Thread: Amateur Starting Over From Scratch

Just thought I'd post in the intro forum to get started. I've been acquiring a few things primarily through regular commerce, and not actually collecting. I was once very much into collecting and had quite a substantial domestic and foreign collection; but the entire collection was lost (or stolen) in a move quite some time ago, and starting over is hard, especially knowing you'll never find some of the items you lost again.

In any event, I have some questions for some of the more knowledgeable experts I'm sure are members here; so I look forward to the input and advice anyone can offer concerning some of my acquisitions.

Welcome aboard. Sorry to hear about losing your collection. There are a number of people here who can answer your questions and help you move in the right direction. Like any site on-line, you will need to determine who knows what they are talking about, who is blowing smoke and who only knows enough to be dangerous.

Be sure to ask your questions before you pull the trigger on a coin. There are a lot of pitfalls and it is much easier to avoid them by asking questions before you fall into the trap.

Originally Posted by G8R8U2

...and starting over is hard, especially knowing you'll never find some of the items you lost again.

Well, that's not exactly true. With the internet as it is today, just about any coin that was lost or stolen can be replaced, though usually at a higher cost. I had over a hundred Morgan/Peace dollars stolen by a former family member while I was in the AF, and then sold the rest of my collection in '69 to finance my first marriage. It took me a long time to get back into collecting (though I never lost interest, the thought of trying to replace all those coins was overwhelming). Starting from scratch is never easy, but once you start you'll be glad you did.