CoinTalk members share their biggest rookie mistakes in coin collecting

This article summarizes posts in a CoinTalk forum thread titled "Rookie mistake." The source material does not show when the posts were made, so no date is given here. Everything below is what forum members reported about themselves or their opinions.

The question

1stSgt22, who started the thread, wrote that everyone was a rookie at coin collecting once, and asked members for their biggest rookie mistake.

The member named two. First, going years without trying to learn about the hobby and just trying to fill albums. Second, as a result, returning every war nickel to circulation that was not needed for the albums. The member said the thread could help current and future rookies.

Coins not bought, coins let go

OldRetiredGuy said the first thing that came to mind was not buying multiple rolls of Indian Head pennies about 58 years ago for 2 cents each. At the time, the member was only interested in silver.

ldhair named not buying more Bust coins at a young age, and buddy16cat named selling coins that should have been kept. green18 said the member would not have turned in all of those Franklins.

SensibleSal66 recalled selling some silver coins, possibly Walkers, to other kids in junior high school. The member also wrote of buying a ticket to see Black Sabbath in 1982 or 1983. The member said it may not have been a mistake after all. "Still have the memories," the member added.

Mistakes in buying

Several posts were about buying. SilverMike named buying raw coins sight unseen from coin magazine ads without knowing how to grade them. The result, the member said, was many cleaned and whizzed coins that were really XF/AU but sold as MS. "Expensive lesson," the member wrote.

KBBPLL bought a coin on eBay in an NNC slab about 16 years ago. It was graded MS63, but the member said it was low AU at best, and added: "I wasn't a rookie collector but I was a rookie with ebay shysters."

Randy Abercrombie described buying pretty white coins online and finding on arrival that they had been "polished to death." The Meat man named buying a coin based on a stock photo, and buying quantity instead of quality.

Goals and storage

BuffaloHunter said these were less mistakes than things the member would do differently if starting over: set goals from the start, such as which sets to build, what grades, foreign or domestic, and modern, classic or ancients. The member described being once an "all-over-the-place-hoarder-accumulator" and now a collector.

Pickin and Grinin said the member learned a lot from roll hunting and reading CoinTalk. The member is thinking of moving to a heavily humid area, does not want the coins ruined, and needs to work out how to sell some of them.

Randy Abercrombie also named showing the collection to family members and thinking it was safe in a bedroom closet. A young nephew helped himself to part of the collection, the member wrote.

Other replies

ksmooter61 said the biggest problem was thinking they understood more than they actually did, though they never spent much money, so losses were small. Vess1 named taking a break from the hobby for about 15 years. ZoidMeister answered, "Buying my first coin."

Source: CoinTalk, "Rookie mistake" (forum thread).