# Entry I - Early Years By [treyb](https://paragraph.com/@treyb) · 2022-10-31 --- Welcome ------- Hi everyone, welcome to my page of research, design, and thoughts about the current state of markets. This will mostly just be a weekly entry that I will continue upon, so I can gather my thoughts and post on different topics that I find of interest. I guess I will end up linking this to my Twitter and Website later on, but for now, it will be pure journalism and natural growth at its finest. I guess I should share a little bit about my weirdly intertwined past to get people up to speed on what topics I am currently interested in. Currently, my 21st birthday is right around the corner so that propels me into the corporate world and post-graduate activities quite soon. I study at the University of California, Berkeley as an undergraduate econ major with an emphasis on data analytics (even though I won’t have the time to get my data science minor). This week had me reflecting on my early years as a kid so I am going to jot down some stories below. Early Years (2008-2014) ----------------------- Let’s take a quick time machine… I started at the age of likely 7 or 8 being fascinated with the idea of collectibles. Walking through Toys-R-Us and hunting for the exclusive Star Wars figures was my first real taste of what becoming a collector would be like. During this elementary era, nearly every one of my friends was obsessed with the likes of Pokemon cards or Magic the Gathering, some of which are the most popular brands to this day. We used to trade around cards like they were nothing but in reality, we likely had a small fortune residing on the lunch tables. ![Circa 2012. Pretty sure that Umbreon is a good one.](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/67df7c6b776ad1862f195518333436d9ce2269c1911409aad0e9f27532b94f58.png) Circa 2012. Pretty sure that Umbreon is a good one. ### Physical Coins However, the growth of my love for business was really sparked by Numismatics. My Dad has been a defining difference for me in terms of introducing me to different areas of collectibles. I sold all of my cards in ~2012 to gain capital for coins. We used to visit local coin shows in North Carolina and I was always fascinated with the Chinese Panda series as many dealers had them supplied for ~$30-50 a coin. I soon came to realize that rarity and condition became a huge factor in the resell value of a specific coin, which lit up my eyes with the prospect of being able to get more money for my other hobbies. The first big “score” I ever came across was a 1987 Silver Panda. Through the books I read as a kid, I was able to find that only around 10,000 coins ever made it to the US for this particular type, which made it one of the more desirable coins in the series. I purchased the coin for $70, at the time which was all of my money. I had no doubt that I could get over $400 for the coin after grading, but I was out of money and could not afford to grade it. This left me with a dilemma, which I solved by creating my own eBay account (eBay you can’t shut me down now). I figured the best way to be able to continue my knack for sourcing would be to try to speed up the volume of sales to continue my cash flow. At the time I had no idea of any business terms, or even anything about customer service, I just wanted to be able to continue buying and selling coins. ![13-year-old me would be proud that I kept 100 feedback.](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6199fb4b985636f63d7599dcb4b7dcbbe858d5cefc4af7fa22c126d61d643a56.png) 13-year-old me would be proud that I kept 100 feedback. ### Digital Coins Around the Summer of 2013, I was also introduced to the field of Blockchain through my Dad. He proposed an opportunity for us to start mining bitcoin using an external miner and one of our old PCs. I became fascinated with the idea of a public ledger, where each person had control over their financials without the use of a company like PayPal (all I knew at the time because of eBay). I was hooked instantly and told him that I would help in the process. We decided the best route to go was to purchase a Butterfly Labs miner, I believe it was the 60 TH/s miner, which was purchased used off of eBay (of course I loved eBay as a kid). In hindsight, there were so many red flags to buying a miner off eBay, but for the sake of the story, no one was harmed. ![If you look really close you can see a Trezor pre-order for 1 BTC.](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/24c1842dc9816ad3a28008bfc73471b526cbfaa17a1cf9fac1939e6301bdb963.png) If you look really close you can see a Trezor pre-order for 1 BTC. The miner ended up burning out with ~2-3 months’ worth of use and gathered a total of .84 BTC, at the time worth around $840. When BTC hit the $1k mark the crypto world exploded, all with barely anyone at the time. Then came the long lull from 2014-2016, which tested the patience of those who were building early. I guess I’ll touch base later on the rest of the years I am missing in my next entry. These are just a few interesting stories I always wanted to have down on paper and published. End. ---- --- *Originally published on [treyb](https://paragraph.com/@treyb/entry-i-early-years)*