Well, not to bore too many people; because not everybody collects stuff although, being vaguely eBay related, it should be of at least some interest. As I've mentioned before, I collect Pens & Bullion Coins; so as an example.........coins first. The Perth mint released a coin ( minted on behalf of the Island state of Tuvalu ) called the " Deadly and Dangerous " series of coins. The first coin in the series was called the " Red Back Spider " and had a picture of said Spider on the front of the coin. The coin sold out quickly ( it was a limited edition of only 5000 coins ) and the issue price, when it was released, was approx £60 +. As the rest of the series was released, the first in the series became in great demand, probably because many didn't buy it; because they didn't realize how popular the series would become. The price of the first coin ( Red Back Spider ) shot up to over £1000 and so the Perth Mint released another 5000 coins and sold them as being for the Russian market ( they has Russian writing on them ). They now sell for over £300 each, not as much as the true original ones; but a scam none the less, to cash in on a coin that should NEVER have been reproduced once the limited number had run out.

Now Pens.....I collect Mont Blanc among others and have all of the Pens in the " Writers Editions" series of Pens. Mont Blanc have just released the latest in the series, called William Shakespeare and all the Pens have the writers signatures engraved into the top portion of the pens. All the pens are limited to under 2000 pens and I have acquired all of the past ones, for considerably less than the original selling price. The pens are made of what Mont Blanc like to call precious " special" resin, a concoction of theirs; the ingredients of which are a closely guarded secret ( but not to put too finer point on it, it's a kind of plastic / acrylic ). The metal parts are gold or platinum plated base metal. Mont Blanc have just had yet another price increase and the price of this latest pen ( ballpoint ) is £570. Now I have all of the pens and to keep the collection going, I need to get this latest one; but if I paid £570 for a plastic pen with gold plated base metal parts ( even if is does have Mont Blanc written on it ) I'd seriously need my brains tested.