Growth upon collecting coins

Since I started collecting coins I was mainly interested in expanding my collection. I mostly went out to search for coins I did not have and that usually meant buying up whatever caught my eye. A lot of times this resulted in me buying low quality coins and sometimes even junk silver. I mean, there is nothing wrong with these methods as there are many ways to collect. But I have always believed that you should learn the hobby and collect in a more proficient way.
Well fast forward a few months as I have learned a lot of information in various ways. From books and online forums I have gained a lot knowledge on what to focus on and what to look for. From many members on cointalk.com I have learned what to look for when it comes to grading. I have also learned from reading books and studying up on my main focus, Morgan Dollars.
From other sites coincommunity.com I have learned many things as well, such as how to think about your collection. So in my short time in this hobby of coins what did I learn? Not much compared to other very knowledgeable collectors but enough to move forward in a positive direction. Here are a few things I learned...

1. Quality over quantity - you should have a few coins that is high quality. Having many low quality coins defeats the purpose of the hobby, a collection should be varied. It also shows the workmanship of a high quality vintage coin and it also forces you to learn grading them.

2. Pick one series to collect- collecting should be fun but it should also have a focus. Choose one series to collect, whether its cents, dimes or silver dollars sticking to one series makes it much easier than buying everything under the sun. It also creates discipline and patience when you reach the more expensive and elusive key dates. Both are good qualities to apply in your daily life

3. Knowing what to buy and when to buy - some coins are priced due to their precious metal value. Certain coins are sold solely due to the fact they are either silver or gold. Pick a day that precious metal prices are low and go for them. After all it doesn't make sense to pay more for a coin when you know that a week later the price may come back down. This is also a part of patience and discipline, not to run out and buy whenever you want to. And there are also times when you know a coin may end up on the secondary market for a higher price. Don't wait until then, buy them when they're newly released it will save you time, money and lots of headaches when searching for it later.  

4. Don't spend too much money and time on coins - this goes for other things and hobbies as well. Moderation is the key, I have to admit I spend large amounts of time on my hobbies. But remember, other things in life are important too. The family (wife and kids), the house, bills and other things that needs to be taken care of. Don't neglect loved ones and the house, loved ones have feelings and needs you to.

5. Enjoy the hobby - sometimes we get bored and sometimes collecting can feel overwhelming. Its fine to take a step back to look at your collection and re-think your strategy. There are no rules to collecting
and sometimes even taking a break can be good for you.

Buying coins on forums

I like to look for coins on forums from time to time. I have always believed in the term "for the collectors, from the collector." I mean for a collector to buy a coin there must be a reason. Perhaps it is in pretty good condition or it was purchased for sentimental reasons.
Now I'm not saying that dealers are bad but I have heard many horror stories about how dealers mishandle a coin. Also some unscrupulous dealers may be selling problem coins or even counterfeit coins. Now this doesn't mean that buying from a collector on a forum is safe. As a matter of fact its just as or even more dangerous. Always be on the lookout on how the member handles himself, some signs may tell you how a member on a forum is.
Having many misspelled words or abbreviations may be a red flag. This does not include coin terms but things like ROFLMAO, WTF, WTH and many others. Another sign is the words a person uses, childish or hateful words are another thing. Innuendoes and phrases of insulting another person in a non-direct manner are all signs that a person may be either childish, demented or someone that is uneducated. These are traits that person may have that you want to stay away from.
Also this leads to my next point. In this day and age sites like eBay, Heritage Auctions and Teletrade are huge markets for the coin buyer. All these sites are secure places you can buy from, HA and Teletrade being the more secure ones. From time to time you may still have problems with eBay sellers.
There should be no reason why a forum member should set a price that is higher than any of these sites including eBay. They are bypassing the fees which are required to sell through any of these auction houses. You the buyer are doing them a favor from buying from them on the forums.
Also buying from members on forums also opens you up to be ripped off. Most sites do not offer buyer protection, if the seller decides not to send you the coins the worst thing that will happen is a banned account for the member that is selling. This means nothing for the buyer when some coins can cost up to the thousands. Always use a site that is very popular and if possible a member that is recommended by other forum members.
So in closing I would like to point out a few things which I will revise into a list.
1. Read a member's posts carefully. The words and phrases used often reveals how a person really is.
2. Do not and I mean do not buy from anybody on a forum that lists their coins for a higher price than eBay's finished prices. Remember you the buyer are doing them a favor to bypass the fees.
3. Read up on other members dealings with said seller. Other's opinions on a transaction is essentially the same thing as a feedback on eBay.
4, If possible always send funds in a secure manner. A seller that states personal checks or money orders only may be trying to take the money and run.
5. Stay safe when buying and trading on open forums. Many sites do not get involved when a transaction goes wrong.

