Paying for you coin hobby?

Just wondering what everyone is doing to pay for there coin collecting hobby! Do you sell coins that you find! Do you keep throwing other money at it? I don't have much money for coins so I need my coin money to be coin money just trying to get ideas to help out with this!

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I save. The old fashioned way. Unless I have a good night at the casino.

 

It's August 1st and I've already spent my coin budget for the month...last month lol

Set an amount that you are comfortable with spending and stick with it. If you want something out of your price range then either sell coins you already have to pay for it or find a way to make a little extra income to grab it.

Only way I buy anything this month is from proceeds from sales of stuff I have listed. If nothing sells will be a boring month for me but have to be strict or you can get out of hand, like me last month .

 

I think we all have this problem. There is never enough money. I started collecting sets from circulation. If I got in trouble, I could just spend the coins.

 

I don't have a budget. That would prevent me from buying something I like. If I see something I like I usually just buy it. Having said that, if I know I have a large expense coming up (a rare event) then I simply just don't look at the auctions for a couple of weeks.

 

What is, perhaps, most important is that one actually know what they're buying, not buy foolishly or allow themselves to be susceptible to spur of the moment type purchases.

A few other things that come to mind...

-Buy QUALITY. Not just nice or attractive (especially if to a novice's eye) but search out exceptional examples. Do not be afraid to and do expect to pay up for such coins, even if above whatever "guide" you may be using.

-Do not allow yourself to be a "deal seeker" unless you truly know what you're doing. Many a collector has forever buried himself in coins bought because he focused more on price than quality.

-If new, understand your tastes are very likely to change, so there's little reason to jump in head first if money is an issue.

-Do NOT buy a coin hoping to resell it unless you're genuinely familiar with its and your market, and you're absolutely sure it is what to believe it to be, but even then there often are no guarantees.

-Be honest with yourself about your true abilities (grading, knowledge, understanding of the market, etc) and work within them.

-Do try to put a price on your enjoyment. If a coin is, say, $100, ask yourself if you'll enjoy it as much as you would spending the money elsewhere.

As for how to pay for your habit, it's all situational. What works for one person will not necessarily work for you. As with most everything else in life, you'll have to budget and decide how much money you can COMFORTABLY dedicate to your hobby. Do not go overboard or convince yourself this is some sort of "investment", sure to reap rewards down the road, as a way to justify overspending.

 

I work. (Novel concept.)

And I just throw money at my hobby, I don't expect to get it back. But I only use "entertainment" money. Anything not needed for paying the bills is fair game.

 

I keep a strict budget of only $50/month. It is painfully slow saving up for better coins. I am not above flipping and recently have been selling items I don't really need or want. Otherwise, I just wait and buy opportune items or save up for goodies. I suggest saving up, finding bargains and selling what you don't need/want (or just don't buy it to begin with).

 

I'm a buyer. I buy them with the allowance my wife leaves me from my paychecks.

 

Well thankfully most of my purchases could qualify under the $50.00 or less thread so I don't have trouble putting some money back each paycheck to get something. Lately I've just been adding to my toner silver Washington albums and other less expensive purchases to add to my 7070. If it was anything more substantial I would probably have to answer to the boss, my wife. I do also have money tucked away in a paypal account from some modern stuff I've been selling. Trying to decide if I use that money to make a larger purchase or multiple smaller ones. If I make a decent cherry pick or find something good CRH'ing I usually try to get rid of it. Anything I'm not sentimentally attached to I have no problem parting with. Having a daughter just over a year and half older sucks up anything extra I may have had so I try to be frugal.

 

See that's my thing I have an 8 month old son so any extra money is for him!

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I think I might start with lets say a $25 box of pennies then flip whatever I don't want/need then try to build on that it may be a slow process but that's what I was thinking about. Anyone else do anything similar?

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Diapers and formula/food before coins. Whatever is left over is for you.

 

100% yes but then there is happy wife happy life [emoji6]

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Perhaps we've different definitions of "flip/flipping"; could you please clarify exactly what you're talking about? Are you talking about simple roll searching and returning whatever you don't want, or....?

 

Roll searching! Then whatever I do find that I find that might be of interest or value I sell if I don't need or want for my collection then I sell it. Then the rest will go back to bank in I build on that money with what I hopefully sold!

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I repair Sewing Machines. My other hobby that brings money in.

 

Sell where?

 

All great points here. Once I finished my masters degree and got back in to collecting I often asked myself whether to go for quality or quantity, or where that threshold is. I don't mind spending a small amount for a decent raw example to put in my 7070, in this case quantity over quality because I can pick up more coins more often. For now maybe my limited budget is the reason for that. I'll be honest I don't have any graded coins, most of my collection was inherited from my grandfathers raw and what I've added to it is also raw. However, I will say that for particular coins I have been looking at nicer graded examples, hoping to step my collection up moving forward. Obviously with a more expensive coin I'd be more inclined to purchase a graded example unless I felt my grading skills were sufficient to purchase a raw example.

For me it's a hard line to draw, again on a smaller budget I usually have to weigh it as do I want to spend $50 a month on multiple decent examples or do I want to save for 6 months and have $300 or more to spend on a single really nice example? Obviously there are more factors involved with that decision but I either add several decent examples to my collection monthly or I just get a good coin every 4-6 months. As I begin to research and get more serious with the hobby I feel myself shifting more to the "quality over quantity" mindset.

 

That's exactly how it goes, anything extra automatically becomes theirs! And as @tommyc03 said, diapers and food before coins.