What to do before buying a coin?

[Coinmaster]

Hi all,
I thought it would be nice to share my coin-buy-routine with you. I'm sure you have similar or additional tips, so please add yours so we can learn from it. Here it goes:

1. When spotted a nice coin, I usually mark it (like 'add to favorites') and sleep a night over it: do I still want it? Just to make sure it's not an impuls buy (I learned from mistakes in the past haha).
2. When I still want it, I want to make sure I'm not overpaying. For this I look at Coinarchives, Coryssa, Vcoins, Mashops, etc. Nevertheless, when I REALLY want a coin, I accept paying the higher price.
3. When buying a coin in auction, I look what the additional costs are: buyers fee, costoms, packaging.
4. Also, I don't want to buy a fake coin. This happened to me multiple times, so now I always check the forgery-websites: forgerynetwork and fake coin reports. For not Roman coins you can check this website out.
5. After receiving the coin, it goes in my coin cabinet. On my computer I save the information in both an Excel overview and in a Word document, including background information like from DIR and ERIC. Also I save in a digital map the bill, the Word doc and photos.
6. I also take out the background of the photos from the coin via this handy tool.

Edited September 24 by Coinmaster

[shanxi]

I do almost everything in the same way, just one more point: I check whether I really don't already have the coin. 

[mcwyler]

2 hours ago, shanxi said:

I do almost everything in the same way, just one more point: I check whether I really don't already have the coin. 

Even if you forget to do this before stage 5, which is sometimes the case, you can tell yourself that no two ancient coins are EXACTLY the same...

[Spargrodan]

The most important thing to be careful about is FOMO. Waiting a couple of days, as you suggested in step 2, is a good approach. Unless it’s a coin I’m already looking for, in which case I might be okay with paying a premium, as you suggested.

Shops nowadays are designed to trigger that FOMO feeling, which is especially dangerous during auctions. It's always good to have a plan beforehand. In many cases, as long as you're not in the higher end of the market, there will be more coins available!

[CPK]

6 minutes ago, Spargrodan said:

The most important thing to be careful about is FOMO. Waiting a couple of days, as you suggested in step 2, is a good approach. Unless it’s a coin I’m already looking for, in which case I might be okay with paying a premium, as you suggested.

Shops nowadays are designed to trigger that FOMO feeling, which is especially dangerous during auctions. It's always good to have a plan beforehand. In many cases, as long as you're not in the higher end of the market, there will be more coins available!

Great point, and I've fallen for this myself. On the other hand, with very rare coins sometimes the FOMO is fully justified and should be acted upon, at least if the coin is important enough for you.

[Spargrodan]

8 minutes ago, CPK said:

Great point, and I've fallen for this myself. On the other hand, with very rare coins sometimes the FOMO is fully justified and should be acted upon, at least if the coin is important enough for you.

I agree and in those cases you will have to be ready to pay a premium if the coin is that important to you. 

[Coinmaster]

What I was wondering: does any of you have experience with pedigree research? Like previous collections and auctions? Any tips on that?

Edited September 24 by Coinmaster

[Roman Collector]

2 hours ago, CPK said:

On the other hand, with very rare coins sometimes the FOMO is fully justified and should be acted upon, at least if the coin is important enough for you.

For the specialist collector, the sale may literally be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase a rare item. Buy it immediately -- it really is a case of "you snooze, you lose." 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

I once forgot fairly recently that I already had a coin of Tetricus that for some reason I did not remember. I knew I had a coin of Tetricus II but thought this new Tetricus would fill a gap in the sequencing. Fortunately I scanned my photos and found a Tetricus circa 2022 that I completely forgot I had purchased. Don't know how that happened. Maybe its early mild cognitive impairment, I don't know...😕

 

 

Edited September 24 by Ancient Coin Hunter

[kirispupis]

For me, it really depends on two things.

Is the coin in an auction or from a seller?
If it's at auction, I can place it on my watch list and think over it while waiting for the auction to occur. During that time, I'll do much the same as you mention. 
If it's direct from a seller, I'll still perform due diligence, but immediately. There are a few sellers whose coins move quickly and I trust, so in those occasions I won't dally. 

