What was your biggest collecting mistake
Planchet
Posts: 294
Ok, be honest, what was the biggest mistake you have made as a collector, and why was it a mistake. Bare your soul to help others avoid your mistake.
Planchet
Planchet
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Comments
hard to sell them after I was done
Menomonee Falls Wisconsin USA
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistr...dset.aspx?s=68269&ac=1">Musky 1861 Mint Set
Narf!
<< <i>collecting 1950-1964 proof coins >>
Musky1011
Sorry I forgot to ask why it was a mistake. I have corrected my post and would appreciate knowing why you think it was a mistake to buy those coins.
Planchet
I didn't look it over very well or maybe not at all beforehand .
Had a rim dent.
Still stewing over that one.
"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
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
Maybe wasting ~$50 or so on a madmarty weenie coin?
little late now. i could get every day half eagles for 150.
now 225 for anything.
49-MS65...he at least had 1 right...but I found out later he got this from another dealer...he did not have one in his inventory!
49-D MS60
49-S MS63
50-S AU58
I spent strong money at the time for these coins...and soon after, retired from collecting Roosevelts!
My OmniCoin Collection
My BankNoteBank Collection
Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
Practically every raw coin I have purchased in the last 35 years has ultimately been a disappointment. The high-end grading companies (PCGS especially) have remade the hobby for me.
The worst single mistake was an NTC-graded proof Franklin.
<< <i>My biggest mistake was to start collecting coins in the first palce. My pocket book never recovered.
Sell me that Cheerio and we can start you on the road to recovery.
My collection would be much further along had I the courage to buy many
of the rarities back when they were far cheaper.
Paying too much for problem coins. They can be very hard to sell.
Paying too much for ANACS holdered coins. Many dealers price them the same as PCGS and NGC when selling, but not when buying.
Learning about the term "market acceptable" and top tier slabs. Fortunately, in my case, it wasn't an expensive lesson.
Buying "Gem Uncirculated" raw coins from the ads in the coin mags. Ouch.
The second is more recent, and shall remain a mystery to you all for the time being. It is, however just as big a mistake, and I have no excuses.
–John Adams, 1826
Mistakes:
I have made almost every one of the mistakes listed above.
I collected 1954 - 1980 proof sets or Special Mint Sets, later realizing how common these were and how little appreciation potential they had or will ever have.
I bought cheap coins, which, as one poster suggests in his signature, will always be cheap coins.
The worse mistake was trusting a dealer who took the time, over a couple of years, to establish a relationship with me. Then he sold me several coins including what he called an MS65 PL dollar, that ANA graded MS63. Ouch. Instead of making me a customer for many years he turned me off to him, and coin collecting in general for 16 years.
When I first got interested in coins as an adult, circa 1980, I trusted several dealers.
But I have learned:
You have to educate yourself to make intelligent purchases, then completely trust only yourself.
Almost anything the U.S. Mint or any other entity sells new as a collectible is just junk.
For the typical collector numismatic coins are a lot more fun to buy than to sell.
Coins are a fascinating hobby, but calling coin collecting an investment is just marketing.
Collectors buy retail, but can only sell wholesale, and that spread can be from 20% (if you are very fortunate and knowledgeable) to over 100%.
I buy coins with a limited amount of my disposable income, and invest in stocks, PM, CDs, bonds, and MM funds.
<< <i>My #1 mistake, and I imagine alot of newer collectors do the same thing, was buying too much, too quickly without regard to quality. The best advice I wish someone had given me when I started is SLOW DOWN! >>
Yeah that would be it for me too. Also thinking you're getting a "deal" on cheap coins.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>Practically every raw coin I have purchased in the last 35 years has ultimately been a disappointment. >>
Really. That's unfortunate. Certainly not my experience but there ya go.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
Fred, Las Vegas, NV
helped prevent me from making many mistakes + I'm passing on many more coins than usual for eye-appeal, grade, and originality.
My biggest mistake has been buying PCGS PF-69DCAM Lincolns (Common later dates) for $11 or $12 each.
Lincoln collecting was an extremely brief stage in my numismatic career and it's just not my cup-o-tea.
<< <i>Practically every raw coin I have purchased in the last 35 years has ultimately been a disappointment. The high-end grading companies (PCGS especially) have remade the hobby for me.