Coin holder reviews you won't find anywhere else

Well since I got into coin collecting I have tried many different holders and methods to organize my coins. First I tried cardboard 2x2's, then it was SaFlips from there I received a few AirTite holders from purchases. And finally I tried CoinEdge holders which lets you view the edge of the coin. I'm going to write a small breakdown of each and you may be wondering why, since there are so many reviews online about these holders already. Well simply put I'm going to write what the other sites won't tell you.

First lets start with 2x2 cardboard flips. Did you know there are different quality 2x2 cardboard holders? The first time I placed an order I thought they were all the same. I placed a large order online for 100 of each size. I mean after all they were cheap and I thought I need them anyway so let me buy a bunch. Well when I got them in hand they felt cheap, not your normal cheap but really garbage like cheap. Thin cardboard stock, baggy mylar window and the overall feel felt like a 6 year old put it together. I have since bought better ones to replace the crappy ones I got in my first order.

Pros: Easy to use, easy to label, inexpensive, easy to store in boxes or pages

Cons: May not offer enough protection for those that like to constantly touch their coins, requires cleaning off loose chipboard before using.

And on a side note the ones that are self adhesive may not be that great of an idea. Over time the adhesive will get weaker and the holder will open up.

SaFlips are also easy to use, you load the coin in one side and the other side holds a label. The polyester is clear allowing to view the coin and if needed the edge. But these holders are lightweight, even lighter than the cardboard 2x2's. If you drop a coin by accident expect the coin to be damaged, these holders offer less protection than a 2x2 cardboard holder. Also if you do decide to use a label you won't be able to see the reverse of the coin when folded over. On a side note I have noticed that coins stored for a long time in SaFlips leaves a ring mark in the holder.

Pros: Easy to use, easy to label, inexpensive, easy to store in boxes

Cons: These holders attract dust like crazy, non-viewable reverse of coin when labeled, offers virtually no protection if dropped, these holders don't fit properly into pages

AirTite holders are great as they offer lots of protection. The plastic used are strong acrylic, are archival safe and they are often direct fit. The problem with AirTite holders are that they are bulky, these holders take up lots of space and are not easy to store. They are round and will not fit in regular pages forcing you to spend lots of money on special pages. These pages holds only a maximum of 9 coins for small coins and 4 for larger coins. They are also quite expensive, there are also square AirTite holders but expect these to be even more bulkier, pages for the square ones are a little better as they hold more. But the caveat is that not one company has declared their pages to be PVC free or archival safe which leads me to believe that storing square AirTite holders in pages is dangerous for your coins.

Pros: Offers good protection

Cons: Not expensive but not cheap either expect to pay around a dollar each, hard to store and bulky, expensive pages and albums for the round holders, not one company has declared their pages to be PVC free or archival safe.

