Here is a question that comes up pretty frequently. Cheap is a misnomer. Many people want to buy as many coins as they can for their money. Most seasoned collectors and dealers will tell you that this is the wrong approach. Buying a roll of Indian cents for $50 is all fine and dandy, but a better buy would be 1 nice brilliant uncirculated Indian cent for $50. When buying coins, buy the best coin you can for your price. This will always be a better buy. You will be happier with your coin, and the price when it comes time to sell will be better. Now take into consideration that cheap is a relative term. Example: If I offered you a MS-65 1896-O Morgan dollar for $140,000 that would be "cheap". The dealer that bought the last 1913 Liberty Nickel for $3 million thought that was cheap. In my opinion he was right. Good deals are buying a coin high in the grade. Example would be buying a very sharp EF 45 coin for EF 40 money. If you learn to cherry pick the coins, you will find the deal not so much in the sticker price, but what you are getting for your money. There are so many people in this hobby that think cheap is good. Look at how QueenKoin picks her coins. That is an eye for quality. When you develope that instinct for good coins, deals happen. Don't grab the first coin that hits your price. These are your hard earned dollars you are spending. Be choosy. Never settle for what is close. Buy what is good.
Somebody once told me; "The price is what you pay. The value is what you get." There's a big difference between price and value. I hope I will always remember that.
Good post, ND. And very true. It's hard to hold back when the coin bug hits and you have some money to spend, but always try to get the highest grade you can afford and take it one coin at a time. As a shop owner I've seen people get the bug and buy $200 in new albums, then start buying like crazy just to fill the holes. That's not always the best course for the long run. Buy the key dates first! Here's why. 1. If you should lose the passion with your new hobby in 6 months you'll have valuable coins. 2. The common coins will always be common, whereas key material tends to appreciate faster...so waiting to get them last will ultimately cost you more. I'll never forget a customer named Dan. Years ago he caught the coin bug...a severe case. He loaded up on new Danscos and against the advise of multiple coin dealers (I was one) he started buying low end coins....circ wheats for a few cents each instead of uncs and/or better dates. He kept saying, "I'm going to have them all one day so I'll just buy them as I find them". Poor Dan. He wanted a set of everything. He started cutting up mint sets from the 70's and 80's to get the coins because it was faster. But within a year he became frustrated, realizing he couldn't sell his collections at a profit when he needed money. I don't know where Dan is today but as far as I know he never got to the key dates. VALUE buying is the best way I've seen to accumulate a nice collection over time. Also, I've always advised starting out with a Type set. Putting together a type set will provide solid information on the history of different coins, as well as knowledge of values, better dates/mints and the grading nuances of different series. Somewhere along the way you may fall in love with a particular type of coin, and that could be your first date set. Just some thoughts, Nick
I started my post, got distracted, finished it and hit the reply button only to see Jody has beaten me to the word VALUE. Great minds think alike, I guess.
I guess this it why I decided to stay cheap with my coin collection. I know that id be lookin at them with $ signs in my eyes instead of being able to appriciate the historical value. For me, monetary investment is better left in the form of in precious metals which always have value. Coins are great in the manner that Im holding history in my hand.........but when it comes down to it......they dont have a lot of real value unless theyre gold...... To me, what makes the coins I bought valuable is thinking about the hands that may have held them. the wonderful old guy at the coin store in town here was talking to me about wheats and indian cents and then got on ''key'' dates and all that.........and being a comic collector I can see the point and all.........but coins just dont do that for me.......... For me, Id rather have a 100 coins worth a buck each and not in great shape that may have passed thru the hands of folks Ive read about in the history books rather than say 1 perfect coin sealed in a plastic case worth $10k...... I guess Im not a true collector in that sense... But I do love that worn Cartwheel Penny I got..... :-D
I can see both sides to this and see the benifits of both.I think its a little to early when you start out collecting to be going for the best i think its much better to get some good knowledge behind you first or you may hit the poor house and fast.Saying that in value terms there cant be anything better than something with rarity but the thing is a novice wants to hold his coins not look at them through plastic.I know i do, i want to hold them in my hand or lay them out on a table, maybe once you get out of the habit of doing this then more valuble coins will be the way to go.Ive been guilty of ripping the mint packaging off of 40 year old sovereigns but as the price diffrence in it in its packaging and out of it is only like 3-5 dollars i find it worth it just to hold it and poke around with it a bit. The idea of having a coin thats rare in a bag which you lose about 2k on if you open would drive me insane.Though you may not reap the greater rewards in value you can still enjoy a great hobby.I think the people that buy coins they get bagged then sell bagged without touching in-between are people in it only for the money.
