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Could you be totally satisfied if you put together a really nice set,

of a very hard series, in extraordinary grades, but stopped at 90% complete. Factors would be that the remaining half-dozen coins in acceptable grades to compliment your set wer all $75K or higher???

You would still have over a dozen very key dates....

Just a semi-hypothetical question?
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Comments

  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No. It'd be like kissing my sister, I'm afraid.

    If I couldn't complete the set, I'd never get to 90%. I'd sell all but my favorite and do a type set, or I'd be like Roadrunner and just buy a few nice examples of lots of different series.

  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    I already KNEW your answer!!! image
    image
  • roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Actually I'd love to do a set like that but still couldn't afford it. If I had a few million I'd try a seated quarter set in MS64/MS65 grade and only go after the tougher dates. Maybe 75% complete leaving out all the common Philly coins. I also realize I'd probably never find the following either: 42-0 sd, 51-0, 52-0, 58-s, 59-s, 60-s, 61-s, and 70-cc. But so what. I'd be supremely happy with the 75% I did have! And that would be a major undertaking. Ooh la la. Actually I'd be happy with even a 30% complete set of those coins. It doesn't take much to make me happy when it comes to gem rare date seated quarters....and halves.

    roadrunner
    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • DMWJRDMWJR Posts: 6,008 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Maybe 75% complete leaving out all the common Philly coins

    I'm curious about this statement. Why wouldn't you go ahead and pick these up?
    Doug
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 12,024 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What the heck, just divide your set to two separate date sets! image
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    I think there are two parties here (what ELSE is new?). The COMPLETION party, and the BEST POSSIBLE party. I just don't think that completion by any means is anymore of an end than almost-complete, with NO compromise in quality. I see sets that are complete and clearly the few key dates are considerably below the set average...which seems incongruent to me.

    COMPLETION is an OCD issue...and it's ONE that I don't have...the other 36 isues I subscribe to whole-heartedly.image

    Yeah, Yeah? I got blistas on me fingas....image
    image
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why call it a set, then? Call it a grouping. Why limit yourself to one of each date? You could just buy really nice Saints regardless of date. Have that be your collection.

  • STEWARTBLAYNUMISSTEWARTBLAYNUMIS Posts: 2,697 ✭✭✭✭

    JB - Completion is something that takes TIME,PATIENCE and LOVE.

    You Can Do It !!!!!


    Stewart
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    Oh YEAH!! You want to be my factor?? $2 million for 7 coins??

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    image
  • MadMonkMadMonk Posts: 3,743
    I think I could be happy. After collecting series for so long, I've finally come to a pont where I am happy just having really attractive coins, regardless of whether or not it completes a set.
    Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    It's a SET, Bruce...SETSETSETSETSET!!image





    A "grouping" is just too "touchy-feely" for me.
    image
  • SethChandlerSethChandler Posts: 1,710 ✭✭✭✭
    I don't know, ask Virgil Brand.
    Collecting since 1976.
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 12,024 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What is OCD?

    Saintguru: With the exception of Stew and Tradedollarnut and just a very few others here, this quotation from the future (Spock in Star Trek) may very well apply:

    "Having is after all not such a pleasing thing as wanting. It is not logical but it is often true."

    It seems that too often once a set a completed there is nothing else left to do but to sell the set as the collector now wants to pursue new frontiers. I have been there as well over 20 years ago!! That is why I will NEVER try to do "complete" sets ever again. More importantly see my comments that follow;

    So while you may never complete your set due to the 1933, you have a shot at the rest of the set even if it is a lifetime endeavor. Isn't coin collecting supposed to be a lifetime endeavor?

    I also direct this question to Stew and TDNas well as others; would you guys and gals have given up on completing your favorite complete sets if it had taken an extra 5, 10 or even 20 years to complete it?
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • USMC_6115USMC_6115 Posts: 3,008 ✭✭✭✭✭
    OCD = Obsessive Complusive Disorder
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    I wasn't even THINKING The 1933..That was NOT an issued coin, therefore would not be part of a "SET". Howvever the 1927-D woould be at least $1,5 Mil, the 1921 ~$350K, 1920-S ~110K, etc...in MS64...fuggedaboutit!

