Little Bored .. Thought I Would Break Open Some Proof Sets

I am very glad you did, because it is good to get this perspective into the conversation.

I did not think this thread would go on as long as it has.

I have been giving some thought to the responses. It seems everyone has a little different point of view. That might be dependent on where they live and what level of collecting they are in.

In defense of dealers that may pay less than face value for proof sets. When the offer less it may be because they are over stocked on proof sets and really would not to buy more. They buy them at less then face, then turn around and sell them to buyers like me at face. Stamp dealers have been doing this for years.

I would not run a dealer down for trying to make a little profit. I have been to many coin shop in my life, most have large inventories of mint and proof sets, that sell very slow. It is not the same as a dealer paying $50.00 for a $500.00 coin. If I had a dealer with in driving distance that would pay me 10% over face, I could pick up a thousand sets easy to flip. I think that would not last long.

IMO mint and proof sets are far from being a good investment. It is the same as slabbed coins, buy the coin
not the package.

Couple years ago I was putting together a Kennedy Dansco.
Sitting in a coin shop with my list. Looking at the inventory and seeing sometimes it was cheaper to buy the whole set, then just the individual coin.

As for taking the proof coins back to the dealers to get face value, instead of dumping at the bank. They sold them to me cheap because they did not want them, I saved them from breaking them open and dumping them at the bank.

As for these coins .. I did get some messages from CCF members that wanted some coins .. I will try to help some of them out.

There are a few times where I like to sell some coins to buy other coins .. but I am not really looking to get into it as a business at this time.

Maybe we need a thread for people to share their style of collecting to help others understand each other better.

I get that they may have a ton of the sets. But then you simply say, sorry, I have a ton of these already. Saying give me your quarter and I will give you a dime is NOT the way to do it IMO.

It used to be easy to dump the leftovers. You couldn't get much for them but it would almost pay for the sets. I guess there are just too many sets on the market right now so all the buyers have ample supplies. When the economy strenghtens someday the supply should dry up pretty quickly. A lot of the older sets have suffered so much attrition there just aren't very many left.

Yes. I strongly believe this is true but I've been wrong for a very long time. This time might be different though since there are so many more new collectors and so many fewer of these sets surviving. In the past it would have required a large percentage of collectors (~5%) to start collecting the coins but now a much smaller percentage of a greater number would suffice.

Most coin collectors do not appreciate the just how small the supply is for manyof the components of the sets really is. Sure there are still a million of each of the '68-S denominations but some of these are degraded. But the supply of something like BU '68-P quarters exists almost solely in mint sets and most of these sets are gone. Mint sets had smaller mintages and much higher attrition. The coins are cheap because there's no demand. This will change some day but your guess is as good as mine about when that occurs. It might not happen until the supply of the sets coming to market is too thin even for the very weak demand. When collectors realize that the coins are scarce in nice condition they'll have a new respect for the coins.

An improving economy would put slightly more pressure on demand and a lot of downward pressure on supply. You can think of supply for these as somewhat similar to the way people cash in their change jars when the economy turns sour. With lots of coins flowing into the banks mintages crash. With lots of mint sets flowing into the market, prices crash. When the economy improves there will be fewer 1968 mint sets than ever.

I like holding onto nice specimens especially.

Wow. I'm assuming the only way to get these at anywhere close to face is to buy in bulk correct?

One of the only B&M coin stores I've been to had boxes, of boxes, of 70s/80s proofs. For $9 a piece.

i just saw this post. And seeing those lincolns I wanted to cry lol if you wanna sell some I'm always looking