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 Replies: 20 / Views: 2,434 |
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Valued Member
United States
116 Posts |
Do you keep a log of how much you pay for each coin you purchase? Guess this is a question for everyday collectors - not dealers or those who buy to sell. Years ago I started making a list of coins with amount paid and value. But right after getting started, I stopped - when I realized that I would have to update values and the values were guidelines and the values were based on my grading skills. And I had many coins that I did not remember where I got them or how much I paid. Since then I've never really seen a reason to keep up with this information. I do keep an inventory of date/mint/grade but nothing on value or amount paid.
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
1361 Posts |
I have always wanted to do that but never had time to do it. I still keep all my invoices for the expensive coins, incase I find the time to do it.
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Moderator
 Australia
16804 Posts |
I record value paid, and have done so since the early 1990's - though up to 1995, such recordings were intermittent at best. I only started recording it for every single coin in 1995, once I started using a coin database program that had a "purchase price" field - I figured it was little extra effort on my part to actually use it.
There's a "current/market value" field as well, but I've never bothered with it, for the same reasons you haven't - it would require updating constantly (with 9000 coins in the collection at the moment, that's lots of updating!), Catalogue values often bear little connection to actual sale prices on the day, and it would depend on my grading skills being consistent with whoever wrote whichever price guide I was using. Since I never plan on selling any of my coins, I see no need to keep an up-to-date record of this.
So, what do I do with all this purchase price data I've entered? Not much, admittedly, though it can help with the financial planning / budgeting to use the database summary functions to see how much I've spent on coins this year and how it compares with past time periods.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1745 Posts |
My coin inventory spreadsheet has a column for price paid.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1840 Posts |
I don't keep track of purchase prices. A large percentage of my coins come from lots and old collections so assigning a purchase price would be arbitrary. I do, however, track where the coins come from: gifts, trades, collections etc.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Completely a lost cause for me to ever have tried. I started collecting well over 60 years ago and have no idea of where or how much coins cost back some time ago. Keeping track of most of my collection is also sort of to late. Example is I have over 3,000 Mercury dimes so that alone would take up a few books of information. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
I have always wanted to keep track of what I paid for a coin, but never have had the time to enter it anywhere. Also thought about keeping track of current value, but again too much work to update unless it would be once a year kinda thing.
Also really don't have a record of the coins that I do have, unless they are in an album, then it is more of a list of the coins I don't have.
I do have a spread sheet started, Denomination, Series, Date, MM, Grade but eveything under the headings are blank.
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Valued Member
 United States
116 Posts |
Thanks to all for your response. Here is reason I asked this question. About a year ago, I got a questionare from my home owners insurance. It was asking about home improvements, additions and coin,stamp,gun - collections. I gave it some thought, but later trashed it. Now with a recent break-in two doors down, I thought again about calling my insurance agent. Have no clue what they would require or ask as proof that I even have a coin collection, but was thinking - I really don't know the value of my collection or how to determine value. I don't keep up with value or amount paid - as stated, I only keep inventory of date/mint/quantity/grade.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1055 Posts |
I keep up detailed records of every coin I buy, date I purchased a coin. Company, individual, ebay acct. ect. Purchased from, year, denom, grade, TPG, attribution, amt. paid, current market value (I only update once a year). It is pivotal to keep detailed records in my opinion. The main reason is for the person who inherits my collection after I am gone to know what they have and a decent chance of not getting ripped off if they go to sell them. I actually have three separate spreadsheets going. One dedicated only to items purchased, date of purchased and price paid. The second is my 7070 documentation of all details of the coins I have in the set, about 10 different columns in this one. And A master collection excel book with a sheet for every denomination, bullion, and would coins. I agree It is a bit time consuming to keep up with but it is very useful when you want to know what you have or need to finish a set. I also think it is required to have documentation and a picture of each coin you want to have insured. |
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Valued Member
United States
266 Posts |
I have my database set up to include price paid. I like to see little things like how much I have paid, as to how much I figure it's worth, or how much I have paid per dealer, and various other ways to use it. Like some others, I don't plan on selling my coins, so it is all for personal use, anyway.
As for the fair market value.. I do it every couple of years, and base it out of one of the Red Books. I figure that if I update it every 5 or 6 years, it keeps it enough up to date. With over 3000 coins in my collection, in my opinion, it isn't worth updating more often than that.
And besides, that is what makes me happy about my collecting, and isn't that why we all do it?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2541 Posts |
I keep track of it in an excel spreadsheet. I only started collecting a couple of years ago, so I don't have a huge inventory of coins that I've purchased. I don't track price since it changes and it's tough to really put a value on it until you actually sell something.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
Also use Excel, log every purchase, but don't keep the current value up to date, because of grading variability.
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Moderator
United States
187446 Posts |
I use a spreadsheet as well. I enter the price I paid for the coin (or FOUND when I find them in circulation). For fun, I update the "values" from the Red Book whenever I buy a new Red Book (every five years or so); mostly to track how the relative value has changed over the years. (Yes, I retain each of the previous value entries). |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2049 Posts |
I keep track only on the coins that go into white cardboard 2x2's. I code it on the back of the card like many coin dealers do. I also put the date I acquired the coin, and the source (initials of coin shop, GS for garage sale, FM for flea market, CRL for Craigslist purchase, etc). The only one that really matters to me is the purchase price and it only matters if I am going to resell it.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1026 Posts |
Well try to I use Coin Organizer Deluxe and love it.
It also has many other database uses like passwords, address book almost unlimited uses.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
Thanks to all for your response. Here is reason I asked this question. About a year ago, I got a questionare from my home owners insurance. It was asking about home improvements, additions and coin,stamp,gun - collections. I gave it some thought, but later trashed it. Now with a recent break-in two doors down, I thought again about calling my insurance agent. Have no clue what they would require or ask as proof that I even have a coin collection, but was thinking - I really don't know the value of my collection or how to determine value. I don't keep up with value or amount paid - as stated, I only keep inventory of date/mint/quantity/grade.
I would be carefull with that. Many years ago you knew your insurance salesperson personally. Your info was just info in their local records. Today things are a little different. Your personal info goes into a computer and the entire insurance company has access to that info. Note the turnover in insurance personal is also something to worry about. You have no idea of who has your personal info on what is in your house. Anyone working in an insurance company with your personal info and get layed off or fired could be using your info for other reasons you wouldn't really like. It not only could, but does happen. I remember walking into a local rep for my Auto insurance and asked the lady at the front desk to discuss adding on another auto. She simply opened my account in her computer and there was my name, address, age, driving record, phone number, quantity of cars, their ages, milage, payment types, dates, how paid, check numbers and bank name, etc., etc., etc. And she was just the receptionist. So be carefull of who you tell anything to about a coin collection. The best insurance for a coin collection is keep your mouth shut. |
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Replies: 20 / Views: 2,434 |
Posted 08/02/2009 10:27 am
