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Gone - Things that I miss in the hobby that's never coming back, what yours?

ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
edited January 15, 2019 3:15AM in U.S. Coin Forum
  1. Bid boards at the local coin shop
  2. The big bowl of silver dollars I dug through🙁 Gone at the $12 price point
  3. Album collecting😤 Man outside of Frankie's, peace dollars, Walker short sets I'm down to year set

This song says it the best:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-R9odBFWo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-R9odBFWo "https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-R9odBFWo

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Comments

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ttown said:
    2. The big bowl of silver dollars I dug through🙁 Gone at the $12 price point

    I just did this at a B&M and it was a lot of fun, though it was at the $20 price point.

  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭

    @Zoins said:

    @ttown said:
    2. The big bowl of silver dollars I dug through🙁 Gone at the $12 price point

    I just did this at a B&M and it was a lot of fun, though it was at the $20 price point.

    Experience may vary. Back in the day they'd leave you with it and help others. I never heard about people ripping stuff off, at least where they had to worry about it. I think that was when my little shops felt they had to watch you every minute

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 12, 2019 4:54PM

    @ttown said:

    @Zoins said:

    @ttown said:
    2. The big bowl of silver dollars I dug through🙁 Gone at the $12 price point

    I just did this at a B&M and it was a lot of fun, though it was at the $20 price point.

    Experience may vary. Back in the day they'd leave you with it and help others. I never heard about people ripping stuff off, at least where they had to worry about it. I think that was when my little shops felt they had to watch you every minute

    Yeah, I was left alone when going through these coins. It was a lot of fun picking through them, looking at the dates and condition. I also went through a bunch of other coins including Barber / Commem halves, and others.

  • sparky64sparky64 Posts: 7,025 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 12, 2019 4:54PM

    I miss...
    My now closed local olde timey coin shop.
    Complete with a crusty war horse of an owner.
    Who, once he saw that you could take some heat, would be a mentor and never steer you wrong.
    His coins were always conservatively graded and fairly priced.
    We'd talk about hunting, fishing and he'd tell coin stories from back in the day.

    "If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"

    My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress

  • CommemKingCommemKing Posts: 2,202 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hopefully my early commems come back one day.

  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    edited January 15, 2019 3:21AM

    @CommemKing said:
    Hopefully my early commems come back one day.

    Ya never know enjoy them, they have some real art on some of em. We talked about his Hawaiian it came back a grade lower than him or the dealer thought so he put it in the window sill to bake for 6 months and eye appeal must have bumped it a point.

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've been thinking about getting an album for America The Beautiful quarters. I have an album for the start quarters, and that was fun.

  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    edited January 12, 2019 5:43PM

    Having my collection at home.

    Now I have visitation only. We laughed about what his virtual collection had😋 (Spread sheet). I told him hey there's a thread about just having pictures but I tried that with girls and cars when I was young and it didn't replace the real deals for me😡 Dang I could of saved a divorce and some real money🤧

    I did get the cameras for photography but I take crappy smart phone pictures since I'm to lazy to mess with redoing my indoor setup. My treasures look like junk, may have to buy them their own house🤥

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 12, 2019 5:37PM

    @ttown said:
    Having my collection at home.

    Now I have visitation only. We laughed about what his virtual collection had😋 (Spread sheet). I told him hey there's a thread about just having pictures but I tried that with girls and cars when I was young and it didn't replace the real deals for me😡 Dang I could of saved a divorce and some real money🤧

    I did get the cameras for photography but I take crappy smart phone pictures since I'm to lazy yo mess with redoing my indoor setup. My treasures look like junk, may have to buy them their own house🤥

    There are lots of great coin photographers available to help, including those on these forums :)

  • blitzdudeblitzdude Posts: 5,361 ✭✭✭✭✭

    dealer integrity Semper Fi!

    The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.

  • logger7logger7 Posts: 8,011 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Large number of new collectors joining the hobby and a growing real physical non-virtual economy.

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,208 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Getting Heritage Auction sheets in the mail pre internet. Bidding on dozens of coins with insult bids and no expectation of winning anything. Won one or two per auction and off to the coin shop to double my money or better. Used that money to build my Classic Commem. Collection. Got out of commems just in time. Felt bad for the collectors that sold the coins I bought, but there was no reserve and all were in early slabs. Learned a lot and had fun. I miss those days.

