Busy Busy Busy...

This past week I've had so little time to spend thinking coins that I did not get a single thing listed tonight. I had photographed a small collection of WWI and WWII foriegn paper money, started to list it and in research realized it wasn't worth listing each note individually. So, I'll probibly just create a few lots and be done with 'em. There isn't that much paper money in the collection to worry about.

I was at an real-world auction today with my pays-the-bills business and picked up a nice 1925 Stone Mountain commemorative. It may not be as good as I what I paid (my preliminary grade is about an AU-50), but it was a fun diversion in the midst of a slow moving sale. It's a pretty coin.

Got a few more supplies in the mail including some nice white gloves so I won't be finger-printin' all over the coins when I photograph them. They are nice gloves... thicker than most I saw available on eBay (most look like glove shaped cheese-cloth). I got them from eBay Seller ID JayGlove - they also have a website www.jayglove.com. I recommend them.

Thanks for all your bids tonight! I'm so pleased how well tonights auctions ended, when I really didn't have anything I thought was terribly thrilling listed. I appreciate your business and thank you for helping me along on this journey.

Week 2 Drawing To A Close

Well, tonight the second round of listings will end. Things are looking good so far, but I'm a tad anxious because a few of the items are not doing as well as I hoped. There's still time left, so that may change.

I spent quite a bit of time this week trying to figure out how to get a good, clear scan of very reflective silver coins. I've concluded it isn't possible with the hardware and software I have, so most coins now will be photographed instead of scanned. I thought the scanner would be able to better show detail and coloration with a lot less lighting problems - and that does appear to be the case on copper and nickel coins, but try as I might the silver just looks too fuzzy.

This past week was very busy, so I didn't get as much work done on the collection as I hoped. I've pulled many of the coins from folders and have them in individual flips. And I did get a good magnifying light ordered so I can better inspect the coins. I understand not everyone grades with magnification, and maybe I'll be able to do that at some point -- right now I just think I'm better off with a better view of the details.

So what did I find this week? I was excited to find a 1909-S cent (not VDB) in one of the folders and a 1925 half-cent in really good condition. I also found a box of 1965 special mint sets in their original envelopes, a couple of which are sealed. I was going to just list those tonight but after looking at a couple of the coins I think it'd be better to break the sets and have Kennedy halves slabbed. Ray ordered these in 1965 and left them sitting in the original box as they were sent fron the mint. They got pushed to the side for now.

I can't really say there is much exciting going to be up for auction tonight. I guess I could be surprised, but I just didn't have the time to get much else ready to go. I'm very anxious to get some of the raw coins listed and am spending more time looking at and cataloging them (for accounting purposes).

Now that I've got some money to work with (from the first sales), there's a really good chance I'll get some of the coins sent off to be graded and slabbed. More on that later in the week.