I have reached a major crossroad in my collecting...
Outhaul
Posts: 7,440 ✭✭✭✭✭
...where the chase is 90% and ownership is the remainder.
For about the last year or so, I have found myself excited about the hunt, the chase, the negotiations, closing the deal, receiving the coin, admiring it for a couple of weeks, then tossing it in the box, never to see the light of day until I sell it and I find this a very sad position to be in.
Has anyone else experienced this, or am I an anomaly?
Cheers
Bob
10
Comments
I too, get the high of the hunt and the low of the possession. You are not alone.
Makes them easier to sell, I suppose.
bob
Here is an easy cure. Send them all to me. Then you can beg me to give them back to you one by one.
Part of the appeal of set collecting is that it's just as important to keep holes filled as it is to fill the remaining holes, so the gratification of ownership is greater and more long-lasting.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
I often break out the coins, slabs and folders and review what I have. The raw coins I possess in sets are always looked at and admired.
I get enjoyment after looking at them again: lots of times after reading stuff in here and going back to take a look.
Pete
Sometimes, it does feel like I'm just filling boxes. I hear you there....
But then, when I have a free Sunday afternoon, I pull out one or more of the boxes, gather the appropriate references, lighting, and magnifiers, arrange the coins in a meaningful way, and I really do enjoy having, and looking at, and experiencing what the coins mean as individual pieces, and as part of the set(s) they are a part of.
(That's usually the best way to figure out which ones need to be sold....and the cycle starts again).
Sigh...I can relate on so many levels. I am trying NOT to sell them all and start over.
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore, Nickpatton, Namvet69,...
I'm hoping that as I age, the slow seepage of memory will make going through the old boxes more and more like that original chase. And the best part is, I won't have to pay for the coin I just (re-) found.
"I don't chase money ... money chase me!" --Bikram Chouhury
"Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you." -- Willy Wonka
@dedalus_57645
I am still new on this and mine is not at all as extensive as all of yours are but I do notice the same tendency.....
Going for the next chase; forgetting for the moment to enjoy many I already have.
Just last evening....made a mental note to bring them all down and enjoy it while sipping my wine
I am not yet into "filling holes" but I understand the emotional gratification obtaining such piece and IMHO the feeling should be preserved along with the coin
I find that having good images of my coins helps with pride of ownership. They can be on your phone for review at any time of day, accessible to look at like the family pictures we all used to have in those plastic holders in our wallets. The fun is absolutely in the hunt, but once you've tracked down that purchase and made it your own, it shouldn't end there.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
It seems as though you just described my position. My buffalo nickel collection is complete but I can not stop searching, working a deal, purchasing the coin then image it up and admiring it then maybe share it and in the box it goes. The really good part is that now I’m so old and I’ve been doing this for so long I can now pull all of my coins out and refresh my memory and admire them all over again
It’s a vicious circle isn’t it.
I feel your pain? I guess
yes ive done that as well. the best thing is that you can look at them and still admire what one has picked up. just saying
I guess I haven't quite reached that point, while it's true they go into a box, I still have great satisfaction knowing they are there.
And yes, the hunt is just as fun.
My YouTube Channel
I know there are a lot of collectors out there that do this and feel this way but I am not one of them. The hunt can be exhausting and frustrating. I truly enjoy what I own and have accomplished, so that is the fun part for me.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I ran into that on modern cameo proofs in 2009. Once I had a PCGS certified cameo for every slot in the registry sets for ALL denominations from 1950 to 2008 I had finished the set. Last coin was a 1967 PCGS SMS cent in 66 cameo. Going forward was easy as you just bought the latest dcams on the web. Nothing to hunt and it had become routine. Upgrades to the set were getting prohibitively expensive unless I could cherry a dcam here or there.
Nothing much to find for anymore with that set so I started collecting other items - like the neutron irradiated dimes I started a thread on.
I also found that all those modern cams took a lot of space - and keeping them in the bank vault was beginning to be cumbersome and expensive.
So I started liquidating all the low value coins from 1971 to present. Dumped over 95% of them. Cleared out two deposit boxes of slabs. Kept the base collection from 1950 to 1970 plus a few favorite "doubles". This is now manageable.
I just started a set of Capped Bust Halves in XF-AU - many many holes to fill so I am once again excited to go to shows because I can actually find something to add to the set. So much so, I have to decide which to buy to stay within a self imposed budget. I have already passed on some very nice coins, but maybe they will still be there next time.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
My last major accomplishment came a few years back when I completed a classic commem set in 1st gen PCGS holders. It has been downhill ever since.
Would you consider taking up a new hobby?
Such as?
Actually, sailing is quite an all-consuming hobby. NEARLY as expensive as coins...
"Crossroads" are good in many parts of life. They give us an opportunity to pause and consider multiple directions, changes or returns. We make decisions. We plan. We learn.
Hopefully, your decisions will be good ones for you.
I try and get a good image of the better coins I buy, that way i can enjoy them regularly and conveniently. It also makes me take them out every once in a while....there is still that need to see it in hand.
I enjoy selling coins as much as I do buying them and that allows me to never get too bored with what I have. I don't think I own a coin I wouldn't consider selling for the right price.
With coin preservation being important to retained value we all do this. I periodically go through the storage area of my coins and love looking at them. I probable don’t do that enough but when I pull them out I enjoy looking them over. Do you belong to a local club. Might help
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
, admiring it for a couple of weeks, then tossing it in the box, never to see the light of day until I sell it and I find this a very sad position to be in.
The cure is to grab the box once in a while and enjoy what you bought. If that doesn't help maybe its time for the sailboat.
