I made several good purchases in October, but absolutely need to get spending under control!

October has been a banner month for me in terms of collecting, as I upgraded one coin, purchased three outright, and added the Lincoln Chronicles set to my collection. The funny thing is that I told myself two coins ago that I would temporarily freeze my purchases. Now throw in a new camera and October gets very expensive. I guess all this proves that I am addicted to this hobby. However, there is a rational for violating my own rule. Let me explain.

My month started with an upgrade to my Wilhelmina ?10 Gulden? registry set. I upgraded a NGC MS-66, 1917 ?10 Gulden? coin with a PCGS MS-67 one. This upgrade is especially significant because NGC grades just two coins at MS-67 for the entire 11 coin series. This type of purchase makes good sense from the standpoint that upgrades, for the most part, are economical when you sell the coin you are upgrading. In that situation, you only pay the cost of the upgrade rather than the cost of the coin.

Back in April E-bay started a new program by which you earn E-bay bucks for every purchase you make. E-bay bucks earned the prior three months became payable October 9. One week previous to October 9, I had been watching an MS-61, 1907-O Barber Quarter for my 20th Century type set offered as a ?buy it now? for the equivalent of Numismedia fair market value. Fortunately, no one purchased the coin, and I got a discount of over $20 on the coin. At this point, I said to myself ?Enough, no more purchases for a while?.

Part of my problem is that when I stop purchasing coins I should stop looking. Perusing E-bay listings I found a great deal on a NGC MS-63, 1924 Standing Liberty Quarter for my 20th Century registry set. Not wanting to pass up a good deal, I pulled the trigger. My rational for this purchase was that it is only a couple hundred dollars, and I spend that much at the grocery store. The only problem with this flawed reasoning is that you cannot eat coins. Now did I quit buying, well not exactly.

You see, after I paid for the previous purchase, E-bay sent me a coupon for 8% off my next purchase of up to $100, and oh, by the way, the coupon expired in two days. As the gears in my head started turning, I asked myself, ?What can I purchase to best take advantage of this offer?. Looking again to my 20th Century typeset I found that I still needed the big gun, a high grade Barber Half. High grade Barber Halves are pricey and could easily become the most expensive coin in the set. Not wanting to pay BIG MS bucks, I found an acceptable NGC AU-53, 1912-D Barber Half. Again, with the coupon I saved more than $20, purchased a coin at less than Numismedia fair market value, and paid about what I planned for the Barber Half slot in my set.

Most of you are aware that October 15 was D-Day concerning the Lincoln Chronicles set. For whatever reason, until now I have had no interest in either the Lincoln Commemorative Dollar or the Lincoln Cents. Nevertheless, I was caught up in the hype and thought, ?What the heck, it?s only $60 with postage?. When the set became available, I forgot to place my order, but remembered I wanted to place an order after reading your journals. Therefore, I placed the order with great ease that evening and avoided the hassles I just read of concerning the cumbersome ordering process. Now that I have the set in my hands, I am surprised with how much I like it.

Several months ago, I contemplated upgrading my camera without taking any action. With all the talk within the society concerning photography, I could not resist. I bought a Canon PowerShot G11 and that camera took the photographs on my post. Now we will see if I can make it through November with my self-imposed moratorium. I can do other things, such as getting my submissions up to date and working on my slot descriptions. I will let you know what happens in November, but there are some things more important than coins that I need to be spending my money on at this time. The old adage is true that there is an infinite amount of choices and a finite amount of money. Regardless, I have made some very good buys this month and am happy with the state of my collection at this time. Happy collecting all!

Gary