1) Buying raw coins and submitting them for grading. Now I only buy graded coins
2) Only purchasing NGC graded coins. Now I find the best graded coin I can afford (PCGS or NGC)
1) Buying raw coins and submitting them for grading. Now I only buy graded coins
2) Only purchasing NGC graded coins. Now I find the best graded coin I can afford (PCGS or NGC)
Tim
I agree with point #1-the only time I buy a raw coin is if it's a cherrypick of some kind. Otherwise I buy 'em already PCGS slabbed.
Worry about overpaying. I cannot begin to make the point of how many people I have seen let a nice coin getaway over price. So sad how many investors call themselves coin collectors.
MLAeBayNumismatics: "The greatest hobby in the world!"
@PerryHall said:
I no longer tell my wife when I buy an expensive coin. What she don't know can't hurt me.
YOU will get an earful when it comes time to sell!
I'll be dead and she will be rich.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Spending Saturdays going to numerous B&M shops in the area. Most are now gone. The ones that remain don’t really have anything I’m looking for these days. Damn Internet!
Dave
Always looking for original, better date VF20-VF35 Barber quarters and halves, and a quality beer.
As a young new collector in the 60’s, my father had a few circulated Morgan dollars. I had a Red book and when I saw the value of a 1921 proof, I figured I could polish the XF/AU 1921 Morgan into a Proof if I used enough of this stuff. At least it was only one coin I tried to “improve” before getting a lesson on cleaning coins
We should start our own thread: "What's The Worst Thing You Did To Coins As A Kid?"
I used to make 14'-D's from 44-D's and sell them to the kids on the block.
I probably found some of your coins in a coin shop in Ann Arbor. The shop owner was happy to see me leave that day after everyone in the shop was passing around the dealer's altered 44-D's.
I used to use cardboard flips, and now I just used plastic 2-pocket flips. After a hundred times of having to remove a coin from a cardboard flip to photograph it or inspect it's edge I got sick of it. I just decided to use pocket flips so I could photograph and inspect as needed. The 2x2 paper insert also provides a lot more real estate for notation.
CAC put an end that. Too many collectors believe that coins without the sticker are no good. I have no desire to have go to CAC to have them approve each of my selections.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
Purchase stuff sight unseen through mail order. I remember buying some allegedly BU coins from that notorious dealer in Maryland years ago, Civil War era type cent, two cent, three cent and shield nickel. They were all EF-AU "sliders", sent back for a refund. Burned me on buying sight unseen.
@spacehayduke said:
Collect large and half cents. EACS (the early copper club) scared me off by their continued barrage against slabs and tpg grading. We know how to grade better they say, tpg's don't they say, trust us, yes we clean our copper with xylol and a q-tip and then rub them over with a camel hair brush with blue ribbon conditioner, but hey, trust us (and of course impart infinite micro hairlines that come out once the blue ribbon evaporates.......).
When I quit the club I told their secretary why, the blistering anti-tpg prose in their journal that I found to be negative for collecting (and damaging their coins with their 'conditioning' practices), and the bloke said 'we understand, but indeed we are better than the tpg's' - i.e. get lost.................. Wow. I can't even imagine what EACS thinks of CAC, I have been gone well before green beans appeared.
NO. THANK. YOU.
Same here. EAC guys that I have encountered in the past fall into two categories: Nice helpful guys (darned few of 'em) and the types you just described - anti-TPGs - who also look down their noses at "newbies" with questions, and non-top-tier collectors like me. Plus their "grading" makes absolutely no sense at all to me.
I have also stopped the incredible amount of impulse buying I used to do. I just don't do that anymore because I now have a very large accumulation (I just can't call that a collection!) of stuff I bought that caught my eye for some poor reason. I have cut my collections down to three now: U.S. Type Set, British Victorian Type Set, and English Shillings from 1551 to 1970, typically just one for each Monarch on the hammered and early milled types.
I was a fairly advanced collector when I joined EAC. Therefore I did not have the “newbie hurdle” to deal with. I also knew founder Herb Silberman pretty well as well has half vent author, Roger Cohen.
I never did become a great EAC collector. I collected half cents by die variety for a while, but then ran into a brick wall. I could not get any new varieties because they were closely held, and those guys were not selling any time soon in the late 1980s and early 90’s. I was mostly interested in the historical aspects of early. I got to know the late “Mr. Tettenhourse” who had the best half cent collection in the world. He was very approachable.
And, yes there were a few EAC jerks whom I ignored, and they ignored me. As mostly a type collector, they thought of me as a “light weight.”
EAC grading is okay once you learn the parameters. There was a time when the TPGs body bagged copper coins that they thought had problems. That was a source of extreme aggravation for me. I wasted some money on grading, and was not happy with the TPGs. EAC grading recognizes that copper is a reactive metal and works from there.