  • jesbrokenjesbroken Posts: 9,151 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Local coin shows every weekend north and south I-81 in TN and VA. Went every weekend in mid 60's and again in the mid 70's after service tour.
    Jim


    When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln

    Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
  • WCCWCC Posts: 2,349 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Zoins said:
    US Mint making and providing rare coins and patterns at the request of collectors

    Imagine ordering the modern equivalent of 1804 dollars or other fantasy coins and patterns?

    Getting rid of this practice was an improvement.

  • ParadisefoundParadisefound Posts: 8,588 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 14, 2019 11:46PM

    I am fairly new collector but I do see the wonderful part of this hobby your were missing by going back in-time with your past :)

  • WCCWCC Posts: 2,349 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Far more reasonable prices on the coins I collect before US based collectors inflated the price level. Apparently, inflating the prices of US coins wasn't enough so they had to do the same with all other coinage.

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 12, 2019 6:57PM

    @WCC said:
    Far more reasonable prices on the coins I collect before US based collectors inflated the price level. Apparently, inflating the prices of US coins wasn't enough so they had to do the same with all other coinage.

    Aren't prices on a lot of coins decreasing? That seems to be an often discussed item here these days.

  • cameonut2011cameonut2011 Posts: 10,060 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Zoins said:

    @WCC said:
    Far more reasonable prices on the coins I collect before US based collectors inflated the price level. Apparently, inflating the prices of US coins wasn't enough so they had to do the same with all other coinage.

    Aren't prices on a lot of coins decreasing? That seems to be an often discussed item here these days.

    Most of those discussions are about the U.S. coin market and not the foreign market.

  • WCCWCC Posts: 2,349 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Zoins said:

    @WCC said:
    Far more reasonable prices on the coins I collect before US based collectors inflated the price level. Apparently, inflating the prices of US coins wasn't enough so they had to do the same with all other coinage.

    Aren't prices on a lot of coins decreasing? That seems to be an often discussed item here these days.

    These discussions are centered around US coins. I don't buy any US coins and haven't since I resumed collecting in 1998, outside of a few proof sets I bought from the US Mint initially and no longer own.

    The coins I buy now have increased in price a lot over the years. I can't tell you how much most of the coins I own are actually worth either now or at a particular point in time in the past because most don't sell (as an individual date/denomination combination) that often, regardless of the grade. All I know is that I have to pay more or a lot more now for the same coins versus when I first started collecting it. Even South African coins which have crashed and burned since late 2011, still worth a lot more than when I first bought it in quantity starting around 2002.

    I bought many early and cheap but these series cost a lot more now than then. I attribute it substantially to the financialization of the hobby where the better coins end up in a TPG holder and sell for more in the US than in the home market. It happens because US collectors can and do outbid most locals for the best coinage. They are both willing and able to spend more money since they think nothing of paying much higher prices that locals aren't used to paying and refuse to pay. US collectors do it because non-US coins are disproportionately so much cheaper and a lot more available due to the internet. I buy my coins from elsewhere also but wouldn't bid based upon the prospective TPG grade if it wasn't due to what I am telling you.

  • OwenSeymourOwenSeymour Posts: 365 ✭✭✭✭

    CoinFacts

  • SoldiSoldi Posts: 2,016 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 13, 2019 6:03PM

    :):):)I'm gonna run down the hill and throw myself into the river

    I forgot more than you guys miss.

  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Stopped into one of the local shops last week. Other than the gray sheet on a tablet, it could have been 1965. Great customer service. Bid board with several nice items and the old glass eye is still in the case.

  • BLUEJAYWAYBLUEJAYWAY Posts: 7,938 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I miss the people who helped me get started in error coin collecting. They have since passed away. Have never forgotten them.

    Successful transactions:Tookybandit. "Everyone is equal, some are more equal than others".
  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Coinstartled said:
    Stopped into one of the local shops last week. Other than the gray sheet on a tablet, it could have been 1965. Great customer service. Bid board with several nice items and the old glass eye is still in the case.

    Nice. No slabs?

  • BJandTundraBJandTundra Posts: 383 ✭✭✭✭

    Buying a coin from a dealer and knowing the risk of it being counterfeit was low.

    Filling in a collection by date and mint from pocket change. (Yours or someone else's.)

