I have just started a Mercury dime album and was wanting other views on collecting. Do you guys just fill them in with ok coins first to fill in the holes and then upgrade later or take time for the better coins first? 12 Mercs to go, anyone got a 16-D they want to donate for a good cause.:whistle: Should have been a comedian huh? Thanks, Troy
Many collectors follow the practice of buying what they can quickly find and then upgrading later. But that is a rather expensive way of going about it. Rarely if ever will you get back what you pay for the first coin. So you are finacially better off to wait and buy the nicer coin.
Yeah, what he said... I'm collecting Walkers, and putting BU coins in my album for the common dates. I probably will never be able to afford the keys in BU, so I'm getting them as good as I can afford them. I have a few that I know I will want to upgrade eventually, but its kind of a waste to get them all in low grades just to fill your album and then upgrade later.
I'm working on the merc set in EF/AU range. I would love to do it in BU but then my 16D will look way out of place when I finally buy it. In order to keep the uniform look across the set I went with EF/AU and hopefully find a nice 16D in F/VF.
I can relate to everything Doug has said and agree with him. As I was going through school and climbing the job ladder, I could only afford lesser grade coins. Now I am at the point where I am upgrading all my coins and this has become very expensive. I have found many times that I would be offered less than what I paid for the cheaper/first coin, so I just end up holding on to it. IMO, that is just money wasted. I should have waited to purchase the higher grade coin and I would have saved a ton of money. In the end though, you have to do what makes sense for you and what makes you happy. You just may be at the point in your life where you can only afford a F/EF coin, but at least you can put together an inexpensive complete set of whatever you are collecting. Good luck. Joe
Troy: Welcome to the forum. Now, as Doug said, you probably won't get back your investment, but... It will make you feel better to 'fill those holes'.
i agree as someone on a lesser income it feels good to fill holes i'm working on my lincoln set and am getting into some of the tougher ones moneywise my 1912 d is very worn but i filled the hole for now
Hey Troy, Welcome to the forum. My girlfriend just dropped some Mercury dimes off at the post office that are headed your way(The ones you bought off coinbug). I tried to drop them off Saturday, but the post office was closed. My post office seems to be unreliable like that, they close the lobby early whenever they want to. Now, if you only have 12 to go, then you are better off buying nice examples of whats still missing. But when I was working on my Mercury set, I bought most of them by the roll. Pay just a tad over melt for a mixed roll, then constantly look for upgrades. And I did pretty good like that, I plugged alot of common date holes with nice examples. Then all the extras got rolled up and listed the same way I bought them. And they sold for just a tad over melt. So I did really well plugging as many holes as I could with nice examples, and only paid around melt value.
I do what DJP does for all my silver sets. I buy rolls or "lots" of whatever I'm looking for. Never pay too much more than melt. So you may win or lose a little bit on how silver goes, but the ones I don't want, I turn around and sell. You will almost always find a couple of keepers in a roll. However, you probably won't find any keys or semi-keys unless you get real lucky. The other nice thing is if silver ever goes to $20 or a little more, you will find that you can sell your AG/G/VG frankies, mercs and Washingtons and buy at least AU quality common date ones for the melt value at $20. Course, ya gotta wait for that!!!
Thanks for the opinions guys. DJP thanks for the mercs looking forward to them. Will do business again I am sure. Will have to sit back and think about my collections I guess. The only ones so far I have been buying that are high quality are my Morgans. Will never have a full set so just collecting the ones that catch my eye. Troy
I visited my local coin shop today to get my kid started after he expressed an interest in collecting. The dealer gave me the line that I should (for my own collection) buy the low grades and upgrade later. It seemed to me at that very moment that it was a good idea to get me to give him my money. If I wanted to create two collections - one poor, one excellent - then that would make sense. I would rather make an excellent collection over the long haul, myself. Besides, I need to make sure that not all of my money goes to coins. I need to fund my retirement account, too, ya know?
Funny thing is I filled 90% of my merc album out of two rolls I was given, then bought nice xf/au coins for the rest sans the 16-d which is an ag3. Now 15 years later I take it out and think, i ought to upgrade these. Not a big issue for me because of how I filled it, but don't spend a lot of money putting a g to f set together only to turn around spend a lot more money upgrading it to xf,au,or ms.
