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 Replies: 45 / Views: 6,005 |
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Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
I was just wondering how a lot of you guys tend to collect? Do you try and buy lots of lower end coins and as many as you can or do you find yourself buying less coins at higher grades and taking longer to complete a set? I find myself wanting high grades of coins even if they are common dates. The reason for this in my case is to have a beautiful example of a certain type of coin rather than have every issue year of a particular coin.
Share your preference!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1192 Posts |
Purchasing and hunting is most of the thrill. So I go after cheaper circulated coins and try to complete date mint sets. I collect silver coins so volume helps the bottom line and they could never really be considered worthless because of the grade. So I'm sort of a serial stacker of 90%, there would be no fun in rolls of one date for me. However if you gave me the choice between having a 1916 d Mercury dime in decent shape to perfect shape or its value in junk bin Mercury dimes of non key dates. I would get more enjoyment out of the hundreds to thousands of dimes. I be like Scrooge mcduck swimming my hands in it. I know it would make more financial sense to get the one dime but....... Edited by Bertensgrad
02/05/2016 03:34 am
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Valued Member
 United States
129 Posts |
hahahaha thats great Bertensgrad!
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Valued Member
Australia
95 Posts |
I myself like to buy a folder of coins for about $20 and use the folder as a well... folder, sort through the coins, try find key dates, and see if there are any coins or dates I don't have.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Quality vs quantity?
Neither.
For me, it's best value for money, across the whole range of numismatics. With a much greater range opened up to find bargains, or even good value for money, opportunities much more often present themselves.
Any one or a whole combination of factors, may feed into the decision to make a purchase. Quantity vs quality could be part of those factors, but they are certainly not the only ones.
The numismatic learning curve has always remained steep, despite decades of collecting experience. In fact, that is where most of the value is.
I will still happily defer to many others in the CCF, for their specialist expertise, which is superior to mine.
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Pillar of the Community
1153 Posts |
I use to lean more toward quantity but this year I am going to try for better quality instead as I get to the high price pieces in my type set
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Pillar of the Community
United States
946 Posts |
quality! I'd rather have a few thousand dollar coins then a thousand 1 dollar coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
500 Posts |
 Bertensgrad! I want to come swimming at your house! I have also in the past focused on quantity vs quality buy as I collect longer and started a "nice" grade type set I am kinda liking these higher grade coins. I have thought about selling off all my "crappy" sets and starting over knowing I would loose probably half the money I have invested so far in doing that. I have a set of Liberty and Buffalo nickles I would be ashamed to share with anybody the coins are all such low grades. IDK what I am going to do. One decision at a time. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
To me quality is an important factor when making a coin purchase.
I used to just buy any old coin as long as I needed it to complete a set regardless of its condition.
I now like to collect a set or type set and build it with the best coins I can afford. this takes a little longer but at the end of the day I am happy with what I have.
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
I believe I started a post on this subject awhile ago. There is something about me that loves to have things in quantity; SO when I started coin collecting 50+ years ago I went with quantity instead of quality. MY BAD . To make a long story short, instead of having a humongous collection of ch. and gem bu coins today . I have a nice size hoard of lower quality Lincolns and Jefferson's by the rolls, and small incomplete sets of small cents ,5 cents ,mercs, silver Washington's and Walkers . But all that was a lot of fun. So now it's about FUN vs. Investment, Hmm-- Which one do you guys want ?  |
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Valued Member
United States
424 Posts |
Quality vs. Quantitiy? I buy as many coins in the highest grade possible in order to complete a set. If this is one coin or many depends on my budget at the time, what I need to fill a hole and what catches my eye. Ultimately I will go for quality.
Fun vs. Investment? I go for the fun of it. Economics and investment have little sway in what and how I collect. Henc my Dansco Lincoln Sheild Cent album, the album is worth more that the coins in it.
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Moderator
 United States
188440 Posts |
I do not think I have a large quantify of coins, so I will say that I prefer quality over quantity. Of course, my definition of quality is eye appeal and not necessarily grade or value.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
I would say I am a quantity collector. I strive more for completeness than super quality. My draped bust cent collection is now grade, but there are less than a dozen people whose collection is more complete than mine. My Conder token collection isn't all MS pieces (but the average is XF - AU). There are a lot of people that have some really nice high grade pieces but I have close to 1000 different varieties. Not one of the largest collections, but large enough (or close to it) to be considered a major collection. The foreign coin collection isn't a bunch of choice gems, but it contains over 20,000 different types.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
982 Posts |
Be careful with the quantity aspect, or you might end up on that Hoarders TV show.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
814 Posts |
Quality is collecting. Quantity is hoarding. That's why I no longer have 100+ clad Ikes in my sock drawer.
Except for Silver Eagles, Silver Dollars, and Silver ___________(insert favorite bullion here). Because you can never have too much silver.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3843 Posts |
I believe that most collectors start out as hoarders since they have so many holes in the collection to fill and not enough money to do it. Over time as you begin to accumulate more stuff and begin to take the edge off the need to acquire more coins, you begin to realize that you want quality items more than a larger quantity of lesser coins. As a collector I was is the hoarder phase for about 5 years as a teen but then began to see the value in collecting rarer, higher grade coins. I still occasionally give in to the hoarder in me and purchase larger lots such as a bag of 1000 wheat cents at a auction but I mainly stick to the plan of only purchasing better items.
Edited by Joe2007
02/05/2016 2:54 pm
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Replies: 45 / Views: 6,005 |
Posted 02/05/2016 03:42 am
