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Valued Member
United States
157 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
965 Posts |
Stamp collecting has really gone downhill, with the advent of e-mail, less people are handling stamps, and thus less youth become interested in stamp collecting  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
593 Posts |
Lousy value makes for some bargains. Prices are like Red Book prices. You generally just apply a percentage (albeit a lower one than for Red Book). Most 19th Century you can pick up for 20-25% of List. After 1930 or so you can get almost everything for LESS than FACE VALUE. Huge runs of mint stamps for 85 cents on the dollar. I bought a boat load and cherry picked the nice ones for my collection. Sold the rest to my business to use as postage. You can even get rolls of modern forever stamps for 95 cents on the dollar! All of that will always be good for postage. I'm down to 3 items I will probably have to go to an auction to get, and they aren't available very often. So I'm over here working on my coin collection! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I wonder if about a zillion people say RedBook as one word.  Odd that that came up. I never thought of if it was one word or two. Quote:But a point of clarification to all, it is the Red Book, not the RedBook (which is a women's magazine). And too, it is all capitals on the cover, Red Book.  I always suggest that people go to the Whitman web site and request a catalog. It is about 90 pages long and even the catalog if full of informaion. Such as they make all kinds of items for coin collecting. Naturally, their prices in the catalog are excessive since they are basically an organization that sells to dealers in bulk quantity. Edited by just carl
07/15/2012 10:40 am
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Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
Look and learn. Find out what attracts your eye (Purty coins works great for me). Invest in cheaper coins, and find out why they are cheaper coins. I watch for coins and currency as I go through life, finding change in many places. Keep an eye out for anything unusual in circulation. Get into metal detecting, roll hunting, or raiding the penny dishes at Hadji marts late at night. It's a good hobby and should be fun. Most significant others don't understand fun, thus there are support groups called 'coin clubs'.
Also, keep an eye out for US commemoratives for me!
Good luck!
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Out of curiosity, Assuming a new collector is told the need a Red Book and they go google it what do they find? If you use Red Book it first shows up just about at the bottom of the second page of results. If you use RedBook, it shows up at the end of the fourth page. If you go to the library or a bookstore and ask for a Red Book, do they hear one or two words? I didn't realize they now have Red Book on the cover. Any idea when they started doing that? I know it wasn't on the early ones. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
593 Posts |
When I was told to get a Red Book I went to Amazon and searched for " Red Book coins". It doesn't matter if you search " Red Book" or " RedBook" as long as you add "coins" to the search. I just assumed there may be another Red Book out there and only wanted the one for coins. |
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Moderator
 United States
189222 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
193 Posts |
Quote:
also dont buy the "Bluebook" (yes it exists) thats like a sears christmas catalog
How do you mean? The only difference I see in the Red or Blue book is the prices, The Blue book is supposed to be dealers prices. I bought one so I had some idea what dealers were willing to pay for coins. Then I use that to come up with a price I may offer them. Is this wrong? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote: didn't realize they now have Red Book on the cover. Any idea when they started doing that? I know it wasn't on the early ones. 1999 52nd edition is the first one with the name Red Book on the cover. I have all of them and just went pulling them out one at a time until I found that one. |
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Moderator
United States
189222 Posts |
I just knew you would be able to answer that question.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1510 Posts |
what I mean is the prices in the blue book are low and you probably wont get a coin for that price
Retired USAF 1983-2003
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
what I mean is the prices in the blue book are low and you probably wont get a coin for that price Very possibly true. Of course that is so much depending on the coin, the dealer, the seller, the weether, your appearance, the time, the year, etc. Remember there is no manufacturers suggested retail price on a coin. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
594 Posts |
The Red Book has prices that you may expect if you are buying from a dealer (retail). The BLUE BOOK has prices that you may expect if you are selling to a dealer (wholesale). |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12845 Posts |
 And both are only approximations (at print time) of the market. Too many people read a number and think that's what they'll get. I love providing those upper-limit numbers to my insurance company though. As many have said before, they're a good gauge of relative pricing and great for facts and determining scarcity. There are better sources out there for current pricing though -- the market doesn't change once a year like these books do. I'm really not sure how much sense it makes to print dollar values in these guys or even print two books anymore. Why not do like the Beckett publications do and print a high and low value. And then expect to get one third of the "low" value when you go to sell (darn it) ;) RedBook - Magazine geared towards the lovely ladies Red Book - Coin guide geared towards the optimist Blue Book - Coin guide geared towards the pessimist ;) |
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Posted 07/14/2012 2:45 pm
