Are you collecting or accumulating?

Hey Jeff? There's not a soul on this site who would consider you "crass or contemptible"....

 

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Well I still do not understand how buying something for less than catalog prices, (and which catalog) lowers the value of a collection? And why I am confused is because it is sounding to me like a complaint against collectors who never pay full retail. Or that the OP would prefer to appraise coins if they are all sorted through in a way to make the appraisal easier.

It still does not make much sense to me, though some of the other comments do, like I can understand if someone has 100 1976 proof sets because he liked them and the value listed is like 8 in the redbook and he paid 7 for them, most of the local dealers have tons of them already so they would not offer much for em anyway, forget about the book value. But if he had random coins that he bought for 20% under greysheet, he should do pretty well selling them to the right dealer

 

Collectors can be accumulators. Accumulators are not always collectors.......

 

all i can say is that whenever i show my accumulation of low grade common wheaties to my son an see the expression on his face as we talk about them makes all the time an effort i spent accumulating them well worth it.

 

Fair enough sir. Maybe it all boils down to those who buy coins with little knowledge of coins usually end up with a low value mess of "stuff", while those who truly learn about them usually end up with a nice collection, regardless of their means. I have seen some terrific world coin collections built with little money but great knowledge.

 

I accumulate coins into my collection. I collect unattractive coins and non-mint state coins because i like the history that hides in the wear. I am indirectly assembling a type set because I'm trying to see what I want to collect. I know I may not have much value in the coins I collect, but upon my deathbed, I will be happy with what I was able to accumulate in my lifetime, regardless of their condition or value.

 

And when my father showed his album of low grade circulated wheat cents to a 7 year old boy I was impressed and that set me off I just felt that older was better and as a 8-10 year old began pursuing lower grade large cents bust dimes half dimes seated coins and any other 19th c stuff a boy with very limited finances could acquire what I was referring to more was the collections or more properly hoards of basically junk coins with no passion or rhyme or reason for collecting other than they were cheap rather than striving to buy something interesting regardless of budget cause you can buy some neat coins for very low dough

 

I'm on the other end of the spectrum: obsessively single-minded about my collecting goals. I have no interest in accumulating. My collection is enormously valuable to me, but since I don't intend to part with it, whether it's valuable to anyone else is none of my business.

 

I'm accumulating at the moment, I wonder if any of you have any recomendations that aren't US coins. I don't know, stuff like english coins, spanish coins... what period of those coins are the best to collect?

 

That's an impossibly broad question to answer, but I'd recommend that you check out the World Coins: New Acquisitions thread and see if there are any particular coins that strike your fancy.

 

Accumulating w/o a clear objective doesn't make any sense to me... except your name is Scrooge McDuck and you're hoarding gold in a money bin ;-)

 

I suppose I am mostly a collector. My personal collection consists mostly of high grade coins but on the flip side I do buy 90% silver that is not exactly collector quality but it sells. other than that I buy collector grade coins and currency to sell to people

 

I'm in a real bind:

I'm collecting dust. And accumulating coins.

Really, though: I end up accumulating when I find, and subsequently buy, coins in better grades than the ones that I currently have. Then I need to start selling...

 

It seems that Doug (Smith) needs to chime in on this discussion, no one has really addressed how people collect ancients. You CAN'T complete a collection of ancients...at least not the same way you do US coins. So it's less clear who are the "collectors" and who are the "accumulators".

 

There is not much of a difference between the two. if you buy random stuff because you like it you are collecting it. There are a lot of people mike and frank meet on american pickers who collect a wide variety of stuff.

 

I totally understand your insight. Yet, i have many coins collected over the years that I see as in demand coins. Most are true problem free type coins that i feel someone would want in their collection. I have done well selling these coins as well. But they really do not have anything connecting them except for them all being early u.s coinage i thought were priced well and lack cleaning or harsh problems.if you were to appraise my coins i am not sure you would get a connectivity feel either but i know i will get more than what i paid barring any strange downswing in price

 

I'm trying to accumulate nice, eye appealing, high grade coins in a variety of series that make up my collection. My focus is Morgan and Peace dollars with an accent on WLH's, Merc's and now CPH's.

 

I already did the "collecting for profit" thing with comics, buying comics I neither liked nor read for their collectability, buying duplicate copies of coveted issues in higher grades, buying runs of particular creators, etc. I sold them all but a single long box of issues I personally value and I read digital comics now, and I enjoy it more.

My coins have one thing in common so far, which is that I personally like them all. I appreciate them primarily for the design. If a coin is worth $1000.00 and I think it's ugly, I don't want it for myself and wouldn't buy it unless I could easily flip it. I'm not out to impress anyone.

 

Lately I'm on a seated liberty kick again not something I collect but some big type set upgrades and otherwise some real pretty coins with nice color cause again I got the dough to spend (this week) and nothing powerful in early out there I'm starting to look at coins totally different as I'm thinking of making the step from collector to dealer and I'm buying high grade coins with eye appeal if the price is right thinking of future resale