Hi Andrew,
To begin with, thanks for the pictures!
Being fairly new to ancient coin collecting, I came across a few roadblocks that you may be able to help shed some light on. I hear alot of advice from these posts about great/cheap aquisitions, but like one's 'favourite fishing spot' they're never revealed. Whithout access to these 'sources' It would seem that I would never get turn-around coin(s) to work with.
There are so many fakes as well, so my personal searches might very easily be completely in vain; and not without risk of coin collecting 'death' so to speak. We all seem to want to be considered 'middle class' but there is a huge grey area in this category and I'll admit that my budget floats between $100-$300 at its good times and $50 in its low times. I'm sure many newcomers might relate.
Do you think there is an approach to bettering my situation, or should I just be content on my budget buying from Forvm and similar dealers for set prices?
Matt
Hi Matt,
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Most collectors of ancient coins are not wealthy. The overwhelming majority of us are average, middle-class people. You hear about the wealthy ones because they become famous.
Your budget is actually higher than most collectors.
I'm gonna let you in on another secret (or teach you a "trick"). Try to establish a relationship with a dealer at "the ground level". In other words, try doing business with a dealer when he is just starting out (very close to the inception of his business). And routinely buy coins from him. Eventually, you will develop a special relationship with him, probably without even realizing it. He will remember you as someone who routinely fed his business in his early years. And he will be eternally grateful for that. He is the most likely candidate to develop a "special relationship" with. You "grow with them". Once his business gets established, he will be inclined to cut you great deals or offer you "first crack" at certain types of coins, before the rest of his customers have a chance to buy them. That is what happened to me with regard to 2 dealers, without me even consciously realizing it. I didn't plan it. It just "developed".
There is one dealer who routinely offers me fantastic deals. He routinely sells coins to me at or below their wholesale value. And there is another dealer who offers me "first crack" at any Campania coins that come his way, before he offers them for sale to the rest of this customers. I've been routinely buying coins from these 2 particular dealers from the very beginning (almost from the inception of their businesses).
And stay away from ebay!
Meepzorp
Hi Matthew
Meepzorp has already given excellent answers to the two questions you asked of me, so I can only support what he says: that 99% of even serious collectors are ordinary working folks (like me), that your levels of
budget, dispersed with care over decades, is sufficient to build you a
collection as
good as mine (my median purchase
price was for a long time at the $100 level and it's only crept up in recent years because I've been
selling 5 coins for every one I buy hence releasing funds for better stuff; I've also chosen to put windfall receipts such as bonuses into higher end coins) and the key to building a really great
collection is time, expertise and relationships. One can't overestimate the value of relationships. If a dealer buys a group of 20 coins, and turns immediately to a collector he knows and offers a
choice of 5 for half of the cost of the lot of 20, the dealer is covered for half
his risk whilst
still having most of the coins in hand whereas the collector has the immense luxury of being able to choose the absolutely best from a large lot which will certainly include
rarities and high
quality pieces. It may not
work exactly like this, but the slow methodical building of relationships over time with both other collectors and a few dealers pays off after time. I myself sometimes offer friends the opportunity to
pick a group from my duplicates at an aggregate "
price originally paid by me" for a group lot. That achieves for me, on balance, about the same result as consigning, whereas the collector(s) have the luxury of being able to
pick rarities and
quality without competition or commissions, and at historic prices too. Relationship trades
work for everyone in lubricating the process of getting the best coins into the best
collections. But it may take a great deal of time, many years, to get to the point that Meep and I describe, and as Meep says, you may not even realise it's happening when someone emails you to say they've some new arrivals you may be interested in.
It does all take time and effort, in really getting to know the market and in knowing the coins in depth too so that when a real
good opportunity
comes up you know to press the buy button immediately and not wait an hour or a day or a week. There are collector dividends that flow from keeping yourself well informed, so read the books and spend every moment you can reading and looking at the internet and handling as many genuine coins as you can. But it all takes time, so be patient too!
Anyway I want to thank
Meepzorp for preempting my answer with some excellent observations that I
hope help.