6/2/08 - because of the unusual situations with both the bullion markets and the USA dollar exchange rate everything (11/16/2008) you should consider ALL of my posted prices to be provisional.  There may be changes in any category.  This notice will be posted on a few other pages but not all.  But this is your official notice.

A. SELLING:
New (if the background of this page is a different color than last time you looked there is new stuff) - update 6/7/09
June pricelist
Last month's list
17,000 other things for sale
note on viewing pictures
site search

B. BUYING:
Buying
What's It Worth? - numismatic estate handling for live collectors & executors

C. SERVICES:
Attribution, authentication, grading, and appraisal services
Market research
Subscription
Website development and management services

D. INFORMATION
Information
Links - friends, colleagues

E. OPINIONS & NEWS

5/5/2009
A. THUMBS UP & DOWN:
Up on the budget.  It does what I want it to do.
Down on the bailout.  Those bankers ain't nothing but a bunch of smooth talking crooks.  All they want to do is steal money and they spend all the rest of their time figuring out how to twist the laws to make their theft legal.  Abolish their business.  The Muslims have it right.  No interest.  No limited liability.  Only joint partnership.  Western style banks have a near monopoly in the world.  There needs to be some competition.  All of the local money experiments that are going on are doomed to failure.  Only Amish style communalism works against the wolfpack that is the banks.  The question is how to have multicultural communalism, which is a matter of who do you love.  So there it is.  Its not a matter of rules.  Its a matter of heart.  People have to actually change.

Look, I'm a numismatist, which means I've been studying governments and money throughout history.  Governments are attempts to keep criminals in check but some criminals always attempt to take over the government so they can go on criminalizing.  When they succeed things break and don't get fixed.  If a good leader comes along that person still has to deal with hordes of criminals occupying perhaps a majority of executive positions.

B. THIS & THAT
1. NOT WANTING TO DISTURB OR ANYTHING, but I read in Scientific American that a big meteor missed us by a few hundred thousand miles last month.  The scary part?  It was noticed a few days before closest approach.  Last time I looked there was only partial sky search in the southern hemisphere.
2. LOOKS a little drouty again around here.
3. POSTAL RATES GOING UP AGAIN.
4. VARIOUS CHANGES ARE IN TRAIN here at the business.  This list may start looking different, I'm not sure.  The composition method  is going to change, and the software that composes it, so you'd assume it will end up different , but then, maybe not.  There may also be some deviation from the once a month schedule of the last about 20 years.  I don't know, but we are changing things.  Mistakes, uh, will be made.  I'll apologize in advance.
5. YOUR elected government people are deep in the middle of whatever mischief they're up to.  I was hipped to a bit of local skulduggery involving broadband licensing recently, contacted my state rep who didn't know anything about it.  Now he does.  I have to get back in touch with him, see if he agrees with me or if I have to argue with him.  Asking questions - good method.

4/5/2009
1. THE FUNNY profit ratios for bullion have been mostly squeezed out as the holders have had to liquidate at the real market.  Not quite, about 90%.  There is foolish bubble stuff going on with near bullion and bullion US coins but that will probably deflate soon.  About the time you can't afford it anymore bullion will be "normal."  Soon.
2. OBAMA is being too careful for my taste but that probably means he's about right. I am so far from middle of the road.  The bailout looks very messy, will certainly get more so, meanwhile people will have to give up, take the hit, go on, things will continue to happen.  I am more concerned that he get as much of his budget as possible.  Too many things to do, not enough time.  I wrote my senator, one of them anyway, the other is no point.  She's a "fiscal conservative."  Told her she can say whatever she wants as long as she votes for it.  This is the best of all possible times to bombard your reps with messages.  Tell them what to do.  Enough people do they start to pay attention.

3/6/2009
1. ONCE AGAIN I CAN SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE: numismatics was not dead in February.  You came through for me, hope I can continue to come through for you.
2. WHAT ELSE I CAN REPORT: in another forum I have been complaining that there seemed to be no continuity of the Obama campaign organization with the local party structures, in which I am (in a quantum-like sense) entangled.  The campaign organization is supposed to be engaging in advocacy for the Obama program, such as it is, but the "normal channels" are not being accessed.  This leads to grumbling from the old guard.  There is the possibility, however, that what is being generated on a "meta" level is buzz, and that perhaps this virtual campaign, so to speak, will carry the day. leaving the yakking suits to wonder what it was they just did.  In that sense, perhaps, I am participating in the pro-O agit-prop merely by mentioning it.  If so, do you find yourself heartened and/or convinced?  (or, conversely, if you are on the other side, ditto inverse?)

