$200 for dirty, old coin or shiny new coin

Well you won't find many coins that go into world class collections bargain hunting.

 

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While we are having opinions on coins, what do people think of cleaning coins or "pennies or cents"?

 

You might be surprised, as far as foreign coins at least. The competition for many foreign coins here is not nearly as fierce as for US coins of similar rarity. I never imagined sending an eBay seller an additional payment after winning an auction and receiving the coins, but I find myself doing it pretty routinely. Sometimes the bargains are so good that I feel guilty about it and send more money to make it at least 50% of what the coins are worth.

Selling a collection in your lifetime definitely can lead to losses, but collections that have survived generations are pretty much always going to be worth a whole lot more than when they were first assembled. I collect and deal, but I can honestly say I would leave my collection to my kids, and make sure they are educated enough to appreciate them as more than a dollar sign. The coins I do sell are basically those that are doubles or I'm not interested in collecting, and sell them only to buy more coins.

 

Thats how I feel with my collection as well. Unfortunately neither of my kids are interested in coins...yet. I'm working on getting my nephew interested just in case.
Guy

 

I took on Doug's theory last year and beat it, I tracked every coin purchase, plus the cost of transportation, and even the cost of anything coin related such as even staples, flips and printer ink for printing shipping labels for sales. For the entire year of 2010 I ended about +$5.00 in the profit, but mind you I had added several hundred coins to my collection, and used a lot of profits at the times that there were towards non hobby pursuits. When I purchase coins, I sell enough of what I purchase to cover the coins I keep and than some, with out fail, every time. So being as my collection comes to me at no cost, what ever it is worth in the future is an investment that paid off huge...
The only factor I didn't add into the equation last year was "Time", some argue that your time spent should me calculated as wages to get a real basis towards "Investment Value", I disagree, being that I enjoy collecting and selling coins so my time spent is for Hobby/Entertainment and that the fact that it doesn't end up costing me anything out of pocket is priceless, since most hobbies cost much.
I still have found no way to get rich on coins, nor quit my day job... LOL

 

Sometimes the shock of realizing just how much value there can be to a small piece of copper is enough to get that interest brewing. You can always ween them off the value and onto the history after that. =)
Best of luck!

 

Thanks everybody for the replies. Interesting reading. It would be fun to make money on a hobby instead of buying a jet ski and knowing I'll lose 1/2 of it. But that doesn't sound realistic.

I bought in the 1970's and got tired of it sitting around so sold what I could to local dealers. Sorry to say that, as posted here, I would have done FAR BETTER if I had just bought a bag of junk silver coins for bullion than carefully selecting the best grade of low-mintage coins (like nickels) I could find. But even then, the dealer only paid 1/2 the going rate for some as they were "were too worn to run through the coin machine".

I some how got on the phone with a dealer who had a 1909svbd MS 67 Red for $32,500 and 1914D MS 66 for $16,000. I'm guessing from the experts here those aren't good buys?

With all these stories about people losing huge amounts of money, somebody must be MAKING huge amounts selling to those people?

I heard that the U.S. mint may be producing some proof set NOT available to dealers but only to the general public. That sounds okay. At least my GSA Morgan dollar went up.

 

Absolutely. People who make impulse buys or have money to throw around and simply must have that certain coin that strikes their eye... they are dealer's bread and butter.

 

and that is exactly how the average collector fails to invest correctly.... it is the same with stocks or any investment in existence, if you impulse buy or do not study what your buying well enough to understand its true value, or even if like you said, you disregard that you are spending too close to the true value to leave enough meat on the bone for your own profit, you will not have an investment at all and when you sell, most likely at the wrong time, you will lose.
I keep my options open when hunting and look for the greatest deals I can find, When I find the coin selling at 20 percent of the actual price that it sells for, that is the coin I must have, or when I spot the unnoticed variety/error going at the price of the common, that is the coin I must have... and there is no coin I must have if there is not a little room left for me to gain...

 

many here claim that coins are a poor investment,,,, answer this than, I stopped in at my local coin dealers today and dug in the foreign coin bin awhile, I spent a total of 1 buck at the shop today and I left with a 1974 Bahamas 2 Dollars Proof and 50 cents Proof still in the mint cut out. Plus a Flying Eagle cent in AG that some how ended up in the bin and A British Pound and a 50 Pence (Just in the Brit Pound and a half I made my buck back), Those two Proofs I mentioned earlier contain 1.15 Troy Ounces of Actual Silver Weight. So if every time I shop, I shop like this example of todays activities, how is coin collecting not an AWESOME investment?

 

Also, just as an aside, I have always called shenanigans on that chart. The "PCGS 3000" has always been weighted heavily in high grade, high dollar coins, the exact type of coins in which you need to sell in an auction. The problem, for me, is that these auctions charge hefty fees, fees I do not see being deducted from the PCGS 3000. I just really have a problem with PCGS trying to equate a rare coin with stocks. With a stock I can sell this second for full value less .001%. With a coin, I would have to consign to an auction wait months, and then get 20% deducted from the sale price. They are not the same thing.

Good illustration with the chart Doug, I am just saying its much worst than that. Always has been.

In short, even at auction you will pay about 30-40% more than the seller receives to buy a coin. Even in an auction there is a tremendous buy/sell spread, which is exactly why coins are poor investments for most people. Yes, by buying and holding for say 40 year you should overcome this spread, but you will end up with a very low return on the investment, because of this tremendous spread that has to be overcome. If you can buy like a dealer, than you can make money, but most collectors don't/can't.

Chris

 

I wasn't arguing that, I was arguing the chart from its inception has been distorted to make investors believe coins are just as valid an investment vehicle as stocks or bonds, hence the name to make it sound like the S&P or something. I was simply dispelling that notion, and the notion that by buying coins in an auction setting you can avoid dealer markup, another point people have brought up over the years.

I was agreeing with you Doug, and simply expanding on the point. I agree the graph was showing a downward trend, but simply saying if you drill down into the details the actual return was worst than that.

Btw Doug, just as an aside, I have seen VF and XF coins remain constant when MS66's fell many times, and not just associated with bullion. I remember in the late 80's/early 90's that was very common across the board with many series. Its not the point of this post, but those things can happen.

 

Gold

 

I agree completely with Doug's rebuttal, the argument than transcends into the Dealer/Collector philosophy. You can be a Dealer that collects some things, but if you are a Collector, rate over time you will lose, just as gamblers in a casino.

I only argue each time Doug, because I hate how fast you Old Timers jump on any new person that shows a hint of entrepreneurial spirit and attempts to crush their dreams flat out that they can amass a valuable collection and even learn how to ride the supply/demand waves for short/long term profits. When I was new to collecting, it was these very ideas, thoughts, and dreams that fueled my obsession to collect something and that sustained long enough to begin to appreciate the art and history, and even to accept the lumps of losses in the beginning when purchases were foolish and with out enough knowledge.

 

Wow, the world may be ending.


I agree with Doug.

Collect coins for fun, and knowledge.

Not with the anticipation of profit.


If you do make money, then great, otherwise, study the stock market.

 

He is not crushing the desire to amass a nice collection.

Doug is right (there I go again)!


Collect for fun, like any other hobby.
I believe that Doug is talking about getting into the hobby as an investment, not as a hobby.

Then if you make a buck great.

If not, hey, you didn't lose a lot -- and had fun in the interim

 

If you want a coin to increase in value,I'm afraid you'll have to spend a bit more than $200. You need to buy one of those headline grabbers, so unless you have a couple hundred thousand to buy a coin or two I say collect for the love of the hobby.