Last but not least there are the CoinEdge holders. I was skeptical about using these as I had not heard much about them. I researched and googled online but still had limited information and reviews. From the few reviews I heard some collectors state that the holders are quite good but were flimsy. Nevertheless I wanted to try them, but to be honest I got these because none of the other holders were doing it for me. I hesitantly ordered these holders hoping for the best, then I noticed that they offered pages to hold the CoinEdge holders. I decided to order these too to try them out. Well what did I think? the holders are decent but the pages are horrible. Where do I begin? flimsy plastic covered in fake velvet, when I got them pieces of velvet were flaking off and they attracted dust like crazy. The holders are decent at best, it is two pieces of plastic, one front and one back. You load the coin in the front piece and snap the back piece together. They claim that the plastic only touches the edge of the coins which is fine, but upon closer inspection I noticed that many of the coins loaded in were shoved up against the front of the holder. Oftentimes the front holder started looking like they were getting damaged. My first thought was this is not good so I pulled the back piece off to see what was going on. Lo and behold guess what? the coins were firmly stuck in the holder, this leads me to believe that the coins were getting squished in the holder and over time might be damaged from the constant pressure.

Pros: Offers decent protection, makes the coins really shiny more so than they really are

Cons: Coins getting squished in-between two pieces of plastic is not my thing, coins stuck in holder forces you to dig them out with fingers which may lead to scratches or fingerprints, the plastic pieces are flimsy

My most expensive purchase to date, a 2011 ASE set

I know many people and collectors consider the American Silver Eagle bullion. And I'm not saying that you can or can't collect bullion. There are many collectors out there and they collect what they want. But nevertheless I am proud to say I am the owner of a set of 2011 ASEs.

What makes this set so special to me? Well you see I got into collecting coins one month after the release of the 2011 ASE set. Not only did I miss out on the set on the release date I did not even know about it until I joined cointalk.com , a coin collecting forum. Collectors were talking about the price jump on the secondary market. And after checking the current prices of the sets I thought I was never going to get one. I mean after all there were comics and statues I had wanted. :)

I watched the prices on ebay and they were all pretty high. Prices ranged from $700-800 and I began ignoring the set. This was also a time I wanted to concentrate on my toned Morgan silver dollar collection. As I filled my collection with common dates I slowly realized, if I wanted to buy silver I might as well try to get a set of Silver Eagles.

Well one day I walked into my local coin store and there it was, a set of 2011 ASE set staring back at me. I hesitantly asked for the price expecting it to be higher than ebay's price. I mean after all why would a store sell anything for below ebay's prices. But thats one of the reasons why I love my local coin store. The price? $650, by all means was not a bargain but definitely cheaper than any online auction site or store.

Needless to say, I waited until my next visit, walked in with cash in hand hoping no one else had snatched it up before I did and dropped down the dough for it. I stared at the cash and shed a single tear, knowing that I could have bought many comics or a single key issue. But at the end I stared at five American Silver Eagles in a nicely made blue wooden box. They were calling me, telling me to buy more coins. Okay they weren't, but you know what I meant...

Trading gold or silver coins for sports cards? Why?

So I admit that I am a member of online forums and since I collect many things I belong to a forums for each category. There are others like me and we often buy, sell and trade on these forums. But sometimes I see people asking for gold or silver coins and in return they will send sports cards. My question is who would give up something with precious metal value for a piece of cardboard?

Lets say your starving and have no money but you have $1,000 worth of baseball cards. Can you trade the baseball card for food? Can you go to the supermarket and offer a Albert Pujols rookie card for a piece of meat? I would think the answer is no. Now lets say you have eight 1958 quarters, you could at least get a slice of pizza. Granted you would be taking a loss because silver is worth more but at least you can get food.

Sometimes it makes me wonder why people would think someone would trade them silver or gold for sports cards. Precious metals will always be worth money, if a star athlete gets injured will their cards be worth anything? I think you know the answer. Its just funny that collectors would think that a baseball or football card is worth that much. But you know the saying: "people think their stuff is worth gold"? Well I guess these people are that delusional.

