Kealia

Doc, just giving you a hard time - add in whatever questions you may have, too. ElliPirelli - thanks for your thoughts. When the time comes, I wouldn't be selling them unseen. At some point here I will need to put together a comprehensive list of year, coin name, metal, etc. While I'd love to throw the whole lot on eBay and be done in a single purchase, I just don't think it's ever going to happen. Maybe a better question is what size lots are reasonable to ask a buyer to purchase? I feel like a while ago coins were bought by people with disposable income but belts seem to be tighter lately. Just thinking out loud here...

Hey, get your own thread! (kidding Doc) I'm not surprised, really. I think maybe some of us older/original collectors have just been holding onto them because the amount of work to liquidate them seems SO big.

As I look at the coins everyday on the walls of my office I realize that they no longer bring me any joy. I got burned out on them a long time ago but have held onto them......just because. However the thought of selling them individually is a bit staggering, either listing them all here or on eBay and trading emails/PMs 1:1 for each coin. I haven't counted them or inventoried them in a while but I am guessing that they are in the 400-600 coin range. I can say that it's been years since I've bought any coins so most of these date back to when there were coin clubs, groups and states releasing coins. I, like others, would be keeping a few that hold some meaning (personal coins traded with friends, special coins found) but would be more or less cleaning house. My question is - are there collectors out there with the means and interest to buy coins in large lots? I doubt that I'd find anybody willing to lay down $10/coin X 400 coins in a single purchase as that is a lot of money to come out of pocket for, but are people buying 100 coins lots? 50 coin lots? Clearly it's hard to answer with any type of commitment when the actual coins aren't listed, but I'm looking for some general feedback here. What I can say is that the easier it is for me to sell, the better the deal I'm willing to make. There will be some older, hard to find coins that could easily be kept by a buyer while reselling the rest and likely breaking even, or even turning a profit. Sorry for the vague post, but trying to gauge interest. I'm not in a position where I need to sell these to pay for something else, no emergency situations that need to be addressed, etc. - I'm just thinking about selling them off to let somebody else enjoy them at this point. Any and all input appreciated, thanks.

This is fairly easy for me: Non-trackable: Oregon 2003. The first coin I ever found in a cache and it was then gifted to me by NurseDave. Trackable: Moun10Bike V2. I found this in a cache while caching with Jon and it was really how we struck up a friendship. (My V1 was a trade acquisition)

LOL, Pete. I just can't get into proxies. I mean, they aren't different than TBs really but there's just something about them that doesn't feel right. It's like buying a Porsche but not taking it out of the garage. Ok, I'll stop with the metaphors now.

I still think this is a good practice and still do this with the coins I release. I like to think that it helps people realize they aren't to be kept but sometimes they still get lost, forgotten about, etc.

Droo provided a great response with details. There are a lot of folks, myself included, who feel like finding a proxy is like kissing your sister. For me, this isn't true at all. You're not sharing your COIN. You're sharing a picture of your coin. I've seen hundreds of pictures of the Mona Lisa but it's not nearly the same as seeing it in person. I'm of the mindset of: If you want to share your coin, great - set it free and keep your fingers crossed. If you are afraid of it getting stolen, don't set it free. I've set free MANY coins over the years and had some travel well, some go missing after a time, and some go missing immediately for who-knows-what-reason. It's part of the game and a risk that *I* am willing to take to share coins with others. Your tolerance may be different.

That's a nice idea and one that I might do if I had less coins. Honestly, I have so many that are hung in shadow boxes on my wall that I can't see putting up one single one. After the first of the year, I'll decide where to send it and set it free once again. On a related note, I really need to sell off my collection after the new year, too.

Good luck usyoopers. This one got to within 5 miles or so of me and then was picked up and hauled around a bit. I missed some notifications of it so I wasn't aware it was in the area until it was already gone again. Fortunately, it really wanted to get home and made its way back again.

For anybody interested, here is the link to the Geocoin page: TBNTY1

A little over 7 years ago I set a New York Geocoin free with the goal of heading to NY to see Niagra Falls and then come back home to California. Today, that trip was made complete as I picked it up out of a local cache and brought it home with me. It was set free on 11/12/2006 and put on almost 35,000 miles before ending up back in my grubby hands. During its travels it visited Bangkok, Spain, Norway, London and numerous other cool places that I haven't. And, it met it's goal of seeing Niagra Falls thanks to Swamper68! I'm not sure what I'll do with it next, but I'll likely re-release it to travel again. I'm thinking that I may send it to Ground Zero since it has the Twin Towers on the back of the coin, or maybe off to Paris to see Lady Liberty's sister. Not sure yet..... I can say that the coin itself held up well for being out in the game for 7 years, though! To everybody with a traveler out there - don't lose hope. This one went missing for over a year IIRC and then found its way back into the game.

