Hi all! Has anyone else picked up a copy of Dave Bowers' new book The Expert's Guide to Collecting & Investing in Rare Coins? My copy just arrived today & it's great! Although I guess I'm a tad bit biased. Joe & I are both pictured in the book as well as a written contribution by yours truly. Joe thought it was beyond cool to see himself in a book! He said he's famous...LOL I had so much fun working on this with Dave and I am so excited to finally see the finished product. Hope y'all pick one up! It's a 'must' for your numismatic library.
You can probably order it directly from www.whitmanbooks.com ...There are a few more titles that I'd love to add to my library. Adding coin books to my collection is almost as much fun as adding coins!
Cool!!!!...I wasn't going to buy this book because of the Investing part but I guess since Joe is in it I'll have to re-think that Speedy
LOL Speedy...you're too cute. Don't let the 'investment' part deter you...it's chock full of all kinds of great and useful information. I've read through it several times for proofreading and copy editing purposes and I STILL can't wait to sit down and read through it yet again. Tonight I've got a date with a glass of merlot, a comfy chair and my book...once I can get Joe into bed.
I have bookmarked the site for ordering in my Favorites....I'm going to see if I order from ANR if Mr Bowers will sign it for me..... Last time I ordered a Bowers book I ordered from B&M (I had a gift certificate from filling out a paper for them) I asked that he sign it and they sent it to him for no extra charge....they also said that since the total was $25.90 and my certificate was for $25 not to send anymore because it would cost too much.....I think I'll give them more business when I can!!! Speedy
I just think that Investing is risky....Collecting for the joy of coins is one thing....but for money is something else. Sure I want my coins to sell for a proffit but that isn't my gole....I think too many people get into this "Coins are going to make me money"....when that might not be the case....people thought that was the case in the 70's--and look what happened. Speedy
I can understand your point, but I think investing in coins is a lot better than investing in the stock market, if you know what you're doing. JMHO Charlie
True....my dad invests in coins....of course I help him pick out what I think is best I think a big part that I'm still learning and that more collectors need to learn is the selling part...too many collectors buy but never sell...that is great but when it comes to the place where they MUST sell they don't get the money that they could have and they don't get the coins out to the places where buyers see them.... Speedy
My dad bought some gold coins for Y2K. That was before I knew anything about coins. He bought them from Swiss America, and paid about double what they were worth. This is why I always rant about the coin companies that just try to rip off newbies. Charlie
It would be very interesting to see what happened. This could be done by obtaining a book of coin prices from, say, 1975 to pick a mid-decade year, and see what many of them are worth now for your favorite series or individual coins. Also keep in mind that one ounce Krugerrands were selling for about $150-$200 then, and there have been numerous occasions when the investor could have sold at a profit since then. Silver was less than $5 per ounce for most of the decade, and was above $10 from mid-79 to mid-81, and again for most of 1983 giving the investor ample time to take some profits. A buyer at almost any time prior to 1978 probably never did any worse than break even. Not great, but not the disaster people make it out to be. I don't know anyone who BOUGHT silver coins when the price shot up into the $25-$50 range except industrial buyers who were melting them. Everyone I know was rushing to sell just about anything in the house they could pass off as silver. Everyone assumes most of the gold and silver was purchased at the peak prices, but that just isn't the case. It never was a no-brainer investment, but nothing else is either. Coins probably won't and shouldn't match returns from things like stocks and real estate; but they probably will match the performance of bank accounts and money market funds. Coins are like holding an inflation proof currency. Add a little successful buying low and selling high now and then, and they can be quite satisfactory in addition to being a lot of fun.
You're right - it is easy to see what happened, but it was the '80s not the '70s. One of the best ways is to look at an old copy of Coin World and check the ads during the peak. Another is to just to talk to folks who lived through it. But just to give you an easy example - many of what we consider as common date Morgan dollars were selling in the $1000 - $1500 range - each. Today they sell for maybe $300, if you're lucky. Another way is to look at the PCGS 3000 Index - after almost 5 yrs of a bullish coin market with record high prices that most collectors can't even remember ever seeing - it's still down 65% below the all time high in May of 1989. When people think of losses like that - they don't much like to think about "investing" in coins. Something else to remember - for every sale there is buyer. You can't have one without the other. So there are still plenty of folks out there who are patiently waiting to recoup their "investments" in coins and precious metals. They'll likely be waiting for some time to come - it's only taken 16 years to get back 1/3 of their money so far.
Robin - Congrats on the new book !! I know you are quite proud, and with good reason, of the work you have done helping to make this, and all the other books a reality. Way to go young lady BTW - I'm sure glad you finally decided to let the cat out of the bag. My tongue was gettin mighty sore from me biting on it all this time
