Is there room for everyone in this hobby?

Welcome to the forum. I am a new collector also and understand what you are expressing. There are some collectors that will not even give you the time of the day but then again so will some non-collectors. What I have observed on this forum is there are many folks here who are willing to assist/help and welcome you as a new collector.

 

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Richard01,

Being a newbie myself, I sure hope there's some room for us here on this board. Sometimes, it is a bit hard to break into message boards. I've seen it where, even if people aren't being mean to you, you may post something and nobody will respond to it...seemingly because you haven't been around forever (not on this board though). That's not the way to get new people interested either.

Mmarotta, there may be something to what you're saying about having slightly weak socialization skills. Also, I suppose coin collecting may have a bit of the feelings surrounding it kind of like being a "nerd" member of the Star Trek Club...no offense to the Trekkies, of which I am one. You remember, those people back in school who weren't the most popular and probably their biggest weakness was that they didn't socialize quite as well as the popular kids did. Oh well. We all try.

One more thing Richard. If your method of collecting works for you, more power to you...just try to keep your coins away from that salt water fish tank. Bad things will happen.

I'm probably a bit on the other end of the spectrum and overthink my purchases too much.

 

I'll keep my trap shut about TPG's as i think everyone on here knows all too well that i am the anti-slabbing fraternity here. Raw is the way! (Learn to grade yourself and learn to trust your own judgement)

Someone mentionned the PCGS forums, well the liteside (US coins) comes and goes, some like it, some do nothing but complain about the hostility of the place, i rarely venture into the place so i have no opinion on it.

Although i've been on some forums where there's an atmosphere of knowitalls (who often don't) inflating their ego and taking chunks out of newer members, it can certainly be very exclusionist. From my own personal experience it tends to be more of a US/Liteside phenomenon (i'm not saying that it doesn't happen in World/darkside forums, cos i can think of one very notorious individual from one forum who has seemingly upset all and sundry in his time, although he does know his stuff it must be said). But i think alot of the problems with this comes from the registry phenomenon... 'my sets better than yours' mentality... look MS67 not a rubbish 66. Seems like grade is everything to some people and it's all about out doing someone else. Buying coins for the slab and not the coin being rife in some circles.

This forum is alot better than many in this respect, it's much friendlier and we'll help anyone who asks for it, and we'll be patient as the newbies learn, everyone has to learn at some point. What i'm saying is don't let a minority of individuals that have ascribed themselves a self-importance status try and ruin it for you, there are jerks in every hobby, ignore them, collect what you want, how you want, listen to those that give good honest advice without judgement.

Those that admit they know little and learn it will always come out more experienced than those that decide they know everything there is to know and refuse to admit they are wrong (even when it's clearly pointed out to them), these important knowitalls never alter their opinions and they get left behind eventually.

No-one is an expert on anything no matter what they say.

 

For the most part, I'm afraid to say anything to anyone on the boards about my opinions on coins for fear of my ignorance is showing! Maybe with time I'll get more comfortable sharing what little I've learned. Heck, I can't even figure out how to post an image on this site to share any of my coins... but don't know where to ask that (except hidden in a thread like this )
I went to the dealer nearby recently, and after feeling like an idiot for about ten minutes, decided I'd rather take my chances on ebay forever rather than go in there, despite his having good prices. Unbelieable ego... and incredible lack of interest in my money, since I apperantly don't spend it 'right'.

 

stop typing such big paragraphs, ur hands hurt???? ya YOU!!! all of YOU

 

Well thank you! I was hung up on the icon for submitting images...
Now I've posted my .02 in the whats it worth forum for opinions!
I'm empowered to post pics now.
Beware!

 

The very first forum I ever joined, many, many years ago, was one regarding the NY Yankees baseball team. As an avid Yankee fan since about 1947 I was thrilled with the idea of exchanging information about my favorite team and players.

What happened was greatly disapointing to me. The posts were mainly accusations about players' private lives, and were filled with filthy comments. When I attempted to object, my comments were met with additional filthy comments.

The bottom line is that I shied away from forums for many years, thinking they were all similar. Not true.

I enjoyed the now-defunct Coin World Forum, and currently really enjoy the Coin Talk Forum.

So, this is a great forum, with room for everybody, and room for everybody's opinions. My opinions often times are in the minority (for example my support of the proposed Presidential Dollars program), but I am never atteacked by other forum members because of my views.

Room for everybody? Certainly!

 

I like your thinking

 

One of the risks I am wondering about is taxes... I don't make any money on sales of my coins as I just pass on what I don't want. On paper, it would appear that I lose money since I buy more then sell, but there is a lot of 'revenue' on ebay and I am now wondering if that will look like profits and if ebay turns that data over to IRS. I'd hate to pay taxes on sales of extras that I don't want, but are not actually generating any profits.
Anyone run into this?