    Spock...that's the best you can do??

    Because something is happening here
    But you don't know what it is
    Do you, Mister Jones?
    image
    image
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    would you guys and gals have given up on completing your favorite complete sets if it had taken an extra 5, 10 or even 20 years to complete it?

    I wish it had taken longer for me to get to where I am now ... coins come along so infrequently that I tend to get quite bored. However, I don't really consider the sets as complete - there are always new coins to add! Why, just this month PCGS graded an 1870-CC in MS64 and NGC did the same to an 1855.

  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    therefore you have a "grouping" of coins.image
    image
  • JB,

    I believe Ringo had the blisters on his fingers. Not John. image

    RegistryNut


  • << <i>JB,

    I believe Ringo had the blisters on his fingers. Not John. image

    RegistryNut >>



    Ringo had just played an amazing drum solo on the song Helter Skelter. At the end of the song he utters
    his famous line.

    RegistryNut image
  • roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm curious about this statement. Why wouldn't you go ahead and pick these up?

    Why would I want to bother to pick them up? A complete set is a marketing tool imo. One doesn't have to complete anything to be a collector. John Ford must not have amounted to much as a collector since none of his collections are represented in Registry sets. I don't even know if he had complete sets.

    I'd want my "set" to be special. Common coins don't do that for me since anyone can get them. Nor would I go the route of pop top common dates in MS67 or MS68 just to say I had the best. I'd much rather have a rarer date in finest known condition, even if only an MS64 or MS65. When I had all the key dates then in my mind the set was complete. The fact that I didn't have some common dates would not mean much to me. And as Oreville hinted, I don't want to be beholden to some "complete set mystique." I'd rather own 20 scattered rare date seated coins than a complete set of something with many common dates. Must be why runs of common proofs just never exited me. I'd rather have a few rare Mint State pieces. Proofs were saved as were common dates.

    roadrunner
    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • pursuitoflibertypursuitofliberty Posts: 7,039 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think I am (and will be whenever if I decide I'm done collecting) with the "not quite complete" sets ... if it so happens that I can not afford a few of the super rarities in the conditions that compliment my sets.

    I can not bring myself to put AG3 or even a VF20 coins in a set of AU55/58's for the asthetics (but I might take a special one as a single).

    Although my financial situations could change, I am not expecting to complete my Barber Quarter set (Choice AU/Unc) due mostly to the 01s, but probably a couple others as well ... nor my Standing Lib' set (also Choice AU/Unc) due to the 16. There are a couple other stoppers in other sets I have been working on over the years ...

    As a trick to my own desire to have them all (when that rears its head), I sometimes concentrate on completing far eneough to have at least one for each date (with all the mints represtented but not all the issues accounted for), or every date from a particular mint (kind of like a board members recent request to have an O mint Morgan Registry).

    Being the addict that I am, tricking myself is sometimes the only way!! image




    p.s. always enjoy reading your thoughts JB, even if I don't respond much image

    “We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”

    Todd - BHNC #242
  • DeepCoinDeepCoin Posts: 2,781 ✭✭✭
    I faced the same problem, albeit at a MUCH lower dollar level. When I realized that completion of the Mercury set would be beyond my means in MS, I decided that rather than obsess over not have enough funds or be frustrated over not finding coins that I could afford, I changed my collecting focus. For me it was type sets.

    You clearly have the wherewithall to complete what for many of us would be sets beyond our reach. Did you ever think about a nice set of Walkers? There is much similarity between them and the Saints, if you look at it from a purely design perspective.

