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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;satootoko, post: 21723, member: 669&quot;]If by &quot;successful collector&quot; you really mean &quot;succesful investor&quot;, others have already pointed out the pitfalls, and advantages, of &quot;investing in coins&quot;.&nbsp; It differs in kind, not just in degree, from &quot;collecting&quot; coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are collectors who: <ul> <li>participate in the Registry Set activity, seeking to accumulate the highest graded examples of a certain series.&nbsp; They necessarily <i>spend</i> a lot of money.<br /> </li> <li>go through their pocket change looking for coins they don&#039;t already have, or coins in better condition than the examples they already have.&nbsp; They naturally <i>spend</i> only a modicum of money.</li> <li>specialize in one or more series of specific coins - Morgan Dollars, British Empire sixpence, Pre-Meiji Japanese silver, foreign coins produced by the U.S. Mint, and on and on and on.&nbsp;&nbsp; Some of them <i>spend</i> a lot of money, others <i>spend</i> very little.</li> <li>specialize in the coinage of on or more specific countries.&nbsp; They too may <i>spend</i> a lot of money, or only a little.</li> <li>collect coinage of a specific metal - gold, silver, copper, bi-metallic, etc.&nbsp; Again, they may <i>spend</i> a lot of money, or only a little.</li> <li>collect currency - paper money.&nbsp; Generally they <i>spend</i> a lot of money.</li> <li>collect exonumia, non-coin items such as Conder Tokens, elongated cents, Casino chips, etc.&nbsp; They too may <i>spend</i> a lot of money, or only a little.</li> <li>refuse to put limits on themselves, and collect anything and everything numismatic that comes their way.&nbsp; Generally they <i>spend</i> a lot of money.</li> <li>collect non-numismatic items, such as porcelain, toy trains, dolls, antique furniture, etc., etc., etc.&nbsp; They also may <i>spend</i> a lot of money, or only a little.</li> </ul><p>I could go on for hours trying to list the multitude of different kinds of &quot;collectors&quot; inhabiting this world, but they all share one characteristic:&nbsp; They <i>spend</i> money <i>buying</i> whatever it is they collect.&nbsp; In that respect, they differ significantly from &quot;investors&quot;, who theoretically <i>invest</i> in what they <i>invest in</i>, with the ever-present intention (not always carried out) of selling their acquisitions at a profit.</p><p><br /></p><p>Each collector I have described would have different standards to measure their &quot;success&quot; as collectors.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, several months ago I acquired the last coin needed to complete a date set of Japanese ¥100 silver coins.&nbsp; That was a true collecting success, and gave me a great deal of pleasure.&nbsp; But frankly, my hobby record keeping is such that it would take a great deal of effort to determine whether those 10 AU+ coins cost me more, or less, than I could sell them for.&nbsp; It&#039;s simply irrelevant in measuring my success.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, like many others on this forum, in addition to <i>collecting</i> coins, I <i>invest</i> in stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, etc.&nbsp; In that milleau &quot;success&quot; <i>is</i> measured by how profitable it is.&nbsp; (If I <i>don&#039;t</i> turn a profit, where will the money come from to <i>buy</i> coins, or any of the other things my Beautiful Bride and I collect (food, shelter, entries in our passports, and so on)?&nbsp; I can assure you that my investment record keeping is very precise, and I can quickly and easily ascertain where I stand on every investment in my portfolio!</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope I haven&#039;t bored anyone with this lengthy posting, but I am very passionate on the subject of distinguishing my hobbies - engaged in with no expectation of profit - from my investment activities - engaged in to assure food on the table.&nbsp; Simply stated, &quot;success&quot; is measured very differently.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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