Most of us would rather build our sets from scratch, at least most of us oldsters. But I'm wondering if anyone as a collector, not dealer, has purchased complete sets at any time. Did you later upgrade to your desire or just leave as is. The main reason I ask is because I have of late, seen many modern sets being reduced in price, especially B.U. sets. A recent example is the Ike dollar set in choice to gem B.U. in a Dansco album for $179.00. A complete set of Roosevelt's 1946-64 in Fine or better in folder for $115.00. A complete set of SBA's in B.U. in a Dansco album minus 1981S type 2 for $165.00. And so on. Have you ever, would you ever or would you never buy sets like this and why? It would seem the easy way for newbies to get a leg up on some better deals and be able to focus more on the harder coins to acquire. Myself, I prefer building my own and have never purchased a complete set. Thanks for your input.
If I was collecting ATBs or Pres dollars I'd have no problem buying a completed set. I know a lot of people love the hunt, but lets be honest some of these ultra modern sets really don't have a hunt unless you're trying to find the cream of the crop for grading.
I essentially did this with my Presidential Dollar set. I ordered each year's coins in NGC PF69. For those coins, like baseball said, it wasn't so much the hunt as it was getting the entire set.
Helped a freind with an inherited collection. Never saw so many walking halves in one place in my life. He ended up with 42 rolls of walking halves. As a result the bug bit me. Every set I have I personally assembled. These days I don’t have the hunting time.... So I purchased a complete walking half set from a friend here on the forum. And yes, I do enjoy it as much as all the sets I have assembled over the years.
I got seriously back into the hobby right around the 2011 silver spike. At that time, even a BU set of Roosevelts traded at melt. I'm not seeing them doing much better since. For the Roosevelts, there simply aren't any hard dates, period. There are a few that are less common than others, but they're all common. Unless you're looking to assemble a toned set, "full torch" at a particular numeric grade, or something like that, you should be able to assemble a set for not much more than melt (a bit under $60 at the moment).
I typically would avoid most of these sets, with some exceptions: *BU Lincoln Memorial Cent albums -usually has one or two nice toners or varieties (for example) -most coin shops/dealers I've come across hate these sets and are very willing to part with them on the cheap *BU silver sets for around melt prices -purchased a BU set of Roosevelts in one of the nicer Whitman (DANSCO style) albums. Paid about $5 over melt for it. Pulled two varieties, a couple toners, and sold the entire album in PDS year sets. Now, I'll cherrypick the heck out of a really nice Jefferson set...but I'm not going to pay a premium to get all the duds as well, because usually there are only a couple that are even close to matching the rest of my Jeffersons.
It is more fun to build a set of broadstrikes and off-centers for Roosevelt's than the non-error clad ones.
Sure, why not? If it were a set I wanted and it was available at a decent price I would buy it. Problem is that the sets I am interested in are just not available like that so I have to work on them.
I have built and bought sets. I think I prefer buying a set as opposed to building a set, as it seems to be a less expensive route. You pay for the key and semi-key, and the rest are tag-alongs, so it works out better IMO.
There’s a major reliable dealer offering complete sets of raw American silver eagle bullion coins in Whitman albums — no proofs or special issues. I considered buying one, but decided to deploy the money elsewhere. The coins average just over $24 each.
I purchased complete sets of mercs and silver Washington quarters (minus the keys) when I first started collecting. I did so because of the price, and the availability of these already almost completed. Also bought a BU set of silver rosies. I paid more than I should have for the rosies but the holder was so pretty. Still have all of them.
I have several of these in Danscos which I assemble myself at an average cost of around $20/coin. But that is offset by the fact that I sold one of them at the height of the silver price in 2011 for a huge profit: 25 coins in a Dansco for $1250.
Complete sets of older coins are usually overpriced and a hodge podge of mediocre and ugly coins. However, there are times I've seen a complete set sell for just over the price of their key dates, or key dates + melt. If it were a good enough deal, I don't think there would be any shame in buying a set and making a few upgrades. I've bought sets, pulled the nice coins and sold the rest. I'm making a complete set out of other complete sets, if you will.
