Where would your collection be if you only bought coins at coin shops or shows?
pocketpiececommems
Posts: 6,051 ✭✭✭✭✭
At lot of collectors give ebay a rough go. But without ebay or BST or CU in general where would your collection be?
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New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
<< <i>Given enough time, you can build a wonderful collection from most any venue. Of course, you could build a horrible one, too. >>
I resemble the second part of your comment but I strive for the first.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
I'd have a 20th century type set and a few earlier odds and ends collected as a kid. No gold, no draped bust
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Without Ebay and CU mine would be about the same. Without the internet (incluing dealers websites), my collection would be at about half of what it currently is.
Too many "dealers" would call a dark mint set toned coin "rainbow". Now, if Leber, or Wooten said a coin was rainbow, you could
bet your bottom dollar it was going to be such. No other Franklin Dealer's EVER gave such accurate descriptions.
probably 5 to 10 percent of my collection at it's summit, were ebay/teletrade coins. There was an art to picking out good coins online.
I'm just possibly getting back into a purchasing mode, so I need to see what is showing up on the Bay of E. Pirates lurk there!
I am culling out about sixty coins per week right now and still have of 900 in my colletion. Without eBay and other online sources I would not have a collection.
Seriously.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
Closest decent coin shop that has what I collect is 200 miles away. The area has 2 decent shows and again the closest is 200 miles away. Tough way to collect by buying sight unseen but its the only game in town.
Ken
The percentage of world vs. US coins in my collection would be totally different, as my access to world coins is mainly online. And my oldest would be 1623, not c. 300 BC.
The content would be essentially the same, though. Just less of it! (US by date, world coinage by whatever comes in the bag)
To date I've only ever purchased two coins on Ebay. That number would have gone up if I had remembered to bid on a few of them I wanted to!
I prefer to have a coin in my hand before I buy it. Guess I'm old fashioned, but I like it that way.
I do go to one or two coin shows a year, but often end up buying from one of my local dealers anyway!
Pete
Louis Armstrong
<< <i>Zilch!
Closest decent coin shop that has what I collect is 200 miles away. The area has 2 decent shows and again the closest is 200 miles away. Tough way to collect by buying sight unseen but its the only game in town.
Ken >>
Same here, except I'm not sure if there are any shows here in Adelaide. If there are, they keep them a secret! I went to one in 1996, but haven't heard of another since then. Any others would be at least 500 miles away. Very few B&Ms here and they don't carry what I collect.
Ebay, the worlds largest 24hr coin show!
The internet has kept me going because i have been able to sell and cut out the local dealer and coin show dealer. The amount of money i would have lost selling to the local B&M and coin show would have caused me to leave the hobby many years ago.
NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
RIP "BEAR"
I use mostly on-line dealers. The internet is a huge boost to the coin market.
<< <i>however, I would never buy anything from a local coin shop. >>
your local shop or any shop in general?
why? (i understand that a B&M may cost more due to cover operational costs)
the internet has made it easier to acquire, but i like to hold the coin before handing over my money.
i now only frequent 1 shop and avoid the 8 or so w/in close proximity.
Why would I keep it in different places just because I bought some at a B&M, others on ebay etc.?
Back in the late 1970s and 1980s I bought a fair number from the Worthy Coin Company bid wall auction in Boston. Beyond that, almost all of my coins have been purchased at major bourse floors over the years.
Auctions can work very well for dealers who are open to a wide range of coins. For me as collector, who often had a narrower want list, they are a source of aggravation and disappointment.
As a dealer I often bought lots for good prices because I bid on a wide range of items. As a collector I never got a bargain, at outside of Worthy Coin.
The second phase of my collection came via the proverbial "Fatherinlaw passed away story" which often is made light of here on these Forums concerning Ebay sales. My Fatherinlaw was a great old time collector who worked in a bank as a teller and scored a lifetime of coins out of circulation as they passed through his hands. He also purchased direct from the Mint and frequented Coin Shops (he gave me the impression he was distrustful of whoever he was dealing with). I have made many sales on the Bay while liquidating parts of this collection for my Wife and her Brother with the "Fatherinlaw Died Story" in the listing description and it was completely true. I cringe when I hear people make the blanket statement that all listings like this on Ebay are BS. I know that at least mine wasn't BS and I have to believe that some of the others aren't as well. I still retain some of his old collection but most of the good stuff was liquidated. I still miss the VG-10 1916 SLQ which was pulled out of circulation by my sharpeyed and knowledgable Fatherinlaw. That was his most prized coin and it was with a heavy heart that I sold that coin. I must admit that I find myself looking through the "Old-Man's " coins more often than I look through my moderns. His has the remnants of the places and people the coins have been to and contacted, my moderns are pristine and antiseptic. I have started purchasing old coins myself now. I hope to continue this for a long time. I give much credit to these forums for educating me in this hobby which has allowed me the confidence to begin to attend some shows and not feel like a 'Rube' who is ripe to be taken advantage of. To finally answer the OP's question, my collection would not exist if all I had were Shows and shops. Chances are, when my Fatherinlaw passed away, we would have contacted someone out of the newspaper and sold all his coins in bulk and only God knows how that would have turned out. Instead, some of my Fatherinlaw's coins will be passed down to his Grandchildren and wherever he is now, that will make him happy. The internet has opened up the world of coin collecting to me and my children ( who I give Mint Legacy Sets, proof sets, UK proofs, Chinese Proofs at Xmas time) and my collection would be drastically different without it. Sorry for the rambling, too much caffeine. HM
Here is one of my Fatherinlaw's Coins....I had it graded, he never had a coin graded nor bought one in a slab.
In a Dansco Album
In the mid-90's I relocated, and although there are shows, most require a whole day of travel to and from. Shops here are thin, although I have maintained good relations with the one I frequent.
As my life gained more and more responsibilities, I doubt I would have made it to many shows (I didn't, but the internet often curbed my desire to "hunt"), even if that was my only real source. Maybe I would have found the haunts and shows I could hit on longer travels.
The internet brought the world of collecting closer to me, and as a result changed my collection. Would I have been offered some of the coins I found on the BST? Would I have seen something I wanted on eBay (or NOL before it), or from a dealer I had not previously heard of, who lived 2000 miles away?
In all phases of knowledge and contacts, and the ability to find offerings, I think the internet as a whole has certainly advanced my collection and me as a collector ... and certainly I feel it has helped the hobby in general.
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
Like some that have already reported, about 1999 I got home internet access to Ebay. I had not done much with collecting in years but did have a raw circulated Capital Plastic board set of Lincolns. I was still missing the 4 biggies.
When I first looked down that list of cents I darn near wet my pants. Cents that I not only did not have, but expected to NEVER see in my lifetime were right before my eyes. I still remember my first buy, a 1938 proof cent! This was followed by a 63 R&B 1922 D cent. So now I figured I could not only fill the blank holes, but I could begin to upgrade. That is until I got burned with cleaned coins that cost a lot. Thus began my transition to slabs and the rest is history. So I would say about 20% of my slabs came from other than Ebay.
BTW, that capital board was upgraded. I just bought slabs and cracked the coins out. I still need one more AU/MS example of a 1909 S and I will consider it done.
WS
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
More things can go wrong than can go right
My registry sets have nothing form ebay and I like it that way.
I like seeing the coin in hand BEFORE buying
If I had it my way, stupidity would be painful!