Posted 01/21/2022 2:08 pm
@DBM 
Why do you buy Golf Clubs, Skis, Scuba gear, fast cars, baseball cards... Because you like them, they are your hobbies or preferred activities when not working. Numismatics is really no different and trying to morph it into an investment vehicle is generally speaking a losing proposition.
Yes... there are coins such as the 1948 Silver dollar that today commands so much more than the $1 it cost when released in 1948... just as you will no longer pay original list price for a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO but for each one of these, there are millions of 2020 Loons, Twoonies, quarters, dimes and nickels just as there are millions of BMWs, Fords, Chevys etc... none of which will ever again achieve their original purchase price. Even the "Classic Circulation Set", you are paying $26.95 for $3.95 worth of coins that you could get in change or from a bank... the difference being the packaging.
I don't disagree that you are paying, in part, for packaging... more so in the "Special Wrap" circulation sets than in a Silver Proof set but for a collection, storage and presentation is part of the deal. Personally, I am not a fan of the RCM packaging and most of the NCLT I purchase is moved to alternate storage/presentation methods... Methods that appeal to my aesthetic and collecting goals.
Rule of thumb... If you are buying a collectible, labeled as a collectible, from the purveyor of said collectible you are paying too much if your goal is intrinsic value or resale; if you are buying because it is your hobby and you value the pursuit... then the price vs. value equation is a personal decision. And this is the same regardless of the wrapper or packaging... whether it is wrapped in specially printed paper ( RCM Rolls), in a fancy wooden box (Proof NCLT), or a TPG slab ... you are paying a premium for that wrapper and it forms part of your collection's attributes. I have one collection that is circulation SDs (1935-1967) in ICCS Flips and also a collection of NCLT SDs that are no longer in their mint issue clamshell cases but Lighthouse Trays. There are those in this hobby whose collecting goals require that they only collect circulating coins received at face value from a bank or in change from a retail purchase and are kept in 2x2 cardboard holders... That is their focus and I am not about to gainsay that collecting strategy. To each their own.
Why do you buy Golf Clubs, Skis, Scuba gear, fast cars, baseball cards... Because you like them, they are your hobbies or preferred activities when not working. Numismatics is really no different and trying to morph it into an investment vehicle is generally speaking a losing proposition.
Yes... there are coins such as the 1948 Silver dollar that today commands so much more than the $1 it cost when released in 1948... just as you will no longer pay original list price for a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO but for each one of these, there are millions of 2020 Loons, Twoonies, quarters, dimes and nickels just as there are millions of BMWs, Fords, Chevys etc... none of which will ever again achieve their original purchase price. Even the "Classic Circulation Set", you are paying $26.95 for $3.95 worth of coins that you could get in change or from a bank... the difference being the packaging.
I don't disagree that you are paying, in part, for packaging... more so in the "Special Wrap" circulation sets than in a Silver Proof set but for a collection, storage and presentation is part of the deal. Personally, I am not a fan of the RCM packaging and most of the NCLT I purchase is moved to alternate storage/presentation methods... Methods that appeal to my aesthetic and collecting goals.
Rule of thumb... If you are buying a collectible, labeled as a collectible, from the purveyor of said collectible you are paying too much if your goal is intrinsic value or resale; if you are buying because it is your hobby and you value the pursuit... then the price vs. value equation is a personal decision. And this is the same regardless of the wrapper or packaging... whether it is wrapped in specially printed paper ( RCM Rolls), in a fancy wooden box (Proof NCLT), or a TPG slab ... you are paying a premium for that wrapper and it forms part of your collection's attributes. I have one collection that is circulation SDs (1935-1967) in ICCS Flips and also a collection of NCLT SDs that are no longer in their mint issue clamshell cases but Lighthouse Trays. There are those in this hobby whose collecting goals require that they only collect circulating coins received at face value from a bank or in change from a retail purchase and are kept in 2x2 cardboard holders... That is their focus and I am not about to gainsay that collecting strategy. To each their own.