Is the coin on my list?
Most of the coins I buy are on "wish lists" that I've created in advance. Those types I've already researched and so I can make quicker decisions.
Occasionally, some coin that wasn't on my list catches my fancy. I'll of course perform due diligence, but how long I wait on the coin will depend on how expensive it is and how good I believe the price is. 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Mine: Do I like it, and can I afford it? I'll also shy away, even if I love it, if it's wildly overpriced.

I had no idea what to buy for my most recent birthday buy, but a dealer's vacation (the 'best' coin in my waiting list) more or less forced me to delay.  I ended up getting a nice Domitian instead, assuming I don't get a second 'it's sold' email.

[antwerpen2306]

I agree with all this tips, check  before buying your collection, chech your want list, check the seller, check the costs and.... check your money  😄

[sand]

1. Is the coin exciting, and interesting?

2. Should I spend the money, on the coin?

3. How often does the coin type, with the eye appeal of the coin in question, appear in an auction or fixed price sale?

4. Would I get a bunch of Likes, if I posted the coin on Nvmis Forvms?

5. Would I be missing out, if I didn't buy the coin?

[Dafydd]

I do everything you do except 5 & 6 and share your experiences with fakes.

I will  now research 6 as that looks like a great tool.

I only omit 5 and 6 as a routine because of time constraints, I have a couple of hundred coins that need photographing. I say its a retirement job!

Also, I have been buying from a large private collection for about 10 years and some are fakes because the collector was not Internet savvy and a victim of some rogues.
If I am offered something really rare I ask for members opinions after checking Forum and other sites.

Main thing I've learnt is not to be impulsive that usually ends up in tears. I once bought a sovereign in a Polish auction for way overprice because I thought it a bargain because I screwed up on currency conversion leading on to the fact that if it looks too good to be true it probably isn't when impulse buying.

[Amarmur]

A big part of ancient coin buying for me is whether or not I like the coin.

An AE of Libius Severus has zero interest because it is ugly as sin even though it is rare.

Sometimes you have a gut feeling the coin you're watching will sell fast so you have to make a quick descision is this something that I really want or is this just something extra and not part of your core collecting goals. I tend to not spend over $50 for something I deem nonessential to my collection. 
 

You can't have everything... 

Edited September 24 by Amarmur
Adding info

[JayAg47]

6 hours ago, sand said:

4. Would I get a bunch of Likes, if I posted the coin on Nvmis Forvms?

The most important factor of all 😁

[CPK]

I'm afraid I tend to do the most of the heavy research only after buying the coin. Since I am not a specialist, I tend to buy coins that simply appeal to me, usually visually, though not always. Many times I am attracted to a coin because of its rarity or historical significance. So I may ponder before purchasing, but I don't usually go all out with the research until after I have made the decision. I don't usually feel like putting lots of study and effort into a coin that I don't even own, and may lose to another buyer.

After I buy the coin, I dig as deep as I can to find out as much as I can about it. This usually involves checking online references like OCRE, combing through the millions of archived listings in ACSearch, Coryssa, and cgb.fr's websites, checking collection databases like FORVM and Colleconline, looking on NF or CT for past threads about the type, etc. This often involves hunting for die matches, too, especially for rare coins.

For example, I just recently won a very rare Roman Imperial AE variant, of which I've so far found only 5 other examples, all of them struck with the same obverse die, with mine being possibly the finest of them all. Though I did enough research on the coin to know it was a rare type, I didn't go all out until I saw I had won.

Edited September 25 by CPK

[Octavius]

All points are very reasonable and insightful, however I'm still working on number one , with very little success.

[Ocatarinetabellatchitchix]

On 9/24/2024 at 1:50 AM, Coinmaster said:

I'm sure you have similar or additional tips

ONE IMPORTANT THING NOT TO FORGET: CONSULT THE WIFE…

[-monolith-]

The most important thing is to just show up to the auction. 

[antwerpen2306]

@Ocatarinetabellatchitchix we here in Europe are living in the 21 century😀😃😄

ps: but we respect the traditional way of live, as said in French : Ce que Femme veut, Dieu veut 🤩