Pre-1965 Proof Sets - Keep intact or cut them up?

I'm on the fence. When I was very young, I thought that Proof Sets (1964 and prior in the old style brown envelopes) were just about the coolest thing. But I was never able to afford them. Now, MANY years later, I've had a number of them, sold some off, gotten a few more, I have three left. They no longer have the same charm for me and I'm looking to use them to trade up on something else, no idea what.

Question. Might I be better off, get more for them by cutting them up and selling or trading the individual coins, keeping them in their individual original cello of course? I'm in no hurry to sell them. Or should I just offer them in whole, original packaging? It's not like the difference can be all that much, they go for only a bit more than 20 bucks last time I looked, but one part of me thinks it's semi-sacrilege to butcher them, then again, I'd be doing someone a favor by making individual coins available to the population for them to complete their collection.

It's definitely not the money, but the principle. Then I wonder, might any of the individual coins be worth slabbing? My eyes are not educated enough to make the call, and if any were, I'd then probably want to hang on to them.

You know? I just answered my own questions. They're not making these any more, and I'm gonna hang on to them, cause they ARE still cool now that I think of it. My question now is, was writing this a waste of my time? And was posting it a waste of yours? I think no to both. It made me remember why I collect these sometimes shiny round things to begin with, which is something complicated and intangible that I can't explain, except that, well...

It's cool. And no, they're not for sale.

 

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I collected all the sets back to my birth year. Some were already cut up and put in holders and some were still in the package. My 1955 was a box set and I put it in a holder.
My 1958 Franklin, is very nice and frosted. (that's what it was called when I bought) now it would be a cameo. If I was in it just for the money I'd pull that baby out and have it slabbed by PCGS and I'd get a lot of money for it. And I might do that at some point.
I think proof sets display better out of the package.
I don't think I have ever seen a premium for a proof set in the mint package, other that for the 1955, the set in the box usually sales for a little less than the flat pack.
But I can see that at some point in the future collectors paying a premium for sets in their original package if enough packages are broken up.

 

It really depends on the years. Imo anything beyond 1960 I'd personally cut up unless it had any varieties or cameo coins in it which tend to sell better in set versus individually for some reason.