Pcgs price changes

Like low demand coins, there are low demand stocks, bonds and real estate. None of those will produce a desirable return either.

Similarly, high demand coins are much like high demand stocks, bonds and real estate, and can and often do produce a substantial return.

Generally, the difference between good and bad investments has more to do with differences in information used by the "investor" to make an informed choice than it does the plethora of choices that are available in each vehicle.

For anyone to characterize coins exclusively as either a good investment or as a bad investment is entirely misleading, although not intentionally, I'm sure.

To anyone who wishes to debate the notion that coins are not competitive with stocks or real estate because coins do not pay dividends or generate equity ownership, I challenge you to put a cost on making sure that changes in management or strategic direction in a company one buys into does not drag value downward, or that property taxes, management, maintenance and changes in the neighborhood do not reduce the returns of real estate unacceptably.

Low risk bonds produce low income, and are usually attractive to fixed income investors who cannot afford the risks of bonds offering greater returns.

There are winners and losers in every industry, and coins are no exception.

 

On the contrary, as a general rule what kanga said is quite true. The historical record tells us that about 95% of all coin collectors lose money on their collections.

That said, yes there are exceptions. Problem is there aren't very many of them.

If one wishes to collect coins, by all means do so. But do so because you like them, not because you expect them to pay off as an investment.

 

I'd invest in a problem-free 1916/16 buffalo nickel in Fine, if I could find one to buy. Okay folks, admittedly I'm cherry-picking, but that's the point, is it not?

 

There is an important distinction that should be pointed out here Doug.

Pure collectors approach their purchases differently than do pure investors.

Collectors generally acquire coins to complete sets, which include a large number of common items, and therefore build in a fair amount of downside. If they focused only on acquiring the most challenging of coins, leaving the commons out, their returns would almost certainly be far more attractive, and the 95% would likely be much smaller.

Investors are generally not so beholden to set-building and, unshackled by that constraint, acquire only those coins which are much better prospects for appreciation.

The difference in approaches is very significant, as most of us were brought up by "the industry" to fill albums . . . a long-ago marketing invention of some of the most enterprising dealers in this field.

I'm not saying that it's bad to build sets . . . I've done that, and enjoyed it very much, but that delivers a different sort of reward than acquiring a select few coins from each series, and resisting the temptation to collect them all.

That reward is satisfaction of a different kind, and very hard to put a price on.

 

Mike I'm not saying it's impossible for a coin collector to show a profit if and when he sells his collection. I'm only saying that very, very, few ever do.

And it's not so much because the collector chooses the wrong coins, or because the collector lacks the knowledge he needs to be successful - though both of those can absolutely and and often are the reasons. But even if a collector does have the knowledge needed, and and even if the collector chooses the right coins - most of the time he will still lose money at sale for other reasons.

There's basically 5 things you have to do to show a profit from collecting coins.
1 - buy the right coin
2 - buy at the right price
3 - buy at the right time
4 - sell at the right price
5 - sell at the right time

Get all 5 of those things right and you will almost certainly show a profit. BUT - get just 1 of them wrong, and you will not.

And about the only way you can get all 5 those things right is to be very, very, lucky. That's what makes it so hard.