How Do Folks Stay Patient?

Just picked up the 2006 set, very, very nice! He actually had two of the 2011 sets, but I need a while to save a bit for those. The 2011 was a lot bigger than I thought.

Oh, and I'll go out and get the red book. Thanks!

 

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Congratulations on the pick-up, sounds like you are in the beginning stages of addiction!!!

 

Actually, there is an excellent book that has just hit the market. Both visually pleasing and informative, I think it's a 'must have' for any ASE collector. The title is 'American Silver Eagles A Guide to The US Bullion Coin Program' by John Mercanti and Miles Standish, Whitman Publishing copyright 2012.

 

Is that a good thing? As long as we keep just between all of us, and don't let Mrs. V in on it, I should be OK.

 

Lol. Sorry Beef, I love you included ancients, but to label them as a similar grouping with VAM Morgans or Overton numbers struck me as funny. Ancient collectors have about 100,000 TYPES of coins to deal with, let alone hundreds of varieties per TYPE since all dies were cut by hand. So, maybe we have 20 million varieties as a rough guesstimate if someone wished to collect ancients by varieties. Kind of a larger animal than trying to learn Morgan VAMS, huh?

Again, no disrespect meant, and I loved how you suggested ancients as a possibility, the way you did it just struck me as humorous. Maybe apples to apples would be Morgan VAMS versus Punic copper coins, or Licinius II LRB, or bronzes of Justinian.

 

Just like the end of this stuck me as humorous...

There are still many types of Punic Coppers

A more apples to apples would be Varieties of Falling Horseman of Constantius II to Morgan VAMs

 

Well, once you put it that way I guess the comparison was pretty funny But they do have a lot of similarities, first and foremost the amount of time and study that has to be involved to assemble a collection. I could go out tomorrow and complete a set of ASEs, you can't do that with any of the groups I mentioned, and I am not sure 'sets' even exist in ancients the way they do for American coins.

Fact of the matter is, when I get bored I lose patience. The best way for me to keep that boredom away is to read, study, and learn about the coins I collect. I think it also comes down to personality, I am the type of person that does not like to complete things.

 

Me too. Its amazing how much cooler your coins are the more you learn about them.

 

I have no choice but to be patient, and I think it all comes down to the initial excitement that's clouded my better judgement in the infancy of my collecting days. Which is exactly why it's taken me 3 years so far to put together my 7070 type set, I'm a Capped Bust Dime and a 20 center away from completion. When it comes to the set, I'm just not going to settle, because upgrading can be exhausting at times.

 

Patience is not something you're born with, but it is something you can learn.

If you want to learn patience, I'm happy to teach you, but now is not a good time. Come talk to me about it later...

 

Yeah, OK Obi Wan Kenobi. I'll be sure to let you know when I'm ready to learn about patience.

 

there is just one problem this will fail completely in a rising coin market. Example russia india china. If you wait the prices can go up by as much as 10 times in a span of 2 years maybe even more. but in a stable market like us coins it works great. in a rising market dont worry about the quality just buy and upgrade later, the further away you are from your desired quality the more you buy so you come out ok in the end you still lose money but not as much.

 

If you like silver bullion, I would suggest saving pieces from many of the world mints as an option. They are produced with excellent designs and in various weights. It seems you never run out of sources to invest in.

 

1989? i am lost.


What i am saying is every market including the coin market takes a leap. The us coin market has made the jump already but there are others where waiting will hit you very badly. So the normal best practice becomes a bad practice. Even as i speak the india coin market will stabilize in 2013/14 then if you are not patient you will get burnt again but right now its disruptive and patience is not a virtue

 

Mike: Just curious...what price did he quote you for the 2011 set? Thanks, TC

 

$700 for the set. I *think* I might be able to get him down to $675. I'm a pretty good customer.

 

I learned patience back in the early 70's dealing with the US Mint. back then you ordered your proof sets in Feb, and paid by check. They would cash the check right away and you would wait and wait and wait. If you were lucky they would show up in Nov in time to be used for Christmas presents. If not they would usually arrive by the time it was time to order the next years sets in Feb again. Sometimes though something might sell out and you would finally get a notice that they sold out......and that they would be sending you a refund in a few months. And you would wait for that. No website you could check your order on, no phone number you could call, orders were not cancel-able by the buyer, they didn't take credit cards so no chargebacks, and since you were dealing with the government the usual rules about being able to cancel if the seller couldn't deliver within 30 days did not apply. They've got you money and there was nothing you could do about it. You had no choice but to learn patience.

 

I hope that everyone reads your entire post because it is so very true.

You forgot to mention one bit of information. The proof sets from the 1970s & 1980s didn't appreciate in price over the years. Today you could get between $3 - $6 for some of those sets that originally cost ~$20.