2/4/2009
1. MY JANUARY was not too shabby.  About the same as my December and November, which were close to the average for the last 2 years.  Does that say anything about the economy in general?  Not sure.  I've talked with many (!) people who are or will be laid off or lost seriously on investments.  Numismatic people seem for the moment to have a bit of a cushion.  My dealer buddies are reflecting that view.  There remains activity.  My worst month ever was January 1981, so bad I remember it.  I was at a show and like 100 people came all day Saturday.  This is not as bad.  Yet.
2. MIGHT AS WELL GET STARTED criticizing the president.  Kind of my other job.  OK, he's president of every citizen, some of those citizens are various kinds of non-nutritious scum (from my point of view, as I am scum to some of my compatriots).  Still, I think there is just a bit of a trace of a bend over backwards to the right that has perhaps a tinge of a flavor of something other than political aikido.  Was nice to see Pete Seeger up on stage serenading the nation on behalf of a president.  I'd feel a bit more comfortable if that side got a nod about once every 2-3 weeks while the status quo gets 3 for every 1 for "progress."  Still, must be philosophical.  Until few weeks ago there was no ratio at all.  "They" got all of it.  "We" got none.
     And I know that at least 50% of you, my esteemed clients, just thought "what you mean "we"?  Chill.  One of my associates (maybe half way to friend) is a xillionaire, lost big in November, created for him a personal emergency.  His story: "They (AIG) won't take my calls.  I've got a million bucks invested with them but I'm just a little guy.  They don't have time for me."
3. US STATE DEPT. just put out a "memorandum of understanding" that seems to require new paperwork for import from China of coins, etc. before 960 AD.  China had been asking for before 1911.  A colleague in Hong Kong thinks that this doesn't apply to HK dealers.  It certainly does not apply to import from countries other than China.  Since similar agreement with Cyprus I have not noticed that Ptolemaic tetradrachms from Paphos have disappeared from the market, though Iraqi cylinder seals & clay tablets have.  So I don't know what this new China thing means.

1/5/2008
1. I'VE RECEIVED the new KM 17th c. coins & pre-1961 paper catalogs.  IMO they are not significantly improved over previous eds.  Few price changes, but pricing by the catalog is probably a mistake in most cases, they're last year's prices at best, if they didn't change most of them after 5 years (17th c coins) what does that say?
   There appears to be some serious interest in getting an online catalog going.  If it starts to happen I'll let you know.  Meanwhile, I urge you to consider a future without Krause catalogs so that you will not be caught out "Huh?" if it happens.
   I am establishing a special email list for discussion of various aspects of this online catalog idea I'm playing with/working on.  Various questions to be discussed.  If you want to participate contrive to let me know please.
2. MICE PLAYING - is my take on the current Israeli activity.  Maybe they figure they wouldn't be able to pull it off after Jan. 20 when there's a man in the White House instead of a boy.  Not a good job.  But you want to see what the real Arab response is: Egypt is helping Israel, Syria is busy distilling rose attar or something.  No unity.  God is Great.
   I submit, however, that pushing a city toward Somalia status is kind of self-defeating.  There is a thought that if you treat a bad country as an infection and quarantine it you will contain the contagion but I think the metaphor does not hold in fact.  Anarchy spreads but tends to be overcome by regulated free enterprise, which everyone likes better.
   You with me on this thinking?  Niceness trumps meanness in the end.  That's what I see.
3. BETWEEN NOW and the middle of January will be the best time to contact your legislators and officials and tell them what you want them to do.  After that they will be getting to work and won't have time to deal with little you.  Go talk with them now, ask them what they think, get them to agree to consider what you say.  Then you can go back later and tell them that they said they'd do such and such, what's up.

12/3/2008
1. I think I'm starting to think that capital gains tax is, like, backwards.  The way it is it promotes speculation.  You want to get in, do your thing, get out in less than a year.  It should be exactly backwards from what it is.  An investment position that is liquidated in the shortest time should attract the highest tax.  The longer term it is the lower the tax.  Promotes long term growth.  Probably the tax should never be zero.  What do you think?
2. We are in a both-and time, not a this-that time.  It will be necessary to be global, in the Kerryesque sense to make sense of things.  A unitary view is insufficient and will fail.  Attempts to solve our problem in linear fashion will not succeed.
   What does this have to do with coins?  Well, Krause publications has seen fit to dispense with the services of both Colin Bruce and Randy Thern.  We all know that the main product they produce - the Standard Catalog series - has become badly messed up due to what appears to be fundamental data handling problems.  The absence of those two guys means that they are pretty much down to about 2 people in house who know coins like at all.  That means that they have lost the ability to improve their product.  Also, their main money comes from yearly sales of the 20th c. coin book & yearly updates are no longer necessary.  This means they are probably getting ready to abandon it.
   While I will not abandon the Krause group as long as they are the only game in town, I think that the need for a decent catalog for world coins is critical to my business and your benign obsession.  Preparations must be made for a future without Krause catalogs.  Because of cost considerations the successor catalog must be on line.
   I am working on a structure for such a catalog.  I need help from people with various levels of computer skill ranging from keypunch to systems integration.  No money yet of course, possible piece of the action, maybe some "free" coins.
   If you think you see what I think I see get in touch.  Time is of essence.

11/16/2008
My comments on the election will be in 2 sectors:
1. calm down
2. what next
Then I will briefly address "him."

