A look back at prices 30 years ago.

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Through an interesting conversation several weeks ago it triggered an idea to showcase a look back in time. I Dusted off my old price guides and chose a nice round number of 30 years which would bring us to 1991, before the popularity of e-commerce who brought us eBay and the means to trade items all over the world from the comfort of our homes.   

Not surprising the items of value have remained very popular and received impressive jumps in prices while other more common material stilled faired well. The highest gains are normally associated to the highest grades. Not one item has remained the same or lost value in 30 years.

Prices on the left are from the 4th edition Charlton Catalogue printed in 1991 while the prices on the right are from the 32nd edition. Please feel free to comment if there are any additional banknotes you wish to see the 30 year gap 🙂

I need a time machine 

Looking back on prices is an interesting exercise. Many years ago I took the time to input all Replacement Notes and Special Serial numbers into a spreadsheet. Built inflation numbers into the model for better accuracy amongst other filters. Took a hell of a long time to first get it up and organized but now that it's up to date it's an amazing tool to have if you have any interest in outliers or odd pricing patterns that most times go undetected.

Also served me well in avoiding grossly overpriced notes as well and buying grossly undervalued notes and then using individual data or grouped together represented in charts, adding up error rates threw series and so on, priceless but maybe only for a dork like me  

It's what I used to post on the forum yearly about top gainers and losers as well as some stuff published in the CPMS. 

About 25 years ago, I had the chance to buy a Province of Canada $1 note in G-4 condition for $600...I wish I would have bought it!  But I was a kid and I didn't have much money to spend at the coin show. 

It always amazes me how far the hobby has come with the help of research. Back then, there was no information as to what the changeovers were, prefixes and quantity printed, etc.

Now, I have a question: do you think the grades Ch Unc and Gem Unc came with the advent of TPGs, or they were known and recognized among serious collectors and just never mentioned in the price guides? I remember when I bought my first notes in 1989, I never saw these superior grades.

Thanks for the memories!

I need a time machine 

So do I !   

It always amazes me how far the hobby has come with the help of research. Back then, there was no information as to what the changeovers were, prefixes and quantity printed, etc.

Reminds me of the early days of the $2 bird series when no one was really aware of the AUG-AUN annomally notes or how rare those AUG, AUH and AUJ Thiessen-Crow notes were. Who knows how many of those back then passed through our hands without knowing it. But that was the fun of the hobby back then 30 years ago.