How far have coin values fallen?

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Well if I don't my children or grandchildren will.

 

I got out of collecting about a year and a half ago, and am just an observer now. I personally can't stomach taking much of a loss on a coin. I rarely did, but I saw how much I had spent on coins, and it freaked me out to think they could all only be worth face value one day. That's an extreme, but could happen. I saw that decline happen with my baseball cards I collected in the 80's and 90's. I spent all the allowance I got back then on cards, and when I went to sell the best ones I had the other year (Jackie Robinson, Willie May's, etc.), I was in utter shock how little I got for them compared to what I paid for them 20 years ago. Many of you on this forum can take the financial hits and stomach the ups and downs. I am not one, so I sold almost everything but the coins I inherited from my grandpa and just watch everyone else collect and admire from afar.

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I was merely pointing out that the price of coins that I have been looking for has been increasing. I realize that much of the coin market has been weak for some time, and I did not dispute that fact. I find it hard to understand how you can make blanket statements when you don't have all the facts.

 

I had several boxes of baseball cards collected from bubble gum packages I bought as a kid in the 60's. They were stored in my parents attic. After I graduated college and moved out of state to my first professional job my mom cleaned out the attic and tossed all of the baseball cards. I always wondered what all of those cards would have been worth.

 

It's like coins, they aren't worth nearly as much in the market unless they are certified. I paid $300 for a Willie May's card, and sold it for $60 20 years later...

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When I started collecting many years ago, I bought retail and sold wholesale. That means it normally took about ten years to break even in a rising market. I sold out and took a pretty good hit a few years ago when I thought my collecting days were over,

Now that I'm back, I'm shopping the same places as my old dealers and searching for wholesale prices. Between that and being more knowledgeable in my area of specialization, I am doing much better this time around in buying right so, even in a down market, I might still come out ahead.

 

I wouldn't worry too much unless you plan to sell old coins in the next ten years or so. Old coins are great and are often scarce or historic and the newbies will branch out and collect everything in time. A lot of people have been driven away and this will mean it takes longer for the old coins to recover and will slow how fast the moderns increase but recover they will and probably go higher than they had been. I would not hold onto common or low grade classics for the long term though unless you are collecting them.

 

I wouldn't compare baseball cards to classic coins. Baseball cards compare to modern bullion a little better. Modern bullion keeps getting pumped out more like comics and cards flooding the market in the 90s. More specialized styles and high prices for high grades. The amount out there is absurd. However, they aren't making anymore Mercury Dimes or Buffalo Nickels.

 

1851 & 1852 SLH, and not in higher grades. Most of the time I respect your opinion and enjoy your posts because I learn something about a hobby that I have stayed with for almost sixty years, from someone who obviously has knowledge that I don't possess. But once in a while your refusal to admit fault, when it is apparent to me that you are talking through your hat .... You get the idea.

 

They aren't making any more 1956 Topps Willie Mays or 1954 Jackie Robinson either, like the ones I bought and sold. The card market in the late 80s and 90s got so out of control, it's bubble busted, and now I use those cards as fire starters. Those are more like bullion, but the classics are just like Mercs and Buffs.

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Pretty sure the card market did get hot again in certain areas recently

 

I'm having the same experience. There are a lot more options for buying which has decreased the spread, along with easily accessible real time pricing information. If I overpay now I only have myself to blame. Even if the market dropped another 20 or 30 percent I would be less in the hole than I was right out the door of the coin shop 20 or so years ago.

 

Bah. The coins I watch are still selling albeit at current market prices. 50- 66% of pcgs price guide. In a bull market I have paid 60-75% of same book. There are more good opportunities for me and I still buy. I believe if the economy surges forward as a lot of people believe, people will continue to invest/collect. There's just so much average stuff on the market. May I suggest, q david bowers " the experts guide to collecting and investing in rare coins". I try and follow the authors recommendations and buy (optimal collecting grade) coins.
Naysaying doesn't really help our hobby. This baby boomer still has 8 years until retirement. Baby boomers are now between 53-71 years old. That's an enormous amount of boomers still actively working and I presume adding to their collections. Take it easy

 

Absolutely. The baseball card market was a bubble in the 80s and 90s. If you bought then it's unlikely you'd see a profit now but classic coins aren't on a bubble. Seems like they are the opposite track these days.

 

Blanket statement:

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From NGC: 1851 VG, March 2016: $475 March 2017: $800. Increase of 68.42%
1852 G, March 2016: $390. March 2017: $650. increase of 66.66%

Cherry picking one's facts to prove a point is pretty easy.

I stick by my original statement that the coins I have been looking for HAVE been going up in price. This statement was not an attempt to malign your generalized observation that the coin market has been in decline for some time, but merely to point out what I know to be a fact in my case. By the way, the 1851 and 1852 SLHs are but a few of the coins I search for at various shops, both online and bricks&mortar, as well as coin shows.

I will retract my talking through your hat statement, which was not called for and I apologize to you for making.

 

I've noticed from auction histories (Heritage, GC, etc) that in general, coins that don't come up for auction very often tend to increase in value. Some series have plenty of examples available on a regular basis so their values remain flat except for exceptional examples.

My ex used to accuse me of pulling things through my back side. In hind sight she was probably correct.