Nope. I'm saying that it shouldn't even cross people's minds that they would. There is nothing at stake here. Add money to the equation and that changes things, basic human nature unfortunately. I'll use an example like you did: I'm a coach of 14-18 girls, and I'm male. I would never be alone with a girl in the gym or in a room because of the fear of how it might be perceived. That's the world we live in today and that is a situation that has major consequences. There is absolutely no comparison to the situation of a reviewer and a FTF and having to worry about what people think in THAT situation. Yes, this is a game/hobby/RASH that people are passionate about but that passion needs to be taken in perspective. If there were money on the line, I would UNDERSTAND and MAYBE even agree with people worrying about the possibility of 'cheating' because there is a prize on the line that holds some value. The greater the value of a prize, the more likely people are to cheat - again, unfortunate. For somebody to worry about somebody else cheating when there is nothing of value at stake is just mind boggling to me, though. It comes down to character I suppose and how people think about each other. Again, I think people worrying about others cheating in circumstances like THIS says more about the thinkER than the thinkEE. Apologies if my thoughts aren't totally coherent. I blame cold medication

Because there are millions of dollars on the line there and this is about the ability to post some words on an internet site and get a virtual smiley in return? Nothing more, nothing less.

Wow. I haven't been on this part of the forums in a long while and I guess some things never change. There is really that much uproar over an unofficial game within the game that nobody actually gets credits for? So...let's look at some facts here: - A player is somewhat of a FTF hound - That player gets asked to VOLUNTEER his time to the game that he/she enjoys by being a reviewer - That player/reviewer still gets the occasional FTF - That player/reviewer is called out for somehow cheating or using their position to gain an advantage That about sum it up? And I'll agree with those that posted saying that thinking that a reviewer should have to go above and beyond to remove all shadow of doubt that they could possibly cheat in any manner is ridiculous. That says more about the people that would even think of them cheating than it does about the reviewers not wanting to remove themselves from the game.

Add me to the list of people who think a little more patience is in order. I tend to take road trips of 5-15 days and for many of those days we are out of coverage altogether. It's these trips that allow us to pick up TBs and move them a good distance but it also means that we often don't get to log them for up to a week or more. Sometimes a simple email to the last holder of the traveler (and waiting for a response) clears things up.

Thanks for the responses and discussions. When we do leave coins in caches - which I still do - I don't really expect to see a log that says "wow, I can't believe I found one of these and I swapped it for some unicorn dust". I guess it's just still a bit of a slap in the face when somebody does call out that they took it without trading equally, or in this case at all. TriciaG - To your point: I don't look at my coins as the Caddy of coins by any means. I know there are some cachers that have been around since I have that would appreciate it, but to most it's likely "just another coin". BUT, it's a non-trackble coin that is left as SWAG. Clearly it's more valuable than an McToy and should be treated accordingly. We leave a note in the flip that says that this is NOT a trackable coin, is worth $5 - $10 and should be traded for accordingly. Even the newest cacher can read that and understand what it is. I've also seen a lot of logs that say things like "I really liked this coin but didn't have anything to trade, but I couldn't resist and took it" (not just on my coins). At the end of the day, I realize that I can't control what happens when I leave coins or send out travelers. It doesn't mean that I don't need to sometimes blow off steam about it, though Most of the time I leave them in caches that take a lot of effort to get to, and I hope that the finders appreciate them for what they are. In other cases, I assume that I'm building up some cosmic karma and that it will come back to me in some fashion down the road. Arne - it was a great trip and I loved every minute of it. We have so many amazing places here in America that I'll never tire of taking road trips to see them and picking up some caches along the way, too! The good news is that I have hundreds of coins left over from previous runs that I still like to leave. I remember the first few times I found coins in caches and I want to provide that joy to others as well. At some point, I'm sure it all works out.

Back from a recent vacation where we roadtripped for 7-states and some un-Godly amount of miles. Found a number of awesome caches (Earthcaches at Mt St Helens, a hike to the top of Multnomah Falls, virtuals in Glacier NP and some more Earthcaches in Yellowstone) and we dropped a number of coins along the way in a handful of traditional caches. We still have some personal coins left and we like to leave them either in the first cache we've found in a new state and/or special caches. On this trip, I really liked a cache that is located near the old West entrance to Glacier NP. It's a beautiful spot with a bridge, big boulders and some history behind it. I toyed with jumping off the bridge, but I digress.... I left a personal coin in this cache along with a note explaining what it was. It's not trackable (gasp!) and was meant to be a trader. Here is part of the log after mine: "Took a coin and left a travel bug." *sigh*

I understand your POV but I still disagree. Open discussions were never stopped. Sales/promotional threads that popped up every 30 minutes were never stopped. TPTB did stop letting competitors products or non-trackables be SOLD but discussions, trading, etc. were never (and still aren't) stifled. There are no forums that I know of that allow the promotion of competitive products to be sold openly - that's just business. I think at some point we all tend to forget that at the end of the day Groundspeak is a business - even though most of us look at it like a hobby/sport, etc. But this is a polarizing topic and has gone through many a debate so I won't beat a dead horse. I've met many a good friend not only through caching but through the coin forums. In fact, a few of those people are like family to me now and I'm grateful for those connections that I've made here.

