How actively do y'all sell and/or trade coins?

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I can pretty much gather my own info from catalogue, completed auction and sold auction values. No need to sell or mail anything, especially if you paid too much.

I'm pretty sure learning about good photos, lighting, coin appearance and asking the right questions are enough to train yourself how to buy quality. No need for postal costs and risking a poor rating by selling what you consider to be poor quality.

Why is it a mistake, if it provides you with satisfaction in a time when you may not be able to afford that key date in XF or MS? People enjoy just filling an album, this is not a mistake. If you buy a low quality coin and view it as not satisfactory, it was the buying that resulted in the learning experience. Trying to sell it, getting less and focusing on the low price you got, makes you more about the money than the coins.

Much like your other arguments, another strainer, holds no water. I guess maybe this is a memory loss issue? How would you know if it's a duplicate unless you buy it and compare to what you have? Can't determine or learn that you've made a mistake unless you buy the duplicate. Selling just adds extra work and reminds you that your memory is not what it used to be.

You see, I have this uncanny ability to learn from my own and other peoples mistakes, without sticking someone else with the crap I ended up with, without paying postal costs and running to the post office, without risking a negative rating for trying to sell crap, but, that's just me. I prefer to learn by picking up on the mistakes of others, checking going prices and catalogue values prior to purchase and my memory still serves me well. I don't mind duplicates, lets me analyze 2 to 3 examples of the same coin.

Next thing you're going to tell me, is that pulling out a nail will teach me how to hammer it in.

 

I don't disagree with Doug's excellent advice. However, I simply refuse to sell. Maybe I have been lucky in life I have not had to contemplate doing so, but I structure my life so I never have to. I try to live fairly cheaply, and put a lot of money in investments. I never put a cent of retirement or investment money into coins. I consider every last cent spent on coins as money lost to me forever. Its my hobby, my relaxation, so to me its the same as someone who goes to a casino, spends money on boating, takes vacations, etc.

Could I buy even more ancients if I wanted to sell some US coins? Yeah, but I still kind of like those as well. Every once in a great while I might look at them. My interests wander all over the board, so I do not know in a decade if I might get back into them.

I am sure all of these things are simply excuses to be a hoarder, but I am not sure. I am ok GIVING coins away, that doesn't bother me. This is especially true of giving them away to YN to educate them. I have done that quite a bit over the years. But to sell coins, trade them only for money, I have never liked very much. I simply love coins too much.

 

I have a feeling GDJMSP uses this line a lot, especially considering his post count.

Times have changed, technology has changed, access to information has changed and you no longer have to sell an item to quickly find out what it is worth or going for (extreme rarities excluded). Adapting to the new approach and not dwelling on the antiquated method of selling an item to find out what it was worth, is just easier and makes more sense to me.

 

I can agree with all the points about selling save one if I first accept that the point of owning a coin is to make a profit or, at least, lose less on the deal. All bets are off if the reason for owning a coin is because you wanted the thing and there were no others available. I rarely see two identical coins I want for sale at the same time but suspect this is a factor when collecting modern coins where exact or very close duplicates are common. I fail to understand the point about not buying duplicates since it makes no difference how many coins you have as long as you are not trying to sell more than one matching coin. I own coins that I paid $100 for and would be quick to buy a duplicate at $20 on the theory that I could find someone I know who wanted it for the $20. The punch line from that TV show on the 1933 double eagles was when the buyer of the $6 mil coin was told of the existence of ten more, he said, "Does that mean I'll have to buy them, too?" When money mean nothing in the hobby, the rules are different. To him $6 mil means what $20 means to me, I guess.

 

There are entirely too many people preoccupied with value, deals, prices, how much, profit, loss, etc. within this hobby. I started when there was no internet, no buying and no selling. Every new coin was special to me and every vacation represented a new or different handful of coins. Throw into that, going through grandparents change jars, finds on the street and other misc. gifts, and I was one obliviously happy little boy. I am not going to change that innocent approach for all the "respected minds" involved in numismatics. Especially when their recommendation is to focus and learn from selling or paying too much. If I did this, I would find it to be a pretty limited and shallow approach to my hobby. If someone is going around and sharing this kind of advice, when they are no longer involved with coins on a personal level, darn right I'll choose to disagree.

 

I would say Doug IS very much involved with coins though sir. He devotes a lot of time here educating the masses on CT. I for one believe he has done more for CT than anyone else, and I truly respect him for that.

I believe his advice is very solid for those collectors who do wish to buy and sell, upgrade coins with proceeds of previous purchases, etc.

