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Is a collected series worth more if it is 100% complete?

oldcameoproofsguyoldcameoproofsguy Posts: 3,174 ✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
In an article written by David Hall for this web site some months back he mentioned that some series will be worth sometimes up to 20% more just by reaching 100% completion. Is there really truth to that statement or if a collection is sold in tact wouldn't the buyer expect a volume discount for buying so many coins? Do you think that this depends on the difficulty of the series? What if a series ranked really high in the Registry, would that make a difference? Do you think that when it came time to sell, that selling the coins individually would bring about a higher yield?

Comments

  • stmanstman Posts: 11,352 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Don't have a comment on that yet but the mirrors on the rev of your sig line are sure looking good.
    Please... Save The Stories, Just Answer My Questions, And Tell Me How Much!!!!!
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,380 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Can't imagine buying a complete collection - what's the point/fun/satisfaction?? I would discount fairly heavily.
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose.
  • ToninginthebloodToningintheblood Posts: 174 ✭✭✭
    Truthfully, NO! How many collectors do you know, that would want to buy your 100% complete set of whatever? The fun is in the hunt and the pride of knowing you built it yourself from scratch. Dealers don't care one way or another, they will break the set up anyway and send it in many directions.
    Specializing in coins with "thin film interference" & "sulfur impregnated surfaces" due to hanging out with "old bags" and "wrappers"
  • danrellerdanreller Posts: 101
    2nd for Toningintheblood, I couldn't have said it better.

    Dan
    Dan
  • danrellerdanreller Posts: 101
    2nd for Toningintheblood, I couldn't have said it better.

    Dan
    Dan
  • RNCHSNRNCHSN Posts: 2,609 ✭✭✭
    Having trouble reading the initial post! The glare off that Barber is blinding! VERY NICE!

    I'd have to agree with the concensus. Collecting/finding/creating the set is what I enjoy. Unless of course you have an entire wall to cover with coins just to look at. Mighty expensive way to wallpaper a room though.
    Ron

    ___________________________
    click to email me

    ronsrarecoin.com

    ebay auctions for ronsrarecoin-com
  • oldcameoproofsguyoldcameoproofsguy Posts: 3,174 ✭
    The Jack Lee Morgans collection was sold in tact to a dealer. Obviously, the dealer made Jack Lee an offer he couldn't refuse. I wonder if Jack Lee would have been better off selling the coins individually in auction and not as the completed set.
  • gmarguligmarguli Posts: 2,225 ✭✭
    David Hall is full of crap. Complete sets gets ripped apart as soon as possible. There is no premium for them at all. He's just promoting the "build your registry set" hype.
  • RegistryCoinRegistryCoin Posts: 5,117 ✭✭✭✭
    I've had 19 reg sets. Almost all that I do not own anymore, have sold 100% complete, at a premium approaching that mentioned. A couple were ripped apart.
    In most cases, my set was used as a foundation for a finer set, or was combined with another set, and in some cases, left alone.
  • DesertLizardDesertLizard Posts: 702 ✭
    Selling a set already completed to a dealer who will break it up or a collector who will cherry pick and sell off unwanteds. I really can't see where the "premium" is warranted.

    Also, the registry is a great tool BUT the idea of completing sets and then pedigreeing them is absurd. Unless your name is Eliasberg or Garrett.

    To further point out the absurdity, imagine if Tom Cruise got into collecting and completed a set of quarter eagles. He then pedigrees his collection. Are the coins worth more because he bought them? Hate to bring that up because maybe some enterprising soul will get the idea and we soon will see pedigrees from Martha Stewart, Winnona Ryder, Barry Bonds, Tom Jones, etc. image
  • gmarguligmarguli Posts: 2,225 ✭✭
    RegistryCoin, how do you know how the sets would have been done if ripped apart? Is it possible that you could have sold those coins to two people as upgrades rather than selling them all to one person who now has duplicates as well as upgrades?

    Assume your set was 10 coins. Wouldn't it be more likely that you could sell 5 (upgrades) to one buyer, 3 to another, and 2 to another for more money than 10 to one buyer, of which only 5 were upgrades and the other 5 were duplicates or downgrades?


