Mint Sets, Sorting And Selling

I see you are in Virginia. I have purchased from this auction house a few times and they seemed nice to deal with. They sell online through hibid and get better prices on mint sets than I have seen referenced in this thread.

Russell's Auction Firm
Address:
PO Box 383 606 7th Street, Altavista, VA 24517
Phone:
434-907-3396
Fax:
None
Email address:
russellsauctionfirm@aol.com
Website:
russellsauctionfirm.com

Thank you, yes.

I said coin collectors don't collect these sets or the coins in them but the reality is this applies only to most of the people in the mainstream hobby. There are lots of people outside the hobby who have great interest in these and large percentages of the sets trading hands are at auction firms, estate sales and other non-traditional venues.

Even back in the day I attended some of these and made very strong bids. Each time The sets would sell for substantially more. Sometimes I'd even see a good variety and my bid still got blown out of the water.

Back when these sets were ubiquitous dealers would quickly get swamped in them as they were purchased with collections but there was no market then either. Almost all these sets went to the big wholesalers and they were destroyed to get specific coins out of them. The sets have been worth more in pieces than intact since about 1980.

There are numerous buyers of these sets but they don't pay a great deal unless there's a promotion going like HSN or something. Generally they pay about 10% over bid and 50% when desperate. They rarely advertise for what they need and tend to buy the sets from dealers and jobbers.

Many of these sets are tarnished now and these have limited value. There are still lots of Gems and varieties in them. It is a very complex market now and the bid price reflects not only the lack of demand but that buyers tend to get swamped with "bad" sets if they advertise.

Few people realize that a single 1976 Ike (tI) from one of these sets WHOLESALES for $4 but dealers will offer less than $4 for the set.

I believe mint sets are the biggest bargain in numismatics and have been for a long time. The current real value is much higher than catalog value and the coins are still shunned by the mainstream. A '78-D nickel in chBU is far scarcer than a '50-D or even a '37-D buffalo but in theory you can buy rolls of mint set coins for about $3.25

The coin market is neither efficient nor sensible but if people ever start collecting modern coins they'll find there aren't many to go around and much of the supply is in the hands of the "general public". They bought them from Bob Vila or on TV. They bought them in ads in the Sunday supplement. It's a crazy market that requires a great deal of work to sell but very little money to buy.

Official 1982 and 1983 mint sets are valuable since they were only sold at the respective mint gift shops.
(An official 1983 P and D mint sets sold this month for $103 on the Bay)
(Don't be fooled by aftermarket sets. Look for the correctly sealed plastic they come in, which included a special copper token.)

Yes individual coins are worth more so why buy individual coins? I'll never understand the mind set of collectors. They will pay more for a slabbed coin in a high grade when they can buy a set break it apart and get the coins slabbed themselves for a small amount.

As to modern coins most are ugly, I have a few in my type set but I personally don't collect them. My lose probably as today's moderns become tomorrow's classics but I'll be dead then and I'm not going to worry about it.

If only it were so easy!

These are highly complex markets and Gems are the most complex of all. It requires a lot of knowledge to make any money here and even I lack all the requisite knowledge. Essentially only about one mint set in a hundred has any coins that are worth more than the grading fees and most of these are worth only a little more. Some of these coins can be submitted on the $20 tier and some must be at the $65 tier. And then they require some expertise to market as well.

There is a rapidly growing market for Gems that aren't quite worth the cost of slabbing but these are harder still to market. These are coins worth about 10 to $30 each and may be the very best bargains in numismatics right now. They run about four to 100 mint sets.

15 years ago you could still make easy money in mint sets but it's getting hard now largely because so many are tarnished. In another few years they'll probably all be tarnished. And still no one will care how scarce the coins used to be.

Also the 2005 to 2010 sets are the satin finished coins. The 2009 presidential cents are bronze in composition.

Oh my!
Is that a 1983 No- S that you found in a Proof set Blind Squirrel?

@petespockets55: Indeed I did. That's one reason I buy all the proof and sms sets I find at a reasonable price. You can also find individual coins if you are looking for a high grade series/sets.