..and who says flea markets/yard sales suck for coins?

Attended a HUGE flea market today. 75+ vendors over 4 acres.

Here are my "prizes".

1857 (small date?) flying eagle. Cleaned yes, but I already found a buyer for $75. Gave $30 for it.


The brown on the front is shadow. The surfaces are the same color, just caught the light differently.

Bought this BEE YEW TEA FULL 1863 Broa's Pie Bakers Civil war store card for $3. Thinking of slabbing it.





Also bought a 1850 something Upper bank of Canada 1/2 penny for $4 in nice shape, and a 1888 canada 1/2 dime for $8. Pics of those later tonight.

 

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I agree, I love flea markets. True there are a lot of unscrupulous types selling fake morgans but there are 3 or 4 good, honest traders at each of the two in our area. It's so much more rewarding than simply dropping a bundle of cash on eBay. I get a real feeling of acheivement when I find a nice coin at a decent price, even if it's only a few dollars saved.

I find that each of the loical dealers have their own comfort zones or areas of expertise and any coins which fall outside of these margins will be often wildly over or underpriced.

Congratulations on the finds, I didn't manage to attend any this weekend because of house painting duties. Maybe next week

 

I think I may sell both coins and get a nice slabbed coin of my choice...that token has a speck of green on it, it would probly come back as details.

Would love a slabbed MS standing lib quarter.

 

Nice additions, I like the token especially.

 

Should start a thread titled Newest Flea Market acquisitions since summer is coming....

 

Yep... I'll be setting up next a table next month as the new season starts. Plenty of coins plus assorted junk that the hoarders love to buy. I usually end up with about $300+ profit, and I'm sure some of my buyers do even better. Every once in awhile I'll throw a gem in with the junk, and someone gets a heck of a deal.

 

I'm glad you did so good.


The photos are sometimes hard to get where both sides come out the same color, even though the coin is the same color.

 

better than I've ever done. very good!

 

I always get the impression GDJ really hates flea markets.

 

Luckily this wasn't a very expensive lesson to learn.

 

Or Rolex watches.

 

for bullion/ junk coins its a great source.

For high end coins, yeah most likely not.

However I did see that post a week ago about the dude who bought a silver dollar for like 2 bucks and it ended up being worth 120k

 

Even for bullion/junk I would not buy there unless you knwo what you are doing. I have seen "junk" world silver at such places that were all chinese fakes. I am imagining it will not be long before the Chinese figure out there is probably a good market for "junk" Franklins, washingtons, and the like. Chinese fakes are even harder to spot once they are artificially worn. For those who argue they would have to be magnetic or incorrect weight, don't kid yourselves. They can make a fake half non-magnetic, of proper weight, artificially age it, and still make a tidy profit at much less than $10 per.

 

You can't fake a acid test

 

Thick plating can fool a lot of people if they're not careful to go deep enough to get past it.

 

If theres ever something I have the smallest doubt or wonder about I simply test it. Gos for both silver and gold.

 

You are missing the point. Unless you wish to cut the coin in half, and acid test is not foolproof. Surface coat the fake and it will pass your test all day long. Heck, they were making these fakes 2500 years ago to fool such testing methods.

Acid test and magnet will sort out bad fakes, but anyone who believes it will protect them from all fakes may get a bad surprise. The thread recently about fake silver bars and maple leafs would have passed your acid test.

Any test that be created can be fooled. This is why no collector should ever rely only on one test. You should always have 10 different ways of analyzing a coin.

 

Some people must learn their lessons the hard way. But then again, many of the experienced learned the hard way, and try to teach those less experienced.