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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,560 |
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Valued Member
United States
67 Posts |
A couple of months ago I purchased a 1991 Mint Set at a great price compared to the value listed in the Red Book. Last week I'm looking at some small cent prices in the RB and notice that the proof cent in the set is valued at like $22.00 (estimating, don't have my book in front of me) and the entire set is only like $14.00. Why the difference? |
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Moderator
 United States
6563 Posts |
Because it's rarer to find the cent individually then in a set
I once bought and broke open a Silver Mint Set and sold everything individually and made a 250% profit
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Valued Member
 United States
67 Posts |
Can you buy individual proofs? Beside large denomination coins I thought they always came in sets. I know people break up the mint sets to sell individual coins but it seems logical to just price the set according the individual values.
Edited by puman
02/24/2008 6:44 pm
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Moderator
United States
6563 Posts |
Their are Mint Sets...and Proof Sets. 99% of the time the only way to get a single coin is crack open a set or buy one that someone else has. And a lot of times those coins are broken out solely to be sent off to a TPG to grade. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
581 Posts |
On E-Bay, you can actually buy ROLLS of proof coins of a certain year. People break up proof sets all the time.
Of course, at some point in the future (maybe distant future), the balance will swing the other way and suddenly proof sets will be scarce.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
543 Posts |
Red Book certainly overvalues most if not all coins.
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Valued Member
United States
60 Posts |
Red Book certainly doesn't overvalue wheat cents. The value of anything is what someone is willing to pay and wheaties on ebay almost always go for more than the Red Book price.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Frequently asked question. Don't know if you ever visited a auto junk yard but if you ever do you'll see right away why each coin is more valuable than the whole set. Same with cars. You junk a car andthey come pick it up for about $50. Now you get another of the same type but need parts so you go to the junk yard to buy those parts. You find that some of the parts cost more than what you got for the entire car. Radio $30, Radiator $50, Gas cap $2, each tire rim $10. Eventually that old car of yours is worth thousands and thousands. If you want to build yourself a car from scratch and buy each nut, bolt, washer, fender, steering wheel, etc you again would pay many hundreds of thousands more than just buying the car.
Back to coins. Go to a coin show. Many dealers will buy a proof set and break it up and sell each coin for many times the cost of the entire set. Naturally each is in a 2x2 and those cost a few cents also. To sum it up the sum of the parts never equals the whole.
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Moderator
 United States
187702 Posts |
just carl hit it on the head. I had bought proof sets from the mint for years. When I decided to fill the proof holes in my albums, I priced the individual coins and ouch! I checked prices on sets; they were all much cheaper than the sum of individual coins. So, to fill my holes: I could buy new proof sets to break-up and put into the albums, or I could just break apart my existing sets. I chose option #2, because I filled a lot of holes on weekend and no cash out of pocket!  |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,560 |
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Posted 02/24/2008 5:52 pm
