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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;1916D10C, post: 3196998, member: 97585&quot;]I cant speak for my first year of collecting. My dad helped me and prevented me from some really terrible buys.</p><p><br /></p><p>My mistakes began in around 2011 or 2012 when I began buying coins on my own.</p><p><br /></p><p>My biggest mistake in general in my first few years was collecting outside my area of expertise, and collecting coins that did not fit into my collection. I would see a deal on a key or semi key coin that really didn’t fit into my collection. I did this a lot in my first few years. I would buy a 1909-S cent here, a Liberty Nickel there, etc. etc. I lacked focus and it ate up funds and my collection did not look focused. It was just a smattering of random key dates and type coins I had gotten “deals” on. My biggest mistake in this respect, was I saw a PCGS Fair-2 1807 Draped Bust quarter for a “great deal” on Collectors Universe and bought it. 2 months later I’m looking at this coin thinking “What-Do-I-Do-With-This-Now?” Seriously. I had no interest in creating a quarter set, nor the funds, nor are quarters my denomination of choice. It was simply an impulse and immature buy. The 1807 isn’t even truly a key date. I ended up selling it and breaking even.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, my biggest mistake as far as getting ripped off due to inexperience was a bad one. I bought a raw 1912-S Liberty Nickel at Long Beach. It was solid Very Fine, maybe a bit better, or so I thought. (Again, out of my experience area, even at the time.... what a dumba**) Surfaces looked original. I examined it for a good 20 minutes but failed to notice tooling on the head and reverse Legend... I paid about $240 for it. I took it home and showed my dad, who IMMEDIATELY noticed the tooling at 5x magnification. Needless to say that was extremely embarrassing. When my dad pointed it out I realized right away he was right. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, after such distractions earlier on, I try to stick to Dimes and focus on them. I like to stick to my field of expertise and hone my grading and authentication skills, unless I see a deal on something I know I can flip. But I like sticking to the 10C Denomination as it is my favorite. Of course I love learning about other coins, but I don’t have quite as much confidence when buying other denominations.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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