New Issue Non-Collector Horror Story

George Best said it well. He spent most of his money on women and booze and the rest he wasted on silly things.

We all fall into this scenario occasionally.

I moved my Mom last month. She was very concerned that the movers did not see what was in one package, so she had me take it instead of the movers. (I find that level of trust common among people her age) She had me personally move several items. When I got to unpacking her the item that she was so concerned about was a frame of "$1.00 gold coins". She thought she was sitting on a small fortune as they were all "Guaranteed 24 Karat Electroplate" and she knew how much gold has gone up in recent years. I had to tell her that these were not legal tender and not gold but merely plated collector crap mass marketed to pray on vulnerable people. I have collected many things for close to 50 years. I wish my Mom would have consulted me, but I get the not wanting to bug the kids on every little thing deal. These companies are masters of misrepresentation and I can see how someone could be mislead by their claims. They all seem to have names that make you believe you are buying from the US government or an dealer authorized by the government.
All that being said, some of the art my Mom has accumulated over her lifetime is very nice and valuable. She let the movers handle that.

Aint that the truth?! If I sell at all! Heck the best I ever did was sell scrap gold at gold buyers event in the neighboring town. Sold a 2&1/2 dollar gold coin that was worth more in weight than it was as a collector coin.
I do recall as clearly as if it were yesterday that anticipation of going through a bunch of stamp just knowing that I was going to find the stamp that would end all my financial problems. I've since grown up but I still get a wee bit of that childhood feeling, (I was almost 30 back then) when sorting a hoard I acquire.
Im sure my Grandmother thought the stamp were an investment. But Im pretty sure My own father was not that naive. But I wonder as he was a collector of PCS FDCs.
Now today I have amassed a scrap heap of little squares of paper that most feel are worthless, yet, to me they are a plethora of history and stories to be told.

I'll wager that, if you check with your Mom (I've got one, too), her operating principle was not value, but ease-of-theft ("someone can just put this in their pocket") & apparent value ("this is just the sort of thing that someone could just put in their pocket").

And she's right. You can fence even electroplated trinkets faster than a New York Minute (as they say in Texas); but paintings, sculpture, etc? Fuggedaboudit (as they say in Brooklyn).




The evolutionary biologists would say that many of us still have the genes of hunter-gatherer ancestors. All of this burrowing thru detritus, looking for a find, is in our blood. The genes may no longer have the same survival value, but they certainly seem to trigger the release of the same happy hormones.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey