First Auctions Closed

The first auctions I launched 7 days ago ended tonight. Woohoo! Thanks so much for all your bids, in my eyes it was a wildly successful night -- especially considering there were only 8 auctions ending. Sure, 2 them remained unsold, but then I didn't expect those two would sell unless I got lucky.

Twelve more auctions went up tonight with a handfull of great SILVER proof and uncirculated lots. These are mostly from my Dads portion of this collection. Actually, everything after 1986 will be from the portion of the collection that came from him.

I'm still reading through the ANA Coin Grading book. Where the 2006 redbook is more comprehensive (in the learning about coins arena) than the 1998 edition I had, it's not nearly as helpful to me as the ANA's book. I have a habit of studying the hell out of just about everything I get involved in and the broad history of grading and its importance is something I devoured.

Just ordered a whole mess of cardboard and plastic (no PVC) flips along with a few large bill holders. I still need to find a good magnifying light. Things like that aren't easy to find out here in the middle of nowhere, but I'm headed to the *cough* bigger city this week and hope I can pick something up there. If not I may have to look online - in this case I just really want to see/feel what I'm getting.

Again, thanks for your bids this past week. Click here and take a peek and the new items up for sale!

Moved to a blog

I started this story on my eBay listing page, but then I thought I might be skirting eBay's listing policies and moved updates onto my eBay Me page. Well, now I moved it to this blog so that I can better manage it and provide a better way for folks to see updates. There's still work I need to do so the blog template looks like the rest of the site and auction listings, but for the most part it is similar looking. I've always been a stickler for details (some say umm... retentive), but I think having something that looks clean and polished (no, no, not the coins!) is just the way to go.

The First Couple of Days

I wrote the following before deciding to setup a blog. The blog just makes sense, otherwise this would turn into just one very long, unwieldy webpage hidden in the murky depths of eBay. Now it's... a bunch of short, long winded web pages hidden in the murky depths of the net.

April 19, 2006 - I have sold on eBay for several years, but in that time have only sold a handful of coins... until now. I received my grandmother's second husband's collection to sell on eBay. The collection was in storage for nearly 20 years since his passing, is quite large and unfortunately not cataloged. The coins are not professionally graded and I not an expert in grading coins. I will be learning as I go, starting off with the small stuff -- mint sets, commemoratives, foreign coins, mixed lots of raw US coins, and more. Your constructive feedback on my listings and grading (where appropriate) is welcome. When I've had the time to gain some experience then we'll move on to the silver and gold. I'm not sure what all we'll find as we open the folders, but if you add me to your favorite eBay sellers list then you can be updated in email when new items are listed.

April 25, 2006 - As the ANA book suggested, I had a good sit-down last night with a magnifying glass, light, and a jug of raw coins (err... my change jar). The book actually suggested getting coins in rolls from the bank but then I would have to wait for the bank to open and I wanted to get started. So coin after coin I started working my way through the jug looking at the sort of things that could happen to a coin in circulation. Darn these things take a beating. I found a 1943 mercury dime in there, a silver clad bicentennial quarter, a couple of wheat cents, and a Canadian nickel (oh boy). Nothing worth a bunch, but I did learn a lot just from the couple of hours I spent. I'm sure to be doing more of this since I only got through part of the jug, and I would like to try looking at some bank rolls.

April 26, 2006 - I got my scanner working again, so now I should be able to get decent scans of the coins. The challenge of taking good photos of coins is one reason I have avoided selling coins online. The scanner will have problems of its own, especially in presenting true colors, but at least I won't have to deal with flash glare.

Why Tall Grass Coins?

Tall Grass... I live in Kansas... land of the tall grass that the buffalo ate before they were slaughtered. Now it seems to be mostly wheat and sunflowers. Coins... well that' explains itself too, doesn't it... (though I have some paper currency to sell as well)

In any case, because coin collecting and dealing is such a specialized field, I thought it was important to have a place on eBay dedicated to that purpose, so I took one of my old eBay ID's (z00ker) and changed it to tallgrasscoins. (see my eBay ID history) Now I've got a name and I certainly have inventory, so I should really figure out how to describe these coins.

My true passion is antiquarian books... well books in general... but especially the old ones. (I have some great and rare books in my collection concerning Greek and Roman coinage that I will be listing in the future.) When these coins came to me, the first thing I knew I needed to do was get some books on the subject, and far be it from me to miss an opportunity to buy books, I got online and ordered the ANA Grading Standards book (6th edition) and the 2006 Redbook Guide to US Coins. They're here now and I'm reading the introductory sections...

   

Starting Something New

What started as a brief comment in the bottom of my eBay auction template has grown into a mission and something of a story, so I will treat it as such.

From the top again:

I have sold on eBay for several years, but in that time have only sold a handful of coins... until now. I received my grandmother's second husband's coin collection to sell on eBay. The collection has been in storage for nearly 20 years since his passing, is quite large and unfortunately not cataloged. At the same time I recieved my dads and his fathers coins. None of them are not professionally graded and I am certainly not an expert in grading coins. I will be learning as I go.

I figure the best way to get going is to start with the small stuff -- mint sets and commemoratives. The sale of those will give me some starting money to buy supplies, books, as well as give me time to do research and see how and what coins to move on to next. There are quite a few old foreign coins, tons of mixed lots of raw US coins, and more.

I hope anyone who follows this adventure will give constructive feedback on my auctions. Comments on my (eventual) grading skills is welcome, and suggestions on how I might improve. When I've had the time to gain some experience then we'll move on to real valuable stuff - the silver and gold. Though I have looked through them all and have some ideas, some surprised are sure to turn up as we open the folders.