What Was The Worst Rookie Coin Mistake You Ever Made?

In the mid-90's, I bought a beautiful Half Cent from a local coin shop. A few months later, I sold the coin on ebay when I wanted money for a video game.

Unbeknownst to me, the coin had been cleaned. The buyer wanted a refund, and I had already spent the $35 or whatever it was.

My parents reimbursed the buyer, I sold the returned coin to the local pawn shop, and I ended up having to do a ton of chores to repay my parents for whatever the balance was.

I think that's when I quit collecting the first time.

FIFTY POSTS POST!!!

The worst mistake I made was changing my mind..

When I first inherited my father and grandfathers coins the Morgan's instantly caught my eye and I knew they would be my main focus in collecting (although I collect every US coin). Anyways, some were MS (mainly the GSA CC's) but many others were circulated...

I just loved Morgan's in general and wanted a full set, both date and complete date and mint mark set. But for the first few months I'd buy circulated, mint state... It didn't matter, not to mention this was before I could grade good myself let alone tell cleanings....

Well... Not much later I realized that I could buy strictly MS examples for not all that much more than circulated ones... So I ended up trading in all of my circulated Morgan's (except a AU 1878 8tf VAM8 which was the first VAM I identified, and a mid grade 1878 7/8 tf with 6 tips showing clear as day to the naked eye, and I can't find a listing in VAM world for one with 6 showing so I think it could possibly be a new VAM, and one that I won in a contest here that will stay forever as a reminder of how great this site and members are).

But anyways when I traded roughly 40 EF-AU Morgans up towards MS examples I definitely didn't get as much for them as I paid.... So a bit of a loss but at least they went towards new MS coins. Had I done this from the get go I'd have been better off... But live and learn...


*edit* well this post was the first time I've thought of my circulated 1878 7/8 Morgan, it's been locked away in the back of my safe, not in my binder... But I just pulled it out to VAM it and low and behold its a 7 showing not 6... And a top 100 VAM-41 ya!! Glad I kept that one circulated or not! (I'd say EF-40 give or take) I'll post it in the VAM forum soon just to be sure but I'm pretty darn sure!!

And smokeriderdon-- WOW... You have AMAZING restraint, I'd literally be in jail right now if that happened to me.. Seriously... Props to you for keeping you cool! I honestly wouldn't have been able to. I freak out for far less, lol. (that horse would have been the guy... Lol)

There are some potent stories here. I've made my share for sure.
1) My grandfather gave me 2 Morgans when I was young. As soon as we got home, found mom's TarnX and scrubbed them so they were nice and shiny. I was a kid on that one.
2) We inherited quite a bit from my grandfather that really had not been cataloged until recently. When I started going through them we had health problems and needed money. I had very little knowledge at that time and took portions to 2 different stores near by and agreed to sell some to both. BOTH stores severely took advantage of someone who knew nothing. Sold around 1000 War Nickels to one at less than half melt at that time as well as 2 1916 d AG Mercury's, I'm too embarrassed to say what he gave on those! The other store was a similar deal with other coins, both stores are still in business and what's unbelievable is the first store is thought as the "experts" in our area.
Regrets....we all have some here.....

Joecoin,I like your name! Yeah,I'll name two stupid things I did. First, just as previously mentioned,I too sold a whole roll of BU Silver Eagles for 300.00$ when,like said earlier,silver sky rocketed to 40$ not too long afterwards! I know it's part of the business but MAN-N-N!Oh well, also another thing I've done,when just starting out as a new collector,I followed a fellow customer, of a coin shop that I was visiting,outside when he was leaving to buy the coins that the coin shop dealer didn't want to buy! Little did I know about this cardinal rule of coin patrons not ever to do. The owner saw me and "BANDED" me to ever darken his doors ever again! I just didn;t know.I tried to explain this to the owner but he was stubborn and wouldn't even listen to me. Oh well,his loss! Oh,one more thing on those Silver Eagles. I did purchase the roll for only 178.00$ so I still did make a profit,but still!

Not stopping my dad from depositing a gallon paint can full of Standing Liberty quarters (I was only 8 at the time and really didn't know better), but I often wonder now what treasures were in that can. My worst rookie mistake so far was cleaning a proof Franklin half.

Buying the Gold plated State Quarters....they look nice but certainly don't add value to the coins for sure.

When I was about 12, found a Seated Liberty dime in my backyard. Hardly any wear at all, but the reverse had some environmental damage. Besides cleaning the crap out of the coin, I tried to get the environ. damage off with a knife. Long story short, basically totally ruined the coin! Just lucky it wasn't a key date. Still have it 40 years later...wanna see it?