Bumping a very old thread because of the "remember when" thread and the fact that we've had 10 new members in the last week qualify for this coin through 2 separate DeathMarches. To me, this is what coins used to (and sometimes still does) represent. I'm glad to see locals (new and old) still excited to earn one of these!

This is one of reasons a lot of old timers moved on. I would disagree with this statement. I think a lot of moved on because of the commercialization of coins and the flooding of the market. Collecting things that were personal, hard to find or scarce was fun. Being gouged on pricing on inundated with 5 new coins per week - and each in 5 finishes - was way too much.

Ah, yes the good old days! Count me in as missing them, too. I understand that the "newer" group has it's own point of view too and I respect that. It's just not the same to me. They play their music too loud and..... What I miss are the "F5 frenzies"! It was a blast trying to get one of a limited run of coins that wasn't minted in 32 versions and then re-run afterwards again. It made trading fun and coins (for me) more sought after. I'm still here in one fashion or another fairly often but don't post much anymore because the coins have lost their luster for me, so to speak. Looking at the coins I have on the wall in my office, the ones that mean the most are the older personal coins - with a few exceptions. For example, the first Oregon coin was the first coin I found. I emailed Nurse Dave (who remembers THAT name?) and asked if I could keep it and he said "yes". I returned to the cache and put in some good swag in its place and it all started from there. Soon afterwards I acquired a coin from every state that had one out - which wasn't too hard at that point.

I think I started a thread similar to this one back in about 2008. It seems that there are ebbs and flows of both new collectors and older collectors coming in and out. What I also see are the same sentiments coming up again and again. This isn't a complaint, mind you - I just find it interesting that the same reasons are cited every few years and there really isn't anything 'new' driving perceived drops in interest. I'm still interested, but much less active. I still look at the new threads daily (in one capacity or another ) daily to keep tabs on what's going on. I can say that it's been a long time since I've seen a coin that I had to have, though. A very long time. I still like the personal coins that I either traded for or found early on (Lemon Fresh Dog, Moun10Bike, and too many others to name). I still drop my personal coin in caches that WOW me, when a milestone of some importance is hit, or when I travel to a new place. I've toyed with the idea of doing another personal coin for my alter ego but haven't pulled the trigger yet. If I do and decided to sell it I would set it up similarly to the way the 'old' sales went. Fixed quantity, limited time, 1 edition, F5 frenzy kind-of-thing. I do miss some of the folks and the great debates of old, though.

Let me add this: This happened in my neck of the woods but this is the first I'm hearing about it because I didn't attend and haven't been too active lately due to an injury. In reading the first few posts, I knew exactly who was being talked about immediately. Later, way down on the second page it was confirmed. We're not talking about a newbie that doesn't know the area, the people or the rules of this (and every park) in the area. This is somebody with well over 5K finds that a history of doing things like this. I've seen logs in the past that said things like: "Didn't have time to get a permit for this area but I was only there for X time to get in and out for the FTF" "Ended up back at the car long after dark after deciding to pick up a a few more" (knowing the park closed at sunset and that the cache pages were watched by the land manager) And many more examples. In an isolated case, maybe there's some grey area. When it is a pattern, it's pretty black and white. And I will vouch for those that attended the event. There aren't many FTF hounds there and none that I would ever expect to hear griping from about being cheated out of a FTF. I know not everybody here has the same local knowledge that I have. So you'll have to take me or leave me at my word. Sad.

As always, a job well-done. I can't tell you how many times I've enjoyed caching with you Western-side folks or ridden the carousel at RiverFront Park.

This is a bit of a double-edged sword here. Most people make coins to make money. Fact of life. If they didn't, they'd offer them AT COST. Sure, you can try to figure out what your time is worth to design, mail, etc. but at the end of the day you (general, not YOU) are going to end up with money in your pocket as the result of having a coin made. If it didn't make people money, coins wouldn't be made. The exceptions to that are when people make (made??) personal coins to either trade or leave in caches exclusively. In those cases, no money changed hands and it wasn't really anybody's business how much a coin cost to make. Now that I think about it, it doesn't really matter what a coin costs to mint - the price is generally based on what people are willing to pay for it. If Moun10Bike were to offer his coins for sale at $50/each I doubt there would be many people who came in and said "..but it only cost $x to make, I'm not paying that". Demand, interest, design, desirability and availability drive the price - not the cost to mint. The double-edged sword is: If anybody is making a coin and making money from it, expect to be questioned about the logistics of it. There have been far too many instances of people coming in here and simply trying to make a buck on coins for people to not do so. I have no idea which coin is yours and in question, but since you spoke in general terms I'm doing the same.