After buying an upgraded Vitellius, I'm contemplating trying to sell the first one

Hi medoraman! Actually, I wasn't sure she would never regret it; that's why I wrote "if you were like me." I already know Donna is not completely like me; she's a woman with longish hair on her head and no beard on her chin, whereas I am a man with thinning hair on my head, and a chin covered with a brown beard mixed with a little white. And it would be a lot longer, too, if my wife didn't insist on shaving it down so much every few months. ;-)

By the way, like you, my main regret, absolutely, is not having enough money!

Having said that, my tastes have changed several times over the course of my life. I have sold Canadian coins to buy wooden chess sets; now, I'm selling wooden chess sets to fund book purchases for ancients coins. In two notable cases, I've sold most of my coins to buy art. I also collect modern Dietz oil lanterns, although I only have five and will never sell any of them.

With my own collection, I now typically look at it as comprising three categories: core, try-to-keep, and expendable. The core (only a few coins, in all honesty), obviously, I never sell. The try-to-keep are coins I only sell if I absolutely must. And the expendable, are the expendables, although without all the macho nostalgic violence.

In a way, I'm actually doing on a micro-scale what museums and galleries do on a larger one. Periodically, they will deaccession some of their art objects. This might be because they need the funds, or to free up space, or because certain items in their collection no longer fit their mission statement or their strategic goals for their collection.

It looks like my experience is among the minority here, and that's ok. If a collector will miss their coins too much, then they certainly shouldn't sell them. For my part, normally I won't sell just one coin for not much money--I sell a large number, and its always to acquire something I want more. Having said that, it's not a very efficient way to collect from a monetary point of view, but here the key is the fact that I couldn't foresee my distant future interests while in the past.

Anyway, all the very best to you.

 

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+1, absolutely! I actually use that as a criteria for putting a coin in my "expendable" section. There are things that used to give me joy, but no longer do.

However, there have been times, painful times, when I have been forced to sell a joy-giving coin in order to buy something that would give me even more joy. It's a sort of ascetic, almost spiritual (which I'm not), growing experience, if I can use such language to describe what is ultimately still self-indulgent behavior.

 

It's true, I admit it! I love that Freddy-Jelloman coin!!

 

Heck, I will admit I am jealous of many coins here. @Alegandron has a Shapur I tetradrachm I would love to own.