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Things seem to have turned back  up in late 2019 and 2020 with the new series seemingly bringing in new interest

I guess I would have to count myself among that group but I can guarantee that I would not have even sniffed the new series if you hadn't posted about it and the Bond notes. It's interesting that you are putting the upturn pre pandemic starting with the new series, I'm onboard with that, but would the current price levels be the same without it?

In Ukrainian notes, I'm seeing silly amounts going to Top Pops and SOME one-offs but if there are more than three the prices fall off a cliff and notes sit. Granted, there is a smaller base competing for these notes. I expect a precipitous fall for the, now, more common notes in grades below 69.

Looks like good news on the gas coupons front, good luck.

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I guess I would have to count myself among that group but I can guarantee that I would not have even sniffed the new series if you hadn't posted about it and the Bond notes. It's interesting that you are putting the upturn pre pandemic starting with the new series, I'm onboard with that, but would the current price levels be the same without it?

At this point I have a pretty long history with this set. I bought my first notes in Dec 2015 / Jan 2016, while we were expecting Ben. I bought a few notes finally then, when I hadn't around 2010, because the prices had finally come down a lot. Even then, I was paying for 65-66 EPQ notes what you now expect to pay for 67-68 EPQ. This influenced the grades I bought back then for some key notes in no small way.

In early 2019 you see the final capitulation of some major dealers. One major dealer around this time slashed their asking prices from $25-30 a note to $16-20 for pmg graded notes and started running sales for 50-60% off specifically on Zimbabwe notes - actively just dumping inventory just to get rid of it. This is a big part of why I was able to grow my set from 11 notes to about 60 in a year on a very limited budget after Sam's birth. 

It is around late 2019, with the release of p101 and p102, that you see these hitting the market with strong asking prices and you start seeing stiffer bidding competition and you see the sales start to dry up - and this place still has inventory so I don't think that was the problem. Incidentally, this is also around the time that PMG featured my Millions set in OCT 2019.

That's why I don't attribute this to the pandemic. I think the pandemic is helping and I think those big 3rd stimulus checks are helping. I think revived inflation fears might also be resurrecting interest in the topic of hyperinflation. So there might be an number of things playing in here.

One other thing I can't fully assess the impact of is that this is also hitting just a couple months after a certain set won an award and a $500 grading credit for a Zimbabwe collection. I got you into this. I wonder if I got Bonez onto this or if he found it on his / her own. Some people started hopping on both Venezuela and Zimbabwe shortly after my Venezuela set got featured in late 2020 - which could have brought people into my profile where they saw my Zimbabwe sets. There really is a chance that with the Oct 2019 feature, the 2020 award win and all these journals that I am my own undoing. I can live with that I think.

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Looks like good news on the gas coupons front, good luck.

Yeah Definitely some promising news on that front. I'll post more about this soon but I need to make an order soon I think.

25 minutes ago, Revenant said:

I got you into this.

LOL!!!  I'll remember you said that.

I'm really happy with the new dollars and don't regret for a minute getting them, I'm probably most proud that I've kept myself in check and kept my Zimbabwe sets to a minimum. One day I may go for a first dollar set but we'll see, that's a long way off if it even happens at all.

2 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I'm really happy with the new dollars and don't regret for a minute getting them, I'm probably most proud that I've kept myself in check and kept my Zimbabwe sets to a minimum. One day I may go for a first dollar set but we'll see, that's a long way off if it even happens at all.

You're an odd one in my experience in that you show little interest in the 3rd dollar series and the P-88 to P-91 block in particular. P-65, P-90 and P-91 are usually among the ones that people go for first. Anyway... blame what you want on me. It makes not difference! You have the sickness now:

When you start talking about "a," "b," "c" and "d" you'll know you're in REAL trouble.  

5 minutes ago, Revenant said:

You're an odd one in my experience in that you show little interest in the 3rd dollar series and the P-88 to P-91 block in particular. P-65, P-90 and P-91 are usually among the ones that people go for first.

Meh, don't get me wrong big denominations are fun to collect and interesting to study but I'm more of a design guy, that's what usually brings me in at first, but the designs on those notes just didn't speak to me. As to the story behind them I can check our your sets anytime  so no real need for a deep dive there either. The only reason I have Third dollar Billions and 2008 Agro Check sets was pure frivolity and since I do have these sets I have a slight inclination to complete them but not in any serious manner.

4 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

The only reason I have Third dollar Billions and 2008 Agro Check sets was pure frivolity and since I do have these sets I have a slight inclination to complete them but not in any serious manner.

Ha! Well if you decide instead you'd rather get out of it just let me know. I think that $1 Billion - P-83, which is fairly crazy at 69 EPQ - would be about a 4 point upgrade for me. My P-83 is one of my earliest purchases and one of the relatively few 65 EPQs in my set. Add in the fact that it's in one of those old-gen holders and that's one I could see upgrading one day.

2 minutes ago, Revenant said:

Ha! Well if you decide instead you'd rather get out of it just let me know. I think that $1 Billion - P-83, which is fairly crazy at 69 EPQ - would be about a 4 point upgrade for me. My P-83 is one of my earliest purchases and one of the relatively few 65 EPQs in my set. Add in the fact that it's in one of those old-gen holders and that's one I could see upgrading one day.

You'll be the first to know. 

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

I spoke too soon on the Zimbabwe banknotes, it appears as though I will be getting at least one more for a signature set. The 2007 10 dollar note, what yah do. 

4 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

I spoke too soon on the Zimbabwe banknotes, it appears as though I will be getting at least one more for a signature set. The 2007 10 dollar note, what yah do. 

How random... Why?

8 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

2007 10 dollar note

Not to advertise, just trying to help, but $60 feels super reasonable for a 69 and they (Banknoteworld) are running a 10% off sale for memorial day.

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

How random... Why?

My Signature/Themed Set is based on tractors/farming equipment and there just happens to be a tractor depicted on that note.

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

Not to advertise, just trying to help, but $60 feels super reasonable for a 69 and they (Banknoteworld) are running a 10% off sale for memorial day.

Thanks, I'll check it out but I'm most likely going to go with a lower grade. I saw a 68 for $33, I'll probably go that route, I can't really justify paying top dollar for high grade notes on a not so serious set. I'm not planning on going much over $30 for most of these notes and hopefully between $30 - $20 for 80% of them, there will be a few that will be more expensive and in those cases I might consider paying a little extra for a higher grade or specimen but probably not or I might just omit them completely.

In my searching I've come across a lot of turtles and elephants, A LOT!  But still no skunks.

Scratch the 10 Dollar, I'm going to go with the 5 Billion note. It has the same depiction and I have an open slot in a set for it, two birds with one stone.

37 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

In my searching I've come across a lot of turtles and elephants, A LOT!  But still no skunks.

Yeah. I'm going to have to invest some time in researching those myself more, but I need to mostly settle Venezuela and Zimbabwe first.

Honestly I don't know that I would have gotten that 69 back in the day except I bought it on a 60% off sale and got it for $24. At that price I had no regrets.

51 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Scratch the 10 Dollar, I'm going to go with the 5 Billion note. It has the same depiction and I have an open slot in a set for it, two birds with one stone.

Or both...  You could get both. I would get both.

10 hours ago, Revenant said:

Or both...  You could get both. I would get both.

Prognosis Negative, unless I need to hit the minimum for free shipping again.