  • dcarrdcarr Posts: 7,936 ✭✭✭✭✭

    1) Cherry-picking raw coins (like the toned UNC 1921-D dime I bought at a coin shop as "XF" and made $1,000 by driving it across town and selling it the same day at another coin shop - that was a lot of money for a college kid at the time).
    2) Coin shop bid boards.
    3) Lesher Dollars at local coin shows for $25.

  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭

    @BLUEJAYWAY said:
    I miss the people who helped me get started in error coin collecting. They have since passed away. Have never forgotten them.

    Your turn my friend, we resemble that remark 😜 I have a complete jewelery shop watchmakers setup with tons of new old stock parts cabinets.

    That hobby is worse than cars, hands on there's no shops or dealers just hobbiest. I followed a watchmaker around buying out jewelry shops inventory as that era died and they didn't need them, as well as collections.

  • savitalesavitale Posts: 1,406 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Lakesammman said:
    Coin shops in department stores. :D

    Wow. Ages ago I bought a coin from Macy's in New York City. I haven't thought about that in 30 years.

  • davewesendavewesen Posts: 5,758 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Lakesammman said:
    Coin shops in department stores. :D

    I liked the coin and stamp section at The Bon Marche, and how I could put my hand on the window and make the trains go at Christmas time. Sadly I spent more on stamps than coins there.

  • emeraldATVemeraldATV Posts: 3,959 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Like the movie Trading Places.. just waiting for the precise moment, all the time gaining the knowledge I'm comfortable with.. to sell .. !

  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,847 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 13, 2019 3:33AM

    @Coinstartled said:
    Northland shopping center just off the Detroit border had a decent lower level coin and stamp shop. Went in with my grandmother nearly 50 years ago. A crisp $2 was offered by the dealer for fourteen bucks. Granny asked the fellow if he would give her fourteen dollars for her old crumpled bill. He tried to explain that her note was worn out dreck and as well, he had to make a profit on the sale.

    The two tangled for a couple minutes and we left.

    That may have been the first edition of "why coin dealers drink!"

    Too funny.

    I worked at Northland, Southland, Westland and Eastland Centers in the early 80’s. The coin shops were long gone by then I suppose. Northland is where I cut my teeth in my trade. When Northland opened in the 50’s it was the largest shopping center in the world. It actually was the first scud missle signaling the demise of downtown shopping in the city.

    m

    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • OuthaulOuthaul Posts: 7,440 ✭✭✭✭✭

    $40 Saints.

  • 1Mike11Mike1 Posts: 4,414 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The older folks who talked with me about coins.

    "May the silver waves that bear you heavenward be filled with love’s whisperings"

    "A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
  • OldhoopsterOldhoopster Posts: 2,930 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 13, 2019 7:16AM

    Buying low grade early large cents out of junk boxes for a couple bucks in the 80s, then pulling out a copy of Sheldon and trying to ID them. I think the book and EAC membership dues cost a lot more then the coins

    Also buying nice CWTs for <$5 and using the thin black soft covered copies of Fuld to look them up

    Member of the ANA since 1982
  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Justacommeman said:

    @Coinstartled said:
    Northland shopping center just off the Detroit border had a decent lower level coin and stamp shop. Went in with my grandmother nearly 50 years ago. A crisp $2 was offered by the dealer for fourteen bucks. Granny asked the fellow if he would give her fourteen dollars for her old crumpled bill. He tried to explain that her note was worn out dreck and as well, he had to make a profit on the sale.

    The two tangled for a couple minutes and we left.

    That may have been the first edition of "why coin dealers drink!"

    Too funny.

    I worked at Northland, Southland, Westland and Eastland Centers in the early 80’s. The coin shops were long gone by then I suppose. Northland is where I cut my teeth in my trade. When Northland opened in the 50’s it was the largest shopping center in the world. It actually was the first scud missle signaling the demise of downtown shopping in the city.

    m

    Found a 1966 ad for the place. I was probably last there in 1973 or so to add to an anemic US stamp set I bought from a friend.

  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭

    For me, the hobby is better than it has ever been.

    Access to coins and information on the internet makes this hobby super awesome today.

    Looking forward to the hobby being even better in the years to come.

  • OldEastsideOldEastside Posts: 4,602 ✭✭✭✭✭

    4 dollar Morgan and Peace Dollar Trays

    Steve

    Promote the Hobby
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 43,793 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Camaraderie. It's hard to have in the digital age.

  • GotTheBugGotTheBug Posts: 1,536 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 13, 2019 10:47PM

    .

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