Should I Continue To Buy Commemorative Coins?

If you would have been with us here for some time now the one thing you would have read several, no many, times is not to use coins as an investment. So many have invested in coins only to find out later that it is just supposed to be a hobby. For fun, not investing.
Commemorative coins are a really tuff sort of investing. The main reason is there is just not lot of commemorative collectors. At coin shows I seldom see large assortments of commemorativess. Usually none to very few. One possibility is the very low mintage on most of them. Even with very low mintages, not much in the way of values.
Of course that is what I see here in the USA. Where your at in the Austrailian part of the World may well be different.
A sort of good way to find out about their values is to try to find a coin show or coin store where your at and see how the values of them compare with the issue prices.

My belief is that you need to make a choice in terms of what you want to get from your coin collecting
That said you can achieve both fun and invest with some smart purchases
For starters Australian commemorative coins are not good investments. Though low mintages reign supreme the ingredient for a good invest is demand, and these coins do not have this, at the moment anyway. This does not mean they will not in the future but I cannot see this hapopening at this stage. These coins are grat to ollect becuase of the low mintages
Bullion coins at the moment are a great buy but at the same time you must ber in mind that value of the majority of these coins are controlled by bullion value
My personal belief is that silver and gold will rise so I would say it is a good investment. That said the bullion market itself reflects on currency trends and inflation, so there fluctuations are indicative of this. For a long tern investment i'd say there are a good buy but you can appreaciated thaere are many variabled at play here all of which are out of our control
Finally, i'll finish my rant by saying coin collecting and its enjoyment is determined by the collector him/herself - you have the power to determine what gives you joy. Some coins you buy, if you decide to sell later, you will lose money on, others you will make money on - at the end of the day if the difference is the amount of enjoyment you get out of collecting then it makes it a worthwhile adventure

jusy carl: Your remarks are 'right on the money'.
The Australian experience is almost exactly the same as the American one.

Like any other hobby, you collect coins because that is your interest.

There ARE bullion collectors out there, and sometimes they make a profit, but there are a lot of them who do not sell, but re assess the value of their holdings periodically, and over the longer term, like what they see.

Commemmorative collectors straddle these two approaches to collecting.

Most often, unfortunately, Mints in an effort to make a profit, price their collector products at a level often way over bullion value, which leaves them as poor after market propositions for the owners to re sell. The obvious answer for the Commemorative collector is to buy what interests him in the after market, at a price that can be way below the issue price ex Mint.

I have actually made a substantial profit from coins, but in the genuinely numismatic area, and only after several years of owning them. In my case, I was reluctant to sell, but at the time I was raising a deposit to buy a house.

Coins and bullion are often counter cyclical to other investment markets. When the economy is poor, people often look to alternative markets to buy, then end up keeping what they buy, rather than re selling when other markets have recovered. The hobby of coin collecting often gains lifetime enthusiasts in this way. That is how some of the most valuable collections have come into existence.

My views or just another opinion;
INVESTMENT
If it's all about investment to you, then bulk lots & selling individually. Very fiddly & time consuming.
FUTURE RETURN
Bullion; Silver & gold coins at current face value (pre-decimal usually) or excellent condition pre-decimals
COLLECTING
A passion to learn more about history;
How coins are made;
Collecting coins in a theme you like (e.g I like rum, so I have the Rum Rebellion Proof);
Collecting a denomination;
Sticking to a style (e.g collecting slabbed PCGS coins or perhaps PNC's)
Collecting banknotes;
Finding out more about the statistics of mintages of coins or print runs of notes.

Myself as a coin/note collector...I find it expensive, but I have a passion for it. It might even be an addiction. Occasionally I sell so I can buy some more & the wheel spins on & on & the collection grows. It makes me smile. It keeps me happy & my knowledge of stats helps some of the other guys/girls on the forum who want to know more about notes. We all have our quirks so it's a matter of working out which category you see yourself under.