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Chris Perkins

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You heard it here first! You lot are the first to know, so keep this under your hats for the time being.

The news that I was just itching to tell you will indeed involve you all (if you want to play a part) and I hope you share in the excitement I feel about this project.

In a nut shell, I will soon own Rotographic publishing, the publisher of Collectors Coins GB 2004 and most of the other books I offer on the website. Any of you that already have any of these books will know that they are basically sound books, if a little out of date in some respects and slightly lacking on the actual printed quality.

The current owners are 78 and 61 years old, and they feel it's about time someone younger took the reigns and left them in peace!

The best part is that the books are already sold in large numbers, and have plenty of scope for improvement. Another bonus is that I will be having them printed here in East Germany to cut costs and sending them to the UK suppliers myself, which among others include WHSmith and Waterstone.

I have to arrange a few things financially, and my first job after that (in fact I've started it already) will be to create a swanky rotographic website (rotographic.co.uk). Your first job will be to give me feedback on that website! (rotographic.co.uk is currently setup to point at predecimal.com)

The next Collectors Coins Great Britain book (2005) is due to be worked on soon, for its September/October initial print run, and I would like to get the next major issue under my belt before I make any major changes to the content/layout etc of the most important title. So, the 2005 edition will be written by R J Marles like usual and then edited by me, before it is printed here in Germany.

What I would like you people to do is help me with the research for the coin prices in the not too distant future. I would really like to, as one of the first priorities, update the Collectors George III coins, which hasn't been worked on since 1998.

I'm afraid I cannot offer you hard cash or anything like that (believe me, it's expensive enough already!), but anyone agreeing to help out with the research into a particular coin type or date range will of course get mentioned as a researcher in the book, and will receive free copies of all 5 of the publications that I will be taking control of.

This is a wonderful business opportunity for me, and I really think there is potential for a steady increase in the sales of these titles, especially if the quality and consistancy can be improved.

Please do tell me what you think.

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Chris,

This is indeed great news!! WoW!!! What a challenge and adventure!! I am envious of you!!

I would be glad to offer any help that I can, from this side of the pond. I spend several hours everyday on line, and would be glad to help monitor prices on dealer websites and eBay, if that would be of use.

I have the 1999 edition of Collectors Coins, and it has been an invaluable asset to me. It has its flaws, but its merits outweigh them tremendously. I have been contemplating renewing to the 2004 via your site, but I keep procrastinating, as my coin budget has been recently reduced yet again. Perhaps here in the next few weeks I can deal off some of my surplus and order a couple coins along with the book.

Scott

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Abso-bloody-lutely fantastic, Chris! I've just been compiling a shopping list for predecimal.com and the Collectors Coins was right at the top. I'm just waiting for some nice BU farthings to come along!

As Kuhli said, Ebay would be a good place to monitor prices but where else? I know auctions, but not many of us get the chance to visit them. I would certainly aid you researching etc but I'll be doing loads of coursework so I may not have as much time spare as the rest (don't flame me - I know you have jobs and school too! :P )

Congratulations, Chris - this is a real achievment. By-the-by, do you know what the "readership" (if you could call it that) of the Rotographic products is?

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I'd also like to offer my most enthusiastic contrafibularities.

Sounds like a great opportunity and somewhat daunting as well.

If I can offer any help with copper/bronze pennies then I'd be glad to chip in.

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Thankyou for your support, both of you.

To answer your Question Oli, on a good year 20,000 of the books are sold. Perhaps it averages 13,000 or something of the main title (I think it's more than the Coin yearbook!) I'm not sure about the others, I would imagine they are fractions of that.

My own sales show that I could sell 350-400 CCGB2004's on predecimal.com in 1 year (using my 7 mth figures). In a year I should personally sell 150-200 Collectors Irish and Collectors Banknotes and perhaps close to 150 Collectors Roman.

So using my results as an average, the other books should come to a good few 1000 altogther anually.

Other places to monitor prices would include any website that offer coins for sale. I suppose the asking price is all very well, but really we are concerned with the actual selling prices. Perhaps we could ask for the record of sales from Colin Cooke, myself of course, and any other online dealers. As well as subscribing to lists etc (at my expense, I'm not expecting you to shell out).

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Well congratulations Chris and the best of luck!

Someone going by the tag Multinational Conglomerate recently emailed me via ebay - it wasn't you by any chance?! ;)

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Well done chris, i would love to help out, i could help out with 1797 - 1967 pennies, and maybe go a bit out of my league and also try to help in half pennies...after seeing the Dr. Nicholson half pennies on colin cooke's website, half pennies have started to take my fancy...

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i could help out with 1797 - 1967 pennies

That's a biiiiiig time range, Master JMD!

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i could help out with 1797 - 1967 pennies

That's a biiiiiig time range, Master JMD!

yes, but that is the pennies that i collect...

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I was just saying that it seemed a huge range, not only 170 coins, but also the countless varieties.

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I was just saying that it seemed a huge range, not only 170 coins, but also the countless varieties.

yes, and it will not only help chris, but help my knowledge of pennies, even though i think maybe proof/uncirculated sets would be easier for me to choose, but that is up to chris...

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Well nice of you all to offer to help so far, when I take over from RJ Marles I will certainly need your help! Although he will also be willing to help out I'm sure.

But don't forget 1821 - date probably won't be done for a year of so. The most likely update to come next will be 1760 - 1820 (The George III book) and even that will be at least 2 months away.

I have to take delivery of the master documents which by the sounds of it are in some kind of old DOS format. I have to convert them to a windows format, and scan lots of pictures too, because the pictures are currently actual greyscale photographs and get added to the text before printing!

I should hopefully finish the website (at least a basic version) today, and I'll upload it later.

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I didn't imagine anything like that, WELL DONE CHRIS!!!

If you want, I could research prices for half pennys between 1900 and 1936 (my specialist field) I could also make you aware of all the different varieties (if you don't already know them of course!). I would just like to say that your business endevour is great news and I wish you the very best of luck with it!

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Thankyou,

Seems I've got most of the fathings, halfpennies and pennies taken care of at least!

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You'll sell more copies purely on the prices of the bronze and copper!

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No, there's enough ambiguity there to keep the Guests thinking :P

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I hope so! I don't think there will be any correct guesses based on my post!

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FANTASTIC CHRIS, WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):):):)

I could help out with Victorian coins, minus the gold ones of course. I will have a look at some of the prices in my books and I will moniter Colin Cookes site, when do we start? :D

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FANTASTIC CHRIS, WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):):):)

I could help out with Victorian coins, minus the gold ones of course. I will have a look at some of the prices in my books and I will moniter Colin Cookes site, when do we start? :D

i see you are very enfusiastic there william, when do we start 'work' anyway?

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I think I'll start now, I have a lot to look at on Colin Cookes site...

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I already have a good idea about values of half pennys (1900-1936) and where they are going. I just have to do some more monitering on ebay, colin cooke, your site chris etc......

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I think I'll start now, I have a lot to look at on Colin Cookes site...

i dont think that you should just base the prices on colins site, i am probably mainly going to use; Ebay, Colin Cooke's site and This site...but i will also look at others...

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No, I'm not, I am going to use predecimal.com and ebay if I can be bothered, but I will search for more...

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