Well the tanking economy has finally caught up to me. No longer can I afford to randomly drop a $100 here or there or buy that $300 coin on impulse. I' sure I'm not the only collector feeling the pinch but it doesn't mean we have to stop enjoying our hobby!
Personally I'm using this time to focus on some low cost or no cost activities to keep the flame burning.
1. Cleaning up the old collection - It's amazing, I liked to think I'm a focused collector but over the last couple of years I've picked up enough odd coins that there is a considerable amount of coins sitting all over the place. I have pulled these all together and made three piles: 1.) Unique coins that I'll put into their own albums, 2.) Potential investment coins that I'll put in my safety deposit box (I never keep expensive coins at my home), and 3.) coins that just don't fit in that I'll use for trade or sell.
Another thing to do is to inspect coin holders. How many need to be changed out? Are coins improperly toning. One thing I decided to do was to use my label maker and add labels to my cardboard holders. This actually worked out better than I thought so I'll defintely be playing with this for a while.
2. Planning and Budgeting - As long as I have at least a spare dollar then I have money to buy a coin. With limited funds, I'm using this time to layout what, how, and when to buy coins. One set I have only needs two coins to complete but those last two coins cost $150 each, I decided to place these on hold and start a new set so I began planning a Canadian type set. You can actually pick up quite a few early 20th century coins for less than $5 each and some such as large cents are as affordable as $1.50.
3. Working on this Website - Not stopping at coin shops, shows or even browsing online purchases has left me with some extra time which I can spend cleaning up this site. I started working on the coin library again by adding mintage tables (through 2007) and my goal is to have all circulating U.S. coins completed by the end of the year with descriptions, mintages, and photos. This stuff definitely keeps the collector fire burning even though I can't buy all that much.
So now my time is all filled with enough to keep me interested in the hobby and to keep this blog a roll-in…till next time :))
