Retirement......numismatic coins saved....

Education is a must if you,r planing to turn a profit. Don,t be impatient, but study all your sources, then make your decision to buy or sell. Try not to rely on sales pitches, or impressions. You must be an expert at buying and selling what others will want to own.

 

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So I have receipts on some coins I have purchased. The places I buy from say they do buy back. So maybe in my coins purchasing, I should consider that I will make money BUYING the coins I do. However, right now I am waiting until prices get good (and one is never sure about that). So possibly it is a "frustratingly futile" situation in a way. Who knows...but I still believe that buying coins and silver can be a good thing and not a total loss.

 

Keep that thought foremost. My wife is not a fan of coins, but I say to her that it is an "investment" that will pay back at least something.

 

401K and Roth IRA. People do sell off their collections while they are in retirement but there is no saying that they make any money off of it, may even lose money depending on what they paid.

 

Whatever the negative is in selling off a collection should be enjoyment depreciation.

 

Your wisdom couldn,t be more true... As in Real Estate, make your money upfront and most likely after you enjoy your collection, they get passed on to another, and then another...and everyone should benefit from your hard work.

 

Who are these "analysts" and coin buyers who are supposedly excited? Sounds like someone trying to dupe an unsuspecting buyer to me.

 

There are people who buy coins primarily for "investment", probably at least tens of thousands considering the active collector base in the US numbers in the vicinity of two million or more (my guesstimate). There isn't any reason to believe most of them are any more successful than buyers of mainstream asset classes (such as stocks, real estate and bonds) and considering the lack of liquidity, transaction costs and their probable knowledge base, almost certainly do worse financially.

Some buyers do so strictly for "investment", some do so for a combination of both and others treat it as a hobby and an alternative consumption expense.

I believe most are primarily collector but if spending "real money" buy with an eye toward future resale. This is evident in the current trend of more and more of the funds going into fewer and fewer higher grade/quality and more expensive coins.

I will occasionally buy a coin for "investment" if I consider it a particularly good value but mostly, I treat it as a collectible. I buy my coins with a future sale in mind but still only collect the series I like. I sometimes avoid coins I believe will be financial losers (such as "details" coins) but I'm not going to collect a coin I like less than those I buy now even if I happen to believe it is a better financial value.

Within my series, I like some of them more than others. For example, I am not buying South Africa Union or ZAR now because I believe I will be able to buy them for less later and the coins aren't as hard to buy as they used to be. Alternatively, I focus on Spanish colonial pillars and sometimes might have paid what might turn out to be too much or "stupid" money (since some almost never come up for sale) but don't care as long as I bought what I actually think I did.

If you do not understand this mentality, its because you are either not a real collector or place the financial aspects first. If you do, nothing wrong with that but you might as well know it about yourself and don't fool yourself into believing otherwise.

 

....never know unless one is really educated in this business...and to get educated, that probably will take money. One trusts....what others are saying, but sometimes one company says one thing about coins' value, and another company will say something totally different about about the value of same coin (so it is difficult to learn this way). I think one would have to go to school for this to feel secure in what one is purchasing and all the "reeling and dealing" that goes with silver and gold at times. It's hard "breaking" into the coin business especially if one doesn't know too much about coin purchasing.

 

Really, that's a great question. I think most people here do purchase numismatic stuff to have the "collection". A certain coin catches their eye and they decide to purchase it like a piece of metallic art. No different than acquiring a painting, only more easily stored. Many also appreciate the history of it. I doubt most people do it solely to give to the kids. You never know if kids will be interested in it some day or not. It does seem like when someone passes away the coin collection is a coveted piece of their estate, even if only worth a few hundred dollars. Usually everybody wants it. Some to keep, some to sell. But its usually the last thing auctioned off at auctions in order to keep people there through the junk so there must be some attraction to it.
If your kid inherits a coin that you paid say $500 for and they decide to sell it and only get $400, they didn't have a penny invested in it so I guess it really doesn't matter. I'd rather see my stuff saved and appreciated like I did, rather than sold as things tend to go up in value with time but that's out of my control once I'm no longer here.
I'd have no ambition to go at this hobby strictly from an investment stand point. I wouldn't do it if that's all it was.
What you get when you go to sell depends highly on how the economy is doing and how urgently they need to be sold. If you round up an auctioneer and get 10 local people in a room bidding on stuff on some weekend to clear it out quickly, I wouldn't get your hopes up. If you set a price and take your time selling them yourself online, there should be a much higher expectation of getting what you expect if the pieces are truly desirable examples.

 

My suspicion is that these third parties you reference are exaggerating their claims and maybe substantially.

On the rest of your post, you should also be aware that all collectors and most dealers are specialists to one degree or another because no one can know a lot (much less everything) about all coins. Some dealers will buy most anything if they think they can make a profit but hedge their bets by paying low prices where they don't know much about the coin.

The other thing you should know is that many collectors have (hugely) inflated opinions of both the financial and perceived numismatic merits of the coins they like. I have seen this many times on other coin forums and have contradicted these claims on many occasions. For example, South African collectors definitely have this opinion of better grade Union and ZAR and the evident reason they do is because "investment" seems to be a lot more important to a disproportionate number or percentage of buyers for the mid and higher priced coins.

 

Nailed it. That is exactly why I collect coins, it's my hobby. I enjoy the history and artistry of coins. I enjoy researching coins and learning about them. I could give a rats ass how much my coins are worth. If I woke up tomorrow and they were all worth nothing I would not blink an eye. Some people hunt, some people restore cars, some people go to football games, I collect coins. I don't remember the last time I heard someone talking about how great an investment the football seats were, or how they just shot an investment buck.

 

Just like coins - know your subject before diving in. I highly recommend "Seeking Alpha" if you want to understand the universe of investment possibilities out there. It's definitely overwhelming but you'll eventually find some posters who are highly knowledgeable and trustworthy. My friends in the financial services world directed me to the site. The posters must disclose holdings in the assets they write about which creates a nice layer of transparency.

 

Well you're obviously not a Chreesehead or taxidermist then

 

If you ever watch TV and the one guy that sells coins there. I watch it from time to time and compare his prices to online prices. wow, what a difference. He keeps referring to a grey sheet but I'm sure he references the many raw coins he sells and compares it to high graded coins and then some.

 

He compares apples to oranges all the time, tells you pops on graded coins, then sells ungraded ones...beware of this tactic!

 

This is good to know....

 

Collecting coins reminds me of being younger when I desired toys or videogames. The enthusiasm and interest is the same. It's wonderful to be so fascinated and fulfilled with a hobby. As far as investments, it's definitely goes with coins because overall the hobby retains interest and value through all the years. I sometimes show people my coins and although it doesn't pique their interest much, I sense a little jealousy because they know I have a great hobby and it's not even remotely the same as collecting baseball cards, toys, or other things you can throw your money into. There's a coin shop next to me that has been there for 30-40 yrs and they have always paid fair prices. Where are the beanie baby collectors or baseball card shops buying your collectible today?

Although investment is tied up with coins, I also don't collect for this sole purpose or primarily for it. To make a living, let alone a nice profit, from coins requires the huge commitment that dealers have to the hobby. I don't want that. Sometimes I win big, more often I break even or lose. The outlier collectors who win big and are not dealers have probably held their coins for decades and had much capital to begin with.

 

I have only been collecting coins for a few months now and I am glad I read this post. I have gotten a similar message from others here too. This really helps guide me into my collecting journey. I thought about how I could make money off of this but now that shouldn't be a priority at all with this new knowledge you guys passed to me. I should do it for the love of the game and not a buck.