Too Good To Be True ? - GEM BU 1908 Indian Head

It may be boring and you may not think it realistic, nonetheless it is still true and it is the best advice that can be given.

The problem is with the newbie, not with the advice. I don't care what it is about, collecting coins, learning a trade, learning how to shoot, how to fish, learning business, or how to work on a car - the list is endless. The problem is always with the newbie because they don't want to listen. They don't want to take the time and expend the effort to learn before they act. They just want to act ! And the consequences be damned.

But if you learn first those consequences will be good ones, if you don't, bad ones. One way or another you will learn, so why not listen to those who have walked the path before you and avoid all the bad

 

Yeah, but THIS newbie (@dallas101) seems eager to learn, willing to listen to advice, and has already made some mistakes he quickly learned from. There are a few others I can think of on CT that wont listen to a shred of advice.

A person can still buy coins concurrently with learning. A person can make mistakes in this hobby and positively benefit from them. A person can have no direction to a collection, and then suddenly find a path in the chaos. If all you do is try book-learning, you don't really make the mistakes required to really learn through the pain and embarrassment of the error.

I can't even imagine trying to determine what I like and dont like for coins series, or ways to collect, without having first tried a bunch of things and later realized, "wait, I dont like this series" / "wait, I dont like collecting by date anymore". How the heck is a book going to teach you that?

To me, the solution is having a supportive community like CoinTalk to put someone back on the path when they have slightly gone off road, not to tell them to not even begin the journey.

 

dallas - I doubt you could ever find anybody who was more of a rebel than me ! Been there done that, got 3 of the T-shirts, and have worn all 3 of them completely out !!

Lemme give you an example. When I graduated high school I had a free ride to any college or university in the country. Even had a Congressional appointment to Colorado Springs. I told them all they could keep it, that there wasn't anything they could teach me. And that's just 1 example. So yeah, I know all about being stupid Have had lots of practice at it.

Now I still went on to accomplish much in my life. But when I think, now, of what I could have accomplished - it beggars the imagination. And it's nobody's fault but my own. So yes, I do understand all about going ahead and buying that lollipop

But that doesn't mean I won't still go ahead and try to talk others out of it. Who knows, one day, 1 of them might even listen.

geek - I'm not saying don't take the journey. By all means, do. What I am saying is buy a book first, read it, study it, and then buy a coin or two, but cheap ones. Then buy another book, and maybe buy another few cheap coins. You can learn, and buy as you learn. I'd never expect anybody to try and learn everything - without ever buying a coin. In the first place it wouldn't work. You have to look at coins in hand for what the books tell you to do any good. I've spent my whole life studying coins. Over 50 years of it and I'm still studying and still learning - every day !