Getting back into coins...

baseballjeff

Hello everyone,

So, the story goes. I started collecting baseball cards when I was wee little, I got out of that when I was in high school and started coins, than I got out of that and went gung ho into baseball cards. I have a sweet card collection, but now, I am being lured into coins. Esp. the warm glow of morgans on my computer screen on ebay. Anyone have any good solid advice on deciding if a switch is worth it? I am debating going for a morgan set in AU50-MS63 grade, and the key dates obviously lower than the AU.

Thoughts? PCGS? NGC? ANACS?

Thanks everyone!
Jeff

EagleEye

Many of the common Morgan's can be bought cheaply, so you'll end up trading up as you get more comfortable. So start out buying a bunch cheaply trying to fill holes, then upgrade with care to really nice ones. The cheap ones you can usually sell for close to what you paid, or use as trading fodder. Try not to buy cleaned coins. If you can't tell, post some here. We'll tell you.

edited too add - post on the Coin Forum for more responses. This forum is slower, and used for registry set builders.

baseballjeff

Thank you Eagle Eye, the post will be copied and pasted to the other forum. And yes, education on what has/has not been cleaned would be great! I intend to only buy PCGS graded coins.

Thanks again,
Jeff

scottgardener

For common date Morgans, I'd strongly recommend spending just a little more for the MS63 or 64 coins. It may cost you maybe $60 instead of $30 to fill one spot, or one spot when you could have filled two. But, in the long run, you'll be glad you did, because at the end of the day, you'll have better coins. Obviously, if you find a coin with a lower grade but better personality or eye appeal, by all means, get that one instead. But, in a good coin collection, there are no fillers.

golfer72

Just make sure you look at the coin and not just the assigned grade on the label. I have many Morgans that are in my opinion misgraded and are better than others that are two points higher. You can also find nice AU's where you cant see any wear at all so they are a good value also. PCGS, NGC and ANACS all have nice coins in their slabs.

bolivarshagnasty

Jeff, Learn the series before spending your money. It costs nothing to window shop at a few coins shows and online. You don't want to end up with a collection that has a resale value of less than you have spent. Shag

renomedphys

What they all said. Paying your dues is something that's hard to avoid in this hobby, but if you do it right, you can get it all (or most of it) back. Mostly I like Rick's advice about buying cheap coins to start with. Use your experience with those to make educated decisions about which coins to buy in the future. There are coins, and then there are coins worth owning. Figuring out which coins fall into the latter category is something that comes with time and the development of your own eye.

And by all means, don't feel like you can't buy raw, NGC, ANACS, SEGS, ICG, or even PCI coins. If you are careful, they won't all burn you, and if you are wise, the ones that do will provide an education that buying only PCGS can't.

A few things I've learned:

- Look for coins that appeal to collector and non-collector alike. If you show a coin to a work buddy and they say WOW, then you're doing it right. If the collectors agree, then you're on to something.
-You'll never get anywhere buying common date widgets. A whole bucket of high grade common date stuff is not a money maker for the collector. For this stuff, making sure that you get stuff you can live with to start with is very important, because when you go to sell, you'll probably lose money.
-Put your money in the keys. Try to buy nice ones that don't come around often enough, so that when you do sell, you can command a premium.
-In the unlikely event that you do find something on eBay worth owning, learn to snipe manually. Set your alarm. Plan to be there. Only bid early if you absolutely positively HAVE to. (this also goes for the other major auction houses)
-When you do see a coin in an auction that's important to you, don't tell anybody until AFTER you win it.
-Have fun!

PQpeace

Buy PCGS coins !!

Larry

scottgardener

The nice thing about coin collecting is that if you do walk away, you can come out of it with more than you put in. Or, if you keep what you've done so far, when you get back into it, you'll find that it's quietly grown in value.

Morgans are definitely bargains right now, considering how silver has climbed, but so far, Morgans haven't. With gold, the rise in bullion caused a delayed pump up in value of common and middle-of-the-road coins. I'd be very surprised if the same thing doesn't happen in the long run to silver. That, and Morgans just have so much to offer; for under a hundred dollars, you could buy a coin from the 1880s that is not only big and flashy but also in a choice uncirculated grade--there is plenty of eye appeal. Add to that the tones, the prooflikes and DMPLs, the VAM varieties to keep you entertained, and not to mention the Carson City dates, this series has a lot to show off.