Dont Give Your Tokens Away!

Michigan Badger

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Oct 12, 2005
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Don't Give Your Tokens Away!

Tokens are in many ways much more interesting than regal coinage (and they're usually a whole lot rarer too).

Like coins, tokens are works of art. Each represents something(s) that may often be very unique, a part of our history that without them would be lost forever.

One such type of token is the famous David Ward lumber baron token of ca. 1880's. Most THers who would find one of these super rare tokens would probably put it on ebay for $5 BUY-IN-NOW. In fact, to date I've found 4 of these at a lumber camp and sold two of them for $100 each (the people who bought them are major token collectors in this country).

I watch ebay very closely and over the past 8 years I am the only person in the world to offer this token to the public (to the best of my knowledge).

I still have two more and I could get $200 (or much more) each for them if I'd sell (I won't).

My point: Don't give your tokens away! Do research on them and if they're associated in any way with some famous personage(s) and are rare, sock a fat price on them when you post them on ebay. DON't TAKE THOSE VALUE BOOKS TOO SERIOUSLY! When it comes to tokens the old saying is true "It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it." Most people will think you're nuts for putting such a super high price on your unique token but those with knowledge will love you.

Badger
Knowledge is power
 

MonDak

Full Member
Jan 5, 2006
180
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Re: Don't Give Your Tokens Away!

Always enjoy your posts MB. Here's a couple of examples of items I found this summer ca. 1900. I toyed with the idea of donating them to the local
historical society if they could use their influence in getting me acess to some
off limits sites. But they did'nt reply, so I guess I'm stuck with them. UMW.jpg
According to an old newspaper article, they had a big celebration for the 20th
anniversary of the establishment of the 8 hr work day in 1918 and I suspect
thats when this was lost.
UMW.jpg
Not in the best of shape. Big Horn Timber made ties for the railroads as they
were laying tracks to all of the mining camps in the area. Was actrally found
about 50 miles from where the Woodrock store was located.
 

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bk

Bronze Member
Jan 19, 2005
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SE Minnesota
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Re: Don't Give Your Tokens Away!

Several years ago I had about half a cigar box of assorted tokens that I sold for 25 cents apeice. I later realized that one token alone was worth about 10 dollars. Most of them were very common bus fare tokens and the infamous Palmolive soap tokens which probably weren't worth more than a quarter anyway, but there could have been a few that were worth even more than 10 dollars. Who knows?

Good advice Badger!
 

T

TheDetectorist

Guest
Re: Don't Give Your Tokens Away!

Yes, I learned the hard way about selling tokens. I found 2 OK territory tokens (about 200 yards from where I sit now...SHHHHH :-X) And simply threw them into my jar of "interesting junk".

A couple years later I decided to see what they were worth. I couldn't find them in the OK token book. I took them to my local coin dealer, who put in touch with a local token collector. When I called him to find out some iinfo about it, his first comment was "how much you want?" I should have clued in on that. I also found the names of 2 other (top 2 in the state) token collectors. I called one of them up and talked to him about. He offered me $300 for one. I about fell over, and agreed on the spot. AFTER (why is it always after) I found out that I held tokens #2 and #3 known to exist.

That reminds me, the weather should be nice this weekend ;D

TD
 

OP
OP
Michigan Badger

Michigan Badger

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Oct 12, 2005
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Northern, Michigan
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Re: Don't Give Your Tokens Away!

TheDetectorist said:
Yes, I learned the hard way about selling tokens. I found 2 OK territory tokens (about 200 yards from where I sit now...SHHHHH :-X) And simply threw them into my jar of "interesting junk".

A couple years later I decided to see what they were worth. I couldn't find them in the OK token book. I took them to my local coin dealer, who put in touch with a local token collector. When I called him to find out some info about it, his first comment was "how much you want?" I should have clued in on that. I also found the names of 2 other (top 2 in the state) token collectors. I called one of them up and talked to him about. He offered me $300 for one. I about fell over, and agreed on the spot. AFTER (why is it always after) I found out that I held tokens #2 and #3 known to exist.

That reminds me, the weather should be nice this weekend ;D

TD

Woe! That's something! But I believe this happens more than we would believe. And probably most people never find out.

Certain key things should tip us off to the fact we have something extra special.

1) obviously very old
2) a person's complete name is on the token
3) a certain state is mentioned
4) a major historical event is mentioned

I've been selling coins and artifacts on ebay as a hobby for years. I've received large lots of coins and simply marked them up and resold them without doing any research on them. A few times I had buyers who sent me gifts after receiving their coins and
 

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