Attitude adjustment and the arrogance of some dealers

This is a small continuation from my first coin show experience. Now I have said that I enjoyed the show and I don't mind going back next year when I have a larger want list of coins. But as I have stated before, I collect many things besides coins. I may be new to coins but that does not mean I am new to collectibles. So this article is based on one coin dealer that I was speaking to.

I walked the floor of the show once and decided to walk through the floor again to see if there is anything I missed. I passed by one table and noticed that there were some coins from the countries on my want list. So I looked at the coins and began talking to the dealer asking him if he had any more coins from the countries I'm looking for.

He wanted me to more specific so I showed him my list since there was no prices or anything sensitive on it. He proceeded to tell me that the coins I'm looking for are too common for his table. Then he told me and I quote "I have plenty of those coins at home, I'm not going to bring dollar coins here."

Excuse me, but who cares what who has at home. Did I ask him? no I did not. Did I ask him if he knew about the coins? no I did not. How dare this stupid dealer assume my coins are common or deem them too "cheap" for him to carry. I did not talk to him anymore about the coins as a matter of fact I responded calmly and left his table.

Now about the coins I have been looking for. I have searched high and low for the coins, no online auction sites or stores had them. No brick and mortar store had them either, as a matter of fact these were rare and downright scarce expensive coins. I took into consideration that the dealer had no idea what the coins I was looking for was. But to stand in front of me and insult the coins I was seeking for is highly unprofessional. Needless to say if I do go back to the show I would avoid this dealer like the plague.

My first experience at a coin show

So I went to the NYINC, New York International Numismatic Convention today. It was a little early for me considering I had just begun this hobby. But when a show only comes around once a year I decided to go and see how it was.

First things first, other collectors have told me its mainly world coins at the show and looking at the name I can guess thats what it was. Nevertheless I was expecting some United States coins since it was held in the United States. But what I wasn't expecting was the amount of Ancient coins. Wow, there were tons of ancient coins. So many that I couldn't identify and so many I had never seen before.

And the amount of high dollar coins made my small want list of coins seem meager. Now I'm not saying the coins I'm looking for are small fry stuff. Some of them are rare and downright scarce provided a dealer knew about it. But mostly all the tables had tons of world coins and barely any had U.S. coins. Thats not to say I didn't like what I saw as I still enjoyed the show.

So what did I get? Not much, not much considering most coins at the show were priced at three digits or more. Maybe when I'm more experienced and have a larger want list, the show will be even more enjoyable. But I did get some coins for a few world sets I'm working on. Mostly cheap stuff but still worth the trip.

Starting off on my quest for coins

You're probably wondering, how does a guy go from collecting baseball cards jump to comics jump to coins. Well collecting is in my nature and sometimes I get influenced by other sources. In this case it will be my parents who started me off on stamps. I have yet to strongly focus on stamps but maybe in the future I will.

Anyway back to coins, I recently looked through my parents collection of coins and went "well thats interesting." Though the collection was mostly world coins from Asia and mixed from Austria to Canada. I still wanted to focus on United States coins, it was just easier since I live in the states. I started looking at my pocket change to see what I can find. The crusty old pennies and dimes were not doing much for me so I looked harder. There it goes I found my first Lincoln wheat cent. Though its nothing spectacular it was something out of the ordinary. But of course being a collector I wanted more, and better things.

I looked back into the US coin history to see if anything caught my eye. And it seemed that silver was the big thing back then. Another look made me look at the Morgan silver dollars, Peace dollars and some old odd cents like two and three cents. I fell for it, I wanted to add some of these coins to my collection. But I had to start small, I had to learn what to buy and what to get.

So I went online to look around to see what was available. Lots of stuff were out there like Indian cents, Half Dimes, Buffalo Nickels and lots of other coins. In the end I decided to focus on Morgan dollars. Though its a huge set and there are some with prices in the stratosphere I loved the feel and look of a big piece of silver. Thats not to say I'm not buying other things since my first purchase was the United States Silver Proof sets from 2004 and 2005.