Problem early copper is not “a zero.” It is quite collectible, especially when anything better is non-existent or prohibitively expensive.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
I'll tell you, the least fun part of the type set I'm working on has been the early copper. Slabbed, straight-graded material isn't so easy to come by even if you do have the funds. For some reason, the dealers I've encountered in the early copper world have been abrasive and downright rude. I'm in the hobby to have fun. Maybe it's just bad luck, or maybe I haven't met the good ones yet. I dunno. There are only 5 or 6 dealers that I go out of my way to avoid and maybe half of them are early copper guys.
Looking at the comments re EAC above, with more than passing interest, I want to add a few comments:
1. Historically, large cents were at the forefront of collecting when things got serious after the Civil War. As a group, EACers seem much more interested in who the prior owners of their coins were too. The 70-point Sheldon system was based on large cents (1794 at first). There are indeed EACers who feel that early coppers have pride of place in U. S. coin collecting, something that I feel is unreasonable.
2. The antagonism towards third-party grading is real, but the truth is that neither EAC grading nor commercial grading are totally objective. Hand a copper to three EACers and you could easily get three grades. This said, slabbing has been making serious inroads.
3. Well-heeled collectors want multiple coins (at least one per variety) per date---this impacts availability as far as type collectors and others are concerned.
4. When I started collecting coins, dozens of dealers had fair selections of early coppers. That is not true today---the majority of the desirable coins go through the hands of just a small number of early copper dealers (countable on one hand). This impacts general availability and perhaps also pricing.
5. The difference between a choice and average coin (same date, variety, net grade) can be quite significant, far more than a plus grade or CAC green bean can add to the value of a commercially graded coin. This can be disconcerting to a novice buyer at first.
6. Prices for choice VF-AU pre-1816 large cents have gotten so high that I now question whether they are good value in comparison with other kinds of U. S. coins. I would not recommend them to beginning collectors, even if they had the funds. As opportunities to acquire eye-appealing large cents become more infrequent, focusing on this niche will require more and more willpower (which can lead to burnout).
Member: EAC, NBS, C4, CWTS, ANA
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
Make the rounds at the local coin shops.
Those days are pretty far behind me due to some pretty big life changes. The biggest being that they are hours- instead of minutes away now.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
Comments
Make cheap stupid mistakes. To be clear the only part of this I don’t do anymore is the cheap. My stupid mistakes are much more expensive now.
I agree with point #1-the only time I buy a raw coin is if it's a cherrypick of some kind. Otherwise I buy 'em already PCGS slabbed.
YOU will get an earful when it comes time to sell!
Worry about overpaying. I cannot begin to make the point of how many people I have seen let a nice coin getaway over price. So sad how many investors call themselves coin collectors.
.
I never did.
I'll be dead and she will be rich.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Spending Saturdays going to numerous B&M shops in the area. Most are now gone. The ones that remain don’t really have anything I’m looking for these days. Damn Internet!
Dave
Don't expect her to negotiate a good deal if she doesn't know what she has.
Earlier in my numismatic career maybe not so much, but I've gotten to the point where I can be consistently relied upon to hold a coin by its edge.
As a young new collector in the 60’s, my father had a few circulated Morgan dollars. I had a Red book and when I saw the value of a 1921 proof, I figured I could polish the XF/AU 1921 Morgan into a Proof if I used enough of this stuff. At least it was only one coin I tried to “improve” before getting a lesson on cleaning coins
@ernie11, @10000lakes,
We should start our own thread: "What's The Worst Thing You Did To Coins As A Kid?"
I used to make 14'-D's from 44-D's and sell them to the kids on the block.
Um, I was never quite that advanced. I hope back then your efforts were rewarded with a scout badge.
I used to sometimes “collect” non-bullion.
Not anymore.
Now I stack.
I'll circle back to this chat in five years, feel like I'm making those mistakes now.
I probably found some of your coins in a coin shop in Ann Arbor. The shop owner was happy to see me leave that day after everyone in the shop was passing around the dealer's altered 44-D's.
I really like Capital holders and used to build sets in them. I don't do that anymore. Still have 45 or so sets in them.
I used to use cardboard flips, and now I just used plastic 2-pocket flips. After a hundred times of having to remove a coin from a cardboard flip to photograph it or inspect it's edge I got sick of it. I just decided to use pocket flips so I could photograph and inspect as needed. The 2x2 paper insert also provides a lot more real estate for notation.
IG: DeCourcyCoinsEbay: neilrobertson
"Numismatic categorizations, if left unconstrained, will increase spontaneously over time." -me
Buy expensive U.S. coins.
