I really want to start collecting again..

Great idea to get back into collecting, just as many already stated come up with a workable budget and stick with it!

 

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Apparently as per Facebook - ie publicly posted information he got engaged on the 24th of November.

Also he is now the Chief Executive Officer at:

http://www.grandrapidstradingpost.com/

And he is apparently the proud owner of this from their facebook post:



Must be movin' on up!

BTW coingrats on getting engaged.

 

And I really find the developments in the hobby to be fascinating whether or not I agree with them all.

 

For anyone else who may read this thread - one of the great appeals of this hobby is that it can be enjoyed on any budget, so long as you manage your expectations. Have a dollar? Get change and start trying to work on a set of circulating coinage. Try to collect all 50 states from change, and upgrade from change as better examples present themselves. Work on the State Parks quarters. Maybe coin roll hunt for a set of Lincolns. Want to collect world? There are ways to do that without leaving home. Ancients? Yep. My cheapest was $0.99, twelve were only $5.42, and there are many that were less than $20. Maybe something even more out there like exonumia. Merchant tokens from your state/county/city/whatever. The bulk of my Air Force trade token collection was bought for less than $10, some were even less than face. A patient collector could hunt for errors and varieties.

 

Apparently you would have him collecting mostly widgets of widgets, and if for resale, often ripping those he buys from, which will mostly be ignorant individuals as he's not likely to find many sellers/dealers willing to sell across the board at that level. It's a horrid "guide" all around, with wholly unrealistic prices for the average individual, especially with older collectible level material of average to above average quality, and this is beyond the fact that insisting on paying prices no higher than what's listed is a fine way to not make valuable connections. Be it for buying or selling, one needs to know their market, and no guide in existence can overcome this simple reality.

 

I love chocolate gold coins.

 

Come on, you don't recognise a generic coin/paper/jewelry photo???

 

Edited: I shouldn't say that.

 

But congrats on the continuing success of your personal relationship, hope you have a happy life together.

 

Where's the popcorn?

 

Couldn't resist clicking on the link and had to LOL at this:

As always mention "I saw it on GRPT" and get an additional 5% off!*

"GRPT" . . . Grand Rapids Trading Post . . . ha ha! Something tells me that site isn't destined to be the next Amazon.

 

The Blue Book is a dealer book.

Apparently you don't understand what the Blue Book is.....The Red book is a book for the retail value and the Blue Book is dealer prices....If you just want to collect just for the sake of collecting than by all means pay retail value but if you want to make money on your collection then the dealer book is the way to go...And you said "and if for resale, often ripping those he buys from, which will mostly be ignorant individuals" .....When you go to K-Mart and see an item for 29.99 and then you go to Walmart and see the same item for 21.99 do you go to the cashier and say "I would like to pay the difference of $7.00 because K-Mart is more and i don't want to rip your store off".....I doubt it.......A deal is a deal and there is nothing wrong with it

 

Can you see how you have been missed, Tim!

 

Blue Book would have you buying at low-ball prices. Good for business, but bad for the conscience if the person in question has one. If you want to establish a continuous relationship with buying from someone, Blue Book is not your friend. The kind of dealers most people prefer to sell to are those that would offer you no less than 10-15% below what they plan to sell the coin for (depending on the value of the coin of course - the % should decrease as coin value increases). Blue Book prices are below what most would consider fair.

 

The bluebook is a terrible "guide" all too often used by lowlifes, and sometimes so-called "dealers", in conjunction with improper "grading", to take advantage of the ignorant. Do you know where the "values" within come from? If not, look it up... this should tell you a lot.

With such a generic and ill-informed statements, apparently you're the one who lacks the understanding, sir. Did you bother to actually read what I wrote? Were it only so easy as blue for wholesale, and red retail, with zero other factors to consider. Perhaps I'm wrong, but to me this suggests you're likely fairly/reasonably new, and should rethink giving questionable advice to others who may or may not be new to the hobby. Those who take up this hobby and focus on the deal as opposed to quality or learning, are ripe for abuse, and often end up buried in dogs.

Your argument is, with all due respect, both false and very poor; you're comparing apples to oranges. Do you not see the problem with speaking as a collector while recommending a so-called "dealer" book? Is there a "dealer book" for Walmart and K-Mart shoppers? How many dealers do you know, real or wannabe, who across-the-board sell anything other than perhaps the dreck of dreck or widgets at the bluebook values? How many dealers have you approached, interested in quality collectible level material, and insisted that you're going to pay bluebook, and how well did it honestly work out for you? This is essentially what you've recommended to the OP, and is a recipe for failure on many levels. It's NOT about paying more, sir, but about KNOWING YOUR MARKET.

 

IMO, there are better places to get current market/wholesale pricing information than either the blue book or red book. I get the fact that you "make money" on a coin when you buy it, but the pricing in these guides is simple too dated to be useful. Maybe pre-internet, there was some value, but certainly not today.

 

Many years ago the Blue Book was helpful. It gave you a rough idea of what a dealer might give for average quality coins. The average collector didn't have much to go by in those days.
I can only think of a few things it is useful for today. It has a lot of good information in it. It also gives you a quick idea of what the key dates are. I can't think of a use for the pricing in the book.

 

I can. It will still give you, for many coins and sets a good indication of what you will generally be offered for coins should you choose to sell to dealers. Obviously this is not a complete 'truth', as some coins will be given higher or lower offers to buy. But based on uncleaned and non-detailed coins of average grade, I have found from one large consignment that the dealers I spoke to who were willing to purchase the coins were in fact offering amounts clearly within the specs of the blue book prices, as I priced them all to blue book to let the coin's owner know what he would probably get for them before I was authorized to sell them. There were a couple that I was offered more on and took that, and some that I was offered around blue book and realized I could gain more, so held out for other offers or sold them on ebay, but by and by, almost every coin I had was offered a price at or near blue book values I had determined ahead of time. So it is a good tool to measure whether you want to attempt to sell to dealers or to offer in other fashion based on the coin itself.

 

1st, A wise man once said "An Item is only worth what someone will pay for it so nothing is worth anything until someone pays for it and whatever they pay at the time is what it is worth". 2nd I don't buy coins face to face from dealers, I get all my Merch from the Internet via auction. I have been doing it for 5 years and have done quite well. You would be surprised how many legitimate auction sites are on the Internet. I have made Thousands upon Thousands of dollars. Don't be mad at me just because your dealer rips you off and makes you pay retail. Don't judge cuz you clearly don't know