I've come across a few un-opened proofsets and I was wondering what your opinions are. Should I open and hope for a rare or leave un-opened and let collect value?
Very few worry about whether the set has been opened or not. If you do decide to open, try to do so cleanly. Ripped and torn boxes do lower the value.
While you're talking about proof sets... I have a 1962 set. I opened it carefully. The half dollar has a small mark on the obverse (at 3 o'clock). There are other blemishes from my scanner, but the close-up shows the mark on the Franklin coin surface. Now that it's open and this flaw can be seen, how much is the value lowered? What's it's worth?
A 1962 Proof set has a current bid of $8.25 so a dealer would probably not pay any attention to the small blemish. Many coins in the late 50's through the mid 60's are toned or blemished. This is due to the packaging. While a dealer would pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $7.50 for the set, they would not discount the set for sale unless the customer asked for it.
Unopened? What dates are we talking about? Are you sure that they haven't been seen by anyone, sinse they left the Mint?
It is not uncommon for collectors to buy multiples of Proof sets and then not open them. These sets may sit in storage for years and never be opened. This happens - I know quite a few collectors who do so. However - I believe that the vast majority of the so called unopened Proof sets on ebay are not truly unopened sets. It is all to easy to make your own new envelopes, place a low quality Proof set inside & seal it, and then sell it on ebay - hopefully at a premium because it is " unopened ". Trust me - most of them have been opened. This is one of the drawbacks for ebay - for only ebay would somebody pay more for an unopened set. Myself - I'd never buy one. I'd never leave one unopened - I want to SEE what I bought. If you ever try to sell these sets to a dealer - the first thing they will do is open them.
I have seen proof sets that have been sealed, some that have been opened and some that appear never to have been sealed at all. I have also heard people say that there is no such thing as a sealed set because they were never sealed by the mint. My theory on this is that sets that were purchased at the mint (by walk-in) were not sealed; sets that were shipped from the mint were sealed. Does anyone know if this is the case? This is just one of those things that "inquiring minds want to know".
Sealed Mint & Proof Sets I will fess up and say that I don't open either the proof sets or the mint sets. The way they arrive from the post office is the way they are stored. I place a label on the outside of the shipping box to let me know what's inside and then put it away. It seems that every time I go to sell one of these sets on EBAY or else where I always get a premium price for them. catman
Unfotunately, I don't have first-hand knowledge, Susan. I have talked to dealers, who bought proof sets in quantity during the late 50's and 60's, who have told me that the proof sets were shipped in boxes, that were of course sealed, but the individual envelopes, inside the boxes, were not sealed. They also said that when a single proof set was ordered from the Mint, the envelope was sealed, but the PO markings on the outside of the envelope, made these unmistakable.
