Refining my Kennedy collecting

So after a few weeks of participating on this forum and making various purchases at my LHC and on eBay, I've learned quite a few things about how I'd like to assemble this collection. Thank you to all who have patiently given me advice and otherwise slapped me upside the head. Let me know what you think about the following tack:

1. I'd like to populate the first page of the Dansco album with as many coins cracked out of PCGS, NGC, and ANACS slabs as possible, getting them in high grades, but not paying more than $50 for any single coin. I know it would be considerably cheaper to extract the coins from mint sets, but I'd like to do this in order to learn how to grade the point differences in MS and PF. I'd also like to see if there are any major differences between the grading standards of the top three TPG's.

2. With some better grading skills, I'll be able to discern which pieces to choose for the remainder of the album from mint and proof sets. I've already acquired a number of coins cut from mint sets in bulk, but I have a difficult time differentiating grades. I can certainly see if one piece has more or less dings than another, but determining the strength of the strike is something I'm weak on, unless the difference is obvious. If I've studied a number of slabbed pieces, I'll be able to compare the raw coins and make better judgments.

3. I'm dropping the roll hunting altogether. I appreciate that a lot of people like that kind of hunt, but it's just not my thing.

4. I occasionally like to pick up heavily roll-toned or album-toned pieces, but those won't go into the Dansco. If those pieces aren't already slabbed, I'll get them into Airtights to prevent any more toning, hopefully. In fact, if I end up buying any pieces at all that need to be preserved in a slab, they'll stay in.

5. I'm going to save the variety hunting till the album is full, unless I come across a really good deal of course, and at that point I'll look into some of the major varieties first, like the Accented Hair 64 and the no-initial dates. DD's can come later.


So what do y'all think?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

1. Whats the point in cracking them out of their slabs? Seems counterproductive if you ever plan to sell in the future as wouldn't you be cutting their value drastically in some cases? I guess if you plan to hold them forever you can disregard that comment

 

Yeah - maybe you're right Tinpot. Maybe all I need is a handful of slabs for the sake of grading education.

 

Well John,

I certainly like Kennedy's and wish you luck in your album filling.

I have to say though, like tinpot said, it would be very counterproductive and a big waste of money to buy slabbed Kennedy's and crack them out.
Wanting high grades is one thing, but once you remove it from the slab, you can take the grade and value and throw it out the window.

When I decided to buy albums and start filling them, I went the mint set route.
In some cases you will pay almost as much for a single Kennedy, or Ike, as you would if you bought the entire mint set. Unless you want to review each Kennedy before purchasing, this is a very cost-effective way to fill your albums. You can buy long runs of mint sets in one lot for very reasonable prices. Then you can fill up 5 albums! Just something to consider.

-greg

 

On second thought though, it makes sense to me to get the highest grade slabbed pieces I can for all the silver issues through the 60's and put them in the album. With the BU mint issues, it's not expensive to buy them in bulk and cherry-pick them, but with the silver issues, not so much...

I could buy a roll of 64 business strikes, for instance, but I refuse to believe anyone's selling them without having picked out the higher-grade pieces, and I'd be stuck with bullion that I payed a premium for. And silver seems to be dropping for now. In the long run, it would be more cost-effective to get a nice specimen graded around MS65, put it in the album, and study it for what a 65 should look like.

 

My issue is that I live out in the country, and although I can drive to a few coin shops, most everything I want is online. I don't have anywhere I can go and sift through a mountain of Kennedy Halves.

 

I can appreciate someone buying high grades silver for educational purposes. However, why would you crack it out?
Once you put it in the album, it is now just bullion. Don't get me wrong, I have cracked out slabbed coins for my albums. That's because I have absolutely no concern for their value. If that's the case for you, then go for it!

 

John,

Take a read through this older thread:

http://www.cointalk.com/t70588/

Some serious considerations about cracking slabs to form an album, especially as the others have mentioned with possible later resale should you change your mind or go in a different direction.

My opinion and suggestion would be to keep the slabs slabbed, and use them as a continual reference point for all the coins you want to self-grade. Buy up mint sets/proof sets, and non-slabbed coins as you will certainly get them cheaper in the long run, and using the slabs you already have (and any more you may acquire) as a reference you can hone your grading skills.