CAC put an end that. Too many collectors believe that coins without the sticker are no good. I have no desire to have go to CAC to have them approve each of my selections.
Purchase stuff sight unseen through mail order. I remember buying some allegedly BU coins from that notorious dealer in Maryland years ago, Civil War era type cent, two cent, three cent and shield nickel. They were all EF-AU "sliders", sent back for a refund. Burned me on buying sight unseen.
Same here. EAC guys that I have encountered in the past fall into two categories: Nice helpful guys (darned few of 'em) and the types you just described - anti-TPGs - who also look down their noses at "newbies" with questions, and non-top-tier collectors like me. Plus their "grading" makes absolutely no sense at all to me.
I have also stopped the incredible amount of impulse buying I used to do. I just don't do that anymore because I now have a very large accumulation (I just can't call that a collection!) of stuff I bought that caught my eye for some poor reason. I have cut my collections down to three now: U.S. Type Set, British Victorian Type Set, and English Shillings from 1551 to 1970, typically just one for each Monarch on the hammered and early milled types.
My OmniCoin Collection
My BankNoteBank Collection
Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
I was a fairly advanced collector when I joined EAC. Therefore I did not have the “newbie hurdle” to deal with. I also knew founder Herb Silberman pretty well as well has half vent author, Roger Cohen.
I never did become a great EAC collector. I collected half cents by die variety for a while, but then ran into a brick wall. I could not get any new varieties because they were closely held, and those guys were not selling any time soon in the late 1980s and early 90’s. I was mostly interested in the historical aspects of early. I got to know the late “Mr. Tettenhourse” who had the best half cent collection in the world. He was very approachable.
And, yes there were a few EAC jerks whom I ignored, and they ignored me. As mostly a type collector, they thought of me as a “light weight.”
EAC grading is okay once you learn the parameters. There was a time when the TPGs body bagged copper coins that they thought had problems. That was a source of extreme aggravation for me. I wasted some money on grading, and was not happy with the TPGs. EAC grading recognizes that copper is a reactive metal and works from there.
Problem early copper is not “a zero.” It is quite collectible, especially when anything better is non-existent or prohibitively expensive.
@BillJones and @spacehayduke
I'll tell you, the least fun part of the type set I'm working on has been the early copper. Slabbed, straight-graded material isn't so easy to come by even if you do have the funds. For some reason, the dealers I've encountered in the early copper world have been abrasive and downright rude. I'm in the hobby to have fun. Maybe it's just bad luck, or maybe I haven't met the good ones yet. I dunno. There are only 5 or 6 dealers that I go out of my way to avoid and maybe half of them are early copper guys.
I used to be able to look at coins without magnification. Sadly, I can no longer do that.
Looking at the comments re EAC above, with more than passing interest, I want to add a few comments:
1. Historically, large cents were at the forefront of collecting when things got serious after the Civil War. As a group, EACers seem much more interested in who the prior owners of their coins were too. The 70-point Sheldon system was based on large cents (1794 at first). There are indeed EACers who feel that early coppers have pride of place in U. S. coin collecting, something that I feel is unreasonable.
2. The antagonism towards third-party grading is real, but the truth is that neither EAC grading nor commercial grading are totally objective. Hand a copper to three EACers and you could easily get three grades. This said, slabbing has been making serious inroads.
3. Well-heeled collectors want multiple coins (at least one per variety) per date---this impacts availability as far as type collectors and others are concerned.
4. When I started collecting coins, dozens of dealers had fair selections of early coppers. That is not true today---the majority of the desirable coins go through the hands of just a small number of early copper dealers (countable on one hand). This impacts general availability and perhaps also pricing.
5. The difference between a choice and average coin (same date, variety, net grade) can be quite significant, far more than a plus grade or CAC green bean can add to the value of a commercially graded coin. This can be disconcerting to a novice buyer at first.
6. Prices for choice VF-AU pre-1816 large cents have gotten so high that I now question whether they are good value in comparison with other kinds of U. S. coins. I would not recommend them to beginning collectors, even if they had the funds. As opportunities to acquire eye-appealing large cents become more infrequent, focusing on this niche will require more and more willpower (which can lead to burnout).
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
I use to subscribe to the US Mint. No more! Lol
My Original Song Written to my late wife-"Plus other original music by me"
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Buy coins that are not graded. I know for some they have the knowledge to make it low risk but that is not the case for me.
NFL: Buffalo Bills & Green Bay Packers
Buy the cheapest coon for a type book just to finish the last hole. And buy something to never leave a show empty handed.
Morgans
I used to buy raw out of coin world
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Make the rounds at the local coin shops.
Those days are pretty far behind me due to some pretty big life changes. The biggest being that they are hours- instead of minutes away now.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014