Am I Spending Too Much?

As long as you are satisfied with them thats all that counts.

I dislike slabs and consider them of no value but would not remove the coins unless you are planning to keep the coins. If you are selling them, you might find someone who does not collect ancients who would rather have them prepared for burial. The coins are decent but I'm with the slightly overpaid group.

Steve, I know the feeling--collecting ancients is very rewarding.
My failsafe to insolvency is keeping to a strict budget.

Buy all the coins you want but only buy coins you actually want and not coins you see and buy for a reason that you really can't explain. Next weekend I will be going to a big coin show up in Baltimore (3 times a year supplying about half the coins I buy each year). If the regular pattern repeats itself I will buy 10-30 coins and bring them home satisfied with the day. later in the evening buyer's remorse will set in and ~2-5 of those purchases will strike me as mistakes. I'll see a flaw that did not bother me or I'll find that my checking of my list erred and I already had the coin. The mistakes will go into my mistakes box and maybe someday get traded for other coins (possibly more mistakes).

We all know that we should use some care and most of us get caught up in the heat of the search and buy some things we shouldn't. We also will leave behind coins that we wish we had bought but did not. I don't have a box full of things I wish I had bought but didn't so that error is harder to correct. Its a hobby and it is supposed to be fun. If it is fun, perhaps we should not worry about the details quite so much. When it stops being fun, the questions of what to do are more difficult.

ahahaha => wow, you're so correct jwharper!

... this is how I feel when I'm in the heat of coin-battle!

Well, I'm gonna go have some "family life" => so hopefully I'll talk to you dudes, tomorrow!

thanks for your help!