Selling your stuff

I ran into Bob Reis's web site. He is a coin dealer that has branched out into selling a number of other collectible areas. He's written some pretty good thoughts on collecting. I highly recomend his website as a fun read (and he has some cool stuff for sale).

Here's a good essay by him about selling things to a dealer. Very interesting and well worth reading.

http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerce/what'sitworth.html

Repro Maddness

I am convinced that everything that was ever made, or ever will be made, will get reproduced. Such is life.

I try and stay on top of these, as if I don't, I could get taken by a sharp dealer. Case in point- shu-mine boxes. I just noticed IMA is making them. They are simple to make, and there's probably no real way to tell them apart. I've owned about 3 of them over the years - Stupidly traded off all but one.

http://www.ima-usa.com/product_info.php/products_id/964

I am sure they will start turning up on ebay soon with the right fuse. While at IMA I also saw they are making copies of the somewhat rare WW1 era US Cavalry bandoleer. Thankfully, that copy is decent enough for a reenactor, but I don't think would fool anyone with any experience. Not that it will keep someone from aging and finding one 'at a barn sale.'

I will keep saying to my dying day that the only responsible thing is to mark stuff as reproduction in a reasonable way (inside pocket, etc.) but it'll never happen. Things I buy as a reproduction I mark myself. Which means in the future that when my estate gets sold off it will be worth more. One one hand becasue I am a famous author and historian (I have had people actually say they want to buy an item that was used in one of my books), and on the other hand because my reputation will help reassure people they are getting real stuff.

This has nothing to do with greed on my part, but a sesne of pride in my collection. And after all, a true collector takes pride in his work!

Dumb collector shows.

I hate most collector shows on TV. All they ever do is go to people with some lame collection like salt and pepper shakers, and ask what is their most valuable pair. I know people collect those things. I want to see the really ODDBALL stuff people collect. I think the best I ever saw on a show was a guy who collected the plastic bags carrots came in. Now THAT’S entertainment!
And these shows are all about how much the stuff is worth. Yeah, OK. I guess I want to know if they cost $5, or $500, but I am far more interested in how they started, what’s the coolest items they have, what terrible stories of collector’s despair have they gone through, clever ways of displaying them, insider knowledge like how there is a secret North Korean factory churning out replicas of all the salt and pepper shakers from the 1920’s.

Collecting should not be about money. If that is the reason a person is in the game, then they are not a collector, but a deal who just has not started selling things yet.

This gives me a thought, if North Korea can counterfeit US bills (as some people claim) they should just counterfeit some rare stamps or something and use a worldwide network to suddenly dump them all and devastate all the rich westerners that put their money in such things. As I once said, “you can never go wrong by collecting handguns and ammunition. Even if society falls apart they will still have a value!”

I honestly cannot tell you the weirdest thing I have seen anyone collect. Carrot bags are right up there- and do not get me wrong, I am not laughing at the guy, I applaud his efforts to do something really cool. The problem is that if you find something tres cool to collect, like 1960’s Japanese robots, everyone else will want to collect them as well. Prices go up, and as soon as it is slightly cheaper to make a new fake one than but an original – the reproductions come out and the hobby is in shambles.