First, I owe you in the bitcointalk community three apologies:
i) for my last message above that I retracted earlier. Looking at it this morning and at the responses to it, I can see that I had let my disappointment at the result combined with tiredness bring out a cynicism (including raising old stuff that has nothing to do with this auction) that was not justified and in the process, insulting those who identify with this community. Sorry for that.
ii) for having starting a thread and then gone on and on about selling Cas coins here (including dangling the silver-gilt 10s carrot) for almost a year, talking as though auctions were forthcoming then disappearing for many months on end.
iii) for, when I eventually did put something on offer, that it was a coin that was far from being in the best condition.
On the first, I've nothing further to say.
On the second and third, to a certain extent this dragging on without delivering anything then my first offering being of such comparative low quality has been out of my hands because though it was I who initially purchased these coins, they are all in the hands of others unless and until I've re-acquired them. And it happened to be that the first I got back was of fairly low quality. Having said that, if you look at the photos of the one that went on
Scarce City for BTC1.4, you'll see that it is of similar condition. Those are two of four which have been together (in a 'sewer', damp cellar or wherever it was they were stored). I re-acquired yesterday's one and bitgeiniog (the Scarce City seller) acquired the other.
For what it's worth, selling here on forum has become a struggle due to the amount of scams and fuckery that go on here..... I can see why people are hesitant to bid.
On the converse, places like Scarce City have been killing it in terms of premium.
Previously a few varied year Cas coins have gone for 1.4BTC and 1.8BTC
I am sorry to hear, but it's also somewhat reassuring to hear from mj that it is his experience too that selling here 'has become a struggle'. So I can be reasonably confident that it is highly likely that it was not only the article itself nor my reputation or lack thereof (including both my thread of last year and my older post history) that was the cause of that coin going for a song.
As for 'MJ [doing me] a favor', he's no charity and I'm sure he wouldn't have bid if he didn't think it was a fair (or better) price for him. As I said above, if it was going to go to anyone at that price, I'm glad it was to him.
I will also ask my critics here to remember the goading I got
on the other thread, being challenged to 'grow a pair' and put a Cas ten on auction with no reserve and just accept whatever the outcome. I'm pleased I didn't raise to the bait and instead did a test run (even if it was for an item far from being in best condition) before committing to auctioning a ten piece here. With the direct experience I now have, backed up by mj's comment, it seems clear I need to go elsewhere to reach good numbers of lively and enthused bidders. Basically, I need to find the people who are more excited and attracted by the prospect of holding in their hand 1/21-millionth or 1/2.1 millionth of all the BTC that will ever exist in an even more limited form (Casascius coins i.e. coins from the first person who thought up how an internet-native currency could work as physical coins and then produced them) than they are put off by whatever blemishes there may be on the physical coin itself.
I may find call to return again and will at least do you the courtesy of alerting you of sales / auctions of these coins elsewhere even if only to observe, assuming the likelihood of their being deemed to be overpriced by the OGs here. In the meantime, again but absent the 'sour-grapes-ness' of my message of last night, I'll wish everyone here the best for your endeavours and speculations
