blakeyboy

Absolutely- huge temperature swings. All sorts of hiding places are available if you think laterally - my father always had keys in pouches sewn into curtains, and a key to a door was in a hollow on top of a door nearby....

Here's a story: A few years ago an English friend living in LA was applying for American citizenship. He had a long process involving a mountain of paperwork, culminating in him renouncing UK citizenship, and starting to apply for US citizenship. To safeguard the paperwork, he bought a small safe. One afternoon an opportunist theif noticed he had left a window open, climbed in and ran off with the safe. My friend was completely screwed, was officially stateless, and it took a year to sort it out, while not being able to go anywhere outside the US. He naïvely assumed that because it was a safe, so was he....he didn't realise it had 'STEAL ME' written across the front.... Moral? Buy a REALLY BIG safe, or hide your valuables, maybe leaving less valuable items in a nice wooden display box as a distraction.....

Yes, and through the plastic of the slab the weak strike is less visible, and they charge people for this 'service'.....

The value of vintage pro-audio doesn't do the ups and downs of gold etc., but dealers will put up a piece of gear that is normally £5k on their site for £10k, everybody spots this and hopes to sell their example, then the unit sells, so they put up 'sold'. Everyone thinks it's sold for £10k, so by extension theirs is worth £10k, but in fact someone walked in with 5 or 6 grand in cash and did the deal. Meanwhile all the idiots start touting their units all over ebay etc at stupid prices and it's like the Wild West....

This is getting like the prices for old Fords. My dad's old Capri is now in £40k+ territory. Madness. Trouble is, money isn't worth anything at the moment, but things are..... Will it all crash down again?

She was on my (very short) list of people i wanted a long boozy dinner with. Damn.

Am i the only one, I wonder, who has not been happy this week after hearing of her sad demise?

I've had ten days to mull it over, but now think that talking about Mike and Bernie Winters and saying "There's no business like Schnorbitzness" is an astonishingly wonderful contrived pun. Peckris should get an award....

I still love that. It SO summed up how it actually was at the time. I worked in a high-end audio place in the early 90's, and we all would do those lines with customers who had a sense of humour!

Yep! Try the world of hifi and Pro Audio......sometimes these 'experts' are nothing more than snake oil salesmen....

Hmm.....I don't think you are wrong...I don't like any of the coins he sold...strange how has only unusual rare stuff to sell.... that 'gold crown' looks cast, not hammered....

Exactly. I don't understand slabbing, just as I don't understand 'AUNC' as a grade... What someone else thinks of your coin only really comes into play when you intend to sell it. If you want it to keep, who cares what others think? Unless the coin is that good that you can't resist posting it here for us to ogle......:)

I have a maybe ill-informed question, brought about by that lovely 1893 shilling.... I noticed for the first time Ireland, Scotland, and England represented with both heraldic symbols and plant symbol. Why no Wales?

Welcome to our world! One point I would make, if it hasn't been made above, is that occasionally you will have a coin that is way more 'pleasing' than it's actual grade would suggest. Keep it, even if you get a very high grade as a replacement. Make sure you get pleasure from this...not just a kick out of finishing date runs etc. After all, some coins are genuinely miniature works of art.

I did ask some Americans what the hell happened on the 9th of november. 'en route' is my favourite- It somehow manages, when said by an American, two foul up in two different languages as once....

Very interesting...thanks for that. I slabbed my wife a few years back to keep her in the same condition. The Police have now informed me that that was a mistake, and are taking action. Should I show them the video?

More importantly - who did he buy it from? Prevention rather than cure....?

We put grease on my mother's back. She went downhill quickly after that.

Just two takers then?

Yes it does.

I. Schnorbitzness is in Norway. 2. Suzy Quatro could always do what the hell she liked with me.

I was doing a session in a studio once, and they'd hired some extra stuff. They had hired vibraphone, and the hire company said it was coming to us straight off the Bruce `Forsyth tour, and there was no time to check it over. When it arrived, I slid it out of the flight case, and some springs and nuts and bolts fell out. The damping mechanism at the bottom of the tubes had fallen apart, and I had to get that all working. I rang the guy at the hire company, and I told him that all was now ok, but i also told him that I was only really ringing him up to tell him to stop sending us these bad vibes. I just could not resist.

Wow..... Yes, I agree- you have to have a good strike before anything else. I've seen Kings Norton pennies in Unc that have not attracted me _at all_ because of the soft appearance, and if I could go back I time I would go back about eight years and buy that bloody 1866 penny I saw and chickened out on- very very dark, almost black, but the strike on the obverse.....oh man.....I still regret not having just prodded the button on that one...so so pleasing..... you could have stared at it for hours........

I'm going to investigate pro cameras and microphones for zoom type stuff.....none of the nonsense you usually get!

Very good- nearly went under my radar - nearly....:)