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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;illini420, post: 663815, member: 19423&quot;]If your sole motivation is an investment, then I think investing in coins is a really bad idea.&nbsp; This was popular in the 80s when coin value ran up very high when there were coin funds available on wall street and they were buying up everything they could.&nbsp; Your silver dollars were probalby worth twice as much then as they are now!!!&nbsp; And classic commemorative coins were worth significantly more in the 80s than they are now for the same reason... So don&#039;t be too confident that you&#039;ll be making money on these in a couple of years.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Those coin investment funds disappeared because the coin market pretty much crashed.&nbsp; Those funds were buying certified coins based on the grade on the holder and as you will learn if you haven&#039;t already, all coins in the same grade holder are definitely not equal in value.&nbsp; An MS65 Morgan that has tons of bag marks and which is common white color may be say $150 or so, but that same date, mintmark and grade coin that has fewer distracting marks and/or some nice color could be worth twice and much or even more.&nbsp; To have a decent chance at making money in this hobby in the long run, you need to educate yourself as to the coins you&#039;re buying and then buy good coins for their respective grades.&nbsp; It takes time, patience and the collector&#039;s spirit to do this successfully, in large part that&#039;s why the investment firms failed.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Additionally, rare coins aren&#039;t very liquid like bullion.&nbsp; In order to get retail price for them upon sale, you&#039;ll likely have to consign to a dealer or a major auction house (who will take 10%-15%).&nbsp; And then, you&#039;re subject to the market for that particular date and grade and the buyers just may not show up that specific date.&nbsp; For that reason they are not that great from a purely investment perspective.&nbsp; For example, there was a particular dime I was watching in a recent auction that sold for $24,000 in 2005.&nbsp; In 2009, the dime went unsold at a reserve of $13,500 (I was the high bidder before that at $11,000).&nbsp; So, if the right buyer doesn&#039;t show up on the sale date, you could lose a bunch.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If you&#039;re just an investor, stick with bullion as that is much more liquid and you&#039;re only subject to changes in spot prices for the most part.&nbsp; And try to buy for melt value when you can.&nbsp; Of course the retail houses like APMEX will charge a premium because they have to stay in business.&nbsp; To buy at wholesale levels you need to buy from fellow collectors on either eBay or on coin forums like this one.&nbsp; But beware of scammers too.&nbsp; I was scammed on a $1800 junk silver purchase last year, but fortunately I paid via PayPal w/ my credit card so my card company reversed the charge.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>But if you&#039;re into coin collecting as a hobby, then by all means take the time to learn about coins, learn what types of coins you really enjoy and then seek out the best examples of those coins for your collection.&nbsp; If you do it right and have patience, you&#039;ll have a collection that is not only rewarding from a collector&#039;s standpoint, but will also probably be a decent financial investment in the long run.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Good luck!![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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