Options
Can you assign a dollar amout to the value of owning your coins and the enjoyment you get from them?
MidLifeCrisis
Posts: 10,550 ✭✭✭✭✭
Sometimes we make money when we sell a coin. Sometimes (more often, it seems) we lose money.
But along with the sale price - profit or loss - we should factor in how much we enjoy owning them, looking at them, learning about them, fussing over them.
But what dollar amount would you assign to that non-tangible aspect of collecting?
But along with the sale price - profit or loss - we should factor in how much we enjoy owning them, looking at them, learning about them, fussing over them.
But what dollar amount would you assign to that non-tangible aspect of collecting?
0
Comments
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
<< <i>MLC, you cannot put a price on happiness. You should know that.
So...priceless.
Really?
Then why do people get all bent out of shape when they sell a coin for a loss, or aren't offered what they think it's worth when they try to sell it?
If the happiness we get from ownership is priceless, we should be willing to give the coin away so the next collector can experience that priceless happiness!
<< <i>tree hunnert n tirty tree dollahs an fitty six cents. smoetimes a little more, smoetimes a little less. >>
<< <i>
<< <i>MLC, you cannot put a price on happiness. You should know that.
So...priceless.
Really?
Then why do people get all bent out of shape when they sell a coin for a loss, or aren't offered what they think it's worth when they try to sell it?
If the happiness we get from ownership is priceless, we should be willing to give the coin away so the next collector can experience that priceless happiness! >>
I just don't think you can equate happiness with stupidity. When you have coins that bring have brought you happiness but then you decide to part with them for whatever reason, it doesn't mean you are stupid enough to give them away or have the desire to take a bath on them in the sale. Happiness Does Not Equal Stupid.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
So if you own it long enough, do you break even? Anything you sell it for after that is profit?
<< <i>I just don't think you can equate happiness with stupidity...Happiness Does Not Equal Stupid.
Yes, but stupid people are often happy because they don't know any better!
Yers ferever truly!
Der Karl of Dorkdom!
<< <i>
<< <i>I just don't think you can equate happiness with stupidity...Happiness Does Not Equal Stupid.
Yes, but stupid people are often happy because they don't know any better!
Well played, very true. But I have to say, I HOPE happiness does not equal stupid in my case.
And it is for reasons such as this that I have 7,191 posts in three years.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
<< <i>I was actually thinking more along the lines of a percentage of the amount you bought the coin for...maybe multiplied by number of years owned...or something like that.
So if you own it long enough, do you break even? Anything you sell it for after that is profit? >>
Since you said it like this, maybe 10%?
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
I think people often get their internal satisfaction confused in the foggy region between hobby and investment.
Amat Colligendo Focum
Top 10 • FOR SALE
That being said, while it is nice to sell a coin for a profit, I've willingly taken losses on coins that fell out of favor with me. In the cases where I've taken losses, I was selling sooner than I should have, in the interest of releasing funds to purchase new coins. Looking back on what I had and what I have now, I would take the same losses in an instant.
I think the enjoyment that some collectors get from their coins is the idea that they are good investments, are sure to increase in value, etc.
Maybe you can put a dollar value on that.
But then it all comes crashing down when they go to sell them and find out they have been deluding themselves the whole time. And then all of the sudden the enjoyment they thought they had for twenty years or whatever kind of doesn't count anymore.
It's kind of like Flowers for Algernon. That story where a dumb person become really smart for a short time, and then gets dumb again. And now he isn't happy anymore because now he has a sense that he is different, a sense which he didn't have before he got smart. And the question the story makes you ask, is whether he would have been better off just staying dumb the whole time, so he could enjoy his coins more (well, there were no coins in the story, I just made up that last part).
<< <i>Without hobbies, I think we'd all be a little nuttier than we already are. So, no, it's priceless. >>
Ha! Good point!
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
john
Loe-steelielee-bought 690. sale
nate-grandrapidian-bought 70. sale
Paul-commoncents-3500+ sales
Ken-jfoot-sold-125.00 sale
Mike-mozeppa-bought 1080. sale
Dave-Badger-sale 560.00
Lochness-sale 1,000. 00
<< <i>
<< <i>MLC, you cannot put a price on happiness. You should know that.
So...priceless.
Really?
Then why do people get all bent out of shape when they sell a coin for a loss, or aren't offered what they think it's worth when they try to sell it?
If the happiness we get from ownership is priceless, we should be willing to give the coin away so the next collector can experience that priceless happiness! >>
I see this as two types of emotions that need to be considered when buying and selling.
When buying one needs to take into consideration ones ability to control ones desire and self control while judging a coins overall desireability among the market so not to get too buried.
Once a purchase gets made with any astute consideration one can become emotionally attached to the process and ownership of an item that the purchaser won't and shouldn't consider and the first situation repeats. When heirs sell with no initial investment, they don't have the same feelings.
When one buys retail and sells wholesale then one must simply say "at least I enjoyed myself" or "no one said owning this Harly would be cheap" or any type of similar rational.
I would judge my enjoyment in dollars by adding up my initial investment and subtracting what I could get in a quick sell situation then compare that to other types of entertainment cost like rock climbing gear, motorcycling, 4wheeling, hot rod, shooting, travel, etc as one must pay to play. Then keep it realistic and in line with those and not go totally overboard.
Matt
<< <i>Personally, while there is indeed an opportunity cost with not putting money into stocks/etc. which could potentially have a higher rate of return, I value my enjoyment rather highly. I'd say at the very, very least it offsets inflation. I've spent a great deal of effort weeding out the unwanted pieces from my collection and am left with a small set of coins that I am truly glad to own. Researching them and looking at them is definitely worth a considerable amount to me.
That being said, while it is nice to sell a coin for a profit, I've willingly taken losses on coins that fell out of favor with me. In the cases where I've taken losses, I was selling sooner than I should have, in the interest of releasing funds to purchase new coins. Looking back on what I had and what I have now, I would take the same losses in an instant. >>
+1
Well said!