Coins are fun, but they are only a part of me, not the whole me. I'm currently going through a low phase in collecting coins, limiting myself to trying to complete a set of 1858 business strike coins. There are 29 slots in the set, 2 of which are priced out of my range. I've got 14 slots filled, and might find another piece every year or two. Other than that, I've got all the coins I could possibly want, and am starting to contemplate selling off some of the duplicates.
This year I'm spending the money I would have spent on coins and space items on taking my daughters on a trip to Japan.
U.S. Type Set
For me finding the coin is a thrill, and after that ownership and the ability to see the coin whenever I like is where the the true joy is. The chase can be fun for a while, but after a year or so, that gets old for me. As for sitting in a box and never looking at the piece, that is rarely the case for me. I'll interested in writing an article, mounting a presentation or putting together an exhibit, and the coins will be in my crosshairs again. The thing about a type set is that it can cover an almost endless stream of topics.
It's absolutely about the chase. Especially when you're working on a series and it narrows down to the most rare, or difficult varieties. The registry set quest plays into this but I don't regret chasing one bit. I've learned so much from the pursuit and it has brought me in contact with great people who share passion and knowledge in the series.
As far as gawking at the coins..... TrueView has helped a lot in that department...
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Invite a friend who shares your passion over to share your collections with each other. The coins, the stories and the shared experience will reinvigorate you both.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Imagine if you claimed to be a "collector" of newly issued mint products.
This is symptomatic of all things collectible. The internet has made the world such a smaller place.
It used to be that collectors would not be able to find many things in a lifetime. Now, you can find much of what you are looking for with a few clicks.
Speak for yourself.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
I can tell you that it has taken me "a year or more of clicks" to find some things. On the other hand I acquired something from the dark side after I got some advice from collectors in the World and Ancient section.
I did.
I don't really have any advice for you, other than to do something that will reinvigorate your passion. Think about what sparked your passion initially for coin collecting and go from there.
For me looking at the coins is my passion. I take them out almost daily and look at them. Looking at photos of the coins is nice, but I like to look at them in hand so I have them out all the time. For me the hunt is exciting, but getting them and knowing that I possess them and being able to take them out and look at them any time I want is the best feeling.
I wish I could give you better advice, but hopefully you will figure it out.
Good luck, Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
I always felt the same way as a collector. Probably what made me switch from coin collecting to coin stacking. Now that it is just a savings account of precious metals adding to it never gets old. Once the goal is attained it is simply increased to a new goal. Remains a work in process until early retirement.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Have you ever thought of “mining” your boxes? Get a good stereomicroscope and read everything you can find on varieties for your coins. Then start looking. I do not mean, “looking”, I mean examining each coin to learn the die characteristics for that year and mintmark. Where are the die markers for varieties? Can you fine the Master Die markers specific to Obverses and Reverses for that year and Mintmark? Can you find a die marriage that has the same reverse die on two different years? Are two different attributed RPM’s different dies or are they from the same die at a different state of ware. Use the references as a guide but do not accept them as “gospel”. From personal experience, sometimes the “experts” get it wrong. There is no need to gloat. All that is important is that you learn something new about your passion. Accumulating coins is not the purpose of collecting it is only the result. Understanding what you have and finding a diamond in the dirt is more fun than just adding another coin to the “box”. Many of the older PCGS and NGC holder coins are rare varieties that were never attributed. I once found a Cameo Proof 1956 Type 1 DDR - 012 in an old PCGS rattler that was graded PR67. I acquired the piece many years ago but never really examined it. It is a spectacularly rare coin but of little premium because few collectors know they exist. Yet you cannot really have a complete variety set of 1956 Proof Franklins unless you have this coin. What you learn as you go is priceless and personally rewarding. Give it a shot; it is never too late to learn something new. It is a shame to waste any resource for personal knowledge by ignoring it. Something about “Can’t see the forest for the trees…….”.
Sellers remorse might feel worse.
There are many ways to make something old new again. I haven't had a dry spell in a minute, but I used to burn out, and then pick a low budget something and work on that in the interim. I bought a Capitol plastic type set holder and always searched for the finest raw coin I could find to go in it that looked like it just rolled out of the mint. By looking for coins in other series i wasn't as familiar with, it was renewing.
How about going slightly out of your comfort zone? Reach for a coin that costs a bit more than you're used to paying for and it might mean more to you than the ones you toss in the box.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
where the chase is 90% and ownership is the remainder
Bob, there's really no other way, unless you were to put your collection out as some sort of a display in your home. that isn't a wise thing. the very nature of "collecting" dictates that the objects are going to be saved somehow and since the value of what we collect tends to be high and liquid we have to store it safely. it isn't unusual to put more time and energy into locating and acquiring items in a collection vs. admiring what we've assembled.
the thing that often goes unnoticed is the knowledge we attain during the "acquiring" phase. the word Numismatist relates to study. as we collect we study. the specific item gets stored, protected and viewed periodically while the knowledge gets used in an ongoing attempt to locate more things for the collection. speaking only for myself, I never tire of learning and it helps me collect.
I enjoy the hunt for a specific item. However, I enjoy owning it far more. True, I have a lot of coins and do not sell any. I often look at specific coins and keep a few special coins within easy reach. Reading the forum often results in me 'deep diving' into the coin cabinet or safe to check on certain coins I have. Having other hobbies which are as interesting as coins is also a help. I have about five, some of which are less demanding than coins.. one of which - firearms/training/practice - is slightly more demanding. So, I never really tire of coins or forget about one's I have - this forum reminds me constantly of coins I have or should have.
I find it very satisfying to be able to look at my little treasures at my leisure or get excited over a new search. I have been retired for ten years and have never had a boring day - heck, not even a boring hour. Cheers, RickO