    Anyone should sell a set to a dealer. Watch what the dealer does. He rips out the keys and semi-keys. The rest are sold for whatever. The keys were important. Perhaps with a finest known set this is a little different.
  • RegistryCoinRegistryCoin Posts: 5,117 ✭✭✭✭
    Sets that were ripped apart were done so by me, and coins sold individually as suggested. One set went to a single buyer/same series collector, looking to have (and I assume enjoy) the duplicates.
    Interestingly, in one case, where the #1 and other #1, (tied at the time, 100% complete) '38-'64 ms Jeff nickel sets sold to Mr. Mint to create an even greater #1 standard, I am not sure what happened to the dups.
  • relayerrelayer Posts: 10,570 ✭

    I sold my 100% #1 Modern Commemorative Proof Set at about a 20% premium for being a complete set (but I was asking for 40%).
    image
    My posts viewed image times
    since 8/1/6
  • dorkkarldorkkarl Posts: 12,691 ✭✭✭
    if it would help get an extra dollar, david hall would tell you that a complete set of coins is worth even more if each 1 is holed, because of the added convenience of being able to carry them around on a stick. its baloney, unless maybe your talking about stellas, or something like that.

    K S
  • RegistryCoinRegistryCoin Posts: 5,117 ✭✭✭✭
    hmmm. Coindogs - on a stick. Get 'em while they're hot. image
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,964 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Dave Hall's 20% rule might apply to modern coins, especially if the set instantly gets one at or near the top of the registry heap, but by in large selling a set of "classic coins" in tact doesn't do that much more for you.

    The one advantage that I do see is this. Many times dealers buy a group of coins to get the specific pieces that they need. These are often key dates or coins that are particularly attractive or high grade. If you sell the set in tact, you do get rid of the less desirable pieces without having to shop them, but that does not necessarily translate into better selling prices.

    Look at it this way. When the major auction houses sell a collection, the vast majority of coins are broken up into individual lots. That way the bidders can buy only the coins they want and are not forced to buy what they don’t want. It’s unusual to see coins sold has complete sets, and went they are the coins are usually lower quality or there are some problem coins within the set that would have not sold well as single lots.

    Gmarguli is right though. Dealers rip sets apart as a matter of course when they sell them.
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • GilbertGilbert Posts: 1,533 ✭✭✭
    It seems to me that it really depends on what the purpose of selling is. If you are after the maximum potential of the set, maybe selling individually is appropriate.

    If you are simply selling the set, it is possible that you can still receive a premium over your cost - I guess it depends on how much you have in it. Buy the way, in most of the transactions I've seen selling to dealers, you very well may get more money selling a set intact, than selling the coins individually, as they may be more inclined to maximize the earning potential the other posters have mentioned. Also, not every collector has a problem with duplicate specimens.

    A blanket statement is NEVER true in all cases.
    Gilbert
  • LanLordLanLord Posts: 11,714 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Perhaps this is where new sports millionaires, just wanting to buy something, will spend too much money on a complete set.

    just a thought, they come so rarely I had to share this one.
  • danrellerdanreller Posts: 101
    It's simple. How often do you see complete sets for sell? They most always get broken up.

    When you sell the less desirable coins with the nicer ones, you'll get virtually nothing for the less desirable ones.

    Dan
    Dan
  • drsvenghalidrsvenghali Posts: 291 ✭✭
    I think a distinction needs to be made between a top 5 registry set and the run of the mill sets. I believe the high end registry sets do carry a premium when sold at once. However, a complete circulated set of silver Roosevelts would most likely be discounted.
    "Don't talk like an ignarosis."

    I specialize in Wisconsin currency! Looking for information on WI national banknotes. Census stands at 12,318 notes.

    **"Wisconsin National Bank Notes - 2nd Edition" is out!!!" Only $20PPd!!!
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 31,082 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It would seem that the biggest obstacle to selling a complete set in any series is that the number of casual collectors who could even afford it would be rather limited. I mite spend 4 years and $80,000 putting together a real nice set of Morgans, but who besides a dealer could afford it? Even then most dealers would want to know where they can sell the stuff before they lay out that kind of $$$. I am sure a set like that would have some really nice commons in it too along with the keys and semi keys.
    On another note why should anyone expect a volume discount because they are buying 100 different coins? Certainly the person who put together the set didn't get a volume discount buying them piecemeal. If the set was 100 1881-S PCGS MS 66 coins that mite be another story.
    How many here would purchase a complete set if they had the means to do so?
    theknowitalltroll;
  • RegistryCoinRegistryCoin Posts: 5,117 ✭✭✭✭
    Remember, if complete sets are sold, and the buyer and seller agree to keep the sale private, than these sales cannot be included in any discussion of the percentage of sets broken up upon sale. You may not see much evidence of a complete set sale, but, sales of this kind do exist.
    ps. Congratulations to Don Dolga for moving up to current #1 BTWs and #2 WCs!
    BTWs
    WCs

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