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Message:: [QUOTE="treylxapi47, post: 2106538, member: 41863"]I just wanted to take some time and relay a bit of advice that I thought wasnt really all that important when it was given to me as a new collector to the hobby, but oh how the tables have turned. You see, when I first got into what I call 'serious' collecting, I was gung-ho, ready to conquer the coin world and amass an AAA+++ collection. The only thing was that I had very little knowledge, and had most certainly NOT developed the correct taste for coins early on (at least in terms of surface preservation). Dont get me wrong, I picked up pretty and appealing coins, but there were many things that I missed. One of the most important of those missed items being opportunity. I thought I could do it all, I thought I didnt NEED a dealer, I thought I could just use the internet and buy whatever I wanted, whenever I saw it (within my budget of course), and that despite the advice that I was given, I was something special and didnt need anyone to hold my hand or to walk me through things. I never realized the importance of what it means to build a relationship with a high caliber, professional dealer, and how many benefits we both could receive by simply working together. I will never forget when I first transitioned out of bullion stacking and hoarding over to numismatic collecting. I had just started feeling around for what was in my budget and had quickly decided that I needed to up the amount of money I was willing to spend. That put me somewhere in the $200-$400 range for being most comfortable for a single purchase. This opened the doors for me to explore 'better' coins and what I was really wanting to collect. Well, once you reach a certain point in your collecting, you sometimes start to look for nice coins that could potentially, one day, at some point in the hopeful future, be within your budget. I had my eye on such a coin, and this is what opened the door (although I didnt realize it at the time) to begin building a relationship with a bon-a-fide real coin dealer. That happened to be Mike Nelson from over [USER=20480]@ToughCOINS[/USER]. He was willing to help me acquire a very nice 1942 Proof Walking Liberty half-dollar. Without either of us knowing each other aside from through CoinTalk, he was willing to let me make payments over a reasonable period of time, and that in turn allowed me to acquire a much higher caliber coin than what I could typically afford on my budget, and it was the beginning of a new relationship that has been very important to me and worth nurturing now that I know how and why to appreciate such things. That is but one example, and simply the first that I can relay about Mike, there have been others and we will get to one of those examples a little further on. Next I would like to talk about another dealer whom I have grown quite fond of and who has been a valuable, turn to guy, in many situations for me over the last two years. I could be speaking of none other than our very own Matt Dinger from [USER=16994]@LostDutchman[/USER] Rare Coins. You see, when I was in the mindset of gather, gather, gather, I never stopped to REALLY think about what to do if I ever needed to sell. Ebay is just a click away and I could ALWAYS sell there for a profit, right?!? W-R-O-N-G! Not as easy as it looked or sounded, not by a long shot. Although I still think I could do it, just not enough time or energy I want to spend on something like that, so its better left to the professionals, like Matt and company. It wasnt much longer before I started to realize that this was never going to really work as a lone wolf operation. Sure I can and will amass coins on my own, but to really have a full tool belt as my buddy [USER=36248]@geekpryde[/USER] would say, I needed to work on my relationships with some dealers. I also realized that there were dynamics larger than just buying coins, sometimes you have to sell a coin too, and that taught me the importance of working with a dealer like [USER=16994]@LostDutchman[/USER] to help move out unneeded or unwanted items. As with anything else, as you continue along something you usually become either better or more refined at it. This holds true with my collecting experience as well. So the natural progression of my hobby has been to further specialize in certain series, and here again the importance of a dealer never really showed itself to me until I started getting serious about a series. As some of you may know, Seated Quarters are my passion. I love them, and I cant get enough. So naturally that let me fall right into the lap of Mr. Gerry Fortin of Gerry Fortin Rare Coins who has been making a recent name for himself in the world of Seated Liberty coinage. It is so important to have a set of eyes out there that you can trust and who has a similar eye for the material you want to add to your collection. It gives you much more coverage to find scarce material, and it makes the job just a little easier. So you may ask what all of that culminates to? Well what would a thread be without pictures, right? These are what you can acquire while still remaining inside your budget, but by building a relationship and working closely with an excellent dealer whom each party can wholeheartedly trust. This is a ToughDATE Seated Quarter that Mike is graciously working with me to acquire: 1858-O 25c PCGS AU-53[ATTACH=full]397255[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]397256[/ATTACH] The next coin is a doozy and one that I recently made arrangements with Gerry Fortin on: 1875-CC 20c NGC AU-55[ATTACH=full]397257[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]397258[/ATTACH] And here is one last example of having a great relationship with a dealer. Actually it is two similar examples, one by Matt and the other by Mike, but I am going to reference Mike here since I have some pictures to use. I recently spotted a coin that I needed for my permanent collection. It was a sorta scarce date, early and less than a million minted, but I had just used up all of my coin budget for the week on a couple (about 10) smaller purchases. I reached out to Mike, and this coin was such a good deal, and attractively priced that I was able to pay him to go ahead and acquire it for me, while I recuperated some of my funds. Here is the coin in question: 1845 25c PCGS AU-55[ATTACH=full]397260[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]397261[/ATTACH] So with all of that being said, I MUST concede how critically important it is to build a bond and working relationship with a good dealer. There are many ways they can help you out if you seek a professional, well heeled dealer. Get out there and meet your dealers, ask them questions, and most importantly, build TRUSTWORTHY, LASTING, relationships with a few.[/QUOTE]

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