Are you tired of being an average collector?
Billet7
Posts: 4,923 ✭✭✭
A prominent east coast collector posed the question "Are you a member of the Vast Middle Market?" Well...yes I guess I am. I would like to do important things in numismatics too, but there are things in my life that dictate otherwise.
Who is sick of being an average collector? Maybe we should pool resources and put together a serious collection...something that would contend with the TradeDollarNuts, Simpsons, Gardners and Holmes' of the world! Everyone send me your resources and I will do my best!
Who is sick of being an average collector? Maybe we should pool resources and put together a serious collection...something that would contend with the TradeDollarNuts, Simpsons, Gardners and Holmes' of the world! Everyone send me your resources and I will do my best!
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Those with top quality collections, tend to have some combination of superior grading skills, exceptional access to coins, and lots of money. Given that I don't have any of those three, the middle road is the best and most realistic road.
Those that are some what average graders, with average access to coins, with an average amount to spend are almost surely going to end up somewhere in the vast middle. They might be upper middle, or lower middle, or middle middle, but the vast middle it is. No reason to be tired, or ashamed. Collect what you like and enjoy the hobby.
To become significantly better than average at any of those things would have to be at the expense of the others.. I'm only an average collector, by choice of having a balanced life. I actually feel kind of sorry for some of the very upper eschelon of collectors, whose sad, narrow lives apparently almost completely revolve around silly little disks of metal.
edited to add, for clarity, that I'm not insinuating that anyone mentioned above or reading this thread falls into that category!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Yogi Berra
So it is with coin collectors. Some are born with better eye sight than others. Some are naturally inclined to have a better mind for details than others. Some are naturally better at developing long term relationships than others. Those coin collectors that are blessed with exceptional eyesight, eye for detail, and natural people skills are like the 6' 6" person in volleyball. The "naturals" can make an average effort and still be superior players, because they have a big head start. Now if that person with natural talent also puts in exceptional effort, they might get to the world class category.
There is no need to feel sorry for people, if they choose to spend a lot of time in an activity where they have lots of natural talent. That is human nature, if that person is also one of the 20% that is also competitive in nature. Plenty of those folks have well rounded lives too, though of course, there are some extremes where a hobby becomes an all consuming obsession. However, I don't think that too many of those obsessives end up with very best collections, unless they were also blessed with a good talent set to begin with.
The average collector is proud of his circulated 1931-S cent and considers it to be the centerpiece of his collection.
<< <i>Anyone who owns non-bullion coins costing over $500 is not an average collector.
The average collector is proud of his circulated 1931-S cent and considers it to be the centerpiece of his collection. >>
I think you are the first person to insinuate that I was above average since the 2nd grade.
<< <i>Anyone who owns non-bullion coins costing over $500 is not an average collector.
The average collector is proud of his circulated 1931-S cent and considers it to be the centerpiece of his collection. >>
I think it would be better said that I am an average, serious collector, since most collectors have a Whitman holder with state quarters, a circulated Morgan dollar and a jar full of wheat cents in their sock drawer!
<< <i>crypto79: Anyone who can use "insinuate" correctly in a sentence AND spell it correctly is most certainly above average! >>
Or lucky in my case, FYI there is a fight behind the bleachers over in the My Sonnier grades are in ! 11 stunning coins thread
<< <i>Anyone who owns non-bullion coins costing over $500 is not an average collector. >>
Is that market or book? Are we counting "W" coins as bullion? This may be the wrong board for this discussion...
It is not from the "big name/big bucks" collections of old that most of the nice coins have come, but from the thousands of hobby collectors over the past 150 years. Contrary to the attitudes of some big ego-small mind folks, it is the "average" collector of what some denigrate as "excrement = dreck," that makes the business and hobby tick. Take the “average” collector out of the bourse, and there’s little left except crickets; hobby periodicals vanish; auctions crash; the incentive for new research and new coin designs fades to a whisper.
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
might be worth a fortune.
Camelot
If you study coins, work with your budge, and are willing to take a few decades to get there, you too can have an important collection although it probably won’t include any 1913 nickels or 1804 dollars.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
just our presence here, IMO,
makes us above average,
and improving.
Plus, with the number of rather large Wieners I have, I doubt many people will mock me!
Average number of coins in a collection? Average total value of a collection? Average value of each coin in a collection?
Is an average collector one who collects state quarters, Morgan Dollars or Lincoln Cents (these are among the most popular collector coins)?
How do you know if you are above average?
PCGS Registries
Box of 20
SeaEagleCoins: 11/14/54-4/5/12. Miss you Larry!
I knew it would happen.
<< <i>Are you tired of being an average collector? >>
I was, sometimes.
Now I don't have to worry about it, because I've slid to below average.
(At least on the economic scale.)
<< <i>Nope, and I love the fact that the "TradedollarNuts, Gardners, etc." are willing to share pics and experiences with us. Overtime a collection of ordinary could easily become extraordinary, i'm still young and have plenty of time to work on it!
Plus, with the number of rather large Wieners I have, I doubt many people will mock me!