Is this a bad time to get into coin collecting?

Rule #1...never to pay a high premium for something that was made yesterday.

 

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It's always a bad time for anything to a pessimist, always a good time to an optimist. Which are you?

 

I'm a realist. I learn from observation and experience. We have a lot of pessimists because increasingly, people can't control their own destiny; someone does it for them...

At one time, you could be optimistic there would never be any Coin Police, but as of July 1, that's no longer true in Ohio -- you will need an expensive, cumbersome, restrictive license to sell bullion and precious metals, and thus, I will never advertise such items again. Not sure how it might affect auctions at your local coin club.

It remains to be seen whether that applies to common date double eagles, etc. The firewall between PMs and collector coins is shaky.

 

As it is in collecting most anything, if you have the passion to collect coins and the patience to inform yourself of the many facets of numismatics, which can be a never-ending pursuit, it's always a good time to collect. I started in the early 1960s, when I was just 10 or 11. Myself and a couple of friends saw it as a kind of treasure-hunting. We would bring rolls of common coins to the local supermarket and exchange them for other rolls. At that time, there were still many Buffaloes, Indians, Liberties, etc. circulating and it was pretty easy pickings. It was exciting and competitive, even if we didn't know much except for what many of the rare coins were. Within a year or so, the initial shine of collecting (more like amassing) began to dull and we went on to other interests. When I began collecting again 5 years ago, I became a wiser, more patient collector, but the excitement and treasure-hunting feelings were rekindled. There are still cannons that thunder and treasures to plunder, so go for it!

 

the beauty of coin collecting can be a life long persuit. you can buy coins on a budget or save up for a coin or make payments on a coin. do NOT laugh I made payments on a coin twice. well worth it.

 

We just like to gripe. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years and I can guarantee you that if you could be dropped into just about any year during that period you would see the same type of comments/gripes. But during that period I've had a ball collecting.

Frankly if you like coins for the coins, just about any time is a good one for starting to collect. If you are more interesting in values, market trends and return on investment, just about any time is a bad time to get into coin collecting. (have I made money on my coins? Frankly I don't know and don't care. How do you put a dollar value on 40 years of entertainment and enjoyment?)

 

I do it because it's enjoyable and reasonably inexpensive still.I'd rather have a small work of art than a piece of green toilet paper,you? Research is the key to NOT being burned/taken and you'll find the public is really out of touch about values so the thrill of the hunt is increased by the chance of making a decent buck on some buys remains there always.I do a little metal detecting on occasion in the right areas and there are always some willing to sell stuff they found at Gramp's house. Pick your favorite type/design and jump in IT'S FUN!...

 

Not a bad time to start a "discretionary income" hobby at all. Use of discretionary income is just exactly that--an expenditure of income without any need of return on capital. Makes no difference whatsoever if the dollar tanks or housing prices plummet. Those events affect investment income not discretionary income. They would obviously affect future discretionary funds, but not those already dispersed.

If a person can be forced by future actions to liquidate assets then those assets were not purchased with discretionary funds--ie, money which might someday be needed.

 

Lots of interesting responses.

I totally get the need to determine how one approaches the hobby... picking an area of desire, determining if it's for fun or investment, setting a budget and a goal. I agree these are all very important.

But the responses that interest me most are the ones about "the hunt." This really gets to the crux of my original pondering, I think.

Like DieHard11's story mentioned previously... I do not have much opportunity to have reasonable success looking at coins from the grocery store like there would have been in the 60's. Supply and circulation are down. Hoarding is up.
Sure, I can go to the bank and order a ridiculous amount of rolled coins and pick through them to try to find some cool half dollars. But that isn't really a find in the wild. And yeah, I can just go buy the coins at a shop or online. But there's no hunt & find in that at all. It's just like buying a new dishwasher.

To put a real example on it, say I'd like to focus a little on a Walking Liberty half-dollar short set. My options are at extreme opposites of the spectrum. I can just buy them all, even all at once. Or, search forever in circulation and find very little, if anything. What am I missing in the spirit of the actual "collecting" verb in this hobby?

Long story short--what's the more important part of the hobby? The "hunt" or the "own?"

 

The hunt is not fulfilled simply by going online and ordering (to use your example) an entire Walker short set. It is fulfilled by looking at individual coins and finding the ones that shout at you "Buy ME!"

Yes, local coin shops are not as plentiful as they once were. By the same token, the internet has greatly opened up one's ability to search for just the right coin--whether it be by grade, look, price, etc.

By the way, the friendships that I have developed over the past 50 plus years are worth FAR more than any sum of money that I might have spent--or any collection that I might have amassed.

 

I think the hunt is still very much alive - if someone was starting new and were just collecting from pocket change, it could take ages to hunt down the States quarters and now the ATBs. Increased availability over the Internet just means better options for higher quality coins, and one can be picky - or, more availability for non-American coins. When I first started collecting during the internet's infancy, my local coin shop had about 5 ancient Roman coins, and those were my options for anything older than 1700. Now there are loads of choices and I can be picky, but that doesn't mean I can get anything - Anglo-Saxon coins are tough to come by!

 

I enjoy the hunt by going to my local shop and searching for world coins. He only sells US coins so this world coin bucket I go through is mostly untouched when I get there. Of course there's no silver, but there are collectible coins that run anywhere from .25 cents to 25 dollars on ebay. I also enjoy shows, flea markets, etc. The hunt is very much a part of the hobby. I wouldn't say it's better or worse than owning, only that it's a different aspect.

 

Sure you could go out and buy the short set of Walkers all at once , but unless it was put together by someone with a passion and love of coins it will just be a random set of dates and mint marks . To really make it your own and add to "the hunt" one must go out and seek the best coins that puts your signature on that collection . Try to find coins that you consider to be in the top 5 percent in terms of eye appeal . If you like rainbow toning it could take you years to complete that collection and really make it yours .

 

There is a saying that the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is today. Same with coin collecting.

 

World Coins are still a good thing to be into if you live in North America.

You can still get to be an expert in a few countries/eras by reading up, learning the written language of the countries you collect, and zeroing in at shows and online to find coins to which only a few (sometimes NO ONE) pays attention.

More "coin people" in these parts still don't care about World Coins than do care about them. That creates opportunity, especially for the financially-challenged among us...

 

My best luck in the past year, regarding foreign, is buying foreign silver from places too busy-busy-busy to mess with them. These tend to be pawn shops, not coin shops.

If you follow up every verbal deal, and pay up promptly, and don't complain, you will be their favorite customer. It's a tough biz.

 

You might as well ask a fisherman if theres ever a bad day to go fishing. If that analogy doesn't ring any bells, the answer is no. Its never a bad time. Collecting doesn't mean spending 10k on a coin, or selling at profit, or impressing strangers. Its about enjoyment. If you have to ask whether or not you're ready for enjoyment, you may be misunderstanding the definition of the word.

 

I've been hearing "garbage" such as that for many years. In my opinion there is no such thing as a bad time to get into coin collecting.

 

Not if you are searching for something rare, specific, or obscure. In my fields I can search at shows, shops, online, even on specialty dealers lists, and I am very lucky if I can find more than a few items I can use (in ANY condition) in a years time. I spent years searching for an Essex 3 Conder token. It is supposed to be Scarce. During the ten years I searched I must have seen close to two dozen of them listed. Every single one of them misattributed. I finally found a lower grade corroded one in an ebay lot unidentified. Sure I'd like to find a better one but at least I have one. believe me it wasn't like buying a new dishwasher.

And in my searches I've also found some previously unknown items.

 

Long story short--what's the more important part of the hobby? The "hunt" or the "own?"
You will have to find that out your self every one is different