Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Monday, June 12, 2023

Bad Timing or Underperformance?

Pair 05395256 sells for $3002   




I think the final bidder got a deal


After a flurry of FIVE auctions in which the average selling price for a complete pair of Duplicate Serial Number 2013B star notes was $5787, the pair above sold for a disappointing $3002.   The prior five auctions fetched an average price of $5,287 and took place between April 9th and May 17th; 76% more.

The next busiest flurry of auctions was back in the March-May period of 2022.  Those auctions were erratic fetching the owners $9301, $3705, and a 'No bid'.

Price of Convenience?

Great Collections has only auction 2 completed pairs, with the first fetching $4300.  If you take the average of the 2 grades for the two bills, the average grade for the SN 05395256 pair was a 48 (out of a perfect 70).  This was actually a higher average than the preceding 5 auctioned pairs whose average grade ranged from 27.5 to 47.  

A contact at Great Collections told me the delay between them getting the pair back from the grading company to the auction date was intentional as they felt their auction might be too close to a prior auction  ( I assume he meant the one that took place at Heritage ).  On the other hand two pairs sold on Ebay for a minimum of $4899 with the two auctions separated by only 10 days.

Before jumping to the conclusion of, "Awwww man, Great Collections sucks!" keep in mind that prices for completed pairs is still erratic.  I tried graphing the price realized versus the average grade of the bill, and there was no rhyme or reason to the graph  (and I used to work a lot with graphs, curve-fitting, and looking for cause-effect relationships).  See graph below.  For non-math nerds, a value of less than 0.5 means that half the time the variability observed in the target variable is explained by the regression model.  Look at me, using big words!




With what I would estimate as about half of the registered bill owners at Project 2013B being non-collectors, Great Collections is still my go-to suggestion for a one-stop shop as far as cases where both owners just want to sell their bill for cash.  Each bill owner sends their bill to Great Collections by registered mail, and Great Collections handles the rest; combining the two bills as a complete pair, having those bills graded as a complete pair, followed by the actual auction.   The alternative, for a non-collector is the daunting task of having to possibly buy the bill off of the other guy (safely), getting the pair graded, then putting it up for auction, and deciding which auction house, and so on. That's a lot of processes that the average person on the street would never have experience in dealing with.

It's hard to say if the next Great Collections auction will also under-perform.  When two people are informed that they have a matching pair, the negotiations begin was to what they want to do.  More often than not, they both want to sell.  There are several cases where negotiations end in a total standoff.  So what is worse?  A possible under-performing auction result, or zero?  Ebay has been good as of late, but it was only back last year that there were two auctions where a pair did not even get a bid; and those 2 auctions were 4 months apart.

For a complete list of known auctions of 2013B matched pairs refer to https://project2013b.blogspot.com/p/auction-history-for-2013b-matched-pairs.html


Useful Links
Serial Number Submission Form:  https://bit.ly/submit2013b
Project 2013B Database:  http://bit.ly/3KNpX3I
Collector Resources and Supplies: http://bit.ly/3DPo2Y7
My store (currency themed items):  https://rdbl.co/3Ms0Jp8
My store (general themed items): https://1zin.short.gy/2013store

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Confirmed Match! SN B* 07201104

Duplicate Serial Number 07201104  

Brothers from a different mother

Initial Delay

Prior to telling the bill owners of a matching pair, I make the graphic (picture above) first.  While making it, a little paranoia set it as one of the photos was a bit on the low resolution side and I started second guessing if the year "2013" was really "2013" and not 2018, 2010, 2003, 2008 and so on.  A clearer image was provided, and so Pair #61 is official.  This is also the 49th pair to be discovered by Project 2013B, on what has been the busiest week for verified pairs... EVER.

Started in October of 2021, Project 2013B started with a list of 10,072 banknotes, and now has over 38,553 unique banknotes registered it its database, and 6727 members.
The 'Fort Worth' printed 2013B star note was registered 2022.08.05 by member miQNx
" just sent you pics of my note. Thanks for picking up the project !   Thank you, fingers crossed !
You asked to give a little info on the note. First off the note is probably one of the worst looking I own of course.
may grade a 15-25 range, found searching through notes.
I have been collecting star notes, fancy serial number notes and errors for about 10 years.
Have sold several on Ebay.
I have collected, let's just say a lot.
I have operated a business for 40 years and only wish I knew about numismatics then, the cash that has 
went through my hands is staggering. 
I lost count on how many of the 2013b notes I have listed somewhere around 280.
I am also one of the people who needs to update several of them with an updated email, which I will do in the near future.
My prized possession is a 1 dollar bill with straight 7's found bill searching, again not in the best shape but a beautiful thing to own.
Thank You again for picking up where the others left off, I can't begin to imagine how much time and energy
this takes ?
Lets hope we have a match and many more in the future.
Sincerely
Tom"
The 'Washington DC' printed 2013B star note was registered 2023.05.23 by member SADzU
From the day the match was detected in the database, to today's photo verification took 14 days.
The running list of confirmed pairs (which will be updated soon) can be found at: 

Milestones

6700 members! 33 more members than the population of Micronesia's capital city!

38,000 UNIQUE DC and Fortworth bills



Remember to check your spam folders just in case a matching pair notification is forwarded to you; you might find your bill included here as well as owning a set that, depending on the condition of the bills, might fetch thousands of dollars at auction.  For further "insurance" against the spam folder situation, sign up for the newsletter. If your serial number (or member ID) appears on the list of persons I need to hear from, check the match-making list here:


Useful Links
Serial Number Submission Form:  https://bit.ly/submit2013b
Project 2013B Database:  http://bit.ly/3KNpX3I
Collector Resources and Supplies: http://bit.ly/3DPo2Y7
My store (currency themed items):  https://rdbl.co/3Ms0Jp8
My store (general themed items): https://1zin.short.gy/2013store

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Confirmed Match! SN B* 06864103

Duplicate Serial Number 06864103

Project 2013B Confirmed Matched Pair SN B* 06864103
Project 2013B Confirmed Matched Pair SN B* 06864103


The 48th match for PROJECT 2013B has been confirmed! Over the course of this study, the project that came before it, and matched pairs discovered at auctions, there are currently 60 confirmed matching pairs.