Are You "Serious" about your Coin Collecting, or just having Fun?

braddick

Maybe it's the difference between a 'hobby' and a 'passion'? Is Coin Collecting serious business for you? Or, are you more of the casual collecting type?
Are you vigorously seeking certain coins for your set(s) or do you more or less just stumble across cool coins you want or just happen-stance on eBay auctions and buy what you like with no real rhyme or reason?

Do you take with you a coin folder with your "want list" and a gray sheet to coin shows, or are you the type to just browse the various Dealer offerings and if a coin catches your fancy (and the price is right, of course!) you buy?

Do you accumilate or collect?

kieferscoins

I try to be a real time collector by seeking individual coins out for my collection. Sometimes a certain coin does cross my path that does not fit in my general collection. I will buy it and keep it, but for the most part, price sheets, books and a want list are what I go by and my collection is organized and neat.

Cameron Kiefer

mdwoods

I vigorously seek out the coins I need/want. Unfortunately, I usually end up having to sell something to buy something else. Unless I can convince Bill Gates that he promised me a million a year for life, whilst in a drunken stupor, it is likely to remain that way. Coins are a passion with me. Some passions fade, but there is always a new coin waiting in the wings. Mark

keets

i'd have to say i'm a collector with some considered goals but i also browse as you suggested when things get slow. in short, i manage to have some serious fun!!! with regards to shows and taking along notes and stuff, i always feel as though i'm fighting the geek-factor with things in my pockets and what not. and i also think it tends to put dealers on some type of defense when they are presented with a collector who is a stranger but seems to be informed. no doubt about it, i gotta work on my image!! damge control!!

al h.

DIMEMAN

I would consider myself a serious collector. I collect all series of dimes and am in the process of getting them all entered on my computer. Most are raw except for my (Jon T. Potts) Mercury Registry Set. I am trying to decide if I should start getting my Bust, Seated, and Barbers slabbed so I can put them on the Registry or sell them and start Walkers and SLQ's in the Registry. I have all Bust dimes except the 1802 and all Seated dimes except the 1872-CC. I had both but sold them to by some needed Mercs.

What do you think I should do and why?

Jon

BNE

Probably too serious.

MAULUMALL

I hate to admit it but I love to accumilate.
It's all eye appeal to me.I won the football pool yesterday so I have an extra buck and a half but to be honest,I already have a bid on a coin that my eyes jumped all over.
I don't need a want list.................I want them all.

presleyh

I have spent all my non serious money on coins this year. When it gets serious, im quitting! If i didnt think my purchases would be "redeemable" at some time for close to what i paid for them i probably wouldnt be into coins right now. I think it is neat to have a goal to work towards, such as an ms65 Ike set. And if i dont make it this year i will just keep trying next year.

Mrpawn

Seriously searching for certain dollars as I can afford them.

I go to coin shows and stores with want list in hand but I also look for those fun coins. The collection that I find the most fun is coins with a ship on them, have to study the Krause Catalog to find to find specific issues. One or two of each example that I find is good enough so I would not call myself an accumulator but a collector having fun.

JR

mrdq

I spend $50 a month running a newspaper ad offering free appraisels and drive out of my way to other towns to look at someone else's coins just to get to HOLD fresh coins. Most of the coins i've sold on EBAY belonged to other people. I guess i'm obsessed and a hoarder.

RotatedRainbows

Both, it would not be worth it if I did not have fun. Do I look for a certain coin? Sometimes but I mostly just keep an eye out for what I want and eventually come across one.

Trime

Seriously,
I'm having fun!

Gilbert

I would say that I am serious about coin collecting AND having fun. I consider myself a numismatist first and collector second. The coins that most intrigue me are priced beyond my means, but, I do enjoy the coins I do collect, primarily Franklin halves and Morgan dollars (1878 varieties most interest me). I REALLY enjoy studying coins with evidence of hand engraved details (die polishing, detail enhancement, hub modifications) and die modifications. I enjoy well written, descriptive and illustrated reference material as much as I enjoy the coins I collect. I also enjoy sharing this experience with like minded individuals.

dorkkarl

its more fun than serious for me, so i could never do this as a business. but i guess if i had more $, i might see it a different way.

K S

littlewicher

Coin collecting is my hobby. My passion will always be the piano.

jhar

I like to consider myself a numanisist and a collector. I want to learn as much about the coins I like (Morgan Silver Dollars) as I can. Coin Books, magazines and web sites like this forum. I also like finding really nice looking coins to add to my collection. My ultimate goal would be go find an elusive VAM or perhaps an undocumented one. I've got a lot of looking and leaning to do before I do that.

kryptonitecomics

I am more of a collector than an investor so I would say I am having fun. I love the diversity of coin collectors as no 2 are alike. What I find interesting in my own collecting is that over the last 10 years I have yet to complete any sets. I buy and buy, but I move from one series to the next so quickly that I never finish any of them. If I ever did I don't know what I'd do with the set. I mean once it's complete then you have to start upgrading, so do you ever really complete a set?????

