declanwmagee

Once you have been self employed, Mike, it's intensely frustrating to be in an environment where no-one has the courage to actually do anything! It served its purpose though - the extra few grand got us here - I am now sitting on a terrace on my fruit farm, sipping red wine from a 5 litre plastic bottle that one of the ridiculously friendly villagers gave us from his own vineyard, under a nearly full moon, living the kind of life most people fantasise about. The coin business has suffered from neglect during the Catawiki months, and I shall thoroughly enjoy giving it the attention it deserves once more. It is the future, and Catawiki never was, really...tudo bem, it's all good

Well I am glad to announce that I am out the other side of the Catawiki nonsense. Catawiki and I had to part company this week. I am not sorry, frankly. I told them what they needed to do to break into the UK coin market and they didn't want to do it. I think they are giving up on the UK to be honest. Last month they got rid of the UK marketing dept, then a couple of weeks ago they got rid of the UK country manager (who was a huge ally of mine in all the battles I fought with them). I shan't miss it, it was a silly place! I am very happy to be a free agent once more, running my little coin business from my little farm on a hillside in Portugal....That's better. I was never suited to the corporate thing!

Thanks Matt - I'm happy with that

it's all good chaps - all grist to my mill. Comments are extremely welcome because they are all backing me up in my corporate battles

Another quite good one this week, and it looks like there might be bargains to be had... http://auction.catawiki.com/coin-auction-uk/sunday

I think they're all valid till the end of September....

If anyone wants £20 off their first purchase they have sent me a stack of vouchers...

If you see any wrong 'uns, Scott, do let them know! The chap who looks after the Russian auctions is Philipp Rott, and he does listen... Or tell me, that's cool too... Fakes and forgeries is one of my hot topics in the company at the moment, so I am very keen to get the nod if there are any, in any of the categories. My argument to increase picture size will only be strengthened

Yes - they've done this: http://www.catawiki.com/help/photo_tips but I think I will do a similar page for coins specifically. Of course, all those tips are all very well, but if they then go and scrunch them all down to not much more than a thumbnail, it becomes immaterial how good the sellers photos are! If I can get them to stop doing that, then we can have a magification function too. If you try and magnify the current size pics you get down to pixel level very quickly...

Questions are great, Dave! Just what I need.... I have a meeting in Amsterdam with them on the 1st July, and there is much to discuss...

Hi chaps - thanks for chipping in! The photos are are a real and recognised problem. One of the first things I noticed when I started is that all the pictures submitted by sellers are reduced by their system to 700px on the longest dimension before they even reach the auctioneer, let alone the bidders! As a quick fix in the short term, I've asked that they up that to 2000px, but in the longer term, I'd rather see minimum resolutions enforced. Reducing any picture in this day and age, when disk space is cheap and even phones can do macro photography is not necessary. Heritage have a "View Full Image" button, and that seems to work fairly well. They will take anything back, of course, and deal with the seller to sort out returns and refunds and all that.

Hi Dave Yes, they're quite a big name in their native Holland, and they've been around since 2008 over there. The dominance of eBay is something that affects the UK more than mainland Europe - eBay doesn't seem to be the default there like it is here. Where Catawiki are positioning themselves, I think, is somewhere in between a traditional auction house that takes consignments, and "normal" online auction sites that just provide the software and let people do with it what they will. You submit your coins to the auctions like eBay, but they always go to the same specialist, who has a look, has a chat with you, gives you an estimate and negotiates a reserve if you want one. Then the auction is a once a week event, rather than the constant rolling auctions of eBay. I quite like the concept of having a personal auctioneer who you always deal with (that's me!), who's also a coinie. The company was started by collectors, for collectors, and they cover hundreds of areas of collecting, not just coins - I'm one of about 170 specialist auctioneers, and I do the UK coins, and help out with Gold and International. I agree - competing with eBay head on would be foolish regardless of geography, so we have to be different - I see it more like walking into a music shop to buy a guitar - you want to talk to a musician, not a salesman!

Nice examples, Paul! The number of these - shillings, florins, and halfcrowns - that have passed through my hands over the years that I haven't been able/willing to give a full UNC grade! Even though it's die wear, rather than coin wear, I'd still rather reserve that top grade for coins with full detail. I'd rather think that these are are harder to find in true UNC than to think that true UNC in these years isn't as good as true UNC in other series'. Technically incorrect I know, but that what makes our hobby an art rather than a science!

Oh that's brilliant, Pete! Do you still have it, or has it moved on...? Nice to know where a coin has been on its travels!

Which O, Scott? Here's the one I had once...

I of IMP is easier to see again - always worth checking them though - the only one I've ever had was unattributed. I wasn't the only person to spot it, but I got it for a decent price. I think it went to Bob (rlc35) in the end if I remember rightly...

I had a look at that one too - for the same reason! Concluded the same though...I don't think so. The I of IMP is easier to see on the photo than the I of BRITT.

Hi Weaver I make my living from buying and selling coins, and I'm always happy to enter a dialogue with a potential customer - and I see the haggle as the opening of that dialogue. My business is built on my repeat customers, some of whom have been with me for many years - they kind of came with me as I advanced, which is rather nice. I consider many of my regulars to be friends. People do ask me from time to time whether the coins they have just bought will appreciate over time or not - I usually tell them that they will probably retain their value, rather than gain in value - and that coins are a store of wealth at best. My experience is that it is really difficult to make money on coins by sitting on them. TomGoodheart is right, you have to flip them fairly quickly to make any money. I like to think in terms of "velocity of money". It's not my term, but I like it - the more times the same money goes around in a year, say, the healthier your business. If I spend £100 on a coin, the release of that £100 to make it accessible again for reinvestment is more important to me than pure margins, and the more times I spend that £100, the more stock I am generating, the more customers I am attracting, and the more knowledge I gain by having more coins pass through my hands. So very often, and don't tell anyone , I'll surprise a customer by accepting an offer they never thought I would accept - because I want that money back so that I can buy more coins.

I take an average of 4 books, Jon: CCGB - which I too think is the most accurate Spink - which, in my area at least, I think is too generous British Coins Market Values, which is generally too low Coin Yearbook - lower than Spink, but a little more generous than BCMV For varieties, which are not covered well by the the three latter books (CCGB is better than most, but still not comprehensive), I use the values detailed in Davies (for silver), and Freeman (for Bronze) as relative values, and calculate using current values - so for instance, if we take the 1955 Scottish shilling as an example, Davies values Rev C at £3.50 in UNC, and Rev D at £1.50. These are 1982 prices, so the absolute numbers are meaningless - the relative numbers however, are still valid in my opinion, so I assume that the CCGB 2015 value of £8 is for the commoner variety and calculate the value of the scarcer Rev C accordingly: Rev C = 8 x (3.5/1.5) I also make detailed records of what I have sold coins for, so those values get fed into the average of the 4 books too - this tends to come up with quite an accurate figure.

I think the 7 in the date is between beads on the HT and pointing at a bead on the LT. I also count a bright and dark version of each, making 4 varieties of 1897 farthing.

They are hard to find that good, Damian! I've found that it's one of those dates where there's plenty to be found that are nearly there, but not many that really cut the mustard.

I'd have to agree Me too, Paul. Neither understated nor overstated...

I use Serif Photoplus Starter Edition. Free, simpler than Photoshop and does everything I need it to do for coin photos...

I get a "Not found in the database" message for that certificate number, Eric.

Great place to start though Hami! Good date filling area for beginners and you can take it as far and as deep as you like. Sky's the limit with those two series...