The worst single mistake was an NTC-graded proof Franklin. >>
My advise is to stop buying raw coins as it sounds as though yo can grade for crap. No big deal but if you are going to continue to through money into the sewer Ipesonally would prefer that you find some charitable orgization that you like and send them your coins and the money you plan to spend on coins. You would end the day way ahead if you ask me.
-David
Edited to add:
There was no return priv.
Lessons I learned:
...lesson one: Never buy online without a return priv. (except bullion)
...lesson two: Never buy ACUGRADE coins
<< <i>I can't say I've made many mistakes recently with numismatics. I've actually gained quite an eye and interest in the series' I pursue and this knowledge has
helped prevent me from making many mistakes + I'm passing on many more coins than usual for eye-appeal, grade, and originality.
My biggest mistake has been buying PCGS PF-69DCAM Lincolns (Common later dates) for $11 or $12 each.
Lincoln collecting was an extremely brief stage in my numismatic career and it's just not my cup-o-tea. >>
Damn, that $8 lose must have frigged up your whole financial situation. Geez, did you have to sell your home? Your sharing of your hardship has undoubtedly made us that have seen some truly nasty pitfalls feel so much better.
<< <i>
<< <i>I can't say I've made many mistakes recently with numismatics. I've actually gained quite an eye and interest in the series' I pursue and this knowledge has
helped prevent me from making many mistakes + I'm passing on many more coins than usual for eye-appeal, grade, and originality.
My biggest mistake has been buying PCGS PF-69DCAM Lincolns (Common later dates) for $11 or $12 each.
Lincoln collecting was an extremely brief stage in my numismatic career and it's just not my cup-o-tea. >>
Damn, that $8 lose must have frigged up your whole financial situation. Geez, did you have to sell your home? Your sharing of your hardship has undoubtedly made us that have seen some truly nasty pitfalls feel so much better.
Whats with the attitude Griv? The OP did not state that the mistake had to be money related, did he? If I post an example where I sold a $500 coin for $35, does that qualify on your "hardship scale"? You tell us what monetary blunder qualifies under your specifications to be worthy enough to share with the rest of the group.
<< <i>From a purely financial standpoint, retiring in 1999. A little more than 2 years in retirement cost me a LOT more than I anticipated. It won't happen that way again. >>
Someone posted this earlier---buying too much too fast at so so prices and so so quality. Did get a gob of silver raw junk that's up in value though.
Here's one for you. I was advised to buy GNK stock when it was 16 dollars a share. I thought about it and hesitated. Bot a few hundred shares at 19 and didn't feel comfortable. The numbers on the balance sheet didn't fit my criteria. I sold at 21...stock went to 70. Sold BHP at 40--it went to 70.
<< <i>Should have bought more key dates (16-D dime, 14-D & 31-S pennies etc. in mid grades for investment) instead of building sets and of course bought some double eagles when gold was down around $300 or so. >>
Me too here. I should have started spending money on Key dates rather than raw silver coins...wulda dun much better. Oh well, I do plan a wiser strategy my second year. My rookie year was probably typical of rookie collecter behavior...and stupid purchases. It's all up hill from here, I trust, thanks to all here.
Ren
My biggest mistake was buying an expensive commemorative, raw, on eBay only to find that, surprise, it had been obviously cleaned. Fortunately a return was accepted.
My second biggest mistake was returning a 2007 $50 proof platinum to the Mint because I felt it would be too common due to its inclusion in the anniversary set (which I also have). When I returned the coin platinum was at $1,600; now it's at $2,000, which so far, has been a $200 mistake that could possibly be very costly over time.
I used to think that the better buy was the cheapest buy.
<< <i>Practically every raw coin I have purchased in the last 35 years has ultimately been a disappointment. The high-end grading companies (PCGS especially) have remade the hobby for me.
The worst single mistake was an NTC-graded proof Franklin. >>
Not trying to be mean, but if you have never bought a raw coin that you have liked it is time for to stop buying and start reading. MANY raw coins out there to be had and at great deals. Raw does not always = dog
My first mistake has been buying the coin before I bought the book. I have a very limited budget and I have learned my making mistakes not to dip my foot into the coin pool until I have first done all of the reading. Also through mistakes I have now learned to spent time looking at examples and learning to grade the series. I have now learned to check out the marketplace to see what is out there. As to slabs I have learned that the grade on the slab is only a starting point. I need to review the coin for the grade, for the quality of the strike, for small defects that although they may be market acceptable, I do not care for. For overall eye appeal and lastly for reasonable price. I leave price to last because I would rather pay a little more for an example that I am happy with than get a good deal on one that may be properly graded but just not "do anything for me". A hard lesson to learn.
