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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;spiritunbroken, post: 33779, member: 2077&quot;]Hello All~</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve been lurking on and off for some time and wished to comment here and there (mostly about your favorite eBay Powersellers), but it looks like an introduction is perhaps appropriate first.&nbsp; There seems to be a fairly core group here.</p><p><br /></p><p>My name is Gary.&nbsp; I&#039;m 30 and live around Minneapolis.&nbsp; I collected coins as a youth, being introduced to coins by my grandmother.&nbsp; I quit during college.&nbsp; The last few years I have found myself in a position to splurge a little.&nbsp; I&#039;d say I&#039;ve been buying coins again for a year and a half, and have made many of the classic beginner mistakes.</p><p><br /></p><p>1.&nbsp; Bought coins from eBay that were about a grade low for what I paid.</p><p>2.&nbsp; Bought coins from local dealers/shows that were graded low.</p><p>3.&nbsp; Bought cleaned coins.&nbsp; I mean *really* cleaned coins.&nbsp; The first few months I did not even know what luster was.&nbsp; I&#039;d say my early purchases lost me at least $1000.</p><p>4.&nbsp; Impulse purchases without doing my research.</p><p><br /></p><p>I do still buy from eBay using this same userid, I also buy from shows and often from David Lawrence Rare Coins online.&nbsp; Although from DLRC you better be ready to pay full price plus.&nbsp; I am pretty much a type collector, although I am trying to do a slabbed series of capped bust halves and have a weakness for seated quarters.&nbsp; I prefer slabs from any of the big four, but if I&#039;m in the mood I&#039;ll do raw coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are some random thoughts...</p><p><br /></p><p>1.&nbsp; No doubt you&#039;ll check my eBay purchases.&nbsp; Feel free to ask questions and comment as you see fit.&nbsp; I have to tell you, I&#039;m pretty happy with the two NNC slabs I purchased from centsles.&nbsp; I can elaborate on the coins if anyone wishes.&nbsp; I am fairly certain I got the amount of coin for the price I paid.</p><p>2.&nbsp; This leads to my thoughts on PCGS and NGC.&nbsp; Anyone who thinks they don&#039;t slab cleaned coins is nuts.&nbsp; In fact their sites even say they don&#039;t slab &quot;harshly cleaned coins&quot;.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know what NGC defines as harsh, but I had an XF45 capped bust half I purchased from David Lawrence (my only disappointment from them) that looked pretty sad once it was in my hand.&nbsp; So many hairlines!&nbsp; I was also perturbed they did not mention it.&nbsp; Ultimately, I realized the slab did not matter if looking at the coin did not make me happy.&nbsp; I&#039;ve sold several MS-grade PCGS and NGC slabs I had bought on impulse because looking at the coins simply didn&#039;t excite me.&nbsp; I can tell you I&#039;m to the point there isn&#039;t a single coin I can pull out the box that I am not excited to look at.</p><p>3.&nbsp; Anyone ever have dealings with &quot;oldroman&quot; on eBay?&nbsp; I&#039;m not sure what I can say and not get sued, but it is the only time someone has outright switched coins on me...&nbsp; I am convinced the whizzed coin he sent me was not the one pictured.&nbsp; Even though I managed to even get the shipping refunded, I left a negative for him.&nbsp; It is a shame the amount of feedback blackmail that goes on.</p><p>4.&nbsp; My bit of advice for new folks.&nbsp; Go to as many shows as you can, and just look at as many coins as you can.&nbsp; I go to the MOON show here in the Twin Cities and line up slabs next to each other in order of grade.&nbsp; Especially gold coins. <span style="color: red">[we&#039;re a little bit strait-laced about our language here]</span> , I got a shock when I looked at slabbed busties and compared what I had been buying raw as XF to a &quot;real&quot; XF.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had some other things, but they escape me now.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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