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Message:: [QUOTE="ambr0zie, post: 6280112, member: 80952"]My numismatic mentor is a gentleman from Germany, 63 years old. He taught me a lot of secrets, sold me a lot of coins (unfortunately NOT ancients as he is not interested in this area, only modern coins). When he was an active collector, in the 80s, he was buying (exceptional) coins from the US. The process was - some coin dealers he knew mailed him (MAILED, not eMAILED) catalogues with the current offer. Without pictures. Just coin, grade, price. He mailed back requesting more details and pictures (if needed). After they agreed, the US dealers sent him the coins via mail. Once he sent the payment ... via mail, 1000 DM, cash. Dangerous even nowadays. I admit I can't start to understand this. Today I see an auction, on the other side of Europe, I study the coin pictures carefully, I read about it (10 minutes and 3 mouse clicks), I have an idea about the rarity and the price I can offer....  I win if everything goes well, I refresh the track and trace website 3412234 times in the next 3-4 days and I add it in my album. Probably I would still be a modern coins collector without the internet, even if definitely my collection would be smaller. But ancients, no. No materials available offline for me (the ones I have offline were mostly downloaded) and certainly no place to buy them (coins) offline.[/QUOTE]