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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;geekpryde, post: 3710614, member: 36248&quot;]I too collected as a kid, stopped in late High school and college, and picked it up again when my kids were very little.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a kid, I collected Indian Head cents, American Silver Eagles, buffalo nickels, anything cool I could find &lt; $25.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, when I got back into it, I made a bunch of mistakes, bought a roll of generic MS63 Morgans, thinking I would get them graded and become rich.&nbsp; Paid $150 for one of those mixed lots of no-name (non PCGS, non-NGC, non-ANACS) fako TPG graded coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; It was listed as containing &quot;$10,000 worth of coins&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; It was all trash of course.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; I also did a bunch of other stupid things, can&#039;t even remember them all.</p><p><br /></p><p>After wasting a lot of money and not having anything to show for it, I was dormant again for a couple of years, but the itch was still there.&nbsp;&nbsp; Still looking, but not spending, since I was burned.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually I bought this coin from eBay because it looked absolutely amazing to me:&nbsp;&nbsp; 1923 $1 SILVER DOLLAR - PEACE LIBERTY HEAD NGC MS65 CAC.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]994465[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I didn&#039;t really know about NGC or PCGS, definitely nothing about CAC.&nbsp; But the coin just wowed me.&nbsp; Somehow that lead me to cointalk, wanting to know more about graded coins and general info, and whatnot.&nbsp; That sole &quot;nice&quot; coin sat around a few years, and I had my raw IHC kicking around in cigar box, and the coin itch grew.</p><p><br /></p><p>I stated reading, and looking, and decided I loved Ultra Camero PR69 Kennedy Halves, best of all I could afford them.&nbsp; &nbsp; I build an entire set, took me years, the hunt was fun (I hunted on an extreme low budget).&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; I then sold that set when I got bored of 99% of my coins looking the exact same.&nbsp; Due to finding a very nice cameo Accent Hair Kennedy, I even made some money (otherwise it would have been a break-even)&nbsp; But my knowledge from taking years to built it was 100x what I knew before.&nbsp;&nbsp; Lurking on CoinTalk for years before even bothering to join certainly had educational benefits.</p><p><br /></p><p>I decided to try &quot;TYPE&quot; collecting, it made so much more sense to me.&nbsp;&nbsp; It had a focused goal, without being the same thing over and over.&nbsp; &nbsp; And that CAC sticker I didn&#039;t know about, well, I finally was more curious about it and late 2012 I decided I knew enough to start spending real money again.&nbsp;&nbsp; Thus, I spend the next two years building my CAC type set, buying and selling many quality coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then of course, I starting chatting more regularly with Doug [USER=112]@GDJMSP[/USER] and realized I still knew nothing, so I had to stop collecting again, LOL.</p><p><br /></p><p>TLDR:&nbsp; &nbsp; I made a lot of mistakes getting back into collecting, and hard to learn the hard way.&nbsp; Dont be me!&nbsp; Find a coin series you like a lot, and can afford, and focus on that one thing.&nbsp; Read everything you can get your hands on.&nbsp;&nbsp; Learn along the way, and roll that knowledge into perhaps a more serious and expensive specialty for future years.</p><p><br /></p><p>p.s.&nbsp; That CAC peace dollar is still in my permanent collection.&nbsp; That one coin likely saved me from abandoning coins collecting a second, and final time.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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