Time for some spiritual cleansing and uplifting

After all the drama, humiliations and rancour of recent days, may I invite you all to share your positive stories about your experiences at Numista and your interactions with the 99% of members who are NOT liars, cheats, swindlers and douchebags.

Let me begin......

During my many months here I have made some excellent contacts, many of whom have gone on to become friends. We may not have met in person but at some point I am sure many of our paths will cross in the future. I could quite easily write at length about each of these people but I would rather share with you my experiences with one of our many unsung heroes, Mr James Wolfe, for whom I have a great deal of respect and affection.

He was the first person I exchanged messages with when I first joined and my very first swap partner. A most helpful member Ken6528 was my first completed swap, the swap with JW predates it but wasn't completed as quickly. As a new member I was somewhat apprehensive but I felt confident enough in my ability to judge a man's character to send my coins first, as the new guy. A lot of the established members were very kind and patient as we negotiated the various trades, many of them generously declined my offer to mail first, all of them turned out to be 100% honest and reliable.

Here are my first five swap partners, some are sadly no longer with us, some you will recognise, all are first rate collectors. Ken6258, James Wolfe, Matt Probert, Abettuz, Radrick007.

I recall the negotiations with Mr Wolfe, like each of the others he was open, friendly and clearly honest. As they ended it was clear that the swap was very heavily in my favour so I added a George V New Zealand halfcrown and off we went to our respective Post Offices. The coins arrived in short order and they were just as good as decribed or better and included a handful of extra coins and several pieces which are still part of my prized collection.

Since then James and I have exchanged many, many coins both formally and informally and he remains one of my closest coin collecting friends. We exchange occassional small gifts out of the blue, sometimes I find something which doesn't interest me but I know he will like and vice versa. We share other interests apart from coins, most notably good beer and as he lives just a short drive up I75 from me I intend to keep a long standing promise and stop by for breakfast once I am well enough to travel again.

He doesn't use the forum much so many of you may not even be aware of him but he is an enthusiatic collector, a more than generous swapper, a decent man, and most importantly, James Wolfe is my friend.

What happened with James? He was very active. I miss his posts (pictures)

Απόσπασμα: Fire Blade5What happened with James? He was very active. I miss his posts (pictures)

A few people have asked about him, he is alive and well. We are in contact on Facebook as well as Numista.

It's been a fantastic learning curve from the day I joined Ali quickly found my feet with what I was going to collect, I was then guided in the right direction by a few good men in terms of catalogues and swaps and in less than a year I've gone from about 20/30 commonwealth/colonial issues to well over 800 ! A lot to do with MASSIVE swaps with other members (you know who you are) and others teaching me how to dominate a rummage tray !
Overall to sum up I've met some great people both in person and on here and I find it great we have such an informative close knit community !

It is such a disappointment that Matt Probert isn't here on Numista with us.

He was a valued member. Fortunately we have many great members on Numista, and hopefully the members who were around when Matt was will remember him.

I only remember the odd post from him !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibmcsEGLKo

My first swap was with Patgav, looking back on it I really don't know why any one would have swapped with me, I was asking for silver in return for nonsilver, with no stars. Value for value of course, but that's what all the swindlers do, ask for silver. Without him, I probably would never have swapped and gotten stars. I have seen a lot of people that he was their first swap, he likes to get people started, but I can't imagine how many times he has never gotten his coins? I think he must be a wealthy numismatic benefactor who likes to help newbies like me?
  He sent me an extra free https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces684.html
I have always sent free coins ever since, but mine are junk compared to his Kingly gift
  Cheers Patgav! here's a pint for you

Just thought of another couple of times, which made me realise how big our sense of community spirit is.. My first swap was with Phil, I didn't even have to send my coins first even when people will not swap if a person with less than 10 stars refuse to send their coins first !

Also my Italian friend Robert after doing a swap with me for a 1/2 quart, sent me excess money he had leftover after being on holiday here and asked me too buy him a 1/2 sovereign and mail it back as it worked out cheaper for him, I got 2/3 coins out of this from the swap I had proposed too.. It just makes you realise how great Numista is it actually is like a big family who look out for each other and such like - it's fantastic and I am a member of other coin forums but I have never warmed to them in a way I have here !

Getting gifts is the best. That's why I try to send them too. My first swap was with 'gamonmom' who was very friendly and helpful. But due to my youth and relative inexperience, I: (in the next five swaps)
1) got scammed
2) got ripped off in a swap
3) swapped a liberty nickel without checking the value, turned out to be worth a staggering $70 (it pains me to even think about it    )

but gradually I've got the hang of it, and my first very friendly member was Fred24 from the French forum, who actually sent me an entire package of coins for free. Since, I've had 4 or 5 swaps with him.

I've made a couple friends and have decided that with them, it's not about making money, but trading whatever I don't want for whatever I do. I have been the Canadian silver dollar guy for a couple members too.

I love the site, and I wish shipping was universally free.     

That sounds like g man stung you if this is accurate can you moderate your post?

I love this site, buying off auction sites is so impersonal.  I originally just came on here so I could look up the mintage number of my coins, but I eventually got drawn into the forums and recently the swaps.  My first swap was an unofficial one with Eminem, but since then I've had several successful swaps with Tsobe, dptashny, mark and the rest.  Look forward to many more, and much more chatting in the forums too.

Απόσπασμα: bam777That sounds like g man stung you if this is accurate can you moderate your post?

Nope, it wasn't, but the scammer was from Brazil and has since unsubscribed.