I have been kicking the idea around of listing my rainbow washington quarter set in NGC's registry set site. It's free but time consuming but is there any advantage to doing this or is it just an ego thing? My set would be in the top 15% now and its still growing but will never be near the top because I buy for the color rather than the grade, I'd rather own a fantastic 65 toner than a boring (for me) bright white 67 although most of mine are a 66 or better now. They do award a premium for a star designation but NGC is pretty stingy on stars for washies, I have many that are far nicer than my starred morgans so although my collection would fetch a "color" premium if I sold it, that will not boost my standings in the rankings. Any thoughts? Waste of time?
If you would like to compete with other Registry members for top ranking based on the established rules, then by all means join. If you believe that Registries are an ego thing then you probably shouldn't join. JMHO
Its my understanding that there are awards giving for presentation. If you win one of those awards then your coins Might fetch a premium because others saw they won an award. I also had the same issue as you but decided that registry are great to look at but for now I will stick to the coins that move me
The Registry Sets are not an ego trip for everyone. For some, it is simply a self-imposed challenge to present the nicest set possible, and there can be a lot of hard work involved in building one. For example, if you look at Jason's (physics-fan3.14) Franklin halves, you will see that he put a lot of effort into describing every single coin. He is very proud of his accomplishment, as well he should. The big advantage for the NGC Registries is that you can use, both, NGC & PCGS slabs. Personally, I don't participate in the Registries, but it has nothing to do with ego. I do, however, enjoy viewing some of them from time to time. Chris
Some people (like me) like to show their coins. Buying them and squirreling them away from the light of day is okay if you are investing. But for many of us the fun is in collecting. Last I saw (and it's been a while) my NGC Registry type set was #17. That's about as good as it'll ever be.
Every collector likes show and tell, its a big part of what draws us to the hobby. Every coin club I have ever belonged to had the most time devoted to show and tell versus anything else. If that is what the registry sets are for, then its wonderful. I would imagine that the people at the top are a little more competitive than that, and that is what the TPG'ers are counting on. Still, if people have fun with their coins, then its all good. Have fun!
I like the Registry because I can not only show off and share my collection with others, but it also is a good tool for keeping track of my coins. Within the Registry, I have an electronic record of my coins including certification numbers, price guide prices and population data. And all of the pricing and population data updates as needed. With the PCGS Registry, it is also linked to the Collectors Corner so I can go into my Registry Set and there are links in my sets to dealers who have coins that I need available for sale. Sort of handy to keep track of what dealers are pricing coins at and also makes it easy to find coins when needed. I've also met a few collectors who "compete" in the same sets with me and have traded coins, exchanged correspondence and even met up at shows. Sure, some have ego in the Registries, but I try not to get into that too much since I know that if some of the big money people wanted the top spot in the sets I'm working on they could have them just by outspending me.
