Do you think luck plays any role in coin collecting?
lcoopie
Posts: 8,873 ✭✭✭✭✭
On a thread today, someone was buying a coin
from ebay, which to my novice eyes looked like a cleaned
coin and surely to disappoint, however
The buyer said, something like ..if I am lucky it will be a high value coin.
To me luck plays no role in coin purchasing,
only knowledge and experience.
Phrased differently, you make your own "luck"
In general I do believe in luck.
When you purchase a coin, are you hoping for luck?
from ebay, which to my novice eyes looked like a cleaned
coin and surely to disappoint, however
The buyer said, something like ..if I am lucky it will be a high value coin.
To me luck plays no role in coin purchasing,
only knowledge and experience.
Phrased differently, you make your own "luck"
In general I do believe in luck.
When you purchase a coin, are you hoping for luck?
LCoopie = Les
0
Comments
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
By that I mean paying far less than the market value for a coin if it were properly imaged and or described.
Samuel Goldwyn said: "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
<<When you purchase a coin, are you hoping for luck?>>
No, but it doesn't hurt.
Someone quite recently decided to divest themselves of a number of very nice Barber Halves in Mid Grade, and a friend of mine kept me in mind and helped me to finish my set. If I had not met him, and if I had not been on this board I would have NEVER gotten my grubby little mitts on some very rare coins.
Luck? IMO, absolutely.
<< <i>based on my experience with interpreting bad image on Ebay I would say I have gotten lucky hundreds of time over the past 12 years.
By that I mean paying far less than the market value for a coin if it were properly imaged and or described. >>
if you base your purchases upon years of experience in interpreting bad images,
then finding good buys is not luck as I understand it.
Here is what I would call luck,
buying a grab bag and actually finding something good in it.
<< <i>I think luck plays as much of a role in coin collecting as it does in life. >>
well said.
The coins are out there but some folks just have not been "lucky" enough to look at them or even know what they are looking at.
I cannot remember exactly how many 1974-D DDO Kennedy's have past through my fingers until I learned about the design and then began looking for it.
I do remember my luck at finding a 1970-D DDO-001 Washington with the purest of luck though. Had I not stopped by that dealers store (who had recently been robbed) on that day to see what he had, had he not held those rolls of "common" clad Washington's specifically for me but instead headed off to the bank (which he would have done on THAT very day), I would never have found this modern rarity.
Pure luck but luck of my own making by not passing up a $12 oer roll asking price.
The name is LEE!
<< <i>
<< <i>based on my experience with interpreting bad image on Ebay I would say I have gotten lucky hundreds of time over the past 12 years.
By that I mean paying far less than the market value for a coin if it were properly imaged and or described. >>
if you base your purchases upon years of experience in interpreting bad images,
then finding good buys is not luck as I understand it.
Here is what I would call luck,
buying a grab bag and actually finding something good in it. >>
I agree my experience increases my odds of getting lucky but since in most cases that scans are really bad......luck has to play at least say a 30% part with 70% skill....maybe a bit more on the skill side but mr luck is still there in my opinion. Also factor in being at the right place at the right time.
Example:
Ebay member throws up a BIN for $50 on a coin worth $200.....the first dog who runs across the auction gets the bone......that's not skill....it's just about who was lucky enough to stumble onto the auction first
For example, at my local coin club, another member shared a story. When he was a kid, he was still relatively new to the hobby. He had some money saved up and bought $1000+ worth of gem quality coins from a mail order dealer. This was before third party grading. He was a kid so didn't know much. Those coins turned out to be true gems, not some AU dipped out coins that many other mail order dealers sold as gems. Some 20 years later those coins were sold for enough money to provide a down payment on a nice house, netting something like 30x the initial investment.
Of course, there was a large element of hard work in saving enough money for the coins, having access to a coin magazine in the first place, being bold enough or foolish enough so make such a big purchase mail order, and perhaps some sixth sense that the particular dealer was legit and not a scammer. Still, I'd say that at least 20% of the event was pure luck.
Luck has never smiled upon me in one area. I’ve never been lucky with 1796 half dimes. I’ve never run into the right piece at the right time. I’ve never pulled the trigger at the right time. And I’ve failed to get the coin I really wanted on several occasions. So when it comes to 1796 half dimes, I’m just unlucky.
Dwayne F. Sessom
Ebay ID: V-Nickel-Coins
Paying a dollar for the right to pull out a single coin from a random bag of Lincoln wheaties (no peeking!) and pulling out an '09-S VDB is "blind luck" -- random luck, if you will -- for which one that doesn't really require knowledge or preparation for the big score and one that doesn't have to know how to recognize the opportunity. Sort of like buying a winning lottery ticket.
On the other hand, someone who knows a coin series, researches the varieties and puts funds aside regularly in order to be ready to pounce when opportunity strikes big -- that's not really pure "luck" but the intersection of opportunity and preparation as I referred to earlier.
The first one is pure luck. The second one, not so much. In the latter example you still have to be fortunate enough to encounter the great opportunity, but that alone isn't enough if you don't have the education or the resources to recognize it and jump on it as such.
Serendipity
U.S. Type Set
You are not lucky if you learn the ropes ahead of time and make wise purchases. Those are smart, not lucky.
<< <i>Luck is primarily where preparation meets opportunity. >>
I like this answer.
after surfing around at dozens, or hundreds of other sites,
lurking for 3 years,
reading and learning.
not so lucky maybe
Camelot
<< <i>Being in the right place at the right time - and there is certainly some degree of luck involved in that - can enable a collector (or dealer) to acquire a great coin or group of coins. >>
My luck would increase greatly if
I had Mark to walk around a coin show with.
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
<< <i>Luck is primarily where preparation meets opportunity. >>
I need to remember this one!
The name is LEE!
The part that Luck plays in coin collecting for me
is the Luck of what happens to cross my path at what time.
And in that frame of reference I have been extremely Lucky.
The rest is just pure study and what I am able to recall from
memory when I see it.
Stew
<< <i>yes, and if not luck, then timing >>
Yes, luck plays a role and, to me, timing is everything... except the coin.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
I've certainly felt lucky a few times while building my current collection.
(we often joke at our house that we Reformed Presbyterians have 'pot providence' dinners instead of the conventional 'pot luck'
Maine_Jim
Ron
Hoard the keys.