Options
Challenge with Rules - short and to the point.
Rules - you can NOT repeat what someone else has stated for a response.
Challenge - share what you think has been the biggest setback to coin collecting (or investing).
My thread, I go first.
Fishwives. (let `em sue me
)
I think A LOT of people have dabbled into the world of coins for all of the right reasons, opted to take their interest to the next level (or two), and met up with a fishwife along the way, only to find out shortly thereafter that they have been severly scorched. Having been physcially set on fire before, it isn't pleasant. I don't blame the charred people from running for protection, I blame the fishwives for lighting the match or flicking the lighter.
Your opinion?
Challenge - share what you think has been the biggest setback to coin collecting (or investing).
My thread, I go first.
Fishwives. (let `em sue me
I think A LOT of people have dabbled into the world of coins for all of the right reasons, opted to take their interest to the next level (or two), and met up with a fishwife along the way, only to find out shortly thereafter that they have been severly scorched. Having been physcially set on fire before, it isn't pleasant. I don't blame the charred people from running for protection, I blame the fishwives for lighting the match or flicking the lighter.

Your opinion?
I brake for ear bars.
0
Comments
Jeffs
<< <i>What is a fishwife? >>
Yeah, what he said.
morris <><
** I would take a shack on the Rock over a castle in the sand !! **
Don't take life so seriously...nobody gets out alive.
ALL VALLEY COIN AND JEWELRY
28480 B OLD TOWN FRONT ST
TEMECULA, CA 92590
(951) 757-0334
www.allvalleycoinandjewelry.com
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
1969s WCLR-001 counterclash
Crackout game
These treasures will never be original again.
Ken
I used it simply to refer to third-party graders in general who slab coins with a hyped grades, and unsuspecting people are paying big dollars based on some book value of that grade, only to find out later that the coin is worth only a fraction of what the slab says.
I remember looking at an ACG 1901 in 61 or 62 prooflike at a show one time. I asked the dealer if I could show it around. The opinion I got, from a reputable third-party grader, was that the coin was not prooflike (strike one), the coin ws not mint state (strike two), and the coin had been cleaned and altered (strike three and four). I have seen a lot of people over the years leave the hobby because they thought they got one thing, but they ended up with something far less.
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
Many would-be collectors never recover from this initial turn-off.
Also- Boiler room coin pushers who hype the investment potential of common crap, and when people find out the true value, have a bad taste in their mouths about the hobby.
(Could also apply to TV shows but that was already mentioned)
A witty saying proves nothing- Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor
does the truth become error because nobody will see it. -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
<Take that either of two ways>
A: investing
Q: "Biggest set back to investing?"
A: collecting
The mind set behind each hinders the other IMO.
Set em free, I say!
<< <i>For those unfamiliar with the term fishwife, a company called Accugrade sued people in the coin biz for allegedly ruining its business. One of the allegations in the complaint was that smeone had called one of the ACG people a fishwife. Apparently that is a bad thing.
I used it simply to refer to third-party graders in general who slab coins with a hyped grades, and unsuspecting people are paying big dollars based on some book value of that grade, only to find out later that the coin is worth only a fraction of what the slab says.
I remember looking at an ACG 1901 in 61 or 62 prooflike at a show one time. I asked the dealer if I could show it around. The opinion I got, from a reputable third-party grader, was that the coin was not prooflike (strike one), the coin ws not mint state (strike two), and the coin had been cleaned and altered (strike three and four). I have seen a lot of people over the years leave the hobby because they thought they got one thing, but they ended up with something far less. >>
This is exactly why I buy PCGS graded coins and rarely purchase raw, unless in mint sets. I have purchased other brand X holders,
but at 1-2 points below the grade on the holder.
I to have severely burned, and learned many a lesson, and sure to learn some more.
- Stupid investors who come with huge sums of money who drive the market prices through roof based on nothing but speculation. We are getting there now. No body wins except for some big dealers who feast on these people. After the investors have driven all of the real collectors out, and are buying a selling only among themselves, with some dealers in the middle, the price daisy chain runs a course, they lose a lot of money in the resulting crash. They are mad; collectors are on the sidelines; and the hobby is worse off.
Second place - Die state collectors who insist upon taking large numbers of coins off the market so that they can line up sets of varieties with die cracks. Even in a series where there are many survivors of a given coin, these people dry up the market so that there is little to purchase.
THEN after they have driven many of the other collectors out and discouraged younger people from getting into the hobby, they wonder why their clob meettings are filled with old guys in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
And yes, I am one of those old guys, but I refuse to collect die states.
Type collectors also drive up prices on high grade examples on early US coins to the point where die variety collectors have to settle for lower grade examples.
<< <i>Type collectors - they have driven prices up on 1796-1797 halves to the level where the die variety collector cannot buy one without mortaging the house.
Type collectors also drive up prices on high grade examples on early US coins to the point where die variety collectors have to settle for lower grade examples. >>
I'm a type collector, so yell at me.
As for your point about 1796 and '97, I could NEVER afford one of those, unless it was one in Fair with a hole in it. As type collector I would have needed a second mortage, before the prices reached were they are now.
No, type collectors only want one coin out of a series. If you have reason to angry at anyone, I would think that date collectors would get under your skin first.
And as a type collector I want the least expensive coin in the series in the best grade I can afford. That means I usually don't want better dates or rare die varieties. So I think you are directing your anger against the wrong people. Only those who don't the collect that you want all offer less competition.
Hell, I don't need to exercise.....I get enough just pushing my luck.
<< <i>Type collectors - they have driven prices up on 1796-1797 halves to the level where the die variety collector cannot buy one without mortaging the house.
Type collectors also drive up prices on high grade examples on early US coins to the point where die variety collectors have to settle for lower grade examples. >>
Of course, exactly the opposite is true. As a type collector, I would be happy with just one of the five Overton varieties of 1796-7 half, in any condition. You greedy die variety hogs have to grab all five, and there are only maybe 300 total surviving.
The real problem here is all other collectors. Will everyone else except me please leave the hobby, so I can just have everything I want for nothing?
<< <i>THis thread is depressing. >>
It wasn't meant to be. Problems oftentimes get solved when people start discussing them, and in those discussions, solutions surface.
Case in point - THE COIN POSSE
If you want to purchase Mint State coins from the year 1793 for $5. each it is not going to happen. (Before anyone comments, yes, this is a gross exaggeration.)
The point is, you have to adjust your collecting to your pocketbook as well as your interests. You may want to collect early gold but if you don't have the pocketbook to do so then you have to collect something else or nothing at all, your choice.
Joe.