If you've spent any time at all on one of the many internet coin forums then you'll almost certainly have seen the question 'I am a new coin collector, where should I start?'. There's dozens of tips that people give those new to the hobby, and you're probably well aware of most of them. So, just to change things up a little we thought we'd list off some things that the new coin coin collector shouldn't do when they are just entering the hobby. We'd love to say that we didn't do any of the things we're about to talk about but to be honest, we did most of them, and it's from this basis of hard experience that we speak.
1) Not spending the time learning to grade. Grading is without doubt the single most important skill a coin collector can possess.
2) Buying coins before the books or not spending sufficient time learning the hobby before handing over your money.
3) Diving in an buying a lot of low grade coins without any understanding of grading or what collecting theme the new collector is following.
4) Buying coins off of the internet or from dealers and blindly trusting the seller's grading.
5) Knowingly buying problem coins without realising the ongoing problems these will cause your collection.
6) Unknowingly buying problem coins.
7) Expecting to make money from the hobby immediately, lots of new collectors think it is a money making game rather than a hobby.
8) Improperly storing or handling a new collection. This can wipe much of the value of your collection off in just a few minutes.
9) Spending up big on mint issued NCLT and expecting it to increase in value in the short term. If you enjoy it, collect it, but making making money from NCLT is a tricky business.
All of the above points can impair the profits you'll make from collecting or put a dampener on your thrills in collecting. We get a lot of questions from novice or beginner collectors and even those who have simply found an interesting coin and want to know more about it. If we can set just one person on the right path or give them the tools to make the right choices then we've done a good deed in numismatics today :)
Posted by harrisk at August 20, 2010 7:51 PM
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