investing and collecting

Well said (and quoted).

Ralph Kramden (Honeymooners) once used the expression, "May a rich uncle
die and leave you a million dollars... ...in bus tokens", as a curse.

As bad as coins are to value and price tokens and medals are even worse. This
may not be strictly what Ralph meant but I've always remembered it and taken
it to heart.

 

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There's no need to be discouraged in investing, just don't bet the farm and
remember the only sure way to win is by enjoying the hobby. Sure, it's pos-
sible to make money when the deck is stacked against you and the house al-
ways takes 25% but it is not easy. Coin prices have a way of exploding high-
er and if you own the coins then you can make money. But consider that it's
rarely the investors who own these coins before they explode higher, it is col-
lectors. The investors tend to just buy the "undervalued" coins. Dealers know
what can be promoted and what can't. Such coins can become popular and
stay popular but usually when the promotions end so does the new high price.
Collectors are less concerned with such things and just form sets. They're usu-
ally having fun and learning about their specialty. They buy the easy coins as
well as the difficult. Usually they're collecting in areas that aren't extremely pop-
ular so they often get first crack at new coins. They learn what's rare and truly
undervalued so will pick up an extra or two if they see it at a good price.

The collector will often collect for many years and then his specialty will become
popular and prices soar. Sometimes it never happens. But the investor tends to
usually be disappointed. Even when he makes money (which isn't common) he has
little to show for it after expenses and time. Usually he'll just find that he has lots
of coins that were widely available before he bought them ansd are still widely a-
vailable. Some of these people will go on to become collectors and that can be suf-
ficient profit for them.

 

MS 70 is perfect. Nothing wrong with it, while MS 65 can have dings and all, but not as bad like the one I posted IMO. Grading is all a matter of opinion, but it can also be a matter of good judgement. The highest I would give the coin I posted would be a 64, but even to me that is high for it. Now some people for some reason won't count frost marks like that, which I don't understand. I personally count them sometimes, even though they can be quite pretty. But all this is only my opinion, and I can be way off and wrong. But I hope all that I have said helps.

Phoenix

 

That honestly is so true, it is scary in a way. You never know when they are going to skyrocket, or go through the floor. "Coins are unpredictable. The price for them goes up and down, and no one knows what to do with them. When one thinks he is a millionare, he can find out later that, well, he has gone belly up." That is the Phoenix version of the quote, lol. Take care everybody.

Phoenix

Phoenix

 

I agree. I think investing in coins is similar to investing in the stock market in general. The average person has little chance of picking individual stocks on a consistent basis and making money. The few who do are the ones who bought a company like AT&T or Microsoft when they first came out and held the stock for many years.

That doesn't mean you can't make money investing in coins, but it would take a diversified approach and a consistent effort to accumulate many different coins and hold for the long term.

That would take the fun out of collecting coins for me, but I can see how it could be done.

Thanks for your comments.

 

It is always better to be a collector, because if you spend time building a truely great collection of any coins, they will sell astronomically well after twenty years. The best coins to buy are not the $500,000, but the $1000-$6000 pieces. If you are a collector, your collection will pay off as an invesment. If you are an investor you could end up with ten boring rare coins that you can't sell.....

 

Some posters in this thread may recall that we had a discussion in CoinWorld once about collecting formerly hyped coins from the 50's 60's and 70's-at the now greatly reduced prices. What if say five collectors decided together to start collecting along these lines and they call their Theme The Great Expectations collection-(the name of the thread if I recall correctly). On a given day one collector buys a 1950-D nickel; another buys a 1960D small date cent; another buys a Franklin Mint medal, Another buys a 1974 Streak With Silver Art bar, another buys a 1965 Canadian proof set. These five items bear no relation to each other but they all relate to the Theme. It would be known, or could be known that the five collectors had made these buys on a given day. But if they don't disclose their purpose, of what use is that information to investors? Their buying pattern is dispersion not concentration.