1. I have within various parts of my "being" various views of history, which in some ways I "do for a living."  And it turned out that I did research in some, it seems, very specialized (= unpopular) fields, so that I find correspondences in events that other people do not notice.  Ask me for examples if you want to go there.
    But I will, in this presentation, keep those thoughts to myself.  Not out of coyness, but because I think I have more interesting things to consider.
    So I'll start with some naked admonishments, that is, unsolicited advice given in the imperative mode: do this!  Don't Do that!
    The next president is all sorts of historically special, may be extraordinarily aware and/or capable, may turn out lucky or not.  The important thing for people to keep in mind is that he is a politician and that we hired him to do political work.
    Politics is the practice of dealing in an ongoing manner with all the things that need to be done in a "society."  To have a "society" there has to be minimal provision for everyone in it.  Politicians attempt to build and maintain structures of production and distribution so that people don't all over die in the streets, etc.  Some people act in a primarily egalitarian manner and in the extreme are called "saints."  Other people act in a primarily selfish manner and in an extreme are called "sociopaths."  Both extremes and mid-rangers in that field of self-regard enter the field of politics and devise ideologies to explain and promote their habitual activities.  Perhaps, in human history there has been found a preponderance of sociopaths employed as politicians.
    Obama may turn out to be Joshua to Martin King's Moses, or more likely will turn out to be an ordinary character with some sort of fatal flaw, but he is still a politician whose job will be to get things done with the various sociopaths with whom he will have to deal because the have their hands on some levers.  That means he will produce a long string of half measures, imperfect approaches to inadequately appreciated situations, earmarked legislation, positions filled for political rather than practical reasons, one disappointment after another.  Even if he is Joshua the army that he's leading is, you know, us, and you know what kind of lazy, stupid, selfish good for nothings we are, don't we?  Plus all those complete jerks he has to do business with all the time.
    Joe Lieberman fer cryin out loud.  I mean it is just a big fat joke.  There'll be Obama going "My good friend Joe."  For the 58th vote, or the 60th, whatever.  Whatever Joe wants he's going to get.  And we Obama millenarians are going to go along with it because O's the one who may not give us anything we really want but will at least make the right noises, feel our pain.  Instead of the class warriors whining about class warfare as they steal from our pension funds.

2. What next.  I am writing from the perspective of a 56 year old.  I am actually on the dinosaur side of a tech situation that has rendered me substantially irrelevant to the youth of today.  My children spend major time interacting in venues I don't know about, use technology I don't know about, do things I never heard of, etc.  "Those people" just built an organization from nothing that took over the Democratic party, made the existing party structures irrelevant, elected a president, and we old people essentially had nothing to do with it.  It was a dump-the-old-people election and we got totally dumped.
    I will illustrate from my local perspective.  I was a precinct chair for the local Dems this year.  We had plans and programs and volunteers to do them.  Obama people came in for the primary and stayed.  They were dynamic and organized like we had never been and they did their thing essentially without reference to us and our plans.  It got so that they had so many people out doing Obama things, and including our local people of course, that the local party in October essentially said "never mind, go work with the Obama people."  They did our get out the vote job better than we ever had.  So, technically, nothing to complain about.
    The responsible thing to do now would be for that superb organization either to come to us like the Borg, resistance is futile, and I would happily go along as long as the goals and methods looked right for me, or, like missionaries of yore, to bring the new gospel and methods to the primitive heathens and to let us use them if we can, imperfect vessels that we are.
    We'll know soon enough if they intend to carry on into the new age, and if they do, are they capable.  That's neither here nor there.  What is here for all of the individual "us" is the ever-present opportunity to be involved in the political process, which is, for everyone, to talk with friends, relatives, neighbors, etc., and the politicians, to form interest groups and promote issues, to deal with people who seem to disagree with us on something in order to get stuff done, all that stuff that most of us (me included) don't like to do.  Because that's how it gets done, and if you don't do it and I don't do it either THEY will do it the way they want to do it which may not be the way WE want it done or it won't get done.
    The end of making excuses?  The beginning of personal responsibility?  We'll see.

3. About him.  Reagan was a guy who wanted to do something.  From my point of view what he wanted to do was base and ignoble, never mind it was a direct assault on my class interests (lower middle baby, toe that line, pay that mortgage).  He was pretty successful, and in the end a very few aspects of his program turned out to be not utterly bad.  Never mind.  We sense that perhaps Obama wants to do something too.  That he is becoming a president not primarily to please himself like Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Clinton.  They ran and ruled in vain and unsuccessful quests for self-validation, psychosomatic presidencies, if you will.  Obama, we think we sense, is different.  Some of us  imagine the things he seems to hope to do are in some way "progressive."  But we don't really know.  We've had bad luck for so many decades, we're jumpy about optimism.  The competent ones applied their competence to theft, lies, brutality, etc.  That we might actually get someone at long last who will push for reconciliation rather than victory.  The possibility is immensely scary even for people who yearn for it.  It is obscurely eschatological, is it not?
    We don't know.  But we will see.

More opinions - 100s of thousands of words!

reisbiz@earthlink.net
phone: (919) 787-0881
mail: Bob Reis, POB 26303, Raleigh NC 27611, USA