Previous Hobby
Ten or so years ago I began collecting US coins. What was at first both enjoyable and educational soon morphed into nothing less than an obsession, and a very expensive one at that. I found myself compulsively filling album after album making sure I acquired an Indian Head Penny or Mercury Dime, etc., etc., for each year and mint mark designated. And my mind was always on the NEXT coin or the NEXT album. I seldom enjoyed the coins I had. But the worst came when I decided to cut my losses and sell what I had purchased. I was shocked to find how inflated the purchase prices had been. And, how the very dealers who had gushed over the beauty and value of a given coin when Selling it would, when purchasing it back, find flaws, defects and excuses for offering less than half the original purchase price.
Two things I learned from this experience: 1) Numismatics is unlikely to be profitable in the short run and for the uninitiated; and 2) The majority of coin dealers have ethics and morals somewhere between those of a politician and a pedophile.
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