Maybe part of the reason many ancient collectors disagree with his advice for them personally is we have a different hobby. Take me for instance. How many people in the entire WORLD do you think collect Sogdian coins? Now take that further to my subspecialty. How many do you think collect Sogdian coins with crosses? 2? Maybe 3? Because of my collecting interest, I know DARN WELL I will pay more than any other collector for many coins I buy. Does this pretty much guarantee me I would lose money if I sold? Heck yeah it does, since I am the one that values these coins the most. Should I stop pursuing my esoteric little niche? Heck no I won't. I won't because it gives ME pleasure, it makes ME happy, and that is all I care about at all. Would my heirs prefer it if I simply "collected" gold bullion, thereby leaving them with the maximum amount of money? Maybe, but heck with them. They can have the stocks and real estate, Dad is pissing away his hobby money on stuff even most coin dealers have no idea what it even is, let alone its value.

 

You too? It drives me absolutely ****ing nuts!

Also, "to many" rather than "too many," "it's" used as the possessive (which is "its") rather than the contraction for "it is," the constant misuse of their/there/they're... it's as if grammar and punctuation stopped being taught in the last few decades.

 

You can call me Jacob, not sir. I'm not questioning any of that, at all. I saw the post count. I just do not see his current approach with coins as being on the same personal level that mine is, based on his explanation...

As for the gold parts of his collection, I believe he sold too early.

I don't collect ancient coins, I don't have an esoteric niche and I still disagree with his advice. I collect from around 200 years back to modern coins, mostly circulation coinage, nothing extremely rare or expensive and I manage to focus primarily on the coins themselves, their photos and appearance. That's my version of our hobby.

 

On the subject of learning about buying from selling, I think I have learned some interesting things. The biggest things I've learned probably fall under the umbrella of how little logic there is in what coins sell for. I've had coins listed for sale starting at a dollar bid, with no interest at all for months, and then all of a sudden two bidders come along and bid each other up and the coin sells for $10. I've seen coins that should fetch several dollars go for much less, and others that should be of very little value sell for a lot more. I've found that there are certain sellers out there who can consistently sell the same coin that I am selling for several times the price I get for it just because of who they are. Some of these things I learn from buying too, but it really is fascinating to watch your own and others completed auctions over time and see the strange things that happen.

Recently I purchased a group of 49 Asian coins from a seller who didn't know anything about them. I don't know much about Asian coins either but I've been trying to learn more and it was only $7 total for the lot. There were a bunch of coins from Myanmar/Burma included, and I didn't have very many of those before. The price guide lists most of these coins at 10 or 20 cents value (these are late 1940s, early 1950s coins). I had some doubles, so I listed them starting at $1. Well, two of them ended up selling for $18, and two others for $9.50. I had no idea there was such interest in this country out there. That's what I learned from that sale.

 

I work as a copy editor. The Internet is just one big source of aggravation for me, along with restaurant signs, store signs, garage sale signs, etc.

 

I imagine the entire world is an aggravation at this point. I remember reading Stephen King novels 20 years ago and wondering how the heck did 40-50 typos get into such a widely published book. If a Stephen King novel, one of the highest printing novels in history, had such poor proofing, it makes you wonder if proofreading is even performed for novels anymore.

 

Sounds to me like you learned how unpredictable and contrary auctions can be. There is no way you can draw any conclusions, let alone claim you've learned something concrete from selling one kind of coin, once. Looking at 5 to 10 sold auctions over a time frame can give you a much better understanding of average value at that point in time. You learned more about buying and selling on ebay than coins. I also see that you checked price guide lists for value. That was more of a learning experience than the actual process of you selling the coins.

 

It drives my wife nuts, but I'm a little more tolerant. Even a cursory look at linguistics shows that language, whether written or spoken, is constantly morphing and evolving into new forms. A dictionary or grammar book is never anything more than a snapshot in time.

 

I think that it is informative to see what other people are willing to pay for something. I buy the coins that I like, and one way I think about it is, if I like it, probably a lot of other people do too. Trying to sell the coin is a chance to prove or disprove that theory. It also shows the limitations of the price guide. It's pretty common for a lot of collectors to say "I just got a great deal! I paid X amount and the price guide says it's worth Y!" Selling it shows more of what the market says something is worth. I've found some countries consistently sell for far above their price guide values, whereas others always sell for far below. Example: No one wants Spanish or French coins, but British Honduras are very popular. I'm not going to say you need to sell things to be a good coin collector, but I think personally it has improved my knowledge.

 

Yes, there is the argument that the language is always changing, so we might as well go with the flow. But the other way of looking at it is that people are no longer interested in doing things the right way and we're losing all standards of quality. In language, there are some things where new ways of doing things are acceptable, and there are others where it is either right or wrong, no exceptions. Punctuation is one of those things. Just because many people can't be bothered to learn to do it correctly doesn't change the fact that they're doing it wrong, and people who do care about such things will judge them on it.

 

Hey, c'mon I bought some...oh, forgot, I adopted those coins, and really am still grateful. They are in a good home.

 

I view it as common courtesy. I understand what John is saying, languages evolve and us ancient collectors can see this. However, punctuation and spelling rules are not for the speaker, they are courtesy the writer offers the reader to allow the reader to make sense of what the speaker is saying.

I admit it. I throw resumes in the trashcan that have poor spelling and punctuation. I do the same with books.