I found this article this week and it changed my mind: http://www.coinweek.com/coin-collecting-strategies-2/quality-everything/ I always wanted to have a collection of rare coins. When I started collecting, I found out that coins in high grade is the only way, what real collector should collect. Low grade coins shouldn't be in collection. Every article, every advice from more experienced collector had very simple idea: "You must buy only in high grade. If not, you won't be able to sell it anymore." My mind was corrupted. After the reading, I dedided to not to follow quality path anymore.
Shoot, most collectors from my day started their collections by pulling coins right out of their pocket change. We wanted decent quality but couldn't always get it that way. Still, one could complete a set or two this way before they had to resort to mail order to complete a set. Most times we were looking to fill a hole in an album and the highest quality was just not affordable to many of us. I still have an old Franklin set that I completed by pulling from pocket change. I like it this way and have never felt the need to upgrade the set or even start a new one.
I don't know where the advice came from that you followed or how easily it is to corrupt your mind; but I know few folks who think that buying high grade coins is the only way to go.
The advice I have been given over the years is to buy the highest quality you can afford. If it happens to be high grade mint state or low grade circulated coins it really does not matter as long as you are happy with the coins you collect. A complete Dansco album for Liberty Head half dollars is still an awesome looking set in AG to G condition as well as one of BU Washington quarters. People collect coins for various reasons, me I just like them. I prefer AU to mid grade mint state, MS-63 to 64, coins solely because they are the most affordable for me. I do not care for low grade coins since too much of the design has been worn away and are not very attractive. I don't collect complete sets of any series so I do not have to have that expensive key date coin. When I can I will buy a better date piece in my grade range to make my collection a little more interesting. The MS-65 and higher coins are beautiful but when I can get an AU-50 to MS-63 coin with great eye appeal I enjoy looking at why spend the extra thousands of dollars for a coin which I have to keep in a safety deposit box for security and can't hold whenever I want any time I want.
I think buying what I like is the only way for me to go. I like old copper in f-vf because it has far more character. I like Bust halves in vf-xf because I think it adds something that a MS piece cannot. and so on and so on. I guess if you are collecting coins minted in the last 50 years, you might as well get MS as their depth is too shallow to capture much character after it's circulated. The only person that can say with any definitive credibility what you should collect and how, is you. Everyone elses opinions are meaningless, even if they are meant as helpful.
I think "desirability" is the goal, at least as far as that article is concerned: Some coins are more desirable to certain collectors for reasons other than a high-number grade. I guess that means "desired by enough people to warrant high sale prices" regardless of "grade" or "quality". But just because a collector personally desires a coin doesn't always mean that the coin has "popularity." I collect coins that are highly desired (by me), but are not at all popular with 95% of collectors. I don't know how smart my collecting rationale is, but it keeps me interested in the hobby, and allows me to put together collections that are relatively easier on the pocketbook to put together than the "popular" coins out there. Oh, and if you're new here, welcome to CT!
One thing I would like to point out is that quality and high grade are not necessarily the same thing. If you were thinking that they were, then I believe you had a fundamental misunderstanding of numismatics. I would nearly always urge folks to buy quality, but have no qualms about walking away from a high grade.
Quality over quantity absolutely. Whether it is G4 or MS67 buy the quality pieces, The pieces that have problems will always have problems.
Exactly what I was going to say. You should always buy quality coins but that doesn't mean you should only buy Mint State pieces. Take XF-AU Barber coinage, super nice, original examples (especially better dates) are rare beauties. Jesse
I think its all about liquidity...........how many people out there have 50k to buy a coin? Not much and you have to seek them out. However I can find many people who have $24 in their pocket and can buy a morgan or peace dollar. I would rather have a common item that is easy to sell than a big ticket item.............I also have a small wallet so I have to do with what I can
I'm at the point now where I can buy multi-thousand dollar coins. But I never enjoyed anything more than when I had a problem-free, AG-VG dansco 7070 U.S. Type set. I gazed at that set nightly for probably 2 years. It took forever to put together and find problem free coins in lower grade that all looked like a "matching set." Love...
I totally agree. For me "quality" means that the coin is problem free for its grade, regardless of whether it is graded G4 or MS65. With my limited budget I cannot afford to buy all of my coins in high grade. However, I don't buy problem coins in any grade because the problems will never go away. I don't even mind buying classic coins that are low end for their grade as long as they are in a problem free NGC/PCGS holder, because these coins are still better than so many others on the market that are cleaned or damaged. With that being said, I wouldn't mind owning the 1792 Half Disme in the Coin Week article even if it had several holes lol...
I hate to say it, but I honestly felt the same way when I decided to start collecting seriously. Every general coin collecting book I read told me that higher quality coins were really the only way to go and the only ones with worth. I still somewhat feel that I have to collect like everyone else, but not much anymore. Ive resorted to collecting what I like in whatever grade it is appealing to me. The potential IS there for people to think that they do have to only collect high grades to have a resale value of anything and so that is where they focus they're collecting, even if they may not be happy with it.
I buy the nicest coin I can afford. For the series I like to collect, I view each date and mintmark to determine what grade I can afford and make a note of it in my spreadsheet. But in all cases, I find the best coin I can for the grade.
This entire discussion reminds me of Q. David Bowers philosophy of the Optimum Collecting Grade (OCG). It really is just a fancy way of describing the highest quality (grade) before you reach "conditional rarity". By avoiding the conditional rarities you ensure that you have the highest quality with the largest buyer population. In most cases, this will correspond to the best combination of low supply and high demand.
