Welcome Jimmy, may i make a suggestion, you said you'd bought coins from fairs only to take them home, pop them in a drawer and forget about them, you were obviously a little disappointed with what you bought. My suggestion is, go through your coins, what you want to keep and what you want to upgrade, sell those that you don't want to keep, and use the money for something a little rarer in good grade, you'll be satisfied again eventually, downsize a little and start in the higher end.
A collection does.t absolutely mean 500 or 5000 coins, 10 coins can also mean a collection, better with 10 top notch or rare other than 500 or 5000 that are low grade.
Hopefully you get mt point..