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<p>[QUOTE="Cherd, post: 3024878, member: 24754"]Hey all, thanks for all the responses and helpful advice! I appreciate the links to auction sites, sale archives, and information sources. That’s exactly what I was looking for!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I can’t say that I prefer slabbed coins from an aesthetic standpoint, but I’ll deal with the slab if it gives me piece of mind with respect to authenticity! One thing that is important to me, however, is consistency in my collection. They either all have to be slabbed, or all have to be raw. For display purposes, a mixture of the two just doesn’t feel right.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I started putting together my first US type coin collection, I intentionally avoided slabs, like you, I preferred the look and feel (you can actually touch them) of raw coins. But, after I had accumulated what I thought to be a collection of high quality examples, I showed them to a local coin dealer that was interested in seeing what I had. After a lot of, “This one was stripped and artificially recolored, this one was filled, this one was whizzed, etc, etc”, I decided to start over and go the slabbed route.</p><p><br /></p><p>I won’t claim to be an expert by any means, but I have learned a LOT since those days. I could now probably determine most of those issues for myself if I had the coin in hand. The problem is, Ebay is pretty much my only source of purchases these days. Obviously, there is only so much that you can tell from a picture, and pictures can be intentionally misleading (especially when some sellers are willing to sell straight up fakes to begin with). All of this being the case, I’d prefer to purchase certified coins. It’s a bit of a compromise, but I think that it is worth it in the end.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This is sound advice to be sure. But, I’m a bit of a compulsive collector, and over the years I have learned an important lesson, “Stay Focused!”. If I’m not extremely disciplined in this respect, then my collections tend to sprawl into piles of mediocre junk. In the end, I know that I’ll better appreciate a collection of 50 high quality coins as opposed to coffee cans full of random low-grade stuff.</p><p><br /></p><p>I might be exposing my ignorance in thinking that this price point is realistic, but I was expecting to spend an average of ~ $200 per sestertius to assemble the 50 or so coins required for a VF+, relatively problem free collection. At that average (some cheaper, some way more expensive), I should be able to afford 1-2 coins per month. This is sure to provide years of satisfaction if all goes well. But, to stay on budget, I need to avoid sidetrack purchases and sestertii that will require upgrading. I know that this is all attempted justification for skipping the “learning phase”, I suppose I’ll learn my lesson one way or another!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks a lot for the links! I will definitely make use of those!</p><p><br /></p><p>This probably sounds silly to most, but maintaining the spreadsheets is actually an aspect of collecting that I enjoy. By cataloging sales, I feel that I’m creating useful tools for myself and staying directly in touch with the market. Also, I incorporate what I feel to be useful auxiliary information. For instance, I make note of whether items were “Buy it now”, which usually indicates that someone over-paid, or if there was only 1 bid, in which case the valuation is based on the opinion of one possibly ill-informed buyer. Maybe the seller listed a problem in the description that is not evident in the pictures. This type of information is lost when presented by available websites.</p><p><br /></p><p>And thanks for the Roman grammar lesson. I had a gut feeling that "Sestertiuses" was incorrect, but I was too lazy to look it up haha.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Had no idea that they were silver prior to Augustus, thanks for the lesson and great examples![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Cherd, post: 3024878, member: 24754"]Hey all, thanks for all the responses and helpful advice! I appreciate the links to auction sites, sale archives, and information sources. That’s exactly what I was looking for! I can’t say that I prefer slabbed coins from an aesthetic standpoint, but I’ll deal with the slab if it gives me piece of mind with respect to authenticity! One thing that is important to me, however, is consistency in my collection. They either all have to be slabbed, or all have to be raw. For display purposes, a mixture of the two just doesn’t feel right. When I started putting together my first US type coin collection, I intentionally avoided slabs, like you, I preferred the look and feel (you can actually touch them) of raw coins. But, after I had accumulated what I thought to be a collection of high quality examples, I showed them to a local coin dealer that was interested in seeing what I had. After a lot of, “This one was stripped and artificially recolored, this one was filled, this one was whizzed, etc, etc”, I decided to start over and go the slabbed route. I won’t claim to be an expert by any means, but I have learned a LOT since those days. I could now probably determine most of those issues for myself if I had the coin in hand. The problem is, Ebay is pretty much my only source of purchases these days. Obviously, there is only so much that you can tell from a picture, and pictures can be intentionally misleading (especially when some sellers are willing to sell straight up fakes to begin with). All of this being the case, I’d prefer to purchase certified coins. It’s a bit of a compromise, but I think that it is worth it in the end. This is sound advice to be sure. But, I’m a bit of a compulsive collector, and over the years I have learned an important lesson, “Stay Focused!”. If I’m not extremely disciplined in this respect, then my collections tend to sprawl into piles of mediocre junk. In the end, I know that I’ll better appreciate a collection of 50 high quality coins as opposed to coffee cans full of random low-grade stuff. I might be exposing my ignorance in thinking that this price point is realistic, but I was expecting to spend an average of ~ $200 per sestertius to assemble the 50 or so coins required for a VF+, relatively problem free collection. At that average (some cheaper, some way more expensive), I should be able to afford 1-2 coins per month. This is sure to provide years of satisfaction if all goes well. But, to stay on budget, I need to avoid sidetrack purchases and sestertii that will require upgrading. I know that this is all attempted justification for skipping the “learning phase”, I suppose I’ll learn my lesson one way or another! Thanks a lot for the links! I will definitely make use of those! This probably sounds silly to most, but maintaining the spreadsheets is actually an aspect of collecting that I enjoy. By cataloging sales, I feel that I’m creating useful tools for myself and staying directly in touch with the market. Also, I incorporate what I feel to be useful auxiliary information. For instance, I make note of whether items were “Buy it now”, which usually indicates that someone over-paid, or if there was only 1 bid, in which case the valuation is based on the opinion of one possibly ill-informed buyer. Maybe the seller listed a problem in the description that is not evident in the pictures. This type of information is lost when presented by available websites. And thanks for the Roman grammar lesson. I had a gut feeling that "Sestertiuses" was incorrect, but I was too lazy to look it up haha. Had no idea that they were silver prior to Augustus, thanks for the lesson and great examples![/QUOTE]
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