For me, mostly, it is books, then the bourse floor. All of the others are options at different times, depending, but mostly, it's books.

I would have put in catalogues though

But the first option "Reading eBay descriptions" is an interesting idea. Since people sell whatever "garbage", some proper seller actually will take quality time to do proper research, although there aren't too many.

But what I find fasinating with ebay is that sellers can sell whatever they have, and it is almost near impossible to cover all areas of numismatics by plain text reading. If I see a fancy coin on listing and if it catches my interest, I am very likely to take a look at it. No harm in looking

Books mostly for me. Then it's generally from stuff i read on websites and then from dealers.

I don't bother much with Coin magazines as generally, in my experience, they are pretty useless as they mostly deal with modern stuff, and my area of specialisation is rarely covered.

Books and internet.

You can't really seperate books, experience, talking to other collectors and coin forums (like this). It's a larnin thing

Books for me. Of course, all of the other choices come into play.

Voted for numismatic magazines. But of course it depends ...

Magazines are fine if they (more or less) meet the area one collects. When I am looking for in-depth info about some object or area, books are more helpful. And if I may translate "CoinPeople and other forums" to "Numismatic websites", that category would be very high on my priority list as well.

Christian

Internet

Books. I rely heavily on my own research library and then the library itself. Second is magazines (such as the Numismatist, TAMS Journal, etc.). Third are catalogs and dealers themselves. Everything else comes after that and can generally fall into "from fellow collectors."

Sorry that I did not think about that ... especially as I have paid a pretty penny for several catalogs explicity for research purposes. The Eliasberg Auction is probably the best example, though for the same article (Proof Gold) I bought a Trompeter Catalog and a couple of others. For ancients, the matter is equally important to me, with my CNG Catalogs being there when the books fail.

I should have thought the choices through a bit, maybe slept on them. Sorry.

With the Polling there is no way to rank your choices: you get one. So, I make ANA conventions infrequently, but when I am there, the Numismatic Theater is as important as the bourse floor. There is no better source of information than the authors who tell you what they are going to put in the next edition... when it comes out... That's like having a crystal bal with a three-year window.

Yet, that is not the first place I get information from.

As for the newspapers, I do not know about the Krause stable, but Coin World polls its readers. They hire an outside firm. The poll comes with a dollar bill for your time and effort. They do this annually. So, if 87% of the readers say that they mostly collect Proof Roosevelt Dimes and 53% say that their second most amount of money spent is on Elvis Commemoratives while 41% say that the spend the second most amount of money on Large Cents with Die Cracks, then the following year, the FEATURE articles will tend to follow that very closely... and the NEWS less closely.

With a weekly newspaper, you have to subscribe for a year and you have to get used to reading it and pulling out for your own files what you need. Then you begin to see the value that you might not see if you leaf through one at a coin store every so often.

Again, at Coin World, they have a guy, a stringer, in the UK who covers the London auctions and who files monthly reports. Well, they might not appear every month, so there is that. He files them; space is what it is. So, in the course of a year, you get nine or ten London auction reports, which you might not even see if you just glance over the newspaper once in a while waiting for the dealer to get to you.

On the other side of the fence, there was the time a few years back when Dale Hallmark had a massive article about Austrian coinage in Krause's World Coin News. Krause loves articles like that: authoritative and well written and filling a lot of space that their writers don't have to come up with something for. It was the kind of thing you tear out and put in a manilla folder on the bookshelf between the appropriate books, SCWC if nothing else.

Another complaint is that the newspapers (and magazines) are "all advertising." But advertising is content. It takes a bit of insight to read an ad for information that is not obvious... and then to correlate, compare and contrast ads to build a picture of the markets for the things you are interested in --- or could be...

Myself, I think that the newspapers are underrated.

Advertising can certainly be of use Michael, i sold Jean Elsen an old coin of mine and bought some new ones from him. He's been sending me some of their auction catalogues. And whilst factual context details about the coins are not generally included, there is a wealth of information in them. Specifically many good images of some top quality coins from a rather broad time period from most of Europe.

They're fascinating to look through, there's even an extensive collection of Louis XVI gold d'ors pictured in one of them.

you left out web searches.

web sites (e.g. CP) and books for me

Books first, followed by publications like "Penny Wise" from EAC, then people here and on other forums and my local coin club. Sometimes I'll grab a numismatic newspaper or magazine, but that's pretty rare.

Books first and here 2nd.

Books, mags, here, dealer, internet. With books I read thru then, check coins the coins I have. Next book purchase will be one of the top 100 vam books.

I probably own more books than most, but my primary source for info is the internet. That's even how I find out what books I need to buy in the first place. And that perhaps is what makes the net more valuable than any book. It is also the net that I use to buy the books for many of them come from all over the world.

Of course there books on books, many of them. But even then how do you find out which book on books to buy ? You could buy several before you find the one that has a listing for the book you might want. But on the net - you can find it in minutes usually. And today, quite a few books are published on the net in their entirety.

I also use the coin mags, but you can get them on the net too. So bottom line - it's the internet. It's an amazing resource if you choose to use it. Of course I try to make that easier for folks over there across the street - Numismatic Resources

Books are preferable but the cheapest, most accessible tool is the internet. Heritage is good at showing good, interactive images of coins in all grades and tones. Furthermore you get approximate up-to-the-minute market values for them so you know what to expect to spend.

Newspapers and magazines do give the occaisional advice and info on what I'm focusing on.

Mainly books for me

I use the blackbook guide to US coin prices

And the blackbook guide to world coin prices

Plus i have other outdated coin books that i use also

Mostly books. My stuff is so specialized that the standard references, which include the classic sale catalogs, are indispensible. In fact it's sometimes tough to tell if something is later cr-p or contemporary cr-p unless you can find it in a dated catalog.

My next most important source is other collectors that I've met through my website. Napoleonic medal collectors are a notoriously grumpy lot and have to be encouraged to share what they know. As you've probably noticed, once they get started the real problem is getting them to shut up!

In order:

Coin People
Magazines (Coin World, Numistmatic News, etc)
Books (Krause, Red Book)
Collectors Universe
Shows/Shops

Because of class I don't get to attend as many shows or visit the shops as often as I like.

Bump for the new members.

It seems we all have a lot of know-nothing friends

For me it'd be:

1) Museums - Correspondences with curators, Journals they lend me or visits to the collections.

2) Books - In collecting Medieval rarities one has to have a solid library.

3) Talking to Friends - After a year or two you begin to build strong relationships with people who collect a similar coinage to you and so you share knowledge, compare collections and just have a chat!


Clive.

I rather voted for coin shows. However, only due to I spend so much time there discussing coins with dealers and other collectors. Going to 2 to 4 shows a month is a wealth for information and the very latest ideas. Naturally at such coin shows there are numerous magazines and books on coins so they tend to accumulate also. I also pick up the free magazines from the front table such as Coin World and Numismatic news. Coin forums are great too so it is really difficult for me to just say one item.