Revenant

8 hours ago, Sheik Sheck said:

Congratulations on your big win! All that hard work on Zimbabwe paid off. You are definitely the hyper inflation dude. I am really glad they honored you as us forum dwellers know how much blood, sweat and tears you put into the hobby. One hundred trillion salutes to you. Well done!

Thanks a lot. It meant a lot. I was very happy to get it and I appreciate your message.

54 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

When the time comes post some pics, front and back, of a couple of the notes. Always love to play the grade game and to speculate. 

Totally. Happy to do that,  once I pick something to buy anyway.

51 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Looks like 14 more slots, that's a pretty good increase, if you're quick enough I'm thinking best presented 2 years running.

I'd be quite surprised if it ever won another major award - pleasantly, but very surprised.

52 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

You'll probably need to mail them by February to make the deadline though. 

 I'm hoping it's not QUITE that bad, but I'm hoping to start buying some of the notes I need at the start of February. I'm also not ruling out adding some new varieties and replacement / non-replacement notes to compliment what I have already, which would also add more slots over time.

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Oh wow, yeah. I hadn't looked at the Bolivars but yeah. Hope we didn't lead them astray with our collecting interests. 

Maybe I should stop rocking the boat.?.?. Nah! 

 Ya know, if my prattling-on encouraged someone to dump a couple of G's in the span of 2 months just for the joy and pleasure of hammering me into the dirt on rankings, I'll take that compliment.  

I don't talk about this part much but, part of my motivation in building "Gradually, Then Suddenly" was that I really liked this series and found the history interesting but when I brought them up a couple of times on the NGC side a few people kinda dumped on them and dismissed them as "just big numbers," etc (A quote that was in my description for a while there at least, it torqued me off so bad...  Anyway...) That set was created, in my head anyway, to show just how cool and interesting that set, the series and the history could be and prove them all wrong. I think I succeeded.  

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I was just curious. I'm pretty sure after I posted the question the seller pulled the note then relisted it as a "label error", for slightly more money of course. 

Oh yeah! It's a less desirable, less valuable note that earns about 5% of the points of the other if the label is correct but PMG made a mistake! Let's pile on and act like some data-entry person at PMG hitting a instead of b makes this very common note somehow more valuable. Never mind that the note is worth about $20-25 on a good day usually. I guess there's a chance that there are slab / holder collectors out there that would like it but I have no interest personally.

A true 48a, with an AA prefix I might add.

A type B, from the same AW prefix run that the error label note comes from.

On 12/11/2020 at 6:05 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Uh oh, Bonezdogg is taking no prisoners. She's about to kick both our butts in the new Zim dollar set and I noticed a new Ukrainian set popped up the other day.

Yeah... They are buying Zim dollars from P-1 to P-104 at a pace that is mond boggling to me and the same thing for Venezuelan Bolivar. I have zero interest in playing that game. They can have it. 😆 

On 11/30/2020 at 12:27 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

This is a label error correct, should be P-48b?

Sorry, man. I never saw this, but, yeah. That looks like 48b to me, which is a big problem because 48a is a lot rarer.

15 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Big jump this week, up to 1,903 probably going to be some notes hitting the market in the next week or two.

Got some other money burning holes in your pocket thinking about it?

2 hours ago, Sheik Sheck said:

Every time my wife brings me a USPS envelope she rolls her eyes. The unspoken shame. But they love us so they put up with our paper sins. Congratulations on your press regarding your Venezuelan collection! 

Yeah... If we're not there already I supposed we will be soon.

Thanks! I'd been debating whether or not to say something about it or post about it but I'm just not sure what I'd say. 😅 I only found out about it when Mike sent me a nice note. Last time I knew a couple of days in advance but not this time. It's nice motivation to move forward with collecting the Soberanos and building out the new Signature set I want to make.

4 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Do NGC credits expire? I was thinking about sending in a submission but the turn around times are pretty long right now, figure I'll wait a month or two until all the new releases calm down a bit.

They're usually good for a year to my understanding.

