We all get to a point where we might feel like we hit a wall in coin collecting. Perhaps all the coins we have seen are the same ones we already have. Maybe you aren’t feeling like the collecting is accomplishing anything. You sit and buy coins and you have no outlet in sharing your awesome collection of coins. I know this and I think many collectors in the challenge coin hobby have been down this road before. No doubt if you haven’t been there you will eventually unless you prepare yourself for this feeling.

So if you know that one day it might come that you think you just want to sell off your collection or you just don’t have it in you take a look at some great opportunities to get yourself back into it all like when you received your first coin. There are two ways that we will discuss here. The first is joining a community of other collectors and share what is going on, new things, and even connect with real people when you are traveling. The other is broadening your horizons on where you look for coins. Just picking up new coins on eBay can be cumbersome. Everyone has the same things over and over again with maybe one or two new coins a month being thrown in the mix.

So let’s look at the community aspect. There are several really great outlets to join and discuss challenge coins. There is the largest forum on the net at U.S. Challenge Coins, there are opportunities to talk and trade right at the Challenge Coin Trading Site, and the Challenge Coin Forum. You have several other avenues if you look hard enough. Being among friends can help your experience and develop you into an even better collector. You get to explore new avenues and hear about the latest and greatest things in the hobby and even get some personal feedback about all things.

By missing these chances to grow you are destined to become bored and under developed with a passion that has no reason to dither away from lack of interest. A forum or message board is a great fix. In many cases I personally have met other collectors in person because of the forum. Some people are looking to connect with collectors like them and you could be missing out on so perfect opportunities.

The second and probably the biggest common mistake is people will hop on a place like eBay and be flooded with some of the most common coins that are always for sale by the same people. There are of course new entries from time to time. Most people on eBay get the retail coins from the same wholesalers so you are left with lackluster choices that could be avoided by expanding your search for coins up for trade or sale just by using Google. To most collectors Google is something unknown. Some of the best coins never go up for auction. In fact most great coins are on actual websites.

Take a few minutes and search Google for some challenge coin stores. The only time I recommend using something like eBay is when you find a website you know carries their coins on an auction site and you want to try to get it cheaper. Besides that one reason exploring the web is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Make sure you explore past page one in the search results for even more hidden gold. I think you might just be surprised of what is out there.

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