Lately, I have hit a run of buyer's regret from
ebay cherrypicking. This has happened before, but it's starting to bug me, so changes must be made. Surely I am not the only Cherrypicker who has encountered these challenges. I think there are two broad categories where I am trying to figure out my collecting strategy.
First is the way that cherrypicking attempts are not always successful. The result is a growing pile of ordinary coins where I have either paid an unreasonable price, or the shipping cost dominated the purchase price. I don't particularly want these coins, but I have a sunk cost mentality about dispatching them.
Rationally, I can chalk these up as small losses that are part of the process of acquiring more valuable rare coins for low prices. But also rationally, since I never liquidate the more valuable cherrypicks, these coins represent real money losses that add up over time.
The second and more problematic category is FOMO cherrypicks. These are interesting coins where the liquid value just isn't there. When I spot these coins, I often cannot resist buying them for my collection, even though I know I am basically dead-ending the money. A good example is the 1946-S DDO-004 nickel that I paid $15 to buy. It's a lovely coin and a neat variety, but realistically, it will go into a flip in a box to never see the light of day. Cheap circulated 1941 Large S nickels are like popcorn for me. I have actually stopped looking at my saved search for 1857
Flying Eagle cents, because I cannot resist bidding on mule clashes. I am going to get there soon with 1941 doubled beak quarters and 1957 Misplaced-D quarters. I've got a pile of minor mint errors that keeps growing, and I haven't even moved them to flips yet.
It's like being on a diet and seeing a delicious milkshake. I crave that milkshake, but once I've enjoyed it, I just end up regretting it.
At this point, I've probably ruminated on these thoughts several times, so I apologize for being redundant. I feel like there must be some type of solution, though. Surely any cherrypicker with a finite budget eventually confronts the idea that there are many tempting treasures to acquire, but they would ultimately be happier with fewer coins of higher rarity and quality than a large, illiquid hoard of momentarily interesting coins.
Anybody got a method more insightful than "don't be compelled to buy the interesting coin when you see it"? Can the itch be scratched somehow without shelling out the money?
Posted Today 56M ago
