Catalog Collections - Best Option For Liquidation Or Not?

Older I get I find myself fretting more and more about this lifetime glut of coins I have. I have kidded before on here about my collection being scattered about three safes and a safe deposit box (not to mention the office coins).... One of my safes is dedicated to Whitman's & Dansco's.... All are complete, mostly with very average coins, but my Lincoln book has the 09-S, VDB. The Merc book has the 16-D and 42/41... It's a true lifetime accumulation.

Anyway, last time I was at my LCS, he had a young fellow disassembling Dansco's that he had purchased from a liquidated collection. I asked him about it and he said that folks like to build their own catalogs and I get it. While an average circulated cent may be fine for me, the next guy may be building an AU set or whatever.

Which leads me to my question. Would you disassemble books if liquidation was in your future and have the key dates slabbed? Or would you leave it as is?

 

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I would slab the rarities. If the books ended up with someone unfamiliar with numismatics there's a chance the keys might be lost in the shuffle.

 

I'll echo what numist wrote. When selling, having collectibles commoditized makes it easier. So much more is done online now, taking out the guesswork provides a superior experience. Only thing left to negotiate is the price.

If someone unfamiliar with coins gets their hands on the items, it's much easier to research. Less likely to be taken advantage of. The graded ones would stick out.

Insurance purposes.

Sure they take up more space, it costs money, but I believe the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

 

Randy, I would like to thank you for given me another reason to be concerned about my coin collection and what to do with it in the future.

 

Ditto what @numist stated. While I have obtained books in the past (long ago), they were never "complete".

 

By all means, the key dates need to be slabbed, but only if they meet basic value criteria for doing so. If your intentions are to liquidate, then you don’t want unneeded expense, so you get to choose accordingly.

Also, those in the liquidation pile have already been excluded (or will be) from those considered heirloom which makes choosing a bit less complex.

But giving up a collection, or part of it, can be complex. Remember you are parting with coins you originally kept as worth keeping.

As I prepared coins to gift to my sons, I thought about those that may have looked nice, but really had very little value and I didn’t want to pass on anything that would end up a white elephant or eventually become a ball and chain. I ended up returning approx. 33% to circulation due to damage, die deterioration, excessive wear or lack of eye appeal. It took me 2 years to “winnow out the chaff”, including some junk silver as you are aware.

I hope this gives you a better perspective as you proceed…imo…Spark

 

I don't have any experience with it but my observation is that if you separate out the key dates, you're going to be stuck with the rest of the coins. People buy full sets in order to get the key dates and then they're the ones who have to deal with unloading the less valuable coins. While you might earn more having the keys slabbed by removing the TPG cost and risk for the buyer, you're also taking on the cost/time/hassle of selling the rest of them.

 

There is truth to that but even when selling the full sets, the buyers value the key dates and add a minimal amount for the rest. So if any of those key date coins are nice enough to slab (i.e. there is a debate about XF vs VF or cleaned vs problem-free), then one is better off having them slabbed and selling on their own. The rest can be split into one or two lots, like semi-keys in one and and common items (worth melt for silver or a little over face for non-silver) in the other. And those less valuable lots can be sold all together to a local coin store or online. It is slightly more work but can really pay off if even one of the key date coins grades well.

Basically you don't want to sell a full set where someone pays you VF money for the 09-S VDB and 14-D plus a little on top for the rest when you can get XF money for the two keys after grading even if the rest of the items get you less money per coin than before.

 

Just leave the darn things alone.

They will find their own way in life upon our death.

Just like our children and HER (which I personally will consider my end game for HER. She can find another Daryl's other brother Daryl and see how that goes).