Why I Stopped Collecting!

Why let them run you away from something you enjoy?

I can relate. I had a couple situations in the last year that almost had me hanging up my loupe.

First I went to my first coin show last spring. A guy had a pile of Barber dimes in his case with a sign next to it. I am pretty sure the sign was like $1.95 each. I was starting a type set, so I told him that I would like one. He looked at me like I was a complete idiot and told me they weren't available for individual sale, that I had to buy the whole pile and then walked away.

The next thing that happened, is that my sister in law gave me a bunch of coins to sell. I sold them here, $280 worth of silver dimes and quarters. Sent them out. Gave my sister in law her money. And then the wonderful post office "damaged" the package and all the silver came up missing. I had to refund the $280, did not pay for insurance, and did not ask for money back from my sister in law, since I felt I was dumb for not insuring.

So basically my whole coin budget is gone and I am still selling things to try to make up for my $280 loss.

I thought about walking away from the hobby since it caused me so much stress and financial pain, but decided I enjoyed looking at my Mercury dimes and Franklin half albums to much to stop.

So I am still here. The people here are great to trade and buy and sell with. Maybe coin shows aren't for you. I am not sure if they are for me yet either.

Ken

My young friend , I hear and feel your pain. You know why, 'cause I went through the same thing when I was your age. I solved that problem at a coin show I attended. I photocopied a $100.00 bill 50 times and walked around the coin show with the wad of photocopies cut in the proper sizes as the real McCoy. ($5,000.00)
I walked around with the wad in my right hand acting sooo cool and nonchalant as if I owned the place.
You know the old saying " money talks and rules"; well you should see the respect I had from the old fogies then! Awesome , Baby Jesus.

Glenn Pinto

Pennypusher, just remember this: you are the hope of our country's future, and if you give up now, no hope. Well, maybe it's not quite as dire as that, but don't give up on your hobby just because someone a generation ahead of you won't give you the time of day - remember, their generation, not yours, messed up things for the rest of us. Or maybe it was my generation that screwed things up. Anyway, hang in there and keep reporting back here. We're behind you, kid.

I'm younger also, and when dealers are rude, I just look at them and tell them that I'm not going to buy anything with that attitude, and walk off. If it's at a show, I'll try to buy something at the next table over!

Look on the bright side, when that happens at a show you at least have the option to thumb your nose at them and not lose any money When it happens on ebay, you usually don't find out until after you paid and have a problem(then you realize you have a bigger problem)

I agree with jimmy28303....there will always be dealers like that no matter how old you are....it is their loss, they just hurt themselves in lost business.

Glenzy has the right idea. Take a fifty dollar bill and 50, one dollar bills. Carry them in your pocket and when a grumpy dealer is rude, non chalantly take the roll out of your pocket, and KINDLY say, "I guess I will have to find another dealer who wants to make some money." Just like that scene from the movie, "Pretty Woman", when Julia Roberts revisits the store that would not wait on her the previous day. I LOVE THAT SEEN.

OR, you could be like me, carry $3,000.00 in cash, some hundreds, some fiftys and a few twentys. Walk up to a dealer, do a quick wave of the cash and say, "I need someone to do some SERIOUS sucking up to me!"

I volunteer to be the one single rude person here, but it's going to cost you to use me as a scapegoat....