Ain't E-bay wunnerful

Oct 18 10:52 UTC 2000

I just watched an auction of a chinese coin (Emperor Kao Tsung with the
reign title of Ch'ien Lung (1736-1795) minted in Beijing (reverse
characters in manchu script 'boo yuwan' aka Board of Public Works (as
opposed to the more common 'boo ciowan' aka Board of Revenue (IRS)) sell
for 1.95$US.  According to the 1999 book value it was probably worth
about 15 cents.  The seller even had the coin upside down in the
picture.  Now granted I sent e-mail to the seller identifying the coin
and its details which he included in the auction text in the last days
of the auction but it still is amazing to me how the value of such a
coin could rise such (I own at least 30 of them suckers).  Its like the
stock market I guess.

response 2 of 9:

Oct 18 16:49 UTC 2000

Worth is determined by what people will pay for something.

response 4 of 9:

Oct 18 19:27 UTC 2000

Ebay is problematic for items at the very low end of price.  The need to
have an item shipped adds both substantial cost and delay.

Let's say these coins are generally available, say in rolls or boxes full
of hundreds of coins for 15 cents each.  So some other sellers rush to
offer similar or identical coins on Ebay at a variety of selling prices. 
But each of those listings cost 25 cents.  And my guess is that the number
of buyers who are willing to pay two bucks for a 15 cent coin may be
limited, so most of the new ones go unsold.

The inherent inefficiencies of trying to buy and sell goods among millions
offered will have disproportionate impact on low-value items.

One of my first acts as a new Ebay member, back in 1998, was to place a
bid on a book offered for $6.00.  I regretted that bid when I saw another
copy of the exact same book offered for $1.50.  However, within a day or
two, I was outbid on the six dollar copy.  I hurried to place a bid on the
$1.50 copy, and won the auction as the only bidder.

response 6 of 9:

Oct 21 03:37 UTC 2000

re#1&2:  Thats what I told the seller - I told him the value of
something is what somebody is willing to pay for it.  If Krause starts
factoring in ebay sale prices for coins the value of my collection
should skyrocket.(Plus it was 3 dollars for S&H).

re#3:  If been thinking about that for well over a year now.  I have a
ton of old S-100 stuff that I even paid to move to Chicago (Less the
stuff I sold to mdw for 25 bucks or so) (I have an original Hayes Modem
complete with documentation for example - tons of other boards with
doc.)  I am not sure about selling coins for some reason.  I remember
once when I was about 12 attending a local coin club meeting with my
father (in japan where we lived).  I was the only child there and an
elderly japanese man bought a few of my coins (years later I figure it
was just because he was being nice).  The money was soon gone and I
remember wishing I hadn't sold them even though they were 'dups' and not
as good as the ones in my collection.  Since then I have given away many
coins but never sold any.  *BUT* when I see something like #0 I sure am
tempted, and I see it rather often.  (I already have a scanner, a
digital camera, and my own dedicated domain and IP address...so it would
be easy to get into selling instead of just buying.)

re#4:  Actually, the coin in question is rather common only in that
chien leung reign is the longest - and Kao Tsung didn't die he merely
abdicated in favor of a grandson or nephiew or something (not recall
offhand) and lived awhile (10 years?) after the end of his reign.  And
between all the mints, they minted a heck of a lot of 1-cash (smallest
denomination cash).  But, I would venture that you could walk into any
coin store in the USA and be unable to buy one if you wanted to to save
your life (and if you could it probably would be way more than 15
cents).

So I suppose a 250 or so year old coin being sold for 4.95 (+.85 if you
want insurance) is not a bad deal.

response 8 of 9:

Oct 23 08:18 UTC 2000

No takers?  Where else can you get a 250 year old or so coin for 10
bucks?  And donate to m-net at the same time?  A coin with such a
history?  The longest reigning monarch in the modern world - makes
Victoria look like a piker.