Advice for young collectors...

[Hoot]

Every now and then I get an email from a young collector about entering this hobby or wishing to do more with numismatics. I just responded to this:

 

"I would like to go into the coin business someday. For now I would like to learn how to buy coins to sell on eBay. Can you give me any advice on how and were to try and buy coins to resell."

 

Here's the advice I gave. Sorry if it's incomplete, but you should add your advice to this and we can hope some readers will benefit... Hoot

 

Dear XX - I would advise several things. Forgive me if you are already beyond some of this, but there are many practical lessons to be learned.

 

1) Join the ANA and take their Numismatic Scholar correspondence course. This is highly informative and has a lot of basic information that EVERY numismatist knows. This will help you (but not prevent you) from getting ripped off. There are MANY bad coins on the market and you should be as familiar with recognizing those as the good ones. These courses will help.

 

2) Go to the ANA summer seminars. Since you are 17, you're about to graduate. Next June these will be held again in Colorado Springs. The grading seminars will be the most vital, but attend others that simply turn your crank. These are a blast and attended by hundreds of people. The instructors are all world-class numismatists.

 

3) Attend as many shows as you can and resist buying. Look at every coin that interests you. Warning: some, not all but some, dealers can be [!@#%^&^] to young people. If they ignore you, then politely demand their attention. If they are jerks, walk away and shrug it off. Look at raw coins and listen to what the dealers tell you. There becomes a noticeable difference between those giving you a sales pitch and those trying to inform you and steer you the right direction. You will find the latter, so be patient. Look at lots of slabbed coins, as these will improve your grading skills and your ability to recognize quality.

 

4) Specialize first, branch out later. Get to know a single series upside-down and backwards. This will help you with ALL series in the end. Try to avoid ultra-modern coins (modern commemoratives and post 1970 coins) when doing this. The reason is simple: these coins were almost all minted very well, so gaining the kind of information from them that you do when you collect, say Jefferson nickels 1938-1970, is practically impossible. Every series has a great many twists and turns. Coins of 1793-1838 are quite different than those 1839-1907, etc.

 

5) Look at the collector society boards, register and join the discussion. Read everything you can, on the boards, in books and in magazines (e.g. Coin World, COINage, Numismatic News, The Numismatist), and become scholarly. This will help you immeasurably. The NGC collector society boards are far friendlier and more informative than the PCGS boards. NGC: http://boards.collectors-society.com/

 

6) Look at the registries, participate if you wish, but don't compete. Competition is bad for the hobby, but sharing is good.

 

7) Enjoy your coins, no matter what anyone else says.

 

8) Go to school, get an MBA and learn what it takes to make a profitable business. if you still like numismatics by the end of that, I'm sure you will do very well for yourself.

 

[cladking]

Try to avoid ultra-modern coins (modern commemoratives and post 1970 coins) when doing this. The reason is simple: these coins were almost all minted very well, so gaining the kind of information from them that you do when you collect, say Jefferson nickels 1938-1970, is practically impossible. Every series has a great many twists and turns. Coins of 1793-1838 are quite different than those 1839-1907, etc.

 

 

Experience and the pops don't bear out this thinking for regular issue coins except the nickel. The nickel was made much better from 1971 onward and are almost without exception more easily found with good strikes. There are several later nickels which are difficult to locate in high grade though, and by the same token the highest grades of some of these later nickels are spectacular. Avoiding them because of an arbitrary date is risking missing some great coins and some interesting lessons. The other moderns often get more difficult to find well struck and mark free after 1970.