Young Collector Advice...

I am a kid at heart

 

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I just dont think that is true in all cases, maybe some...you can teach the kid patience and how to find a good deal and how to get the best deal for his / her money and in the end they might get a good deal on the 100 coins and still aford a decent quality 20 dollar coin as well. You have also just taught them the value of money and a good deal which a feel, for a casual collector like myself...is the best way to build a nice collection on the cheap. Then there is no need for 'upgrades'...I see people selling coins and calling them space fillers (mainly in ancients)...I would say save your money, after you buy 3 space fillers you could have just gotten a nice coin to sit in that spot permenantly.

 

im a young kid (14) who has a decent budget of around 1 thousand a year and around 200 $ each show i go to

i just bought a 400$ coin in NGC plastic that will protect it and i will konw it is real and since it was pre slabbed i didnt pay for the slab so it some cases for me slabs are good

i personlly for a lot of designs like ef-45 to au-58 compared to some uncirculated coins becuase i like the history of the coins and coins that are uncirculated lots of times dont have the character that the little worn coins have
but i still would rather have a 50$ coin then 2 25$ coins in most cases

 

I for sure do not agree with dumping a lot of money of the highest quality of coins for any beginner. This is a great way to discourage a new or young collector. As noted if a person can only afford one or two coins of MS grades a year, then after about 30, 40 or 50 years that person would still not have one complete set of anything and the prices of all such coins just keeps going up and up and up. By the first several years the hobby would be just something to go back to someday, maybe. My opinion based on my own method of collecting. I started coin collecting ove 60 years ago and collected anything I could get my hands on regardless of grade. Over the years I attempted to improve each collection with higher grades and better Albums. I put the best coins in album #1, move the coin from there to album #2, and on and on and on. Now up to numerous sets of all demominations with #1 in each in almost all MS quality. Took well over 60 years but all set #1's look nice now.

 

Thing is, its not true that high quality coins means dumping a lot of money for it and only buy a few a year in my world which is the point that I have been trying to make. It matters what you collect. You can get a very nice quality Constantine coin (a REAL ancient coin) for rather cheap...of course it will cost more than one in poor shape but for one in poorer shape you can get for anywhere between 3-10 dollars...one in nice shape (common issue) you can get for maybe 10-20 bucks more and if you find a real good deal (and they do exist) you can get quite a horde of real good quality ancient coins for the price of one poor quality Liberty Bust. You can buy the coin in my sig for less...so I guess it just matter what you collect and how you go about it.

Maybe its because I do not collect sets of the same type coin that I dont get why one would teach a young collector to spend good money on poor quality coins...I collect individual coins save for Roman coins and I collect at least one of each emperor (not full sets of each emperors coinage) and still I only want the best I can find for the price I want to spend. If I am going to spend my hard earned money on an example of, say...an Etheopian coin of Haile Selassie I...it will be the only coin in my collection of the type (as I wont collect all the dates and types) so I want it to be a real nice example of that rulers coin...same with almost every type of coin.

I guess it IS all in how you approach collecting but I would rather spend a bit more to get a nicer example then to buy a worn example only to, later down the line, have to replace it (like the notgeld example I cited) and by the same coin twice. I would try to instill in the youngun a healthy respect for money and a good deal.

For a collector like me, there will still be MANY chances to buy good condition coins at affordable prices...I have never felt like I am hampered from getting new coins because I want good quality...but again...on the whole, I buy colelct pretty much every type coin out there so there will always be coins out there to by that are cheap even in good condition.

 

Wow, I could only imagine the collection that you are putting together. I feel that one of the best things about coin collecting is the research and discovery about the coins itself. I hope you keep your focus and enjoy the time that you build your knowledge.

I have three boys younger then you and they already love collecting coins as well. It is funny for the different collecting cards come and go but the coins always stays around in thier field of interest.
Money, history, art, why not.