What Was Some Newbie Mistakes U Made Buying Canadian Coins

One of my first mistakes was ordering a 'hot coin' from a dealer instead of directly from the Mint.

This was many years ago when the Mint website was not as well developed as it is today but I ordered two sets (one as a gift for my FIL) of the 2004 Moose coin/stamp from a very well know KW dealer. The order was accepted at issue price. At that time, the set was still available from the Mint.

Then the set sold out at the Mint and took off in the secondary market. Suddenly, the dealer "ran out" of issue price sets. However, they had plenty available at three times issue price.

In the end, I found the second set at a local dealer for issue price but I purchased almost exclusively from the Mint for many years after that lesson learned. Bottom line, trust and integrity are not always something you can expect in the Coin World - or anywhere else I suppose.

Of course mileage may vary these days but buying directly from the Mint usually has the advantage that they generally honour the orders that they accept.

My biggest mistakes were all the Olympic coins, except those I purchased at intrinsic value.

Not paying enough attention to details like milk spots or fine hairlines and other defects on RCM products. This came back to bite me when I wanted to sell my coins.

Buying classic proof, specimen sets from the RCM (pretty much all years from 1973... I never bought the 1971-72 double dollar sets). Those are readily available today for a fraction of issue price.

Huge mistake was not to hoard more 50's and 60's silver coins and sets.

One HUGE mistake for me (not related to NCLT specifically) was to buy ICCS graded coins.

I must admit... I've had a great time despite all of those mistakes.

I don't get the mistake with the ICCS grades.
You think they were overpriced?
Wrongly graded?
Don't like the holders?

Not necessarily overpriced.

ICCS is not a recognized grading authority in the US.

That's a big deal for me because I live in the US since 2000 and brought all my Canadian coins here when I moved.

Several of my ebay auctions were cancelled because I spelled out the grade in the title or in the description. As a result most of my auctions sold for marginally better than RAW coins of similar grade.

I never fully realized the issue with ICCS until I found out that they are run by a couple guys that don't have internet access.

That is funny!

Another mistake - one that truly fits my definition of mistake - is to buy online, viewing a photo with a small screen device such as a iPhone or iPad. Not necessarily as relavent to NCLT but still maybe so, I've purchased a couple silver dollars at a reasonable price even though it appeared they might have a tiny blemish of some sort. When they arrived at my doorstep that small blemish had grown substantially in both size and noticability. Even though my first thought was that I'd been sent a different problem coin, I soon discovered the blame was all mine to shoulder after looking at the sellers image on my much larger resolution PC screen.

I started collecting at age 9, so my biggest mistake was that I thought "brighter was better" with 1-cent coins. I probably discarded lovely MS-64 brown coins, for MS-60 Red coins, until I was 12 or so...

At age 12, I started buying BU rolls from the banks and learning how to cherry pick modern coins in high mint state condition... I regret not getting into nickel dollars back then!!

I've made a few mistakes,

Buying some crap in '80's which is worth nothing today.
Getting hosed by a dealer at a coin show because my daughter liked the coin.
Not being selective enough in my purchases.
Maybe buying too much circulation stuff from ASYN on ebay. (prices were good)
Great Lakes collection - meh

Smarter things I've done,
Taking over my grandfather's circulation coins (he was a barber and had rolls upon rolls of great stuff)
Buying an entire circulation collection from a neighbour in the late '90s
My only recent purchases from RCM have been legacy nickel and Big Coin series
Cancelling my two glass candy canes.

its certainly different, I like it. Its nice to shake it up from time to time. It is eye catching and fits the coin perfectly. Much better then the boring maroon clamshell. I even like the rare black clamshell better. The mint needs to do something to jazzy up the clamshell. Ty for posting pics Blast off.