Coin Collection, Single Coin or whole collection

What would you rather buy a single coin your missing for you collection or a whole collection of new coina
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What would you rather buy a single coin your missing for you collection or a whole collection of new coina
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I like to balance quality with quantity. Also, it depends on what the single coin is and what the whole collection is.
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"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
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1st let me say welcome have fun here. Now for me if it’s a nice set I’ll take it but if not I’ll take one nice coin. That is just me dumb Type2 thinking.
Hoard the keys.
Generally, I'd rather buy the coins I'm interested in, but sometimes it's more economical or necessary to buy the entire collection to get the coins I'm interested in.
Id have to agree myself, so now how long have you guys been collecting coins? which coins do you look for? Rare? Old dates?
I went about in a staggered fashion, meaning that, tried to finish sets after retaking up the hobby again from where I left off a few decades ago. Had been stacking bullion in the meanwhile but the thrill did not feel anything like numismatic collecting.
The bug bit me again while trying to source coins from vending machines, laundromats, car wash change dispensers etc. while helping my kid put together his Presidential dollar set, State Quarters set, ATB quarters set along with Kennedy halves (we did a lot of CRH together and found quite a few of the NIFC ones to fill the album, but mostly had to buy the silver ones since I did not want to cut up my silver mint sets).
Having had bits and pieces of all the sets from my younger days, went for the cheaper coins in the raw to fill up my Dansco after transitioning from Whitman albums. The crowning glory was when the lincoln cents set from 1909 to 2009 was completed (Dansco 7100) after nearly forty years and now only needs the 1955 DDO which am not very keen to lay my hands on currently because of the exhorbitant prices post pandemic lockdown period.
Then it was on to completing the sets of Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters, Mercury dimes, IHP's, Walking Liberty halves, SLQ's, Liberty V nickels, 3 CN, ASE, Trade/Morgan/Peace dollar sets etc.
Only after completing my Morgan dollars set did I realize that they looked better in slabs at higher grades and need five of the most expensive key dates to finish that. So yeah it has been a lot of trial and error with upgrades and such but after completing the Dansco 7070 with gold page, am taking a small break this year due to lot of upheaval in personal life.
Don't know if my long reply answered what you were asking
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091
It depends on the collection. If there was a WHOLE collection for sale, I would see if they would let me look through them and buy the specific coins I was interested in.
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It all depends upon what the coins are. I usually buy single coins, but I have bought sets.
Many years ago, I saw an exhibit of Roosevelt Dimes. I decided that it would be interesting to have the silver set from 1946 to 1964. I located a nice set, with no "sliders" or problem coins in it, and bought the set for $150. That was faster and cheaper than chasing around to buy the coins one at a time. Some collectors enjoy the chase, however.
@brimmer94 .... Welcome aboard. It completely depends on the set or coins.... The question is far to general to answer without more specific information. As you can see from some of the answers, people inject their own specifics. Cheers, RickO
If you are just starting to collect I would suggest buying quality coins one at a time. Quality is better than quantity.
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I'm more of a one coin buyer.
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I'll go against the grain and say QUANTITY baby! I just bought that 1955-D (a single little coin). All the others I got for near MELT from bags of 90% silver. And that's when silver was under $10 an oz! I'm NEVER going to lose money on a coin because I don't pay stupid money for coins.

All I need to finish this one is the 1921-D. I might get that in a PCGS gold shield NFC slab... and immediately crack it out of their tomb.

well depends on the price of the coin vs the whole collection which ever was the best deal i'd take
2003-present
1997-present
Interesting idea to put the slab tags on the inside cover. Welcome back. Collect what you like. I’m currently doing a Roosie album,coin by coin. I am also going to get help from forum members. Something, anything to get away from the US Mint 😉
🎶 shout shout, let it all out 🎶
I would rather build my own set using what ever perimeters I have for that series, cash, knowledge, etc.
WS
I dislike PCGS' photography side racket in general (and NGC's coin doctoring services) but I think it would be neat to put the NFC chip in there so people could match the coin in the album to the website picture. That way you know the label in the album is really from the same coin.
I see nothing wrong with buying a complete/partial set and then completing and /or upgrading it.
In fact I think it's a great idea !!
I buy individual coins. I judge each coin by it's condition.
Is it a nice clean looking uncirculated coin with no distracting marks?
Or, if circulated, does it look problem free and pleasing for the grade?
I am quite picky, and avoid coins that are harshly cleaned, dinged, scratched, etc.
The only exception to this is if I am buying coin sets that sell for "junk" silver prices. Which I have done in the past.
Upgrading the "hole fillers" is part of the fun too. That 1916-D Walker above is on my list of coins to replace. It was polished long ago and has grown a new skin (so it looks OK), but the cleaning still bothers me. In some cases I'm even DOWNGRADING the set. There's no reason to have XF/AUs in there, even if I got them near melt years ago. So I'm going to "even out" the set with F/VF coins for the later dates and sell the XF/AUs.
It's called coin conservation and it's also being performed by PCGS.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I am a collector who only buys coins.
I am not a seller.
I do not buy whole collections of coins.
I usually buy a single coin to complete or upgrade a set.
I will buy a set of new release coins that say has 4 to 5 coins in it at one time.
This year's Innovation dollars coins come to mind.
There are 8 coins required for 2021. 4 proofs and 4 reverse proofs.
They would have to be in the grade that I desire and of course at the right price.
Wayne
Kennedys are my quest...
I've bought both ways. One of the first sets I bought was a Dansco of Franklin halves. A co-worker had gotten the set from her dad many years before and had no interest in them, I offered her what I thought was a fair price at the time (early 2000's) $160. She was ok with it and a few years later I even offered them back to her, just in case she regretted the sale. She told me that she didn't care about them and was fine with the deal even all the years later. So I decided to upgrade one or two (if I remember right the 1962 and '63. Anyways a couple years back I took them to a show for offers to see what they'd be worth and was offered $400. I still have the set. About 3 or 4 years ago I bought a Dansco with Ike dollars, I can't remember if it was complete, but I already had a set completed, just no album. The price was right and I melded the two together and came up with a pretty nice set. Way back like 18 years ago I bought a Whitman folder with about 15 or 20 Barber quarters in it, and that started me on an endeavor that's still going on! Have fun, there are many ways to collect.
I'm still trying to decide whether I want to spend "big money" for any single coin... so I'm filling in my albums with the less expensive coins first. To finish an album, I did spend over $400 for a single coin (big money!), and I anticipate I'll spend big money for some morgans, as I continue to fill holes.
I think it depends on where you are on your coin journey. For me, I would rather get a single coin that fills a hole rather than a bunch of coins just to have a bunch of coins. Now that I have 5 albums almost entirely complete I feel like I'm almost over the bulk aspect of coins and will just be focusing on gold dollars here on out.
It’s all in the deal for me and how many pieces if any meet plan slab inventory.
I'd rather buy the one special coin...I can get the everyday coins everyday.