How doe's everyone feel about breaking proof sets up

Well I thought i would post something a little different here on the forum since there's not that much talk about proof sets or mint sets.

I used to buy every year a proof set from the mint and a mint set. I actually stoped a while back just didn't have anymore interest in them.

The question i want to ask my fellow coin people. How do you feel about breaking proof sets up :hammer:for your collection when you need a specific coin, or would you rather go and buy it individual if you need it without breaking the set up( Now this depends if you have proof sets)

I have brocken up quite a few myself for my eiisinhower collection, to get real good specimens. Some collectors won;t even attempt to do it because ,they like the hole package

Well what do you think ?


Jazzcoins Joe:whistle:

 

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Buy the coin, not the packaging...

 

I love it when people break them up as it makes the population of original packages get smaller. Some day, people will stop wanting everything slabbed MS- and PF- whatever and start to appreciate the fact that the mint set and proof set coins are beautiful and original in their packages and then a premium may be associated. I can't see it ever working in the opposite direction, so I encourage people... break 'em up, I say!

 

I will generally buy a proof coin single if I need it for a set. I have a number of proof sets and have never broken one up...but I don't have a problem with it.

 

I too enjoy the original packaging of proof and mint sets, especially the flat packs with the Franklin halves. There's just something about the "original gov't holder" that makes it better to look at as a whole. But, there is definitly an abundance of these, so I don't see an issue with breaking them up. As someone mentioned above, break enough up, and my intact collection could aquire a premium

 

My grandson cut his up 2004 proof set and spent it on candy. I think I started him a bit young in collecting! :headbang:

 

I remember a guy at the local shop telling me the same thing about 20 years ago. He thought I was crazy breaking up the silver proof sets from the 1960's and he was buying them to put away as he was sure original sets would bring a premium. Prices on them were about 2X what they are today.

It's highly doubtful that the original packaging will be worth a premium. The packaging sucks. The only reason it would bring a premium is so that people could cut up "fresh sets" looking for winners.

I still buy these original sets and cut them up. My local dealer sells them to me by the box (maybe 200 sets at a time). It doesn't seem that the market is running out of them any time soon.

 

Every year I purchase about 10 to 15 Proof sets. I give many away for Christmas presents along with the lates Red Book. A few I keep for myself. Usually about 5 of them are opened so I can put the coins in the albums for those type of coins.

 

I dont break up my proof sets. I believe that the less you handle your coins the better. When you break the coins out of their original packaging you risk dropping the coin or even worse, scratching it. Whether you leave it in the packaging or break it out to place in an album its still part of the set.

 

This is kinda how I feel. Personally, I don't enjoy the act of cracking open slabs, or proof set cases. It's risky.

I'm sure there are some guys who have cracked out so many it's second nature to 'em. They "got their mojo workin', fo sho". Not me.

 

They made millions of 'em. I'm sure there are still mountains of them around.

So many that you can easily get 'em for greysheet bid at shows.

 

If they are copper clad coins, I'll break them.
But not silver sets (before 1965).

 

I don't crack them open either, but truthfully, the packaging in the 1960's sucks.

Ruben

 

If you had the choice between buying a proof set in 2x2s or AN IDENTICAL SET OF COINS still in its original mint packaging, which would you prefer? I think that there is a little more marketability if they are in the original packaging.

However, that would not prevent me from breaking up a set if there was a compelling reason to do so. I just broke up a 1955 proof set to send the cent, nickel, & half to NGC. (The dime & quarter in the set were just not fun to look at and I thought that the other three were special). They arrived from NGC yesterday 67RB, 67CAMEO, and 67* respectively.

Very best regards,
collect89

 

Wow that Benjeeeeee is sooooooooo beautiful. There must be a nice premium on that baby. Wonderful looking coin.They didn't classify the benje a deep cam ,probably the reverse didn't make it, that's why

Jazzcoins Joe:whistle:

 

I don't have any problem breaking them. Most of the time it makes financial sense to do so.

Who doesn't have at least one collection that's a modern series? I've got sets of all of the moderns. It's so much cheaper to buy the set and crack it than it is to buy the singles. Sometimes you can get 2 proof sets for the price of buying the singles.

As to future price trends... Don't really care, I want my coins in albums and not in little plastic holdie thingies. I'm not buying them as an investment but as a ways to complete a collection.

 

Sold

I am new to the proof sets , but my coin dealer let me have them at a very reasonable price . They were in my showcase for a few months
just setting there . I wa not out much money so I broke one up a 1977
proof, i was nervous that i would scratch them taking them out .
I put them back in the show case and with in one week they were sold. I guess someone wanted them to complete their set , as far as i know that is the only way to get them.
I have 6 more sets I havent decided what to do.
Was i a bad seller ? I am not really out for the money, but I hated seeing the set just laying in the show case.
of course I got more for them seperate, but I did not nearly list them on the high side of thered book.:headbang:

 

This is so different from other kinds of collecting, where people are all about "original packaging" and "never removed from box".

Any theories about how the difference came to be?

Any chance of coin collectors's mindset ever changing? I'm guessing not, it seems to be a relatively conservative hobby.

 

I love the mint and proof sets more than anyone but most of these deserve to die. This goes many times over for the mint sets. Most of the coins in the mint sets are substandard. Add to this the fact that the individual coins are usually worth more than the sets and they're literally worth more dead than alive. Because of this they get destroyed in large numbers so someday they might have a big set premium.

A few of the mint sets contain all gem coins and I hate to see these get destroyed. Worse is that the more gems in a set the more likely it is to get busted.

Oh well. Ultimately it's about coin collecting rather than OGP collecting.

 

Wow, totally missed this thread that was originally posted over one year ago. :smile

When I first started collecting back in the sixties it was mint sets and proof sets that were my primary focus, as I felt that was the best way to collect examples of "year" sets. I filled my albums primarily from pocket change, unwilling to break open the sacred sets from the mint for fear of committing some form of sacrilege. That philosophy stayed with me up until 2004 when I found myself able to afford more than one example of the proof and mint set and so I found myself breaking some of the coins out to add to extra albums. I'm a big fan of OGP but now have no remorse in breaking out superior examples of particular coins. One thing I absolutely refuse to do is break out modern commem's. That, however, may change if I ever have the ability to purchase multiple examples of proof and unc. :smile