Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
Ok I start by saying I am sorry because I usually do not give nor offer help people who are knowingly crazy and completely off there rocker help or publicity. However in this case I had to break my own rules. Since I live in a area where there is as close to nothing as it gets I often find myself searching the web looking at what every one else has found or selling of late. Why doing so I ran across this and now we are to the point. 1,835,000 are you freaking kidding! If this collection brings that then I know a whole bunch of us are setting on at least six figures and need to retire! Give it a look because I know for sure there is about 1,834,950 reasons it wont show up in my mail box!
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
Yes they look very good I was just floored at the amount. Then I started thinking this is a great example of why think there is so much money in it. I mean if I didnt know anything about them "which I dont know much" I would be out in my yard right now with a shovel after seeing that!
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
I dont think duplicating is very possible either. However even as nice as a collection as that I wouldnt think is seven figures. Maybe I am way off but there are 4600 points in that sale and at that price thats right at $400 a piece. That just seems like a lot of money per artifact but my point to the post was really only that I can see why people think you can rich when you see auctions such as that.
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
I know several collectors that have at least a million wrapped up in their collections, and a good number of them don't fit any profile that you could come up with of being rich. This is a large chunk of an old collection, and if sold at auction individually, I'm sure the collection would bring more than this amount.
There is a frame of slate that resides in a trailer park in Churubusco Indiana that probably gets pretty darn close if all of them sold for top dollar. The guy has a regular-joe job, but has been saving and buying pieces since the 70's and ended up with great examples from the Meuser, Parks and other estate sales over the years as well as 40 years of following up every lead, farm auction and garage sale he can find.
It may seem like a lot, but compared to coin, stamps, even other ancient arts, Arrowheads and our area of interest is still pretty cheap. One of the pre-colombian collectors that I've bought pieces for probably has about 20 times that invested in his collection. But if you drink rum, chances are you've helped their family fortune go well past the billion dollar mark. Here is a piece he bought from the Finch collection that he spent about $220,000 on (the piece, not the collection.) The Finch collection is kind of like all of the old time arrowhead collectors rolled into one, Finch had tons of money, bought the best pieces, kept great records and pictures for his insurance catalog which date when all of the pieces came into the US.
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
While that is a lot of money, like Joshua said, that is a once in a lifetime collection from an area where pieces like that will not likely ever be found again. Even at $400 per piece, you have to figure that some of those pieces are worth thousands each so getting 4600 well documented pieces would be worth that price if you had the cash to buy them.
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Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
I concur with SRV with the quality, history and rarity of the pieces in the collection. There are a lot more people searching/collecting today. And as agriculture and interest expanded, the best artifacts around today were probably found in the early 1900-1950 or before. Collecting like this can be a smart retirement investment if you buy right. Its basically a strong savings account. I visited a guy who lives west of me who has a million dollar collection. He has had medical issues and tempted to sell. But he keeps hanging on. Buy rocks not stocks?
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
So my only question would be....Why Ebay? With such a prolific collection, why not a well advertised auction at a major auction house where the collection could be sold off in smaller lots and could actually attain the figure he wants for it? Surely it's not the few points extra he'd have to pay the Auction House? Nice collection, Ebay is not worthy in my opinion. Money like that isn't spent on something sight unseen or in a picture, least not by me it wouldn't be. I'd have to fly out and see it in person.
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Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
Ok here is the deal.... I collect both artifacts and sports stuff and as far as what something is worth...its worth what someone else will give. Now to say someone has a million dollars plus in a collection is not far fetch at all but just because someone has that wrapped up in something don't make its actual value what they have in it. IE Most who bought homes between 5 to 8 years ago. I have only about a thousand in cash in my artifacts but probably close to a quarter mil in my sports stuff and trust me when I left the car buisness world we didn't get an offer any where close to what we spent. I don't blame anyone who buys points but to put something on ebay for that amount is well most know what it is. I wish them all the luck but as a previous post stated if that was really worth that it wouldn't be on ebay jmo...........
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
Well I wish I would've paid more attention at the time. But back when I first started getting into hunting (2002ish) I went to a show and auction in the St.Louis are. And I saw a single blade go at auction for close to $90,000.00 I was seriously in a state of shock. I wish for the life of me I would've taken pictures of it or something. I think they were referring to it as "The Atlas Blade" or something of that nature. If I knew then that i'd be this interested 10 years later, I would've taken awesome notes.
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
Wow, that looks to be quite the collection but $500 for shipping seems a bit steep. LOL.
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Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
That actually looks like a pretty small collection . You might be surprised at what some people have. Many do not advertise or display or post on the internet and just buy,sell and trade among a very few like minded people. I know of one large collection being marketed to people in another country and it is well over 7 figures. I do not know why this is on e-bay either? Most e-bay stuff is crap except for just a very few sellers.
Thanks for sharin
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
This is a great deal for what you are getting, if somebody had the money and the desire to auction it off through an auction house it would bring big money. The collection listed on ebay was previously listed on craigslist and it had a very long interesting story (which I can't remember) But all things considered it would be a nice collection to own if you had the money. pieces like what is in there only come around once per lifetime. Notable to me was the killer frame of gunthers, more nice ones in that frame than I have ever seen individually. Scott
Re: Here Is A Great Example Of Why People Think You Can Get Rich In Our Hobby!
I wouldn't read too much into the collection being listed on eBay. The group listing the auction has a gallery in Washington State (Spokane if I remember), they organize auctions and private sales as well. I think they just put it up on eBay for the advertising. I don't think they actually expect someone to bid on the collection on eBay. As much as people complain about eBay, most dealers and collectors look at it. I'm also sure a lot of people have clicked the other auctions tab, and contacted them about pieces.
It's probably a violation of eBay rules, but when I sold pre-columbian pieces on eBay my bigger deals often came from people who saw something on eBay and contacted me off board about better pieces. And some of my better buys came from contacting sellers who had listed a couple of pieces and asking if they had anything better to sell.
This first group is from a seller who was listing small greenstone beads one at a time. They were listing them in the wrong catagory and were getting them for 2 or 3 dollars a bead. The big head is a relatively important piece and one of the larger of the type.
This is a part of a collection that I bought locally in Miami from a family that was selling pieces they brought when the left Guatemala during the civil war in the 70's. It ended up being over 100 pots and about 300 celts. They sold several pots on eBay and had returns on more than half because they broke during shipment. I contacted them, went to see the collection and bought the group.
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. You might be surprised at what some people have. Many do not advertise or display or post on the internet and just buy,sell and trade among a very few like minded people. I know of one large collection being marketed to people in another country and it is well over 7 figures. I do not know why this is on e-bay either? 
Most e-bay stuff is crap except for just a very few sellers.
Originally Posted by Lady Liberty