Pushkin

My evolution with collecting:

Phase 1. was just having fun

Phase 2. serious

phase 3. addicted

phase 4. Is there a phase 4?

kryptonitecomics

pushkin

Phase 4 is rehab. Now repeat after me, my name is pushkin and I am an addict. You can't play around with this condition, the only way is to go cold turkey and send you collection to me!!!!

Pushkin

Addiction is right Krypto, I just posted a reply to your post on the wrong thread (or is it senility, I can't remember).

coinnerd

<< <i> Are You "Serious" about your Coin Collecting, or just having Fun? >>



Yes

oldcameoproofsguy

I would have to say there is little doubt that I am pretty serious about my collecting. I am searching out the pop tops for proof cameo and DCAM Barber Quarters. This requires a relatively substantial investment of both time and money. The collection is worth more if every date is filled, so I am quite focused on finding "amongst the finest known" examples for each date.

To me being this passionate about something is fun. To see the set grow gradually is fun. To appreciate the rarity and value of each piece is fun. To put together a really great set and still try and stay within a budget is also fun because that is what makes collecting such a challenge.

My Barbers

Lobo

Can I seriously have fun! I collect/accumalte for the enjoyment.
Besides if it ain't fun its probaly work and who wants to do that.

gmarguli

I'm having fun. If I wasn't then I would find another hobby. I have a goal for this hobby. I search for coins I need, but I don't go crazy over them. I won't pay stupid money for a coin that I want.

braddick

<< <i>I'm having fun. If I wasn't then I would find another hobby. I have a goal for this hobby. I search for coins I need, but I don't go crazy over them. I won't pay stupid money for a coin that I want. >>



Greg, oh really?!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1380131068&rd=1

gmarguli

I'm just trying to give you back a fraction of the money you paid me for that AG-03 Ike or that PO-01 Columbian.

Besides, I knew I wouldn't hit the reserve. I will be bidding on a bunch of your other coin.

michael

i am just having fun after 35 years it is still fun and FUN FUN FOR ME extremely enjoyable

if that ever changes then i am gone so fast your head would spin

sincerely michael

braddick

Excellent!!
I should be embarrassed by what I paid for the Columbian but strangly and even somewhat disturbingly, I'm not! (Try to find another that PCGS will grade out as PO01. It's the date that wears first and without even a hint of that, PCGS will take a pass, being unable to determine otherwise if it's an 1892 or 1893. I know- I've sent a few in! AG's, even FA02's are somewhat easy, but a true to life PO01 on that Commemorative is tough-).
Now, the AG03 Ike, I'm healthy on that deal. I bought the $3. Princess as a counterfeit (knowing it was real, just a jewelery coin). So I'm OK on that one.

gmarguli

I wouldn't be embarrassed at what you paid for the Columbian. I loved that coin. In all honestly, had I not known how much you wanted that coin I would not have sold it to you. In fact I wouldn't have sold it to another person for that price.

braddick

I wish someone could find that older Thread because you're right, I practically had to beg you for that coin! I even started a campaign/Thread aimed at harrassing you into selling it to me!
-At least you know you sold it to a Collector who will appreciate it for what it is.

In about twenty years someone here will start a Thread asking us for an accounting of the coins we've kept with us over the years and have NOT sold.
Mine will be a somewhat short list, I'm sure, but that Columbian is guaranteed a top spot on it.

gmarguli

I just looked thru a ton of old threads, but I couldn't find it. I remember you posting a thread specifically to get me to sell that coin to you.

In fact I remember the first message I got from you on these forums was an offer to buy that coin almost 2 years ago.

It's a beauty. I cannot believe the PCGS pop of that coin is 2. Where is the other one???

construct

My collecting is just for fun, though you might not know it if you saw me at a show. (I hate the crowds.) I love learning new things, and there's all kinds of things to learn when you're looking at and reading about and talking about coins.

wallstreetman

Mrpawn, You should see my 23KT Gold $100 notes with Pirate Ships! I have 30, each with a likeness of a different ship from the swashbuckling days.

Tade

Coin collecting is fun for me. I don't even think about being a collector at this
early stage. Besides, my friends think I'm smart because I collect coins!

nwcs

I'm an advanced casual collector. I have no interest in dealing and not enough money for big ticket items. For a long time I thought I knew a lot about numismatics but since joining this board in May/June, I've learned a great deal. And with reference materials, really learned a lot. Still, I'm in it for fun and history. But I am more careful and exacting in the fun, though.

Neil

1956Quarter

Just having fun, but being serious about it in the process.

CharlieB

Collector, my focus is on acquiring multiple specimens of the
same coin. After a while you get to know what's really out there.
Then I'll target a new coin down the road and do the same thing.

When I look at my coins I am always dazzled by their beauty and
how they have been preserved over the years and then I go back in
time. To know that hundreds of people, dealers, collectors, previous
owners all experienced the same thing, well it just gets to me.

" A hobby fulfills a lifetime "

- Charlie B -