On 12/1/2020 at 6:59 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

, Bonzdogg is still pumping notes into their sets. Looks like it is going to come down to wire.

A lot of expensive high grade Zimbabwe notes sold late last night, so I think she's buying like crazy and it looks like she's coming for me. I guess we'll see what next year brings.

On 12/1/2020 at 6:59 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

, Bonzdogg is still pumping notes into their sets. Looks like it is going to come down to wire.

Yeah. Looks like she's going for a full Trillions set in 68 EPQ, which will definitely be a problem for me staying number 1 there but that's a problem for another year.

They didn't do a countdown timer this year but we're about 24 hours from the end for this year.

3 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Scanning is absolutely the way to go, in my mind anyway. Who knows maybe in 5 - 10 years I'll revisit this and think about a camera set up but most likely copiers/scanners will have improved even more and I'll be scanning my notes into my registry sets. Again. 

For what its worth I actually find it far easier to scan them in than to take pictures. I can put 2 notes at a time on the scanner bed, scan, flip both over scan again. Get to the computer, copy all the files to make duplicates, open them in paint, select around the note I want and tap the crop button. Save and Done. FAR easier than with the camera.

Getting shots straight on is going to be tricky with a camera because the notes tend to fall over when stood up and putting the camera above almost always results in unattractive shadows and reflections in my experience.

Color is its own, special hell. I've found it almost impossible to get consistent and accurate color, even with Photoshop adjustments, unless I'm doing all the shots at the same time because the light profile of most bulbs changes over time and varying amounts of and color profiles for sunlight in different times of year, weather and time of day can also impact your images if you have windows in the room. And that doesn't even get into the tints on different generations of holder. I gave up and just started scanning. The images are at least consistent across the set that way.

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

The Ukrainian registry/collector base did increase by one this past week.

Good to hear! They're going to have some work if they want to worry you I think though.

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Wait a minute... NOOOO! I got knocked out of fourth place in the Billiions set by Bonezdog, oh you just bought yourself a one way ticket on the pain train my friend, here I come. JK

Except you've already admitted that you have a P-86 in the mail. Assuming you bought a 67 EPQ or 68 EPQ you'll be ahead of her soon enough. 😆 Although you've both now convinced me that I'm going to have to bulk up my Billions and Trillions sets if I want to stay on top in those categories. Those may move up in my priorities for 2021.

I can't take credit for the current layout of the Categories. PMG did that on their own. I actually would have never asked for the Millions and Billions set - just a Trillions short set. I wouldn't have thought there would have been a demand for that when PMG made those categories in (I think) 2016. Props to them though. They clearly knew something I didn't.

You can thank me for the fact that most of the slots have scores populated and that the scoring system has been improved overtime. Hopefully Ali and the Admins don't get too tired of dealing with me on this stuff.

4 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Holly , @Bonezdogg has been busy today and this month. That's awesome! Plenty of room for new collectors of Ukrainian notes as well , just saying.

Ha! No! One 100-note project is enough for now! I picked the Venezuelan notes specifically because it was a shorter set and I could do just the Fuertes and expand into the Soberanos when I wanted to. Maybe one of these days I'll look through your galleries for some particularly attractive ones to hunt for or just see if you have graded spares you want to dump. 😆

I do however like the increase in participation that I've been seeing in several of the Zimbabwe categories though and it is sometimes fun to think that, as with you, my work and my writing might be helping to drive some of it. It's nice to see that my 4th dollar set(s) won't be alone anymore. One thing I always find interesting is the people like you and Holly that focus on the 4-6 note short sets of Millions, Billions and Trillions vs the people that open up in the 3rd Dollar P-65 to P-91 set. I'm one of the few that has sets it both it seems.

Interesting... Reminds me of some of this nonsense you see in the US with these private "mints" with names that seem deliberately designed to make it seem like their "gold clad proofs" are more legit / official than they are.

