tradernick

Coin collecting is not investing, generally speaking. It's done as a labor of love, by hard working people who appreciate the value of a dollar AND the beauty and artistry of old coins. The thrill and wonder of holding a small piece of history is like no other. The time spent searching for those elusive dates, meeting and talking with other people who share the passion, gaining knowledge through reading books and magazines...all of these things are leisure time at it's best.

Patience is a key point. Too many times I've seen collectors get "the bug" and fill their books within a few weeks, often spending much more than they had to. Buy when you find the right coin at the right price...remember it may not be this week or next week! Buying just for the sake of buying is bad news.
Compare prices between dealers. Ebay is a good tool to determine values...just do a search for a particular coin in the Completed Auctions area and you'll see what it's been selling for. If you buy on ebay be careful. Contact the seller beforehand and ask about return policy, see if they are an actual coin dealer, see if they'll provide a phone number so you can speak with them directly, check their feedback and determine if they're the type of person you're comfortable buying from. DON'T buy TV coins...ever. If you're serious about collecting hit the local coin shops and ask questions. Attend as many coin shows as possible. READ as much as you can. Coin World, Numismatic news, Coins, Coinage all have great articles on all aspects of coin collecting, although for accurate pricing the greysheet is the most up to date publication of them all.
You can't know too much!

One more thing before I close. Share the hobby. Give coins to children at Halloween. In fact, don't even wait for Halloween. Donate a handful of wheat pennies or buffalos or foreign coins to a local scout troop, or a teacher, or home schooler. Children are the future of our world. Let's share with them the joy of coin collecting. These days there's plenty of negative things that kids are exposed to, let's provide them with things that have positive connotations.

Nick

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Speedy

Nick
Thanks for what you said "Donate a handful of wheat pennies or buffalos or foreign coins to a local scout troop, or a teacher, or home schooler
I'm a homeschooler and have been homeschoooled all of my life--

Speedy

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Coin collecting is the only hobby in the world that you can spend all the money in the world and still have some left over

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warman

Well said. I'm afraid I'm one of those who got the "bug" but now I am learning to be patient and get the coins that I want. I have bought some "TV" coins, but I've sent more back for a refund than I've kept. At least they do offer a refund as one positive aspect. One thing about E-bay I would add is don't just look at the % positive feedback - actually read some of them. I've delt with some ripoffs that basically tell you that they will not refund if you post negative feedback and when they issue a refund you must put a positive in their feedback profile. So often, because I wanted my money back, I would put something like - "Good Customer Service" just to fullfill the agreement. I look for feedback that talks about the service or product and if the person is happy or not after the transaction.

National dealer

Great post tradernick. Wish you were here in Santa Clara. Its a great show!

tradernick

Speedy my wife and I (mostly my wife) are homeschooling our children ages 8 and 6. I think the 3 yr old enjoys it as much as the older two do.

ND thanks sir. I wish I was there too but I don't do many shows that require travel. My family is too important. And the shop would most assuredly fall apart if I weren't there to keep it going. Do you close your store when you leave for a show or do you have someone there while you're away?

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National dealer

Well we have three offices in three different states currently. 35 employees currently. No retail stores anymore. We do close up the store section of our website while we are on the road. One of these days, we will figure out how to run the site and still manage to do the show schedule. Most of our retail business is filling want lists anyway, so I don't think we miss too much.
Well California was warm and sunny, now it is off to, God Give ME Strength, Iowa.

chevy

thats a good thing to do Mr. Davis

as i am only sixteen, i cant go to many coin shows and usually look in my change and rolls from banks to search for rare coins. It takes a lot of time, but a lot of good stuff shows up from time to time

Peter T Davis

Nice post.

One of my favorite things to do is to spend coins, wheaties, buffalo nickels, whatever else. You don't get the immediate satisfaction of giving them as a gift, but maybe I'm planting a seed somewhere with someone that I'd never otherwise have met.

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