and now i want to wind it down as my kids have no intrest.. feel free to ask questions
I agree with you 100%. The number of people who think their collectibles are worth more are vastly outnumbered by the number of people who think they are nuts. List all of your items on eBay with a 99c start and no reserve. Then you will learn their true value. Chris
Care to share photos of what you think might be the most valuable? I'm sorry to hear your family isn't interested. Steve
Yeah, @oz_in_ohio the vast majority of people could give a hoot about collecting, and coins in general. You have an audience here who do care. Hang with us for awhile and if you decide to sell, you can always try and sell from here to people who share an interest.
Chris and steve, that is not exactly true...You see i have played on ebay for over 15 years and it really depends at the time of day when the seller places something up for sale... A good example is unless it is a key date which can be sold to any coin dealer in the world and they can shift it to make quick turnover, the time of day is so important...I normally listed my USA items in the daytime when i was still loving in australia as people would be home from work , have dinner and then go on the computers in the USA...I never took into consideration the east and west coast time differences so the west coast got more of my items...This goes for any USA site.... As you see not many people from other countries are looking for foreign items unless they are in bulk , cost next to nothing and can quickly get rid of what they dont want. I have told you i am 60 years of age and in my prime years were in the 1970's.... I also have so many vinyl records ( many signed by bands ) and most are UK and USA groups but i think i have held on to them for too long..My daughter who is 24 does not know who deep purple is!!! A person that does not know smoke on the water???? Geeeezzzz ...Just like my coins and notes...i used to have tens of thousands of dollars in face value of USA and australia stamps but sold the aussie items off to companies for less than the post office charges...PLUS I STUCK THEM ON THE ENVELOPES.. I bought the usa stamps over with me when i migrated in 2011 and use them for shipping. Realtors and small clubs like the discounted postage but i cant find many that dont use email these days.... When i sell something i only use stamps for my shipping so the receiver gets 2 strings to the bow so to speak. I am adding a couple of pictures of packages but not the adressed side as i have to respect the buyers privacy...OK?? I am in ohio as my username says and i have taken note of your amendments...However i feel the 1st amendment in this website cannot be used... If i am wrong, then please advise me but i am not going to say something to do with this hobby and get kicked out. I read the rules and they are very black and white and consist of no shades of grey. ( Gray for you...lol ) . As you see i learnt on the oxford dictionary and not webster...Makes it hard when playing scrabble...lol . This hobby in my opinion is slowly going away as kids don't want to take it over...That is my experiences...is it the same way here in the USA???....OIO ....Yes but what are we talking about??? The scarce dates like 1911 and 12s pennies in VF and up condition or the everyday coin one can get in any junk box at a dealers table.... The kids have to start with those junk boxes and if they are not interested, it wont matter what is on for offer, nothing will get sold...When i left school, i went into the rag trade.... Then i went into carpentry but it was not until the introduction on ebay, i saw coins were a way of making a living....Now one cannot sell anything and the only people interested are the retired people that have liquid cash available, dealers that want stock or the millionares of the world over that can afford anything...As you see you have 3 facets and they are the investor, the speculator and the collector..Who are you leaning towards Steve???...I do believe the audience in here are already well established numismatists and are well passed the collecting stage.... Just remember if the younger generation have no interest ( which that is the case in Australia ) , then the hobby is only to go downhill.... I guess with collecting stamps , coins , notes , exonumia etc from 1964 - 2011 back on oz, i have see highs and lows... I have completely stopped buying coins of present day as when it comes time ro sell, one will not receive bullion price in return as there are far too many being issued... However i do have a number of exonumia...I can tell you i sold many gold items and I have seen many coins get melted to scrap as bullion has done better than rare dates. My belief is that when people want to melt items, they place a nail of knife on the coin first and scratch it... This makes sure it goes out of circulation and makes the amount left that bit smaller.It is a shame but it has to be done.. I do similar but with stamps as i disapprove of the pre printed stickers the usps prints out to place on packages...here they are with thousands of dollars of mint stamps in the safe in the post office and they simply print out the stickers due to laziness. Now to Steve: The most valuable items and the rarest item,s ( in my eyes ) are 2 different things. One is what a person has paid for and the other is how many are in existance. Unless the coin is noted in a catalogue, i cannot tell you the rarest piece out there. However where a banknote is concerned, i personally think a radar banknote is one of the most rarest and valuable banknotes to be found ( no matter the number ). Star notes or replacement notes are also in that category but unless noted in a catalogue, the average collector/ investor will not invest in them...if you look at the word RADAR , if you spell it backwards, it is the same..Also known as a palindrome. Items with errors have a small market and i dont like them. In 1966 in Australia , we changed from pre decimal to decimal currency.... The first banknotes had the same as the last pre decimal notes for signatures which was coombs / wilson...In 1968, Wilson died and Randall replaced the signature but lasted a short time...Those notes Coomb/Randall are well sorted out over there.As they were in for such a short time, most are in high grade and hardly got any usage. The $10 banknote had forgeries in 1966 and started with SA and SB. The $1 banknote has forgeries and lettering is BAD... The way to tell is no watermark and no mettalic thread in the paper... A lot were recalled but there are some still out there.... To give you an idea, i have never seen one forgery banknote in over 50 years of collecting...Even at a coin show. The rarest and most scarcest note i have ever owned is an Australian $10 banknote with serial numbers SEX 696969...I sold that in mid 1974 for $8,000 to take myself overseas when i finished school. I bet these days i could buy a house with what it maybe worth. Remember it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.... Not only that, but there is only one of them so i place it up there with the mona lisa. I got it for $10 in change and sold it for $8,000..... NOW THAT IS GOOD PROFIT...lol The Australian decimal notes letterings were as follows when issued. $1 started with AAA $2 started with HAA $5 started with FAA $10 started with SAA $20 started with XAA... So you see, the $10 note is the only one with the 69 combination and prefix. the $50 and $100 did not come in until years later. I could go on and on but calling quits.... Anyone wanting to reply, feel free as i do not bite...lol
