eBay mining collection

[Ghosttowns.com]

Originally posted by Alex


: I have notice that on eBay several mining stocks,

: mining reports, and mining maps are selling for

: hundreds of dollars in some cases, thousands. I was

: truly amazed to see a $5,000 reward posted for a

: mining report of the Skidoo area. Why is this?

: Do people collect them like baseball cards?

: Or do they use them to find lost gold/silver mines?

: Is there a book out advising how much these articles

: are worth?



: Alex

[Ghosttowns.com]

Originally posted by David A. Wright


: Collecting memoribilia of Western ghost towns has a large following, along with fierce competition among collectors on auction sites such as eBay.



: Among collectibles from ghost towns are post cards, post office canceled letters, stock certificates, personal or business checks, maps, photos, personal letters, billheads, receipts, etcetera. The rarer the town (or short lived), the higher the prices.



: Stock certificates are fairly plentiful, as during the first decade of the 20th century they were distributed in profusion. Many were bogus, as swindlers and promotors created millions of them for anything that might be a so-called "mine" in the desert. Some of the locations with such are: Rhyolite, NV; Greenwater, CA; Tonopah, NV; Goldfield, NV.



: Skidoo items are very difficult to find. The boom period in Skidoo was fairly short lived, before it settled down and became a company town. I have in my personal collection two letterheads and canceled envelopes from Skidoo, along with a billhead.



: eBay has a lot of memoribilia for auction, but beware of those who drive up the prices. Often I've seen items that you can get elsewhere for a few dollars get driven well over $100 in the last minute bidding frenzy. There are a number of people who "hang" around eBay and bid for the sake of bidding; then they dump the same items later for inflated beginning prices. There are also some very serious collectors (and fairly wealthy), who are very serious about their bidding tactics. But occassionally eBay turns up a gem for a couple of bucks that is overlooked because its subject line was vague and someone happened to stumble upon it.



: There are also a number of other places to find stocks and other memoribilia. Places such as Doug McDonald, Holabird (http://www.holabird.org/), as well as some antique shops, can turn up some interesting items. Also some private collectors usually are willing to barter if they have some extra items in their collections.



: It's a facinating hobby, it can be one the rest of your life.

[Ghosttowns.com]

Originally posted by Desert Drifter


: Alex,



: I agree with David Wright with people inflated

: prices on eBay. In several cases, one just has

: to look elsewhere and they can find the same

: thing for much less. I have been burned four

: times on this!



: I collect mostly mining journals, maps and old

: dairies. I find them to be very intriguing and

: in some cases, they go against what history has

: written. I might add this personal note, one

: must be careful for the books may be fraud.

: This has happen to me twice. Lately I have been

: purchasing some books in the thousands of dollars

: and go through an escrow service (a book dealer)

: that specializes in rare mining books. This is

: to protect me and the seller.



: If your thinking about getting into this "hobby",

: eBay is a great place to start, but be sure you

: buy from a creditable person and check out his

: references (feedback).



: I might add, start with something (mining history)

: you know about. Several publications may sound

: like what you want, but end up being something

: totally different. It won't take you long to

: know exactly what you want.



: With regard to a book listing of what a book is

: worth. This depends on your research. As David

: Wright put it, the "rarer the town (or short lived)"

: the higher the price for items associated with

: this mining town, camp, or district.



: Good luck and I hope this helps!!!



: Joel Briggs

: www.desertdrifter.com

[Ghosttowns.com]

Originally posted by Gene

: : Collecting memoribilia of Western ghost towns has a large following, along with fierce competition among collectors on auction sites such as eBay.

: : Among collectibles from ghost towns are post cards, post office canceled letters, stock certificates, personal or business checks, maps, photos, personal letters, billheads, receipts, etcetera. The rarer the town (or short lived), the higher the prices.

: : Stock certificates are fairly plentiful, as during the first decade of the 20th century they were distributed in profusion. Many were bogus, as swindlers and promotors created millions of them for anything that might be a so-called "mine" in the desert. Some of the locations with such are: Rhyolite, NV; Greenwater, CA; Tonopah, NV; Goldfield, NV.

: : Skidoo items are very difficult to find. The boom period in Skidoo was fairly short lived, before it settled down and became a company town. I have in my personal collection two letterheads and canceled envelopes from Skidoo, along with a billhead.

: : eBay has a lot of memoribilia for auction, but beware of those who drive up the prices. Often I've seen items that you can get elsewhere for a few dollars get driven well over $100 in the last minute bidding frenzy. There are a number of people who "hang" around eBay and bid for the sake of bidding; then they dump the same items later for inflated beginning prices. There are also some very serious collectors (and fairly wealthy), who are very serious about their bidding tactics. But occassionally eBay turns up a gem for a couple of bucks that is overlooked because its subject line was vague and someone happened to stumble upon it.

: : There are also a number of other places to find stocks and other memoribilia. Places such as Doug McDonald, Holabird (http://www.holabird.org/), as well as some antique shops, can turn up some interesting items. Also some private collectors usually are willing to barter if they have some extra items in their collections.

: : It's a facinating hobby, it can be one the rest of your life.

[Johnnie]

Very interesting hobby, I started collecting old newspapesr when i was just a kid.

The first time i read a real treasure story was from a old newspaper i got from my relatives dated in 1870s or 1880s from the old mining town of Tuscarora, Nevada, It was an artical about this minner that was on his way to a nearby town, and his buckboard tip over in a stream and he lost a bag of gold coins and because of the bad weather that day, he waited till the next day to resume his search to look for his pouch of coins, So the next day. he returned and according to artical, never did find his the gold coins. I guess you can say from that, is what got me hook on collecting old paper.

Then i stared getting interested any old newspapers from the old west I stared looking and found a lot of Bodie papers and other newpapers from the gold rush days all over the west and started a search for more interesting articals on western history and thats the reason i started the hobby of researching and history of the old west before there was radios, TV, And thats the only way people in the early days got the latest news.

Back when i was a kid our parents and other relatives that were born in the late 1800 and early 1900 related great eye wittness accounts of their neat adventures growning up in the old west, Many of our many collected stories i have posted on this web site and Cecile's great web site Exploring Historic California.

My hobby grew from there and i started collecting old maps, old books and then any old other paper items that help me learn about old west history.

We just though it would be nice to give another ghosttowners view on this interesting hobby of collecting paper.

Johnnie & Sheila

[CanadianExplorer]

As a researcher who loves to peruse libraries and archives, sometimes I'm a little ticked off at teh amount of material floating around the public market and buried deep in peoples personal collections. There is a lot of information that is invaluable to the researcher and should be made public, so i hope that as time goes forth more and more things will be given to libraries and archives.

[GeologyMonkey]

As a researcher who loves to peruse libraries and archives, sometimes I'm a little ticked off at teh amount of material floating around the public market and buried deep in peoples personal collections. There is a lot of information that is invaluable to the researcher and should be made public, so i hope that as time goes forth more and more things will be given to libraries and archives.

Agreed. I never understood collecting books and documents only for the sake of collecting. I have bee purchasing documents on Ebay and hope to digitize them and put them online at some point.

[CanadianExplorer]

Agreed. I never understood collecting books and documents only for the sake of collecting. I have bee purchasing documents on Ebay and hope to digitize them and put them online at some point.


I commend your good deeds. :cool: