Quality Vs Quantity

My story was when I first began dealing coins at our local coin shows in Denver, Colorado in the early 1980's I travelled to an ANA show with a little more than $5k to spend on getting inventory. I passed on a Gobrecht dollar in PR55, a Chain cent in VF/EF as that would have wiped out my money. Instead I purchased many coins to fill my coin bourse cases for shows back home, many coins from $20 and up. today most of the coins are worth maybe twice what they cost then, the two "big ones" I passed on, could probably buy me a house or at least a nice condo today.

Depends on what your goals are in the long term. I did have a lot of fun selling those lower priced coins and it kept me in business until I could make it to the next big show for more buying. If I had purchased the better coins, I would not have kept them and would have had to flip them soon after purchase to get my money back. I wish I had gone with the high end coins, better profit margins, even if they took a little longer to sell. I was never known as a dealer that had super high dollar coins, but always had nice stuff that was affordable.

Of course I was coin dealing, not so much collecting then.

Key dates, in better grades or coins that have no problems and exceptional eye appeal are almost always a good buy over common stuff.

Maybe a little of both, but mostly hobby. I wasn't phrasing the above in terms of which would be worth more. It is more which will be more satisfying long term. Is it more satisfying to show someone a completed album or a single outstanding specimen? Now times that by a few decades of decisions and that's what I'm thinking about.

quality for investment

quantity for entertainment

I can fully understand that. I collect as a hobbyist but I really want to believe that my efforts have some monetary value simply because it is not an inexpensive hobby.

I guess I can only suggest that you save some money from your coin budget. It isn't easy but it really stinks to have nothing in your budget when you run across a great deal.

I think it's great that you're looking decades ahead but this decision doesn't have a deadline. Just try to save some money so that you have the option of changing the direction that your collection takes.

Having a nice stash of cash means you can take advantage of a good deal and you have the option of changing your mind.

I'm with Wade on this. I have an expensive serious study collection, and my other. I can add to it any day for less than a quarter. I enjoy both.

As many others have stated or implied, we can't really answer this for you as we don't know what you enjoy the most.

Do you truly appreciate coins as fine art? Then definitely buy quality, as you will become increasingly disdainful of any coins you might consider inferior or defective.

Is "gotta catch em all" set fulfillment a priority? Then I'd aim for quantity: fill the set as cheaply as possible and upgrade as your budget allows.

Is future investment and potential resale value a major consideration for you? If yes, then quality, if no, then quantity is fine.

For me personally, I have to say that neither of these factors are a prime motivator. In my collecting, I strive not for quantity nor quality, but for "variety" - meaning something novel, something different to anything else I already have. Sitting down and filling an album with identical-looking coins and then slowly upgrading them would be the opposite of "enjoying the hobby" for me; I'd rather just buy one nice example of the type and be done with it. On the other hand, I'd much rather fish out ten coins I've never seen before from places I've never heard of out of a dealer's three-for-a-dollar scratchray than spend $1000 buying rare varieties or high-MS examples of those same coins.

Again, for me, it is the history I uncover as I research my weird and wonderful acquisitions that I enjoy the most, and that is what I recall the most as I go back and look through my collection. Every time I look at my Trebizond coin, for example, I recall the hours of frustrating but ultimately rewarding time I spent in the university library trying to research it.

For me, I want to complete the sets, so I am not too particular for these coins; indeed I have a fondness for well-circulated coins in sets. So in that regard my goal would be quantity, it's just more fun for me that way.

Nevertheless, I do want at least one nice well struck MS example of each design I collect, to fully appreciate the design in its entirety. For these few, quality is everything.