Newb here, am I getting screwed?

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That's the last of them.

 

They all look pretty rough from the pics. This 1913-D Buffalo (Type-I) just sold on eBay yesterday for $ 64.77 looks EX-F to AU to me.

 

My mom has a soda can full of buffalo nickles her father gave to her back in the 50's. Never been out of the can, so they're in the same condition they were in the 1950's. I wonder what they are worth.....

 

I'm a little afraid that roll of 1913 Type I's will turn out to be dateless culls -- even if the date is gone, it's easy to identify them from the raised mound on the reverse. If so, I'm afraid you overpaid on them, too; dateless buffalos, even Type I's, aren't very valuable at all.

 

Yeah Jeff, I'm getting an eye opening here tonight. I finding out I was a big ol' schmuck from the beginning! I'm glad I found this site, since I'm looking to get into collecting seriously.

 

Yeah, this goes back to what I said earlier about me being stupid by believing the values set by the auction house. I saw the back picture of the 1913-D, and it said $125, so I thought I was getting a good deal for $75.......Me thinks my wife is gonna kill me when she finds out I spend a ton of money on worthless coins.....

 

You might have to buy your wife a .925 Tiffany necklace !

 

LOL, nahhh, I'll just give her a $15,000 MSD!

 

How many ways is that description wrong??? Three??

Are they Shield Nickels?

Or are they 'V' Nickels?

Shield Nickels and 'V' Nickels (aka Liberty Nickels) contain NO SILVER. Only War Nickels (mid-1942 to 1945) contain silver and those are 35% silver.

Cramer, no offense but you sound like a babe in the woods. It appears you have a LOT to learn about coins. It is not a good idea to go on a coin buying binge before you know anything about coins or what they are worth. I think you should stop your coin buying and begin your coin education before you buy any more coins. I say this with your best interest at heart.

 

I agree with you 100%. I'm not going to do anymore buying till I read a few books and learn something first. I still have several auctions that I'm the high bidder on that won't be over for a couple days. But I am done placing bids for a while. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get outbid!

I do have bids on proof sets that I am hoping to win though. I placed a bid on each proof set from 1970-2010, for $5 each. They're back on page 20, so I'm hoping nobody will outbid me on those.

 

Ask a lot of questions here on CoinTalk. There is a lot of expert FREE advice here.

You might want to check out the US mint products. Some may be overpriced, but genuine products.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wc...storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=2000

 

I looked at the mint, and yes, over priced but genuine. I was looking at apmex.com tonight and it looked like they had genuine, reasonably priced coins.

Edit: What I might look at doing is instead of looking for "rare" coins that are a "steal", I might just go to apmex.com or a similar site and buy silver coins. I don't make enough to buy gold, but I can buy a handful of silver ounce coins every month. That might be better for me to get started that way.

 

dcramer look at what hobo said in post #31 it's some of the best advise you 'll get , and he knows his coins , This is a great site with a lot of top people , after you're here a little while you'll find all advice given is not equal , all mean well but a lot are newbies like you with a little experience , You'll learn to pick the people who know what they;re saying and those that are just starting to learn .

 

Don't believe a word the guy said! Reputable dealers don't buy junk like this. Scam artists and (no offense) suckers do! If you see a lot of the same names winning the auctions, they are probably using shills to encourage suckers to bid higher, and the shills don't really buy the junk. You'll probably see some of the same stuff relisted a month later.

Until you learn more about grading, problem, doctored & counterfeit coins and doctored photos, don't buy any slabbed coins unless they are certified by NGC or PCGS. I don't even recommend that you consider slabs certified by ANACS, ICG or SEGS until you learn more about the hobby.

You also mentioned that you have placed $5 bids on a lot of Proof Sets (?) and you hope that you win them. Whatever you do, don't get the urge to increase any of your bids if someone outbids you. It will probably be the shill at work. Forget about them if you're outbid. There are plenty of reputable dealers on eBay where you can get sets like these for decent prices, but when you "buy for cheap, you usually get cheap".

One last point! ANY TIME you find an eBay dealer who sells "third-world" slabs or has offers "too good to be true", you should avoid them completely even if they may seem to have some legitimate listings. They can't be trusted.

Chris

 

Cramer, I agree with everything said here, there are lots of knowledgeable collectors and quite a few dealers hereabouts, and we are glad to provide good, free counsel. I would avoid raw coins from any seller until you learn to grade for yourself. Stick to NGC and PCGS coins, and even then try to find out about the many subtle differences between the two companies. I would seriously consider a subscription to Coin World or Numismatic News as well, for continuing your numismatic education. Good luck!

 

One thing I never saw answered - are you looking to collect or just buy silver? Those can have totally different answers. If you looking to buy silver then stick with bullion rounds paying bullion prices. If you looking to collect re-read hobo's post. Read up and then decide on what you would like to collect. There might even be some specialty books out there. And if you want to collect and collect silver there are still plenty of options.

 

I'm looking to collect coins and try and build a collection, not necessarily just buy silver coins. What I was saying through, is due to my extreme inexperience, it might be better if I just stick to buying silver coins for now, because that way they will at least be worth something.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I'm still involved in 4 auctions. They end tonight, tomorrow, Monday, and Wednesday. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get outbid on all the different coins I bid on. I heading down to Barnes & Noble today to buy some books on coins, especially the ones you all have already recommended to me. BTW, the auctions were found on proxibid.com, and the companies I'm involved with are Norther Colorado Estate Liquidators, Osage Auction Company, and Krause Auctioneering. Here is the auction from Northern http://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=40371 this is the guy who told me all the different dealers buy from him because his prices are so great.

 

Be really careful on ebay...

I found a seller that had a lot of interesting stuff, relatively fairly priced. I started looking around in their feedback. All of their purchases, hundreds and hundreds of them, were from a Chinese dealer who appeared to sell nothing but replicas, which then the seller seemed to then be selling as real. Ouch, a mistake I'm really glad I didn't make.

Perhaps starting with something simple - a decade, one type, or a country - may be the best place to start. And coin collecting doesn't have to start out super expensive either. Some of the coins I am most excited about are coins I found in circulation or got for less than $15.