About

One curator. Every category.

I started collecting before I had a name for it. A coin at a flea market in 1994, a coin with a date that stopped me cold. That was the Mercury dime series. Six months later I had a partial Lincoln cent set and a cardboard box of estate jewelry I couldn't stop looking at.

That is how collectors begin. Not with a category. With one object that asks a question you have to answer.

Second Nerve is the business that came out of thirty years of buying across five categories: coins and currency, vintage apparel, consumer electronics, sports memorabilia, and estate jewelry. Not five separate interests. One interest in objects with history, expressed across five domains.

What gets sourced and how

Every piece in this catalog came through a human process. Estate sales, private lots, collections that moved when someone moved, dealer trades, regional auctions. There is no algorithm deciding what enters. There is one set of hands, one set of eyes, and one standard that has never changed: I only list what I'd buy myself at the price I'm asking.

That is not a tagline. It is a buying discipline. When I look at a coin, I look at it the way I'd look at it if I were the one writing the check. When I test a Walkman, I run a cassette through it and listen to both channels before the listing goes up. When I describe a piece of apparel, I note the measurement, the label era, the precise condition of the hardware, and the flaw that's there if you look.

The flaw that's there if you look. That is the sentence that separates this catalog from most of what's on the secondary market.

The five categories and what they share

Coins are my oldest category. I grade raw by eye to Sheldon scale standards, reference population reports on key dates, and photograph both obverse and reverse in raking light that shows surface condition honestly. A coin graded VF30 here is a VF30. Not a dealer's optimistic EF40.

Vintage apparel is sourced for label accuracy and condition honesty. I date by label typography, union tag era, fabric composition, and construction detail. The description tells you exactly what I found and how I found it. A Big-E Levi's comes with the redline photographed and the patch legibility stated explicitly.

Consumer electronics are tested before listing. Not powered on and left to run. Tested: full function verification, belt condition noted, headphone output checked on both channels, test roll shot when a camera is involved. If something isn't right, I don't list it.

Sports memorabilia is sourced for provenance. Cards are graded raw by eye with centering, corners, and surface described honestly. Programs and paper are graded for condition against the realistic standard of objects that were not designed to be preserved.

Estate jewelry is described stone by stone, clasp by clasp. All prong tips. All settings. Every piece is photographed in natural light that shows what's there. Unsigned pieces are identified as unsigned; their period and construction are assessed from the piece itself.

The categories share one discipline: describe what you found, photograph the evidence, price for what it is.

The Second Nerve standard

I've bought enough vintage across enough categories to know that the market's biggest problem is not scarcity. It is description inflation. Everything is "rare." Every condition grade is pushed one level up. Every flaw is omitted or softened.

This catalog is built against that habit. The grade I call is the grade I'd call if I were the buyer. The condition I photograph is the condition you receive. The price reflects what the piece actually is, not what the seller hoped it was.

If a description is wrong when the piece arrives, I want to know. Use the contact form. Every inquiry gets a real answer from the person who wrote the listing.

How listings are priced

Fixed prices are set against current sold comps, adjusted for condition and what I'd call an honesty premium: the price for a piece that is exactly what it says it is, no cleanup required. Auction format is used when the market should set the price, which happens with rare coins, key dates, and pieces where I genuinely don't know the ceiling.

All items ship insured where the value warrants it. Coins ship in protective holders. Electronics ship padded. Apparel ships folded flat, not stuffed.

If you have a question about a piece before you buy, ask it. I know the inventory. I can answer.