I have learned that there is no such thing as a perfect coin. I have looked at many MS70 slabbed coins that I could find slight problems with. I have also looked at many MS69 coins. I have concluded that the difference between an MS69 and MS70 slab is often happenstance. I certainly don't think I would pay the premium often asked for the MS70.
I have learned that many coins graded MS64 look a heck of a lot better than some graded MS65. I have learned that a beautiful AU58 Lincoln is often much more attractive to me than a slabed MS63 that has uneven toning.
I have learned that coins are not imune to the rule "spend in haste, repent in leasure".
I have learned that both supply and demand travel in cycles.
Lastly I have learned that collecting and investing are two different things. I collect for me. I invest to be able to sell to someone else. For collecting all I have to do is be able to please myself. If I invest I better be able to have something that will be in demand to others. If that means that people are buying coins in MS65 slabs generically, then I should buy at the lowest price for a problem free top tier slab.
That brings up another point. On certain coins I think in my opinion certain TPG do a better job than others. However that doesn't mean the others can have good coins also. What it does mean is that if the market place has the same opinion as I have, that one TPG is "better" than the rest and the market pays a premium for that slab, if I do buy a coin in a slab from another TPG I better have it crossed to the so called leader TPG over if I plan to sell it as an investment to someone else.
Just as life is a cycle, so is coin collecting. I am most sorry that long ago I sold off much of the Lincoln cents, Buffalo Nickles and Mercury Dimes I had pulled out of circulation as a kid to form my origional collection. I am not sorry in the economic sense but more in the sentimental, I wish I had them sense.
Planchet
<< <i>
<< <i>Should have bought more key dates (16-D dime, 14-D & 31-S pennies etc. in mid grades for investment) instead of building sets and of course bought some double eagles when gold was down around $300 or so. >>
Me too here. I should have started spending money on Key dates rather than raw silver coins...wulda dun much better. Oh well, I do plan a wiser strategy my second year. My rookie year was probably typical of rookie collecter behavior...and stupid purchases. It's all up hill from here, I trust, thanks to all here. >>
Count me as a third with these sentiments. I look at some of the prices in my 1972 Redbook and I wince at what I could have paid for nice keys in the mid-sixties. I also regret not having searched rolls of halves in the late sixties and seventies and put away a great weight of silver to sell at the height of the run-up in '79-'80. And, of course, I regret not having accumulated some gold along the way, at all the times it was a relative bargain.
That said, one of the best collecting decisions I've ever made was to bid strongly on the wheat cent hoard (257,000+ coins) that I won on February 13, 2006. Man, that was a lot of widgets!! But I've learned a ton about Lincolns from those widgets. And those widgets have rekindled my childhood fondness for Lincolns. And I've enjoyed hundreds of hours of searching and finding nice widgets and interesting widgets. And--with the purchase price of the hoard now safely back in shares of mutual funds--the 20,000 or so widgets I still have from the hoard are nice widgets that I'll probably hang onto for awhile longer.
Sure, we all should've bought some coins that we didn't; and we should've not bought some coins that we did. But don't let those realizations get in the way of enjoying the hobby.
<< <i>
Damn, that $8 lose must have frigged up your whole financial situation. Geez, did you have to sell your home? Your sharing of your hardship has undoubtedly made us that have seen some truly nasty pitfalls feel so much better.
Whats with the attitude Griv? The OP did not state that the mistake had to be money related, did he? If I post an example where I sold a $500 coin for $35, does that qualify on your "hardship scale"? You tell us what monetary blunder qualifies under your specifications to be worthy enough to share with the rest of the group. >>
I'd say you have to at least lose $10, maybe $11 before it gets to be a hardship.
Not selling everything I owned back in '05 and buying Gold (when it was $450)
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
1. Selling my gold back in 1999
2. Collecting an entire set of ASE's, then showing them to a new friend. They disappeared a month later.
Eisenhower Dollar, BU
Set Incomplete:
Roosevelt Dime
1900 - Current Type, No Gold
Silver Eagle