OK, I'm new to the forum and I'm recently back into coin collecting after years away. I'm a collector not an investor, but like everyone I do not want to do something that reduces the value of my coins. So my question is if you had the complete series of US uncirculated mint sets 1999 to 2006 would you: (a) keep them intact, or (b) open them and create unc sets in Air-Tights of State Quarters plus another one of Sac Dollars, selling off or keeping the remaining coins? I bought the mint sets to get quality uncirculated coins and I like to create sets. I do not plan to send them off for grading. My concern is while I may end up with select/choice quality sets to enjoy, when they are someday sold off I will only get paid the same price as generic BU sets taken from coin rolls because quality is hard to show on Ebay and other sites. If that is true then I might be better off just buying the BU coin sets on ebay which generally sell for reasonable prices at lower quality. I won't have this problem in the future because I'm now buying multiple sets directly from the Mint, but I don't want to buy duplicates of these mint sets because there is lots of other coins I would rather spend the money on. Appreciate everyone's thoughts. Thanks
In the long run it probably won't matter much whether you cut them or not. There may well be a point in time where intact sets have a premium again but eventually the value of the set will be the combined value of the coins. In the shorter run you'll lose a lot of money when you cut these sets. They all have significant premiums (except the 2000) which evaporates when they are cut. The best coins are generally found in the mint sets. Some people will look for the finest coins they can find and keep one set intact. It's really up to you and how you want to collect and show your coins.