Sealed mint sets - deserve a premium price?

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Couldn't unopened ones carry premiums for these "wonderful" Cameos that may turn up?

 

Nice set 19lyds!

 

No the "inner envelope" WAS the mailing envelope.

 

Help Please!

I am new here and trying to learn...so please be gentile! I inherited a coin collection from my grandfather and I am in the process of trying to catalog and decifer the rhym and reason behind some of the things he was doing. I do have several sets of what I am assuming are Proof Sets still in the un-opened cardbord box from the mint. An example: The lable states there are 5 sets of 1976 from the San Francisco Mint. It has the original PO stamps on it. I assume they are just proof sets and not silver proofs since they were in a lock box with other opened proof sets from the same year. He kept the silver proofs seperate. I am not looking to sell anything at this point, but I was told not to open them as they might be worth more un-opened. can anyone give me any advice? To open or not to open?

 

99.99% of "sealed", "unopened", and "obw" items on the market have been:

1 - unsealed
2 - opened
3 - unrolled

It is stupid easy to put these back together in near perfect mint packing or roll or seal.

DON'T buy it at premium, DO buy it assuming a normal to sub-normal coin is inside and you should be happy. Pay the premium, and 99%+ of the time you'll come out with overpriced coins....

That said, you could always join the party,,, repack it and put it back for sale as OBW, or sealed, or unopened and pass the lesson learned on to the next newbee in need of training.

 

Just looking for knowledge so I don't devaluate something

Like I said, I am not looking to sell anything. I got these as an inheritance. I know they are in the original sealed box as they were mailed directly to my grandfather with his address, name etc... I just want to know if I open the box to inspect them and catalog them, will I decrease any value. Also, can I get rid of all the "opened" mailing boxes? some of them take up twice as much room as the box containing the coin itself.

 

I wouldn't open them unless you have some kind of logistical problem storing them. You probably will sell them for more that way. This is what the saying "One man's junk is another man's treasure" is all about. It doesn't have to make sense or logic, someone will pay you extra for them; not me however. Ever human mind set is different, so don't expect to get full agreement. You only need one person to feel it's worth the risk to purchase. Take the chance and leave them sealed.

 

Anything I buy that is in an envelope, I open to inspect the quality of, and to be sure I am getting what I paid for.

In answer to all your questions, no.

 

This is my favorite answer.

When WC Fields was told his gambling at poker was immoral he answered it wasn't gambling the way he played it. If you can actually find sets that you know haven't been opened then they are worth a premium. The difficulty is in assessing this premium and being certain they haven't been opened. Sometimes even sets that you know are opened are worth nearly as much premium if you can be confident the person who opened them wasn't aware of the coins you're seeking.

1970 mint sets, for example, contain the small date cent about 10.1% of the time. This allows you to pay about 10.1% of the difference between regular and small date sets on unopened sets. If you only offer 8% then you are stacking the odds in your favor. 1980 mint sets from the Milwaukee area have about a 2% chance of having a gem '80-D half dollar with no gouge on it.

Basically if you know the odds or can stack the deck then you don't have to take a chance. Now days that are a lot of people willing to pay far too large of premiums so finding these at a good price is not easy.

Collectors don't need to despair. Many people have searched these sets for decades looking for choice, gem, and variety laden coins and these sets do come on the market from time to time. They are often offered as just ordinary sets since the buyer might know nothing about the specific coins or any moderns. Sets have other ways of becoming segregated as well. Original buyers might sell off dozens of sets each year and only keep the two or three best. These best ones sometimes come onto the market.

As hinted earlier the mint segregated some of these sets as well by shipping them out by zip code. As the sets are made varieties and gems can go into consecutive sets. These sets can all end up in the same egion just like the '55 DDO cents ended up in Boston, the WI quarter varieties in Tucson, or the '82 NMM dime in Sandusky Ohio.

Ya' gotta know the odds. And don't bet against the house. Most of the sellers on eBay know the tricks for getting unwarranted premiums and are actually selling sure losers.