Moderns v. Classics

Wise advice for any coin really.

If someone feels they have a good "system" down for flipping for profit, hey more power to them. I love when anyone makes a profit, this is the real strength of our country, but short term flipping opportunities do not necessarily mean long term appreciation.

Collect coins because you love them and they make you happy. That is the best "return" most of us will ever see from our hobby. Its a GREAT return, don't get me wrong, but IMHO the only guaranteed one we should expect.

 

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Well, I'll look into when I was first on eBay, maybe it was other online sites or Coin World ads, but they were available in the $100 range. Here's an excerpt from the PCGS site that says $200. If they say $200, one could find them for less and putting a roll together was affordable.

From PCGS:
When the U.S. Mint first sold the 10th Anniversary Set, many Silver Eagle collectors purchased the set and sold the gold coins close to their intrinsic values. Therefore, the 1995-W Silver Eagle automatically created its own market in the $200 range right from its inception, even though it was offered for free by the U.S. Mint to these purchasing a Gold Eagle Proof Set.

http://www.pcgs.com/News/1995-w-Silver-Eagle

 

Well yeah, coins are hobby, not an investment. But, within the hobby, many including myself, like to see the value increase - maybe just part of collecting money. If one wants to claim coins are an investment, they're one of the riskiest investments out there. No one should count on coins to provide future returns.

Now you can lowball the value, but the bottom line is all are up over their costs and many are up substantially. That's a far cry from the 70's, 80's & 90's.

 

"all are up over their costs".

Hmm, two things:

1. ANY precious metal should be up over their costs considering what PM has done since then. My junk silver sure is up too.
2. I would like to see some kind of analysis of base metal coins from this timeframe and see how much they are up. Maybe I am just completely wrong, and need to be educated.

 

Well yeah, you can factor out the pm value, but bottom line is they are up. I've also noticed they have not come down as much as pm's and many are not affected by pm's. Many mint products have mintages far below common junk silver, so even today, if you can buy them at close to melt, which is the better buy?.

 

Doug, when that 1995 Set came out, I saw the price and immediately thought that sales were going to be tight, For the set that is.

As for the silver Eagle, I never, ever considered "needing it" as there was no "requirement". After all, I already HAD a 1995 Proof Silver Eagle.

All that changed when the TPG Registries were created and I think that if some research is done, it will find that the big prices on the 1995-W SAE came "after" it was required for the Complete Silver Eagle Proof Registry Set.

Once it became obvious that a LOT of folks simply could not afford the coin, the "simplicity" of completing a competitive set was lost and folks just lost interest.

Today, if I could "afford one", sure I'd buy it but it would always just be an expensive coin in the set. Nothing special, certainly not a profit maker, just an expensive coin.

I learned back in 2007 that buying expensive coins, while satisfying in the fact that you've got one, does NOT insure that you'll be able to sell it for what you paid since the "profit wave" is long gone.

This is true of classic coins as well in that, buying an expensive, high grade classic coins does not ALWAYS translate into a profit.

 

My feelings exactly. I bought many of the classic keys over the last few years, felt great finally buying them, but the thrill fizzled as I watch them decline in value or sit stagnate. Much more thrilling for me to get in on the ground floor and watch prices take off.

 

That has happened to me more times than I care to think about. While not a classic, I did squirrel up $3500 for a Type 2 IKE only to watch the values plummet after a year or so.

The exact same thing has occurred with a recent 55/55 DDO Lincoln which I had full confidence it would not. I should have evaluated the PCGS prices before I bought but that's my mistake. Looking at the PCGS price analysis, the coin has dropped below its value from 2009. But again, I should have done some homework.

Now, the real question is: Why the price fluctuations?

Well, its all about a controlled market. Someday, the prices may rise again but I won't hold my breath AND I won't complain about it.

 

Depends on what you consider "collectability". I won't knock moderns, but everybody who wants a 70 can get a 70 now a days. And there are a lot of collectors who have 70's that cannot tell them from a 69. Again not knocking moderns, but they are easy to come by in high grades. Heck I collected everything the mint made - up until platinum hit 2k per ounce. Sold everything at that time - an I made a nice little chunk of change. So there is nothing wrong with collecting from the mint, but some stuff you will lose money on - no matter how long you wait.

But now a days if you ask me - I would rather spend 2k on some pre-1836 coinage. I can afford a lot of mint state coins, but then again I like a lot of them in the vf-xf(maybe AU) range. Other than some keys, most are affordable but tough to find that I like for my albums. I enjoy these a whole lot more than moderns. And a few of the dates are really tough in any grade - more of a challenge.

And if you are collecting for "return on your money" then you should either be a dealer or put your money some where else like a good mutual fund. Anywhere buy collecting - some PM's are okay, but a small percentage.