    Whatever you choose, only you can be happy with HOW you collect. It if for none of us to tell you what should make you happy. To me the registry is just a means to be able to share information concerning our sets. Too many beautiful sets sit in dark rooms and vaults where no one can see them, just because they are so valuable. Good luck Collecting!
    Retired United States Mint guy, now working on an Everyman Type Set.
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    RR...EXACTLY! Inasmuch as I do have as many coins I could find in high grades, there seems to be a deficit in my treasury that is not being funded by any federal agency...therefore I have hit the wall...and until I figure out a way to simply "free up" a million or two, it's a 87% complete set...but, (wait, let me pat my back), I think it's one hell of a set!

    Now...who hear wants to start a cookie jar collection? Warhol did...why can't I??image

    Oh, RN...you think John never had blistas on HIS fingas??

    Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun
    Ah, don't you know that
    Happiness is a warm gun mama
    image
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Saint: do whatever makes YOU happy. The rest of us are just noise... image
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 12,024 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Saint: You ought to take a vacation and visit the Saint Gaudens museum in New Hampshire. Spend more time learning about the creator of those lovely Saints. Do some research on it. Anything to keep yourself immersed in the set in a roundabout way.

    Hopefully you can save enough money to buy one of those elusive coins within the next two years. Then another in the following three years. But do not go into debt to do it.
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • DMWJRDMWJR Posts: 6,008 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I'm curious about this statement. Why wouldn't you go ahead and pick these up?

    Why would I want to bother to pick them up? A complete set is a marketing tool imo. One doesn't have to complete anything to be a collector. John Ford must not have amounted to much as a collector since none of his collections are represented in Registry sets. I don't even know if he had complete sets.

    I'd want my "set" to be special. Common coins don't do that for me since anyone can get them. Nor would I go the route of pop top common dates in MS67 or MS68 just to say I had the best. I'd much rather have a rarer date in finest known condition, even if only an MS64 or MS65. When I had all the key dates then in my mind the set was complete. The fact that I didn't have some common dates would not mean much to me. And as Oreville hinted, I don't want to be beholden to some "complete set mystique." I'd rather own 20 scattered rare date seated coins than a complete set of something with many common dates. Must be why runs of common proofs just never exited me. I'd rather have a few rare Mint State pieces. Proofs were saved as were common dates.

    roadrunner >>



    Thanks for your insight. I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. I was just trying to understand your approach to a set. I know series collectors and key date collectors. Now it seems I know a "series key date" collector. I just never thought about collecting that way.
    Doug
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    I'm going to start collecting fungii. Fascinating stuff and I can start with my feet.




















    image
    image
  • Dear Saint Guru:

    You're exceedingly intelligent, ambitious, and -- don't laugh, this is important -- obsessive. With those three things, you can do it, i.e., you CAN earn the bread you need to complete your set. You just have to start obsessing in the right direction.

    "Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall. For he who gets hurt will be he who has stalled."

    Warm regards,



    Just Having Fun
    Jefferson nickels, Standing Libs, and US-Philippines rock


  • I'd enjoy it at 90%. As Stewart said, have some patience and finish it over many YEARS. If you really love the series, you can just hoard, like I do and never have a complete set.
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    JHF..as always the gentleman...but I can't channel my OCD...it has TENTACLES!!!

    Now I don't want to say I am done..I am NOT!! I'm in "PAUSE" mode now..but every single addition I make will simply be a step closer to where I already am!




    the tao that can be told is not the eternal tao
    image
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    Oh...one more thing...


    YEAAAAAAAAH BAAAAABY!!

    image
    image


  • << <i>RR...EXACTLY! Inasmuch as I do have as many coins I could find in high grades, there seems to be a deficit in my treasury that is not being funded by any federal agency...therefore I have hit the wall...and until I figure out a way to simply "free up" a million or two, it's a 87% complete set...but, (wait, let me pat my back), I think it's one hell of a set!

    Now...who hear wants to start a cookie jar collection? Warhol did...why can't I??image

    Oh, RN...you think John never had blistas on HIS fingas??

    Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun
    Ah, don't you know that
    Happiness is a warm gun mama
    >>



    JB,
    I've got a feeling. A feeling deep inside. That,yes, he probably did. image

    RegistryNut
  • saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,724 ✭✭✭
    not for long, though....image


    and then...image
    image
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