My weird procedures related to coin collecting

Hello,

I usually hunt bulk coin lots and I thought would anyone else do even some of the procedures which I do with them?

1. I'm type collector, so I take all the new types and upgrades out of it. It don't check the dates.

2. I take all the coins out of it which I can exchange. Usually I use the service of Leftovercurrency.com which buys even pre decimal UK coins and some pre euro coins. Rates are in the most cases very good (like 5 euro cents for 5 euro cents!).

3. Euro cents (1c and 2c) which are not in use in Finland I take to my local bank.

4. Lowballs goes to metal recycling bins.

5. I sell the rest as a bulk lot. It will be a bit boring, as there's common tourist coins from Greece, Italy, France, Sweden and former Soviet block. Maybe some small silver coins also.

That way I can normally get profit from bulk lots and get satisfaction about the recycling of coins. Coin exchange services are also good if you think the development of the numismatic values of common coins - pre euros and such are going to melting pot.

I started the exact same way. I would get 10-20 kilo lots of world and British coins and spend a week or two sifting through them, then sell them on as a bulk lot once upgrading my collection.

Bulk in my opinion is the best way for a new collector to start up, great selections of coins to get started and find the type that make you tick.

I struggle to find good lots lately, but I always keep my eyes peeled if any come up.

I used to exclusively do this when I started. I'd buy a bulk lot, take out the coins I needed from it (I also collect by type) then I would split up and re-sell. I found the best way to maximise my profit was to split into country groups or area groups and sell them in small lots (i.e. I'd usually have groups for USA, Australia, UK, Europe, Asia, pacific, africa, middle east, etc)

Now that I've refined my collection and specialised a bit more than then I started, I tend to buy individual coins that I need for my collection. But if a good looking lot comes up for sale I will definitely pick it up and re-sell. Thanks to Numista I now have a few more avenues for selling the coins, as there are several members I know who are after coins from specific areas, so I offer them the coins before I list them for sale over here.

Alas there is a big if!

Sometimes parcells from 1 till 2kg coins end at the hands of the custom officers. Doesn't matter much if the parcell is sent by registed mail, when confiscated there is nothing that you can do about it.

I did also sent bulks to online friends before and in some cases confiscation by the customs happen. It's mean to show the parcell with the coins just to tell you that next time you get problems with justice.

Resuming: often you end with empty hands and that made me stop to buy bulks online and/or to send bulks by mail.