I've often felt very lucky in some ways that Zimbabwe used to be a British holding so all their stuff is in English, including the notes. I would love to get into German Weimar notes and 1940s Hungarian hyperinflation notes but the language barrier has been Enough of a barrier to keep me out for now. I just feel like I'm going to need more time to find better resources before I can get into those, and understand them before I consider collecting them seriously. But I'd love to get into the old Hungarian Pengo / Milpengo / Bilpengo.

I see a lot of variability from our mutual supplier in Thailand. Sometimes I get it in less than a week. Sometimes it takes more than a week for them to reach USPS.

1 hour ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

You have yours (P-72) and I have mine (P-125). Some of the parallels between our sets make me laugh at myself, I always think its just me. I have two journal entries cued up and if I combined them into one entry it would be very similar to this. One, I'll hold back now, the other I'll publish today or tomorrow. My notes are supposed to be delivered today.

Nuh uh, well.... Unless you're talking about the P-99 to Date set, then yes. I can't wait to get rid of those $2 bond and $20 67's and upgrade them. For most modern notes you should be able to get a 68, at low cost.

Oh yeah. Totally. The other funny thing is both your Ukrainian set and my Zimbabwe set are mostly a mix of 66 to 68 EPQ graded notes with a lone 69 EPQ. My set also has about three 64 EPQs and a handful of 65 EPQs I have mostly just to fill a couple of holes.

At this point the 3rd dollar set, which came into the year at 92%, got one big upgrade and one new note. We'll call that a good year!

44 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I'd say you did pretty good, someone just placed a bid on a 68 EPQ P91 with the opening bid starting at $139.99. Still seems high to me for the # graded but people apparently keep sending them in (and buying) as quite a few of the P91's for sale on ebay have the latest generation PMG holders.

I suspect this will always be a head-scratcher, but it's always in the magic of supply and demand. Its funny to think about because back in the day I remember thinking that I'd pay a little more for the P-91 and get it in 67 EPQ (at the time the highest graded and most expensive note in my small set) because it was going to be the "star of the show." Now, looking back at it, I'm glad I got it then because I'd have a hard time spending $140+ for it now.

I ordered a 20-pack of the gold-foil $100 Trillion fakes on eBay for $7 and bought some rigid BCW top-loaders on Amazon. If they arrive in time I think I'll keep one and make the rest cheap, gag stocking stuffers. 

2 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

LOL, still too much for me but I'll keep watching. 

Yeah... Not happening for me either. I think I'd think about it if it got to $200.

4 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

On a separate note, I did pull the trigger on a P-86 for my billion set. One a year is a good pace for this set.

Aww! I love the P-86. It has a good look. I like the colors and it has a special place in my heart because it's part of the story with the P-89 and my wife's "Billions" and "Trillions" confusion.

Since my wife did me the favor of getting me a new, higher grade P-89 I think I'm going to be forced, at some point, to upgrade my P-83 and P-85 and remove the rest of those old, lower grade (Hahahah, 65 EPQ is "lower grade") notes I picked up in late 2015. As the number of holes in my signature set is shrinking towards zero its getting more tempting to circle back and beef up some of the weaker notes and keep the 3rd dollar set competitive. When I got some of those in 2015 I was just picking up some of the higher denom notes for giggles and I wasn't thinking this set would turn into what it has become.

BTW, I don't know if you noticed but our favorite watched pot is "on sale" for only $800. Maybe you should pop for it? 

5 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I read a little bit about her as well "wrong place wrong time" popped in my head. Josefa Camejo on the soberano's seems more interesting, she took charge.

I haven't gotten to her yet, but P-101 is going to be one of the next notes I'm looking to get for the Venezuela set I think, now that I have P-100 and P-102* around it. There actually was a P-101 in 67 EPQ at a good price that I was considering getting next month but someone beat me to it. I'll have to wait for the next one.

Interesting notes and person. I've been wanting to do something similar on the $10 and $20 denoms for Zimbabwe but I don't want to do it until I have the P-3 and the P-40 in my collection.

I was disappointed a while back when I looked into the bio of a famous woman on the Venezuelan notes just because it seemed like the thing she was most famous for was marrying a general at 16 and being thrown in prison for it during the war for independence.