For example, I was able to get 3 '64 Accented hair Kennedys in full proof sets for about $35 each off eBay. This gave me 3 versions of the Kennedy to see which is the best, and it also gave me the other coins (90% silver quarter and dime as well) in the set to keep or resell to make some money back to put towards other coins for about the price of a single really good slabbed specimen. And, you never know what kind of DDO/DDR or error you might find with the other coins as a bonus.

You could also do a full slabbed set of Halves, they make slab pages, albums, etc and by using the registry set tools from PCGS/NGC you can easily keep track of which coins you have, and which ones you need to fill that certain set. I use that function a lot now, and although I could care less about the "score" of my sets, it helps me keep them organized and lets me know what my next targets are.

Good luck with your collections, I look forward to seeing your pics as you go along...

 

Nice Prime, I was looking for that thread.

 

Hm. You're right of course. Well, this is why I post here.

So I'll revise my strategy to collecting a few slabs for the sake of grading education, leave the coins in the slabs, and look for everything in the album to come out of mint sets.

 

Thank you sir. I will take your advice, and Greg's, and Tinpot's.

 

Hey John, the best part of collecting, is you can collect whatever, and however the heck you want!
Don't let us dictate your next move.
The biggest reason I am a raw collector, is because I collect for enjoyment.
Are some of my coins problem coins? No doubt about it.
In the end, I have no concern on the value of any of the coins. If I start worrying about the grades, the value, and the potential resell values, then I just turned a hobby into a job. No thanks!

 

Yeah, soon as I saw this thread started, I went right for the search... I read through that and have taken a bunch of what was in there as a basis for how I'm setting my things up.

 

Well, you could also drop the ANACS slabs and just go with NGC and PCGS to save money. There are differences in grading, but they are not always as clear-cut as one might think. You could just leave the coins in the slabs and study them, then populate your album with raw coins once you feel more confident in your grading skills. I hate to see you destroying value by breaking all those NGC and PCGS slabs. Just my fifty cents' worth! Good luck John Anthony!

Best Regards, :hail:

George

 

John
I tend to agree with gbroke about the mint sets, I bought quite a few just for the Kennedys or the Ikes. Proof sets too. I also just went through a whole thing with others in the other forum about albums and keeping my coins in binders, for the time being that's where I'll be keeping my collection. As I said there, I'm about 5 or 6 short of a full set, mostly the recent silver proofs which seem to be a little more pricey.

With grading, I was reading another thread about books and agree with the conclusion that grading skill comes with the experience of looking at a lot of coins. It makes sense to buy a few slab coins for a baseline reference and keep them that way. The few slabbed Kennedys I cracked out were PCI and ACCGS. I'm keeping my PCGS and NGC slabs. And then if I buy mint sets I can be fairly confident that I'm getting an uncirculated coin. Giving them a grade beyond that is something one day I hope to be able to do but not yet. I'll just keep at it...

Good luck with your collection
-Paul

 

That thread was very helpful, thank you. Thank you to all of you for straightening me out on this. Your advice makes perfect sense.

 

You're welcome, it's helped out a lot of folks I'm sure.

As Greg mentioned, our opinions are just that - what we prefer in our own collecting habits. However, I think the most important thing is to just know all the possible sides to the story so that you can be as well informed as possible. You seem to be doing well in that regard.

 

I think it is very silly to crack out Kennedy halves. A wide selection of Gem raw Kennedys are readily available, as are mint set ones at reasonable prices. It is backwards logic to buy a coin that is priced at the maximum of its marketability, and then crack it out for album use. Since there are sufficient Gem coins out there (I did a mint set plus assorted Gem Kennedys to do my Dansco, and they are quite high grade) it is easily done. I didn't buy slabbed coins for that purpose, and was able to find all of the coins at reasonable prices online. The market is still good for finding Gem Kennedys.

 

This makes no sense. You will pay maximum price for each date, due to the fact that they have been slabbed, and you will be paying top dollar--in effect, you will be paying that collector or dealer the cost to compensate them for slabbing the coin.

 

I agree with others who question cracking out $50 coins. I think you would be better served by simply examining as many graded examples in-hand (which may be no small task) rather than buying coins to try and learn to grade.

Second, I think it is natural to change your collecting behaviors -- I think the evolution is a natural result of you becoming more experienced and knowledgeable. Said a bit differently, I don't know of a serious collector who didn't go through similar changes in their collecting patterns.

Lastly, I think you should do what YOU want and not what anyone else says.

Good luck...MIke