Coins are bad investments because....

I have no idea how to quote a post with this awful new format, But that David Hall guy needs some English lessons.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

You can manually type in [ quote ] type stuff here [ /quote ] with the quote in between, just remove the spaces inside the brackets.

 

So easy - and you can do multiple quote by clicking reply to several threads one at a time. The only problem is I am not sure how to do when they are on different pages. Oh well.

 

Is English his first language? That was painful to read.

 

the only real way to make money on coins is to buy them below their market value (usually from the USmint or rolls from the bank at face value). This idea that you can buy an old coin and hold on to it and hope it "goes up" in value is faulty for a few reasons.
- these old coins usually have a problem like being lightly cleaned (yes even slabbed coins are often lightly cleaned)- this is not a problem when buying but when selling it can be a problem.
- Unless you are getting truly problem free key coins people will probably not want them when you go to sell....but problem free key coins are sold at prices above market prices so any market increase is eaten up by that premium.

An exception might be if you have a little foresight to see a trend- for example- if you bought nicely toned coins before they became popular you did ok- if you bought high grade coins before the registry system came into being you did ok. If you see a trend like those on the horizon PLEASE let me know!

 

I've been a coin collector for many years. I do it as a hobby and not an an investment. I must say that part of the hobby for me is getting a good deal or buying stuff from the mint that I think will appreciate. The five 2011 ASE sets, the Hawaii puck, and the 2012 silver proof set have been good to me. On the other hand, the presidential dollar cover series and the clad proof sets have not been so good. Oh well, it is part of the hobby. I use ebay as a source of value minus 10%. Still, I'm up 2.85%/annum, which isn't bad for a hobby. I'm only getting 0.7% in my savings account. If you want an investment, go to the stock market. I've also been in that for many years and up over 8%/annum.

 

Buy problem free, slabbed key dates of popular series in the highest grades you can afford. Hold onto them for a long time. And you've got a shot of at least breaking even.

But the buy/sell spread still stacks the deck against you.

The other thing to do is buy something where you know demand will outstrip supply.
The US mint has offerings like this from time to time. The five coin Silver Eagle set that came out a couple of years ago comes to mind. But there was a heckova lot of competition for those. They sold out in a couple of hours on line.

 

Danr

An exception might be if you have a little foresight to see a trend- for example- if you bought nicely toned coins before they became popular you did ok- if you bought high grade coins before the registry system came into being you did ok. If you see a trend like those on the horizon PLEASE let me know![/quote]

Well of course I can't find it now but there
is a piece in Lang's book about someone
(I think Cmdor. Vanderbilt) who hoarded
25,000 1909S VDBs in 1909. And Dave Bowers
and Jim Ruddy, sold 1955 DDO's for 25c.
It is possible. If it's hard to do, that's a good
sign. Investors like Doug Casey spend thousands
of hours sifting through dog puke & hairballs
just to find one decent investment.