Milestone in my free collection

I just hit a milestone in my free collection.

Since April I've been doing an experiment and trying to get as many free coins as I can. My collection is all silver coins that I have kept from bulk lots after I'd got my money back from re-selling the rest, coins that I have swapped for other coins left over from bulk lots after I'd already got my money back from re-selling the rest, or coins bought from the profit from splitting up and re-selling bulk lots.

Today I picked up 5 new coins from a swap with a Numista member and that pushed me over 100 coins. I have almost 700 grams of pure silver and the book value is over $1,000 all that in just 6 months. I'd say it's been a pretty successful experiment so far. If you want to follow my progress, my collection is up on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/43493775@N06/albums/72157672928696258

Hi, read this post with great interest, a year back I also had this thought that you could build a collection for free, by buying and selling off the coins you don't really want, with a little knowledge and a little bit of luck it certainly works, mostly from buying bulk lots and a little detective work anyone could build a decent coin collection for free as long as you're willing to spend a little money, time and effort.
Great experiment Neil!

Congratulations Neal!
I turned to do coin collecting in this mode like 2 years ago myself...after finding out that I don't really have the proper amount of time+money to run this hobby(I have other hobbies as well),it had to become a "self-supported" activity...and since couple of months I can claim my collection to be "for free"

Are you sure you did not spend more than $1000 worth of your time on this experiment?

Wow! That’s a wonderful achievement... Building a collection for free is not very easy as it’s sometimes very difficult to let go of coins... every coin becomes dear to you once it becomes a part of your collection..

Time costs nothing, unless you buy a watch or a clock.

Quote: "COINMAN1"​Time costs nothing, unless you buy a watch or a clock.

​if that's true, why are people always claiming time is money?.

Iainmac,
I would totally agree with you, if you work for someone or own a business.
I was really talking about time on your hobby. Surely you cannot put a monetary hourly value on time spent searching and buying coins.
I spend a couple of hours a day, sorting & listing ect, but would have no idea of personal costs, as I have not lost/gained any money.

COINMAN1,
your spot on mate, it was just a statement that begged the question!
I was thinking of the last time i used a solicitor and they charged me £50 for a phone call and £50 to send a letter, when i asked them why, " Time is Money" was the reply ( B*****DS)

That's very cheap. £50.00 for a conversation. My daughter works in the financial industry and their charge is around £450.00 per hour.
At 60 words per minute, that works out at £0.125/word.
Therefore, if the word 'time' is used during this conversation, it does actually cost you money.

Changed price per word. Did not have my glasses on when reading calculator

Time is only worth something if you're doing something you don't want to do. I don't go Kayaking for 4 hours and then say "I just spent $200 worth of time Kayaking."

I like sorting coins and trying to hunt down deals, the collection is just a by-product of that. I realised this a year ago when I had amassed a $12,000 collection but I never really pulled it out to look at the coins once I'd put them in flips and into an album. That's why I started this experiment. I'll see how many coins I can get in a year, then I'll probably sell them and start again.

Quote: "neilithicman"​Time is only worth something if you're doing something you don't want to do.
...

Exactly. I don't mind spending 3-4 hours flipping through multiple binders full of coins and digging through bargain bins in hopes of finding something interesting, but I do it because I love the hobby, not because I'm trying to flip coins for a profit to pay for something else. For me, selling coins is a chore that takes the fun out of the hobby and turns it into a job. And if I wanted a 2nd job, I'd find one that pays better.

"Time is only worth something if you're doing something you don't want to do."
Priceless my friend, read that back to yourself and ask yourself if it makes sense!.
LOL! Don't give up the day job

Quote: "Iainmac"​"Time is only worth something if you're doing something you don't want to do."
​Priceless my friend, read that back to yourself and ask yourself if it makes sense!.
​LOL! Don't give up the day job

​It makes perfect sense, it's a cost/benefit equation. If I'm sorting through coins, Kayaking, hiking, playing Frisbee golf then money doesn't come into the equation because it's what I like to do. If it's garden work like mowing the lawn or trimming the hedge than you have to work out whether it's worth your time to do it yourself or whether you want to pay someone to do it and enjoy the extra spare time.

Selling coins is quite interesting to me because I like to see how much I can get for something that I picked out of a bulk lot. My favourite one was a 1960 Chinese 1 Yuan banknote that I chucked up for $1 because I don't collect banknotes and it was the only banknote from a $200 bulk lot of coins. That $1 reserve turned into $126 by the time the bidding war ended.

Apologies Neil, if you read that statement out of context it sounds like twisted logic,but I know what you mean .