Sold a few Morgans today—FWIW

Not into VAMs, my friend. I'm sure the dealer would have.

 

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No surprise there. You bought on the high and sold on the low. (When talking about common date stuff) and if you adjust cost of living into account and inflation you lost more than you that. I had a similar experience with my recent sales, but purchased more recently than 09. I got like 60% back. Sad, but it could have been worse. I am still buying by the way. I look at it as an entertainment more than an investment. Luckily I have a strong 401k.

 

Good luck with that, after every boom comes a bust and so on and on. I trust the stock market about as much as I trust the pit bull down my street.

 

Pit bulls are far superior creatures to Wall Street bulls.

 

You got that right.

 

Ok I'll. just stuff my spare change in my mattress that should give me a better return.

 

Convert it to FRNs first. It will be softer. If you are talking about coins but them under the mattress so that there is more cushioning.

 

Hopefully as much as my monster boxes.

 

I really think its in the buying not just the timing but the cost, the amount of items purchased etc. Done right you can do well with collector coins. Just walking in to a coin shop and paying full retail for 1 graded morgan then trying to sell it 5 yrs later for a profit could be a tuff one. But buying 10 graded morgans from a dealer at a little coin show from a gent that is upstanding dealer on the scene, would give someone a fighting chance Im sure of it.

 

I'm just a novice with a limited budget, but I've made a small profit selling smalls. It's a lot easier to get 5 bucks for something I paid 2 for than the more expensive stuff... the tiny profit allows me to reinvest in stuff I really like here and there.

Appreciate hearing your experience on the Morgans.

 

Nothing wrong with 150%!

 

Indeed! My dad has a large group of friends he meets up with once a week... One day I gave him a small bag of some Indians and Large Cents to see if anyone would be interested for fun.

The bug re-bit four or five of his buddies so now it's a weekly thing and I just load him up with deals I find digging in binders at the dealer, dates I already have from rolls, etc. I usually price them a couple bucks under book value and still make enough for a nice coin each month.

...Dad gets his taste by keeping anything he really likes for himself.

 

As with anything, you have to do your own due diligence and that's especially true with coin collecting. Another thing I've noticed is that most people have poor negotiation skills (which I think is why they accept a loss so easily), which is a skill that you have to practice to get good at unless you're just extremely lucky.

 

I like your positive attitude: we all tend to share it. We all like the potential of making a little profit from our hobby.

But I posted my example as a sobering response to the very attitude you're expressing. These purchases were "done right": bought from reputable dealers at coins shows for, in most cases, 5 or 10% back of grey sheet bid. They are all very attractive coins. You really can't have a better "fighting chance" than that.

I'd say the important factor in my example is that these low-end Morgans are not "collector coins." They are ubiquitous. I have no regrets in owning them and, selling them in a soft market, wasn't expecting to make a profit.

A good book that discusses the threshold between common and collector coins is Scott Travers' The Coin Collector's Survival Manual.

 

The stock market is cyclical but its trajectory since the early '20s (including all corrections) has shown substantial upward growth. Compare that to the boom and bust of PMs, for example. With stocks you own pieces of companies; for many, that's much more trustworthy than owning metals (and collectibles) which we've assigned arbitrary values to.

I totally agree with your other comment that one must do due diligence and negotiate well, but these are generally moot when the market is dictating the outcome. Just look at the example of buying a house.

 

Yes, and even if "paper money returns to its intrinsic value -- zero", those companies, and shares thereof, retain actual value.

Sure, any particular company can go to zero. But any particular safe or buried chest full of PM can be stolen, too.

 

Yes, let's look at that example. I bought my lakefront property back in '08 when the RE market was at the bottom and now that it's worth almost twice that much and I'm thinking of selling, why? Because the market is in a bubble artificially propped up by easy credit ( low down, sub prime mortgages again) and demand (rent economy) .
I see the stock market in a bubble also, re-inflated by QE and don't forget stock buybacks and heavy debt loads these companies are carrying. But if you don't mind getting more dollars with less purchasing power then enjoy the ride while it lasts.

 

Yeah, actual value that can be picked up for pennies on the dollar after a crisis. Look at what happened to American Airlines after 9/11, you could buy their stocks for just a few bucks each.

 

Ah, yes, market timing. All you need to do is distinguish dips from collapses -- in other words, accurately predict the future.

 

The realities of this hobby is you can buy the same graded coin in a very wide spread of cost. Then selling, you can sell in a very wide spread of cost. It all depends upon how/where you buy it and how/where you sell it.

Conversely, It's hard not to pay face value for a Mutual/Tracking Fund or Stock at either buy/sell time.