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Do you try to make every move count when it comes to coins....?

bidaskbidask Posts: 13,834 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have been buying coins very sporadically for my entire life. That's right I have been just another coin addict.

From weird moderns like with marijuana on it to very rare coins.

Today I stood literally 10 feet away and watched for a couple hours these guys try to make every move count.

Really fabulous to watch.

And it got me thinking, I need to make my coin decisions to purchase....and sell ........really count.

These guys make every move count

The players....
I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




Comments

  • SeattleSlammerSeattleSlammer Posts: 9,953 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not sure that I see any relation between high level chess and coin buying/selling but whatever floats your boat!
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  • OriginalDanOriginalDan Posts: 3,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Define "count" in this context.
  • WalkerfanWalkerfan Posts: 8,896 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No---it is impossible to make every move count. Many times you pay up (overpay) for quality but other times you just get LUCKY. They seem to even each other out. If you buy wonderful quality-----in time you will do well and not just break even. JMHO.

    “I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~

    My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)

    https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/

  • BoosibriBoosibri Posts: 11,839 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sort of... I try to ensure that every purchase I make improves my collection rather than simply expanding it. For half eagles where my core collection is focused, I am trying to hold to the philosophy that any new purchase must be better than a coin I already own.
  • RedTigerRedTiger Posts: 5,608
    Chess and coins? A silly comparison overall. If someone is a serious, competitive chess player, yes, in top level tournament play, every move counts. However, even the top chess champs might spend time playing speed chess, or handicapped chess, or do simultaneous exhibitions where they do minimal analyzing or thinking. Even in top tournament play, sometimes the game is clearly going to reach a draw after a few opening parries, and both players conserve energy and brain power and play some standard or dull moves to reach the draw and move on to the next game. Watch some Youtube videos of the any of the recent world championship matches, about half the tournament games are in this, most likely a draw after 12 or 15 moves, lets just play to a draw and save our brain power.

    Then there is the competence level. Only maybe 0.001% of chess players (one in a 100,000 or one in a million of players that know the basic rules and claim they can play chess) can hope to compete in a top level chess tournament. Do you really think that you are in that top percentile of coin collectors/dealers? Is a person fooling themselves if they think that? If a person thinks that, it seems far more likely they are yet another coin deek that is taking themselves and their hobby WAAAAY TOOOO SERIOUSLY. Aren't hobbies are supposed to be fun?

    It takes a lot of work to get better at chess. These days, if a young person isn't very good at chess by age 16, they have very little chance at a national championship. Now to coins, is a person putting in serious work to get better at coins? For coins that might involve, taking more seminars, working the bourse to develop contacts, studying as many coins and auction results as possible to get better at grading and pricing? Or are they more interested in having fun, at chess or with coins? I vote hobby for both. I am long past the days of getting better at chess. I might enjoy a casual game or playing on cheesy level against the computer, but I won't study chess any more. I've also pretty much given up on getting much better at the coin game too, though the actual status is inactive for coins.

    Any way, top chess players are lucky to earn peanuts, while top coin dealers sometimes earn millions and have two Ferraris, plus a Lexus SUV in the garage at their beach house. So if financial reward is the goal, the chess players are wasting their time and brain power. I'm sure most chess champs would test far higher in IQ than most coin dealers, but they choose to tilt at the large windmill of trying to eek out a living playing (and teaching) chess.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If I played coins as carefully as the pros play chess, my coin activity would drop more than 90%. Hardly sounds like a good idea.
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • NapNap Posts: 1,702 ✭✭✭✭✭
    When one's hobby becomes a series of calculated moves, it becomes like work. I already have a job. I don't need another one.

    I prefer to enjoy coins, make some mistakes here and there, and treat it like the hobby it is.
  • erwindocerwindoc Posts: 4,925 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I can understand the argument and yes, I have carefully thought out purchases before. Typically, it comes with higher dollar coins dealing with being able to afford them. However, the best examples come with the registry at NGC. Their system is set up so that conditional rarities and absolute rarities are weighed heavily and more common coins carry less points. I can remember thinking that if I could gather up enough points with certain purchases I could sacrifice on other purchases where the point spread might not be quite so broad and compete with the big players. I enjoy this twist with the hobby!
  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭
    When I buy coins for my inventory, then yes, every move counts and I think hard about wether to play or pass.

    When I buy coins for my personal collection, sometimes my rules fly out the window and I make place a nuke bid.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I buy coins to enjoy..... for me, it is not a business - it truly is a hobby. Yet, each move counts, in the respect that the coin is important to me and I like it. This, to me, is the way to enjoy a hobby. Cheers, RickO

  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Dunno. But I will be on the computer watching all the GMs in St. Louis duke it out today. Many thanks to Mr. Cinquefield for his generous sponsorship.
  • bidaskbidask Posts: 13,834 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Dunno. But I will be on the computer watching all the GMs in St. Louis duke it out today. Many thanks to Mr. Cinquefield for his generous sponsorship. >>

    Im going back down today. Fabianno Caruana game yesterday was unbelievably brilliant.
    I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
    I give away money. I collect money.
    I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




  • bidaskbidask Posts: 13,834 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Another intentional move/purchase bought raw. Now PCGS 58.

    image
    I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
    I give away money. I collect money.
    I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,772 ✭✭✭✭✭
    In chess, you can make a terminal mistake (and I usually do).

    In coins, almost every mistake is reversible, usually at a cost, but reversible.

    Big difference!
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Caruana now 7-0. I am very jealous of bidask image

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