When is it the right time to throw in the towel?

How do I get myself into situations like this? And how am I able to come out of them in such good shape?

I've been a casual coin collector for most of my life...about 30 years now. However, its only been in the past couple of years that I've become a serious collector. Actually I consider myself more of a collector/investor now. After all, someday my coins will be liquidated for some reason and I'd hate to learn (or my family to learn) that I had spent alot of time and money accumulating things that had no value to anyone else. So I decided to combine collecting with an eye for appreciable profit--I determined that I would collect key dates and/or condition rarities of dates that had personal meaning, such as the dates my grandparents were born, etc. So in the past year I've focused on acquiring certified examples of the lower mintage dates/marks of the Morgan Dollar series primarily, as well as some of the keys that many non-collectors have heard of, such as the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent.

Then over the 2006 holidays I decided I'd put some of my "collection" into the NGC Registry, so I created some sets.

As it turned out, this was a huge mistake. After acquiring the major keys of the Lincoln Cent and Buffalo Nickel series, my competitive spirit kicked into high gear. I found myself comparing other registry sets and determining what years/mints/grades could generate the most points to move me higher in the standings. And along the way I decided that I needed to try to fill in the gaps between the keys.

Before I knew it I had invested a small fortune. My wife is not enamored by numismatics. She and my daughters think I'm a nerd for being so interested in "money" and they've pretty much left me alone to do my thing with my coins, but the endless hours of study on my laptop at night and on the weekends combined with my 2-4 times weekly visits to my safe deposit box gave my transactions away. [Here's a good piece of advice--if your wife works at a bank get your safety deposit box somewhere else].

Anyway, I got busted--good thing I wasn't cheating. I've never been a good liar so I eventually caved in to the innocent questioning by my wife.

Along the way I did quite well with the key dates, in my opinion, but I depleted a secret cash reserve that I had been building for a dream purchase that I figured would never really have the opportunity to make. I guess subconsciously I had given up on this dream and this contributed to my spending spree. But I've reached a compromise with my wife. I'm keeping all the keys, so they can become part of my investment portfolio (and because I actually like the thought of owning them, which I guess preserves my status as a collector). And I'm liquidating all the "stuff" I've accumulated over the past 30 years to replace the cash, which will be re-invested into my long-time true love--a Shelby GT500 Mustang. Holding a manually geared monster between the ditches of a winding country road is much better exercise than squinting through a loop at a cent and pecking laptop keys trying to figure out how to move past someone in the registry. (At least that's what she believed).

Godspeed numismatists! I'm leaving coinland to follow my dream, but I'm sure I'll be back again some day.

TH