Well Nick, I somewhat agree. Buying keys first is wise, but only if you buy smart. Newbies will buy any slab, and we all know what can happen with that. If collectors buy the book first, and upon gaining some knowledge, then buying the keys and semi keys is first is the best advice.
I am only mildly numismatic. I like to buy potentially numismatic coins for around the spot price of silver. I just bought a bunch of Barber quarters for $6 a piece, which is pretty good since they were worth about $12 each. Instant doubling of the value of the coin. Try that with bullion! That's why I like it.
Hmm 9 years old or not, still relevant and some of the newer coin aficionados may find it helpful. Yes read the coin books. Note what coin was made in the millions (or billions) and therefore ain't that rare, and which ones were made in production lots of only a few hundred thousand. Consider having two collections. One of VF or EF coins collected solely to fill the Whitman books, and another collection of slabbed, certified at 60 and up, key date coin collection.
Diggin up bones. Exhuming things better left alone... I didn't even look at the date of the posts before Loveitorleaveit's. I thought this was a live thread...
albums are over-rated and should only be used for well circulated coins like maybe a set of buffalo nickels in f-vf or something like that. any series worth collecting has keys like a 16-d dime that need to be slabbed. dansco album slides should never come into contact with something like any 19th century mint state coin. make a dansco 7070 that holds slabs....or make your own. I agree with high grade coins instead of schlock but it is hard to start a set of indian cents by buying one MS coin instead of a roll of circs to begin....you'll never get the whole set in unc unless you have 6-7 figures to spend on it. A better example would be only collect Roosy dimes or Franklin halves in BU because circs are just junk silver.
I had a little trouble with this thread in 2004 and even more now. I agree with the sentiment pretty well but not as much the way it is expressed. Certainly one is not usually going to do well financially buying very common coins but if you insist on collecting expensive coins like indian cents on a low budget there is simply no real alternative. There are things you can do to mitigate the problem like collecting Gems that are way out of the money because they have a slight rub. AU's can be steals in some cases. You can focus on varieties or on well matched coins. Many people don't care that much how they do financially and want to collect specific series that are over their heads. The main thing that bothers me is the implication that "cheap" coins are necessarily common. In the past ten years many coins that were percieved to be common have proven to be highly elusive and have soared in price. While I agree with National Dealer that inexpensive common coins are not a very good deal I think it should be pointed out that there's nothing wrong with inexpensive coins, all cheap coins aren't common, and even common coins have on rare occasion done well in the past. Nice attractive indian cents went from about 20c to $1 between 1995 and 2000, for instance. This being said go ahead and avoid "cheap" coins but never assume any coin is common unless you know it is.
I have pretty much filled two Whitman books by buying bank wrapped rolls of silver dimes. I am still lacking the 1916D and the 41/42 of course, but keep hoping, maybe the next roll... Regarding duplicates. The lower grade goes in the Whitman book. No way would I put an AU in a Whitman book surrounded by G3s.
When I had my Dansco 7070, I wanted to fill every space ASAP and then take my time upgrading each one. That was fun for me, and when I resold the low grade coins, I hardly lost a dime. On the other side, though, I've met plenty of people starting lowball slabbed type sets, etc. I even met a guy at the Baltimore Expo putting together a holed complete set of Large Cents! I overheard him asking a dealer if he had any junk large cents with holes but still readable dates. The dealer responded, "Why would you want that?!?" To which he replied, "Because that's what I want, and it's easier to complete the set."
