Have you ever considered starting over?

DAM

Have you ever thought about selling all, or most of your coins, and starting over? Maybe collecting another series or taking the money and buying fewer coins in higher grades? Or perhaps buying more coins in lower grades.

Occasionally someone will post that they sold their "X" set. What do you do then? I've noticed some collectors will build a set, sell it, then build another set and sell it. Then what do you do?

Collect stamps?

cladking

I've done this a few times. I never sold all my coins, but have sold off the
bulk of them. Usually it's caused by biting off more than I can chew, like
a high grade silver Washington set back in the 70's. Finding any coins at
all was a huge undertaking and then the prices on coins would get up to
twenty or thirty dollars on a lot of them and that didn't include much from
the 1930's.

Dimetime

I too have been thinking about this. After a while you get so spread out it's hard to really enjoy. Been thinking of concentrating on an ignored coin, like the barber series. Prices seem very low. One or two high quality sets sounds nice.

fcloud

I did it back in about 1980. I sold off most of my collection, I did keep some keys and semi-keys. I had every cent from 1857 to 1980 less the 1877, complete set of two-cents. Complete Jeffersons, partial V and buffalos, complete set of Mercury dimes (all common dates unc), almost a full set of Barbers, complete BU Roosevelts, complete Washingtons, complete set of GEM BU Franklins (Lucy would have liked this group), every Kennedy Proofs and BU (Russ--don't drool) and much much more. I have not put a set together until recently. I have the complete set of PR69DCAM State Proofs, and I have restarted a set of Mercury Dimes. I have no regrets. I made money on some and lost money on some. My main focus is keys, semi-keys, with some limited interest in the high grade modern stuff (mostly proofs). When every I have made purchases over the years I wanted to make sure the coins were marketable. At the time I sold the sets, I found it very diffecult to get dealers to buy the whole sets. It was a lot of work to put them together to find out noone wanted them (at least here is southeastern Wisconsin).

Fairlaneman

About the time, well actualy it was 3 or 4 years after, the grading services arrived on the scene in the 80's I sold every coin I had. Complete Merc Set missing only the 16D and 21D plus good starts on a Type Set a Lincoln Set and the one I really wish I had back a Indian Cent Collection which was very nice.

Dis-enchantment with Dealer Grading plus economic reasons just plain made me give up collecting completely. Stayed away for about nine years and then caught the bug again in 1997. The good thing was I sold the stuff in 1988 and early 1989. If I would still have the stuff I would have lost my rear end money wise.

With the new start in 97 it was really apparent right off the bat that coin collecting had really changed during the absence I had. IMO it changed for the better, Much Better. If the Merc Set is ever sold that will be it for myself when it comes to Coin Collecting.

Stamps, Did that and never again. Baseball Cards, Did that and For Sure never again. Cars, Yea Baby I can handle them.

Ken

MastaHanky

I've thought about selling all my 1934-1958 Lincolns and taking the money to buy some of the earlier ones that I need. I still think about it...

Cocoinut

Never! It would be like cutting off an arm or leg. I've been collecting since age 6, and know that I won't ever quit. There have been only a couple of times that I've sold much, once to come up with a down payment for a house, but those were mostly duplicates, and I always kept the best pieces. A collection represents a lot of time, effort, and $$$, and it would be difficult to give it all up and start over.

Jim

LincolnCentMan

I sold most of my personal lincoln cents about six months ago. Man, that was a KILLER set. I do not regrete it though. I put the money to good use in other facets of my life. I've started building the set again with a different empasis. I will say there are about eight or ten coins from my old set that I'd pay a huge premium to get back. But... then again, if I'd have kept them... I'd have kept them all.

David

Monstavet

I am in the process of starting over. I have sold most of my coins. I will finish selling the rest soon. Then, will slowly wade back into it, hopefully collecting something dramatically different than in the past. I dunno why, but I felt the need to completely purge myself before starting anew.

becker

My experience has been that the hunt can be more fun than the kill. It also seems those collectors who have the most fun are the ones who are always investigating new possibilities. EVERY coin in any collection will stand on its own merit and gains little or nothing from the companions in the collection--at least this has always been my way of thinking. Sets are great to collect as long as each coin in the set is special to the collector.

Thanks for putting up with my long response.

DAM

Interesting reading. Thanks for the replies.

As for me, I'm a collector. Rarely, if ever, do I sell a coin. I did sell a couple of duplicates about 8 years ago while building my Two Cent set. I should do it now too. I have about 5 dupes in RD. That sure would help with the Type Sets. Oh well, they're paid for. I have sold a few others here and there that I bought just to sell for a small profit. But selling my all or part of my collection at this time is not an option.

becker

I just looked at your set. Wow!
I hope you don't mind. There are a couple of questions I just MUST ask.
How long did it take to assemble the collection? Did you buy any of these raw?
Thanks in advance for any response.
Best,
Tom

DAM

becker,

Thank you for your kind words. It took me about 10 years to complete the collection. Primarily because I did it myself. By that I mean, I went to shows, watched dealer adds, etc. I didn't solicit help from a dealer to find them for me. As a matter of fact, the last upgrade was the 1872 in 66RD. I saw it in a dealers add. When I called on it he was suprised to find out I wanted it. He thought my set was compete and didn't call. Whew! All coins were in slabs too. None raw.



My experience has been that the hunt can be more fun than the kill.

I meant to comment on this statement in my last reply. I agree with you. When I make the kill (purchase), it seems like there's a void to be filled. Until I start hunting for another coin. I think that's why I haven't sold many of my coins over the years. I've only sold coins I wasn't really interested in, that I could make a couple of bucks on to add to my buying power for the next "kill".

Rampage

Yes and I am.

LincolnCentMan

I did start over. I sold my lincoln cent set a while back. When I sold it, it was 70% complete. There were 36 different 67RD's in the short set.

I just couldnt stand how much money was tide up in it. After I sold... I started building it back... with 66's instead of 67's this time.

David

lordmarcovan

Hmm. I've lost count of the number of times I've started over. I almost completely quit between 1984 and 1991, keeping less than a half dozen of my coins.