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Why Collectors Sell - The Five "D"s
2ndCharter
Posts: 1,644 ✭✭✭✭✭
With the news of the Simpson Collection sales and other auctions going on, it brought to mind something one of the higher-ups at a certain auction company in Dallas told me years ago. He said the reason collectors sell can be summed up with the Five "D"s":
Death
Divorce
Disease
Debt
Disinterest
Now, I did add a sixth one when I heard a collector was selling because he was going to jail - Detention - but I think the original Five "D"s sum things up pretty well.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
8
Comments
Discretion
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
If someone is Dead, isn't it their heirs that sell?
Direction, or rather a change in direction.
Latin American Collection
Dealing
Duped
Doctored
Disabled
Distressed
double
Doubling, as in what you can sell for is double what you paid for it.
Dilettante
Deranged!
Devil.
Leave my wife out of it.
Most sound like a personal disaster
My Saint Set
Deranged is good🤪
Duplicate
When we were young ... if we collected and had things to sell ... it could have been ...
Debutante
“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
Dumb.
I have sold some coins only because I was dumb.
most likely
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Death
Divorce
Disease
Debt
Disinterest
of the original five it is:
Death --- as mentioned above, this is something someone else worries about.
Divorce --- this is easy, just don't get married!!
Disease --- not much we can do about this
Debt --- controllable. besides, it's only a Hobby, right??
Disinterest --- this is really unavoidable but then most of us sell stuff to finance purchases, so does it even figure in??
Usually as fast as they can. They want the cash!
Desperation?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Done
Another D - Defense
People have sold their collection in order to pay for lawyers to defend themselves. One infamous example involved the ACG suit back 15 or so years ago. People had to sell to defend themselves against a frivolous lawsuit.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
Wow that is pretty accurate 5 D's. never thought it of it like that.
Deterioration
had a couple of silver proofs get milk spots so sold the whole collection in 2008
Link to 1950 - 1964 Proof Registry Set
1938 - 1964 Proof Jeffersons w/ Varieties
Disgust---Their prized coin comes back from their favorite grading service in a details slab totally unexpected.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
That leads to another one:
Descendent - received the coin as part of an inheritance.
Duped - or - Deceived
Someone else (often an "expert" or dealer) tells you that your coin(s) are no good. Low end dreck. I've even had dealers tell me that when I had finest known specimens.....lol.
Looking for a "D" word for CAC. Lots of people have sold coins off....because they didn't CAC. How about "Didn't CAC?"
For Non-CAC, you did use a word earlier in your post that hasn't been mentioned before:
Dreck
This would come under “Disinterest” (In the old direction).
I heard that same bit of wisdom at Heritage about 40 years ago but I think that it was only about three "D"s back then.
How about Done?
Met my lifelong numismatic goals.
(Someday)
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Disemployed, which is related to debt
Proof Buffalo Registry Set
Capped Bust Quarters Registry Set
Proof Walking Liberty Halves Registry Set
DISTRACTED which is not a cause for selling but no longer buying!!
Dumbfounded - Why did I buy that???
Destitution.
Displaced - I have to move... with all those 10000 coins???
Doubt about my Double Eagles.
Deleverage and buy Doughnuts?
Diversify - Have too much $$ tied up.
Although, a die hard collector can never have too much.
Can’t fund everything so have to pick a direction. I’m not disinterested in rare date gold but I can’t afford to buy the coins I want in the quality I want while collecting Latin American.
Latin American Collection
Dearth of cash
My biggest problem too!!!
I have a whole new appreciation for the letter D.
Let me help you! "Dejected!"
edited to add: or "Despondent, dispirited, depressed"
Yep. Depressed. They never stop to think that coins are purty good things to have.
Soon as this national financial mismanagement ends (or even if it doesn't) people forget that coins are small and liquid.
Whatever pulls out of the morass, there are still gonna be people with disposable income and still having interest in historical objects and even if it's antiquities of some sort, coins are still going to be the small portable items they have always been.
What can one collect that has stayed feasible over centuries? Coins that are visually interesting or scarce are just another form of art.
Okay, they cycle up and down. What doesn't?
Post other collectibles that you think might be better. Collecting stuff is a human trait and I don't see that evaporating to zip.
To be honest, I think ....dreck.....is done for. Good sign in my mind.
The folks who think NICE coins are dead are gonna get a surprise.
I think.
Disillusioned.
Dinero
Dowager
Dotage
Decline/decay
Divest