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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2008980, member: 112&quot;]Easy answer, <u>only buy coins from trusted and respected dealers.</u>&nbsp; This is the single best piece of advice you will ever get regarding numismatics. So you would do well to remember it. Trusted and respected dealers are not going to even try to take advantage of you, let alone rip you off. Doing this allows you to continue your study and learning and yet buy coins to gain experience at the same time. </p><p><br /></p><p>Also, go to every coin show you can, and make an effort of doing it. The true value of coin shows is what one can learn, the experience you can gain, merely from being there. And that is without ever buying a coin at the show. </p><p><br /></p><p>While at coin shows look at all of the coins, especially the ones you are not interested in for your collection. This exposes you to new, different coins, and may even expand your horizons. Examine and study the coins, make your own grade estimates and compare that to what the coin is graded, whether by a TPG or the dealer, and ask about the prices. This one exercise alone teaches you a ton ! You not only learn how the TPGs grade certain coins, you also learn how a given dealer grades his raw coins, and how both groups are priced. And that will help you immensely when it comes to sorting out the good dealers from the not so good. As well as picking out the coins you want for your collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>You see, a lot of people think that when they go to a coin show that they are only there to look for coins for their collections. They&#039;ll stroll around looking for 1 or 2 or maybe a half dozen different coins, never even glancing at anything else. And that is a huge mistake for by doing so they bypass all of the knowledge and experience they would gain by doing otherwise.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>Coin shows are the colleges, the universities of numismatics.</u> The most knowledgeable people in the world on the subject gather at them. They also teach at them, in both formal and informal settings. In other words, many coin shows hold seminars (formal) where a speaker will give a lecture on a given subject. But there some of the most detailed and helpful stuff takes place at the dealer tables in the form of ordinary conversations (informal). And all you have to do to is listen, and maybe even enter into the conversation, in order to gain valuable knowledge and experience.</p><p><br /></p><p>Going to coin shows also allows you to form the beginnings of relationships, maybe even friendships with these &quot;professors of numismatics&quot;. Just by being there they will see you, remember your face the next time you see them, as you will theirs. This allows future meetings and conversations to become more involved, more helpful to you in furthering your education.</p><p><br /></p><p>That is how you gain experience <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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