Has anyone else's coin budget hit zero?

lava

I believe I can't be alone, in this economy, to have no money left in the budget for coins. Just checking in to confirm. Anyone else?

Granted, I could sell some coins to raise money, but since I like what I have, why bother. In the absence of coin sales, I'm just a guy with my nose up against the window drooling.

DUIGUY

Have faith! Never know when the right chic,,, er, ah coin will become available.

ProofRainbowRoosevelt

If I spent 100% last year... this year I've spent 10%. Not an exageration.

pennyannie

Lava- Mine should be zero but i can not help myself.

ArizonaJack

I have slowed down a bit. Have the cash but have become much more picky. I'll wait for the next Long Beach show before I pop open the cash stash again.

BECOKA

I hit zero years ago. Why stop there.

ArizonaJack

LMAO

silverpop

nope going to buy some more coins later today

500Bay

I would have said yes a few days ago...

Then I saw a coin I have been waiting for yesterday

lasvegasteddy

pretty much the same here too but i manage

weresteve

Not quite at zero as of yet, but I have slowed down quite a bit. Then again, I haven't seen anything that really caught my eye at any of the local coin shows in quite some time, so what I don't spend at one show gets carried over to the next one.

holeinone1972

Less than zero, I have been forced to sell it all off. I have about 1% of my coins and widgets left, everything of value, beauty and meaning is gone.

Look at my sigline images, all are gone except the Morgan, and it has lil value I just like the look.

Thank God my wife and kids are healthy, and I have their love, because right now that is all I got.

Rob

I sure hope it turns around.

halfnut

Yep down to 0% I have been selling off my extra the last 2 years but the sales have gone down to nouthing, I'm hoping they will pick up after the summer like they have in the past. Summer time is not a good time to sell.


Dan

Tvac897

My budget has decreased by about 50% I used to spend about $6,000 a year on coins and i'm at about $2,300 YTD...doubt i'll spend much more than $600 for the rest of the year.

BigRed

I'm at zero due to bad luck and bad choices. I quit my job about 6 yrs. ago to run my little small business until I retire and my wife got a job and said she would bring in enough money t0 pay bills. Well in april her job was outsourced to Mexico, and my business has dropped about 30% this year and it wasn't that great to begin with.

MrEureka

If you don't have a budget, then it can't hit zero.

BAJJERFAN

<< <i>pretty much the same here too but i manage >>



Pretty much what he said, but if the right stuff comes along I could git R bought.

drwstr123

Naw. Still have a few things to sell: wife, kids, anything but my doggie.

crypto79

close, I have a few grand to play with in Bmore next week but thats it for the year. And it's not gas prices, it's the fourty grand out of pocket for the wedding and the 15 for the "honey"moon. For the record, I wanted to get eloped.

ColonialCoinUnion

<< <i>For the record, I wanted to get eloped. >>



Be sure to remind your spouse of this frequently.

OPA

Nope....summertime is the best time to buy & worst time to sell....

crypto79

<< <i>

<< <i>For the record, I wanted to get eloped. >>



Be sure to remind your spouse of this frequently. >>



I'm coc-ky, not stupid. "Yes Dear it is all very nice, I would so much rather have flowers every where for 5 hours while getting mostly your friends and family drunk,then a classic early proof gold rarity! it's a no brainer love. Naaaa your law school loans will be fine with out that money baby, it's not a party if not for an open bar to wash down the $75 a plate dinner" That is the party line. sighhhhhhhhh It's half her money anyway.

Barbercoin

I'm pretty well tapped out too. However, this is more or less because we're putting in a new kitchen and I'm building a 16 x 20 barn. If I see a terrific bargain, I'll jump on it.

MrSpud

For a while, about 2 years ago, we (MrsSpud and I) realized that we were spending too much on coins and that we had to stop. For a while, we only bought coins with the money we made by buying extra coins purely with the intent to resell them. For example, we bought certain coins for resell, sold them, and used the money we made to buy coins for our personal collection. This only works if you develop a relationship with a group of coin dealers and you buy enough from them for them to sell to you at close to wholesale. It works though. One relationship that was especially lucrative involved buying from a dealer that used to buy entire collections from people who were getting rid of unwanted collections. The dealer would buy the entire collection from someone and would keep the coins that he specialized in for sell in his inventory and then he would dump the rest at close to his cost. I would go through what he was dumping and pick out the stuff I thought I could sell. It worked very well. Another thing we did was go through all the proof sets and mint sets at coin shows and pick out Cameos, varieties and things like full step nickels and full band dimes and stuff. We then sold the cameos and varieties and kept the full steps and full bands for our personal collections. This was pretty lucrative too. Another suprisingly lucrative thing was modern commemoratives. At coin shows some dealers always seemed to have a box of modern commemoratives that they didn't care about that they would basically sell only slghtly more than melt. A lot of what they had were impaired from improper storage and were spotted or hazy but if you searched through them there were usually a few in pristine condition. We bought these and sold them on Overstock with great pictures showing that the coins were pristine and people would regurarly buy them for full retail price often with bidding wars. They wanted them because the pictures were so much better than the other dealers pictures and the coins were problem free examples. You just have to be able to quickly sort through coins at coin shows and pick out what you can make money on and then be able to take good pictures of them. It was actually a lot of fun and we got lots of coins for our personal long term collections. MrsSpud developed a good relationship with all of the dealers and even became the secretary at the coin club and helped run many of the local coin shows.

