Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EagleEyed, post: 60527, member: 3261&quot;]Please allow me a few seconds of useless ranting.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie4" alt=":mad:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>I really, really get ****ed at stuff like this.&nbsp; I know it doesn&#039;t help, and there is nothing that can be done about it, but it really makes me angry.&nbsp; I love this hobby, and I get irritated when bottom-feeding scum-suckers try to take advantage of newbies or the numismatically uneducated.&nbsp; I am sure stuff like this accounts for tons of would be life long coin collectors leaving the hobby in disgust.&nbsp; I know that soon after I was bitten by the coin bug I fell prey to a dirty junk coin dealer in a local farmer&#039;s market.&nbsp; He sold and still sells modern issues at multiples of actual retail value, older cleaned and polished common dates, and even complete post-mint altered type crap.&nbsp; One time, after I had read a few coin books, luckily, I saw him selling two headed &#039;magician coins&#039; as mint errors.&nbsp; I really felt like smacking the guy on that one.&nbsp; This guy almost ruined the hobby for me before I educated myself.&nbsp; I admit I bought some coins from him that were well worn and harshly cleaned, and paid about 3 or 4 times what they would have been worth in mint state.&nbsp; It was my fault for buying the coins before I knew what I was doing, but that doesn&#039;t excuse the guy from being a predator.&nbsp; The only thing that saved me was my grandfather&#039;s coin collection.&nbsp; I remember when I was a small child he would let me, whenever I asked, look through his cigar box (yes, he really used a cigar box!) full of old coins and tell me about the coins, how he got them, what the country was going through at the time, and what he was going through at the time...such as growing up on a farm, working in a coal mine, joining the army at 16, and eventually marrying my grandmother.&nbsp; That is what got me into coin collecting, and what coin collecting is about to me today.&nbsp; I had to make a sincere effort not to let guys like the previously mentioned shyster ruin that for me.&nbsp; I am afraid many aren&#039;t that lucky.</p><p><br /></p><p>I take back what I said about nothing being able to be done about it.&nbsp; This site is something that can be done about it.&nbsp; The users on this site can help to educate and encourage newcomers so that they don&#039;t have to become too jaded too quickly and give up on our wonderful hobby.&nbsp; I am glad I didn&#039;t.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, thanks for letting me rant.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in