Since researching coins, and coin collecting one of the main points made by seasoned collectors was to avoid impulse buying to buy the book before you buy the coin and to buy the best example of a coin that you can rather than to amass lots of low end and problem coins. A possibly contrary piece of coin collecting advice is to collect what you like. Ah theres the rub. Pun intended. I heard a story of a dealer that regularly dipped coins, he was going on a trip and one of his best customers made some purchases of coins that the dealer had recently acquired and had not had time to dip, when he returned from his travels, the customer met him at the store with the UNdipped coins he had purchased wanting to return them since they looked ugly compared to other coins in his collection. The point is that the collector had no other contacts and his collection which he loved had a beauty to him a part of which involved the coins being dipped to remove tarnish. So collecting not only involves buying what you like, but educating yourself to understand what you should like? Education is like the old story of leading a horse to water, you can do that but you cannot make the horse drink. But most horses do get thirsty, and if there is water there they will drink. So to a person who wants to collect the impulse is already there, as they become more involved, more educated, they tend to acquire the skills needed to pass on some things. Last week I had saved some money up, and went to a new store, one that one of my favorite dealers had recommended, it was a few miles further up the road, but I looked forward to it all week. So when I got there what did I find? Lots of low end coins, priced like high end ones. The best looking coins were silver eagles that were overpriced, when you are used to buying raw eagles for 16-18 dollars paying 20 for raw ones in similar condition is not something you can do. I looked over the goods, asked some questions, the buying impulse was strong though so I asked if he had some numismatic books I was looking for, he had none. To make sure that his collectors never advanced their knowledge base I suspected. So I left the store, not having spent a dime, and I felt a bit anxious, I had looked forward all week to the trip, and had nothing to show for it. My first impulse was to stop at another store on the way back home and buy something, but as I pulled into the store where the last time I was there I had gotten 1/4 oz gold commemoratives for 5% over spot, there was a big closed sign on the door. So my impulses were thwarted more by circumstances than by any exercise of self discipline. But it now being three weeks since I have added anything to the collection, I now find myself thinking more about some coins that I have passed on before because they were out of my price range, or even better a few more weeks like this and maybe I will get that capped bust half that I have been admiring. Not the VF one that one dealer claims is au, but the au-58 that one dealer has slabbed, though to be sure I do not have slab holders and I really do not want to start since one slab in a box is a lonely thing and would soon be joined by others, plastic, plastic plastic, I like metal coins, not plastic holders. For an impulse buyer like myself, I know it will pay to resist impulse until I get my knowledge base up enough to be more confident in making buying decisions, but on the other hand going two weeks without adding something, anything, to the collection is hard, even if only a few bullion items. The store I had travelled so far to see also had bullion items, you know those little merry Christmas ones or liberty mint ones, but if you can believe it they were asking for over 4 dollars over spot prices! A great impulse wrecker. Maybe I should start an impulse buyers anonymous group and when the impulse to buy gets too strong I send them to that dealer, they might have the cash burning a hole in their pocket but when they see that columbian exposition half dollar in Fine condition for 30 dollars they will find the impulse met by a strong aversion to purchase. So anyway, the only coin related purchase that I might make this week depends on what books are at the local bookstore, time to invest a bit more in knowledge before I invest a lot more in reinforcing the impulse habit.
I am lucky because although I can be an impulsive buyer on some things, when it comes to coins, I don't want to make a mistake and get a raw deal. I just started coin collecting. I bought some very low ened stuff just so I can say I have a collection. Going forward I am investing in books, magazines etc. and beefing up my knowledge before I plunk down too much. One of my favorite pasttimes is going to the Heritage site, enlarging the photo and guessing the grade - hey, to each there own. Twenty years from now I hope to be a pretty good grader and have a nice collection. Go Navy!
