Old guy decides to jump into the deep end of coin collecting with very mixed results. posted by Richard Blaine

[CSJournals-migration]

Ignorance is not bliss!

 

I`m a retired civil servant. I am not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. I conservatively invested in the stock market most of my adult life. My overall experience was mixed, but I did alright. I made a reasonable amount of profit over the years. Considerably more than I would have achieved from simple interest earning investments. I`ve been retired for 10 years now.

In 2009, and quite by accident, I pushed a wrong button on my TV`s remote control. Serendipity. I was looking at a television coin show. The TV show was called The Coin Vault. Prior to this, I thought that you could only buy a coin by visiting a local coin shop. *Before I write more, I`m going to see if can input this into my Journal. I expect that I will fail, and I will lose what I have written so far. We`ll see.

Pleasant surprize. I was able to save it. I had never really enjoyed visits to coin stores because invariably I would be the only customer in the store. I would feel self conscious, as the operator would hover near me. I just didn`t like the atmosphere I guess. Over the years I had bought a few small, old gold coins for my yourgest daughter`s birthdays now and then. That was the extent of my involvement.

The stock market had melted down more times than I care to remember. I had put my investment money on the side lines in about 2002 or so. I dabbled here or there a little, but always almost got burnt. So I stopped even that. I was left with no way to invest or even keep up with inflation. My alternatives were real estate, antiques, art or coins. I knew nothing about art or antiques and had always sworn that I would never get involved in real estate investing. That left me with coins and collectables. I collected coins when I was young, up to the time when I got married and quickly figured out that I could no longer afford any hobby that involved spending money.

The Statehood Quarters had gotten me back into the mood. I just collected them from pocket change. When I discovered the Coin Vault TV show, they were selling full sets of silver proof quarters. I inventoried mine to see if I had all of the States. I was shocked when I found only about half of the States in my collection. I decided right then and there that I would begin to educate myself in the hobby. I found more TV coin shows and watched them all. I subscribed to coin magazines, etc. Long story short, within six months I was investing in coins.

I did so through 2010 and thought I was doing pretty good. Then I discovered Ebay. Man, that was depressing. Ebayers were selling coins every minute of every day for 20 to 30% less than I had routinely been paying. Needless to say, I stopped buying coins on TV. I still get a few that way because sometimes they do have great hard to find coins that aren`t totally over priced. I am now fully invested in collectable coins and I`m very happy I discovered Ebay, etc., when I did. This journal entry has been all about how I got back into collecting. I think coins are going into a boom time because baby-boomers are starting to retire. I`m on the older edge of being a boomers since I was born in 1945. Boomers collected when they were kids, they are probably the wealthiest segment of our society, they`re looking for safe investments and hedges against inflation and lastly after being retired for awhile, they`re going to get bored. They will find that their grand-kids will love to be taught the hobby. Simply put, everthing about coin collecting is good. My retired life is so much richer now and all of my grandkids have become little coiners.

My next journal entry will speak to my love of American Silver/Gold Eagles and how my collection grew. Til next time. - Rick Blaine

 

See more journals by Richard Blaine

[Kenneth F]

The Coin Vault is only good for a laugh!

[Merlin8*]

Rick, I really enjoy stories about how members started collecting. Thanks for sharing,

 

Merlin8*

[J3_Dog]

I loved the term Little Coiners