Posted 07/01/2024 08:46 am
1. know the series you are buying. its easy to lose $$ purchasing some series raw without having a solid knowledge base on that series. especially when buying raw coins. the top on my list are buffalos. if you look through the grading threads here these seem to give the most problems for folks to grade accurately due to die & strike issues as well as heavy polishing at some mints. even the TPG's don't get it right a lot of times. I would never buy a bust half raw without a good solid knowledge of the series.
2. never buy a coin based on the grade on the holder. grade the coin yourself. how many times have we seen slab grades that there is no way the coin is that grade
3. if you are attempting to complete a series always purchase the keys as soon as possible as they tend to increase the fastest. buy the highest grade you can afford of a key. I can't tell you how much more it cost me to complete series waiting to buy the keys to finish it
4. stay plugged in on this site. I've seen multiple coin sites and there is nothing out there like this one. you have folks here that have decades experience collecting and grading coins and even owners of LCS's. take the average of the comments to get a pretty good idea of the coin. there are some folks here well versed in certain series and i'd weight their opinions more
5. if you can, post photos of coins you are interested in or have purchased for comments here on validation, grading and possible issues to determine if its worth keeping. if I had something like this when I started I can't tell you how much it would have saved me. for instance I had no idea what a details coin was until decades after I started resulting in some purchases that should not have been made
lastly, get a young person interested in the hobby
2. never buy a coin based on the grade on the holder. grade the coin yourself. how many times have we seen slab grades that there is no way the coin is that grade
3. if you are attempting to complete a series always purchase the keys as soon as possible as they tend to increase the fastest. buy the highest grade you can afford of a key. I can't tell you how much more it cost me to complete series waiting to buy the keys to finish it
4. stay plugged in on this site. I've seen multiple coin sites and there is nothing out there like this one. you have folks here that have decades experience collecting and grading coins and even owners of LCS's. take the average of the comments to get a pretty good idea of the coin. there are some folks here well versed in certain series and i'd weight their opinions more
5. if you can, post photos of coins you are interested in or have purchased for comments here on validation, grading and possible issues to determine if its worth keeping. if I had something like this when I started I can't tell you how much it would have saved me. for instance I had no idea what a details coin was until decades after I started resulting in some purchases that should not have been made
lastly, get a young person interested in the hobby
