What's your worst coin mistake?

More like "I've had many mistakes..."

 

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The reality is so have I but the important thing is to learn from them! Move on and don't make the same mistake twice. The big problem is when you keep making the same mistakes over and over again!

 

I've had 2 that come to mind.

When I first started collecting (other than the coins my grandpa gave me) was about 2 years after the westward journey series. I fell in love with it and tried to start collecting the entire serious in PCGS in the highest grade I could afford. I couldn't afford the top but close to it. I didn't know enough and took the PCGS price guide as gospel and overpaid quite a bit. I just sold my last one about 4 months ago for a $50 loss. Overall I lost a couple of hundred.

Other one was my first Long Beach show. I fell in love with the 1918 Lincoln Commemorative and had to have it. I thought I knew what I was doing and sent it to NGC to get graded - improperly cleaned! Overpaid on the coin and then lost the grading money. I cracked it out and put it in my 7070. Dumb.

Not a mistake I made yet, but have been putting together birth year sets for my son in graded NGC. Finally had some money a few months back to buy the gold and bought the 2002 $5 Olympic MS70 coin instead of the $10 gold bullion I was looking at. Dang 1/4 ounce bullion doubled in price in 2 months for some reason per the last NGC email update! I made the wrong choice.

 

It's a $5 fantasy piece that I paid $75 for thinking it was real.

 

Okay, but what was the claim as to what it was used for?

The swipe card of the day to enter the Reversation?

 

My biggest mistake is attaching my credit card to my Paypal account, and being in buying mode on eBay and GC. I used to be debt free...

 

Sorry, here is the other side.

 

Ok, so I get it not what this thread is about, but this has sparked my interest. Is this a reproduction? Do you know if tokens like this were used? Is this a fantasy piece?

 

I paid a grand even for an 1889 CC Morgan dollar raw at a live auction. I got caught in the moment I guess. Well I sent it to anacs just because it was cheap, came back as a F12 cleaned. So I cracked and put it back in my raw album where it still sits 3 years later. I will probably never sell it as I won't take half what I paid and that's the most i've been offered lol.

 

Thanks. Sorry you got burned.

 

I'm pretty sure it's exactly what this thread is about. I overpaid by 1500% because I bought something I didn't know anything about. Typically when I've gone with a gut instinct I've either done very well or at worst been off by 50%. Dollar wise I've probably made bigger mistakes but buying a $5 fake for $75 is a pretty big one. More important, now when I'm looking at something I don't know anything about, this stupid token is what goes through my mind before I pull out my wallet.

 

Bought a 1876s Half dollar listed as B.U. Just had it slabbed and it came back A.U. 55. Did not lose anything because I bought it at A.U. price. Now just have to sit on it for awhile. Trying to put together a B.U. mint set of that year so was disappointed.

 

The great majority of this stuff is modern day fantasy. I got stung on a tag from the Wyoming Territory back when I was a teenager. I still have the thing somewhere. They were probably made by the same people that made the "brothel" fantasy tokens.

 

Hmm, so this "mistake" runs through your mind every time you think about buying something you know nothing about????? Well, $75 seems like a downright bargain to me

 

I bought a Barber Quarter in a Proof-64 PCI Green label holder and somehow managed to convince myself that the obverse scratches were on the holder. They weren't. Estimated loss -- $400.

 

Thanks scottishmoney, that's what I was after.

 

I was house cleaning years ago and sold off a really large amount of silver coins at 4 to 5X face. I made a lot of money on it but should have just stuck it in the corner. Only had 2 or 3X in it.

 

You're absolutely right about that. I still put it down as a big mistake because every time I think about that thing, I still feel stupid.

 

I once paid $1094 for a VG-10, PCGS graded 1909-S VDB cent. It looks great and such, but I purchased it when the series went crazy in 2009-2010; prices came down a tad soon after I bought the coin. I still have the '09 S VDB and it fills a nice hole in my Dansco album (crack-out a bad idea?).

At any rate, I've been checking out current prices on CoinValues and I pop onto their eBay sales data feed, which now at least allows me to see what the actual going prices were. Right now it appears only Morgan dollar prices are available (wish I had that resource back in 2010 for 1909 S VDB cents... ha ha).

The link to the eBay Morgan dollar going prices: http://www.coinvalues.com/morgan-silver-dollar (eBay price feed is within each year's Morgan dollar listing at the bottom of the page) Hope this helps somebody out!