RWB

One popular strategy for reduced coin buying budgets is to pick up several books or CDs related to the hobby. You can use the “down time” to learn more and then make better buying decisions later, when the personal (and national) economy improve.

garsmith

I haven't bought much more than my mint subscriptions in the last year. My land payments will be over soon than I will have some extra cash

Shamika

.

crypto79

<< <i>One popular strategy for reduced coin buying budgets is to pick up several books or CDs related to the hobby. You can use the “down time” to learn more and then make better buying decisions later, when the personal (and national) economy improve. >>


Best advice I heard in a long time.

derryb

I always sell something to keep a little extra on hand just in case that "right" coin comes along.

Raybob15239

Yeah, I'm at zero and selling off... I'm in the proces of building a new house, so I have a construction loan payment, rent, higher gasoline costs, plus $1k/month child support for my daughter, so yeah, I'm done buying coins right now...

lkenefic

I was fortunate to accumulate a small pile of money last year for expanding my collection. The particular pieces I was searching for (1909-S VDB and 1877 IHC) were elusive in the grade/money I was willing to spend so I purchased other pieces with the idea of re-selling them. well... long story short... I ended up selling off the gold just after prices peaked along with most of my Morgan Silver dollar date (half way done... no "keys") set to buy my 1909-S VDB in VF.

I have the key date I was looking for at the grade/price point I was comfortable with... but now I'm done for the year unless something drastically changes.

L

lkenefic

<< <i>I always sell something to keep a little extra on hand just in case that "right" coin comes along. >>



This works untill just "after" that right coin has presented itself... I'm sidelined after purchasing this:

atom48coin

Mine is less than zero, since I'm trying to sell and not doing great.

blu62vette

Long time ago! I sell some to buy some. Sometimes I just buy and then find a way to pay for it.

Robb

I was laid off and work had been slow for about a month prior to that so I feel your pain.

My solution? Picked up a copy of "Looking Through Lincoln Cents" and a $25 brick of circulated cents from the bank. That keeps my busy, lemme tell ya. I also get bricks of nickels to work on circulated sets and rolls of quarters to do the same as well as the State set. It's a great way to stay active in the hobby since it only costs you whatever you decide to keep and the rest goes back to the bank to go towards the next brick.

You'd also be surprised at the number of wheat cents, silver, foreign, buffalo nickels, error and (presumably) naturally toned coins that you'll come across in these bricks.

Though I know modern coinage is a sin for some.

BobaFett72

gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.

ElKevvo

mine is approaching zero...I had planned on spending some $ but a couple of things have come up like my daughter breaking one of her teeth! Of course I could just try to convince her that a lot of folks have broken teeth and get along just fine but not too many people have a 16-D Merc and the family would be better off with the Merc but just don't feel right about that approach!

K

lcoopie

one good thing about coin collecting
you could go negative
sell

I hope your times improve

percyb

When my stock portfolio makes my stomach turn inside out, I back off of purchases. I've become more selective as well. Not so hasty these days.

percyb

<< <i>close, I have a few grand to play with in Bmore next week but thats it for the year. And it's not gas prices, it's the fourty grand out of pocket for the wedding and the 15 for the "honey"moon. For the record, I wanted to get eloped. >>



How about if I ship you a ladder? You can elope with her in the middle of the night. Tell a forum member forced you into it.

Broadstruck

<< <i>

<< <i>For the record, I wanted to get eloped. >>



Be sure to remind your spouse of this frequently. >>



Yeah... but only when your sad as it ate into your coin budget!

This should go over real smooth, no need to worry as she will be sympathetic!

tmcsr69

Yes, you are not alone.

IGWT

I'm usually under budget because I'm overly optimistic that I'll find coins to buy. This year has been particularly slow . . . .

ziggy29

I'm buying very few coins these days, but that's more a function of what little good stuff I see being priced to the moon than it is the economy or my level of discretionary income.

If coins were correcting like stocks and housing I'd be much more actively buying -- assuming the good stuff didn't go into hiding.

charley

After being called a whiner on national news programs, I concluded that I have been thrifty with coin purchases without good cause. The namecalling was exactly what I required for an excuse to spend more on coins and assist in the economic recovery. I am happy that the excuse is working- I have stopped shaking and resumed avoiding my wife. Respectfully, John Curlis

JCMhouston

Not me, the economy is great down here in oil country, I've picked up a 1551 Shilling, several mint state 18th C. British Farthings and 1/2 Pennies, an MS66 York, and an MS67 Norfolk in the past month. Prices on my usual items have been decent recently, so maybe the economy is slowing down.

Baley

It's not the economy that's crushing my coin budget, I'm drawing more salary and benefits than ever, more than enough to cover fuel related inflation.

No, it was getting married, buying a house, 2 not new but newer cars, having a kid and another on the way, and all the associated nesting

that crushed my coin budget to near zero, along with my time to pursue the remaining coins I'd like to get.

Lakesammman

There are some major purchases coming up for me - I'm hoping the economy will help make them cheaper.