Collecting For Profit?

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Originally posted by CarlTromp

Hello Dan,

Shure, it's nice when you have a nice "valued" collection, maybee it's a nice thing to leave to your children, or use it when you go into retirement to make life a little easier, but, I think a true collector does not give so much for the value, as well for the hobby, or like my wife calles it illness, then for the price tag which goes with it!!

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Very true Carl, my sentiments exactly!

Good question, Dan.

Well, yes, I would still collect. When I first started pulling Wheaties out of circulation in 1967, I certainly wasn't doing it for profit, because the Wheaties I could reasonably hope to find weren't worth much more than face.

I have long preached that coins should not be purchased with the investment motive in mind. For me, I thrill at the thought of holding a slice of history in my hand. For instance, I have an 1808 half dollar that I dream about who might have owned it, and what kinds of things it was used to purchase. Another example: an 1878 silver dollar, which came about as a result of the Bland-Alison Act, and is a direct representative of the great silver/gold debates that dominated the American political landscape during the latter part of the 19th century.

Still, these days, I seldom buy a coin that I don't think about how well the value will fare in the years to come. I don't want to buy a coin that will stagnate in value or go down. To that end, I've built a series of coin value tables that depict past performance, in an attempt to get an idea what to expect in the future. My theory is, is that coins that have appreciated well in the past are destined to appreciate similarly in the future.

So in summary, I am a coin collector first, but I also keep an eye on future expectations.

Great Question OldDan..!

My response to it is yes..! I would still be a coin collector. To me it's the history of the coin that's the main thing. I have paid 75% over the guides just to get the coin I wanted to own. If I sell a coin it's nice to get a profit but I'm usually selling it because I have a new love I just gotta buy or have have a lot of extra's of the coin I'm selling. As an example I may have bought a roll of 1955-S cents 20 years ago and now I'm selling them off single because they are premium.

Coin collecting is a fun thing for me. It has treated me well over the years as far as profits go but only because I could pick and choose when to sell.

catman