What Do I Do?

Coin collecting is fun. Everyone goes at it a different way. Some track their coins to the penny paid, others just hoard and dont care lol. I think you are over thinking things, there is no "one" way to collect and collect right. Just do what you do and dont worry about it so much. Last thing we want is you to be frustrated over the process.

I am definitely compulsive, sometimes obsessive lol. I keep record of every coin I buy, price I bought it for, I grade it and move on. Is it necessary, probably not, but I am that way with everything else in life.

If your inventory becomes too much to handle and keep track of, try to slim it down some or something.

I'm pretty new here, and I don't keep tract of what I paid, I think its more like, when I buy something I am trying to know that the value is there,price paid is what its worth. the one major thing I have come to know is the that there is quite a difference in the grading....even between top level grading companies..with this in mind one man's MS65 will differ from another's MS65.... I like to think I am getting a fair deal when we buy something.....so I get what I paid if I let it go.....but in the end its more like we spent our time( which always cost's money) enjoying the things we like to do.....In the end, what anything is worth, is always what you can get out of it, when you decide to let it go.......today more or less?

I attempted to try to make a spreadsheet and about went nuts doing it. I have come to the conclusion that if my coin collection was stolen my insurance would never cough up any real amount to cover actual worth...and I would be devestated and not collect anymore at my age...and then I get depressed thinking about that and I begin thinking about going to the Islands and lying in the sun, drink in hand...sigh, I spent three weeks just trying to put my Lincolns onto the spreadsheet...too much work. If I were just starting out collecting, I would do it while my collection was small enough to keep up with.

Date, Mint Mark, Variety Notes, Qty and Grade is all you really need. If your going to file an insurance claim you will want "replacement value" and you will want that to be current, not something you entered 5 years ago. And you need to get with your insurance company to let them know they are insuring a coin collection, so they can charge you for that. If you have coins with really high dollar value, a picture might help you justify your claim. Usually while your in court paying a lawyer $200 an hour to collect $1,000 for your coin. But then, if you have 1,000 coins are you going to create 2,000 photos, catalog them and add/delete photos? And in SAP's post above that would be over 18,000 photos.

If you got some really good deals, you sure wouldn't want to give an insurance company what you paid. Maybe you want to turn your hobby into an investment firm with profit and loss statements. If so, your going to need composition and precious metal content, along with what you paid and value and spot metal value - plus if your paying special insurance for your collection or for a safe deposit box, have to show that as a loss. Not to mention your time for 300 days a year to keep up with this. And value is just a proposed number anyway. Take your value book/source to the next coin show for a test.

Anyway enough, I use the KISS principle. My main purpose for tracking my HOBBY is to be able to print out a list of what I need to purchase to complete a set or album.

It's really up to the individual just how much documentation you like keeping up with. For me it's way to late to try for excessive records of coins. I started collecting over 60 years ago. I have virtually thousands and thousands of those things. Over 3,000 Mercury dimes alone would drive me nuts attempting to record how much and/or where of anything. Used to have 2,650 Steel Cents, 1943 ones, but just gave 500 to a YN. Imagine yourself someday if you continue collecting and have thousands of coins and do keep track of them all. Would that be a massive amount of information.

You should really sit down and say to yourself, SELF, why? What is the purpose of keeping track of each coin's original price, latest price, grade, where you got it, when you got it, the color of the dealer's shoes, etc. If you end up with thousands of coins and you have all that stuff documented, you will have more information than most people have for their entire household items.
AND the main thing is SO WHAT? What good is it all? If something should happen to you, your relatives will just place all that STUFF in that little container under your desk, if you have one that is.