Collectors: Do you manage your collection like a dealer should manage inventory?
DMWJR
Posts: 6,046 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have an appreciation for most all coinage including patterns, exonumia, etc, and can enjoy them all. My collection is primarily in a specialty group of small cents: 1856 to 1958. However, I have some one offs, some color of various denominations, a set of commems, and a box of ungraded coins I've picked up over the years for various reasons that don't have much monetary value.
My interest has never been to make money with my collection. It is an escape from work, as a hobby should be. When I tire of certain coins, I usually sell regardless of the market. But, I have concluded that if you want to maintain some reasonable monetary value in your collection, you have to watch the market and sell at the right times and buy at the right times and learn to enjoy the coins you have an opportunity to buy at the right times, and be willing to say goodbye when you don't want to if the market is asking for them.
(I'm still enjoying it as a hobby even when I see perceived losses in my collection, and not considering a sale of my core collection)
It's an interesting thing to ponder though.
Comments
Honestly, no. I tried playing the game the last time I was in the hobby but I mainly broke even when all was said and done. I didn’t enjoy the exercise. Now I don’t worry about it.
That is NOT the way a dealer handles inventory. A dealer should NEVER buy a coin at "the right time" to sell it at "the right time". A dealer buys it at "the right price" so they can sell it immediately at "the right price".
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All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
I do not sell coins....so my 'management' method is to enjoy my coins and not be concerned about the market. The only time the 'market' is of interest is when I am acquiring a new coin...and that is just so I know the price is reasonable. Cheers, RickO
A few collectors use the turnover method to keep interest in the hobby up, especially collectors doing a box of 20 or something similar. Most collectors would never routinely do this. When a coin is let go (while actively collecting), it is typically one that is inferior to another that was recently purchased.
I have had side collections, bought largely to relieve boredom, that I did assemble with the intent to sell them for a profit. When gold was cheaper, about 12-14 years ago, I bought dozens of foreign gold coins for near-melt and put them in a couple of blank albums. I sold them for a good profit when gold marched up in price.
I did the same thing with matte proof Lincoln cents, thinking (correctly) that these would be promoted during the centennial of the Lincoln cent. Prices shot up, but the collector in me would not let them go.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
I don't manage my collection, I just try to keep track of it.
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I most certainly don't treat my collection like a dealer...
It's a hobby. For fun, enjoyment, education, whatever other word you want to use.
I try to be smart, however. I try to pay a reasonable amount for coins, based on what is readily available in price guides, auction results, etc. That in no way promises I will profit, (or even break even). But it does mean I'm not throwing money away due to pure ignorance.
I sell when a coin has outlived it's usefulness to me. I don't wait for the "right time", or research the "right way". I have little interest in working that hard at selling, just for a few extra bucks. It's just a method of recycling funds back into my available "buy funds".
Having said all that...I am also looking ahead to a time I might want to liquidate all but my most prized possessions. (You can't take them with you!) Taken as an aggregate, rather than a coin-by-coin basis, I have a rather large holding at this point that I don't really want to stick my wife with.
Once I retire, I've thought it might be fun, and a little more profitable, to join the local coin show circuit, and sell them as "a dealer". Whether that sparks an interest in me to REALLY be a dealer is questionable. It might just be a way to pass time until my "inventory" dwindles down to near nothing.
I always managed my collection like a dealer, so much so, that I became a coin dealer.
If you love coins, honestly it is way more fun being a coin dealer and being able to handle many super cool coins during the course of business.
The only thing is, you have to be able to let coins go ....
I probably manage my coins more like a dealer.
I guess I am semi retired? I just came back from a 3 week vacation. When I was in my truly motivated work days I never went out for lunch.
I use the coins (mainly double eagles) as a part of my gold inventory. At the current premiums there is often little difference between bullion and the pre 33's. I try to buy the coins when I perceive value. I try to offer the coins at a premium closer to their top end. I don't mind swapping if I believe I'm getting a better coin in exchange. Margins are low but I love trading. If I don't sell coins I am still holding gold so it matters not.
So far the generic gold I bought has worked out mainly due to a rising gold price. To date, My losses have tended to occur when I impulsively buy a coin with a little kicker attached (shipwrecks, CC, New Orleans, etc).
I would love to take a table at a show but how big an inventory do I want to bring ? The risk of theft / personal danger real or not deters me from going that route.
I probably sell 30-70 coins a year and buy at least the same amount and usually more.
One day I asked my daughter what she'll do with the coins on inheritance and she said, "Probably keep them". So, if gold has any value in the future she'll have a decent start if she wishes to keep a gold position.
Outside of a circulated Indian cent collection that doesn't get enough attention, most everything is bought with an eye toward flipping.
I grew up idolizing Mel Fisher.
Turns out Ebay and coin shows are alot easier to hunt.
Allows for a lot of flexibility financially and mostly leaves out the emotional attachment.
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
I remember reading and watching news reports documenting Mel Fisher's hunt for the wreck of the Atocha, and his eventual success after years of searching the waters off SE Florida. Some of the recovered items, including bars and coins, are on display in the Mel FIsher Maritime Museum in Key West, FL.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
No, if I did I would almost certainly buy in areas that are a lot more liquid and widely collected.
Yes and no. Once you start collecting, at a certain level, you must begin to think about the dirty word 'investment'. You would be a fool not to, even though you and everyone else, keeps saying that it is just a 'hobby'. Some coins; I have done really well with, while others; I really paid up for, because I liked/needed them and I'm likely buried in them. But, all in all; I think that I am ahead of the game, especially, after I have some of them regraded.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Same here, lol. I'm a collector primarily and sell "Duplicates" occasionally to buy more coins. I enjoy mamaging
my disorganized collection. Makes me appreciate a coin more when i find it!
I have found over the years being a dealer, that it has changed the way I look at some of my personal collection. I have bought and owned several nice key date as well as type pieces. I use to not mind stretching strong for something that I wanted to own personally, and passed opportunity to sell because I didn't want too amd really liked the coin. But over the years, I no longer stretch strong for anything any longer, and will sell a personal piece if the opportune presents itself. like they say, "no better time to sell than when you have an eager buyer" . Also, over the past year or so, I have sold off a few pieces because of what I just mentioned, but have not missed them at all. (not sure what that means just yet) maybe Im getting burned out of collecting, or just enjoy the dealing side of things by own a piece for a short time, then another and so forth.
Wow @Commencents! Can I interest you in the idea of slab boxes, 2x2 boxes, cigar boxes? I have mine in all manner of boxes and safe deposit boxes and it is just a pain to bring it out to work with, but fun once I get started. Wifey would never let me sprawl it out on the bed!
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