If you could get 100% of the value for your collection, would you sell it and start all over?
Russell12
Posts: 735 ✭✭✭✭✭
My question is, if your collection is 100% insured and you are guaranteed to get 100% of it's value, would you want your collection stolen? You would be able to start your collection all over again.
0
Comments
No. Pretty much every collector has coins that mean more to them than however much they are “worth”.
Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
Life is roadblocks. Don't let nothing stop you, 'cause we ain't stopping. - DJ Khaled
My collection represents years of memories and untold hours searching for the right pieces. If I wanted to start over I could just sell it. There’s a reason I sell next to nothing out of my collection.
As just one example: I bought this coin in high school, probably 2003 or 2004. My family went to the mall the evening it closed on eBay, so I had to place a bid and hope for the best. As we walked around, I kept thinking I hoped I bid enough. I got home, found out I won, and waited excitedly for the coin to arrive. It was way better than the photos showed. 20+ years later I’m still excited when I pull it out. I don’t want money to buy a different one, I want this one. Someone else can have it when I’m gone.
While most collectors hope to recover most of what we spend on our coins upon their sale, for most their collection really is more than just a number on a spreadsheet. The answer to your question is no; I could never hope to get enough from a settlement to repurchase many of the coins in my collection.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
No chance. Been there, done that (at least for a good part of my collection).
Well, it wasn't fully insured like it is now, but the violation alone is not worth it.
Plus, as others have already pointed out ... it's not like I can go back and just buy the same coins. Some represent years of searching, studying and good fortune finding them in the first place.
“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
Way too much hard work to get back to where i am now…
What exactly defines “100% of its value”?
Market value based on APRs? Price guide? Because if that’s the case then absolutely not, I wouldn’t even entertain it. To me, many of my coins have a value that far exceeds what they could potentially be sold for, and some are virtually irreplaceable.
Founder- Peak Rarities
Website
Instagram
Facebook
Hell no!
It's not a car or a room that was damaged by fire. It represents years of sweat equity...travel....false leads....being outbid before you got lucky one time....numerous trips to coin shops, local shows, national shows...saving months or even years for the $$$ to buy that 1 special coin.
You can't get insurance for that !!
Nope. And I’m not even that sentimental about most of them. They’re mine and I like them. I want to find new ones, not replace them or start over.
Of course, not.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
No 👎
I think a better question would be, if your collection was stolen, and it was insured for 100% of its value, would you start over?
My answer would be "No". I would be heartbroken. My collection means more to me than dollars and cents for the same reasons stated above. Years of enjoyment and work would be gone. That can't be replaced.
Agreed. I don't know anyone who would want anything "stolen" except maybe a car with more book value than utility. Theft is very personal and upsetting even for items that can be easily replaced.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Thar is a lot of "no's". How about if I rephrase the question as: "If someone would buy your whole collection for it's actual current value, would you sell and start allover?
Better question but I still think the answer is no. As others have pointed out, the collection is more than just the money.
Joe.
Yes
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
The first YES!
Different question. Lol
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Yes, all my coins—steal my truck too.
Logically, if a collector preferred the FMV for their coins, they would have sold them. By holding the coins over selling, they're making a mental decision that they value the coins higher than current pricing or their love/enjoyment of the coins is higher than currently what they could get.
So with that logic, NO, collectors typically wouldn't want their collection stolen, EVEN if they received the market value.
For anyone who would say yes, my question is, why are you still holding the coins??
I think the question is, perhaps, more nuanced than just the value. Isn't half the fun in the hunt? Wouldn't I make fewer mistakes the second time?
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I cant imagine anybody saying yes to this question.
You'd be in one heck of a bad position if you said "yes I want my collection stolen" and at some point it was.
How would that look?
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
Successful BST transactions with: Namvet Justindan Mattniss RWW olah_in_MA
Dantheman984 Toyz4geo SurfinxHI greencopper RWW bigjpst bretsan MWallace logger7 JWP BruceS bigjpst
JWP
You have not bought it yet.
Wouldn't I make fewer mistakes the second time?
This is 100% true for me. NO, I don't want to have my collection stolen. Even If 100% insured, YES, I would start over, even though I'm almost 70 y.o. Definitely would make fewer mistakes the 2nd time around. My current collection includes over 1,900 PCGS slabs in only 5 series. I could dispose of 2/3 of them without a problem. BUT I DON'T WANT TO. LOL !!!!!
Only if I were to leave the hobby or go into a completely new area of numismatics, doubtful at my age. Once I dispose of a set I don’t go back and try to replace it. Same applies to my collection as a whole.
PS regarding the original “stolen” question: Of course not.
I’d be too paranoid that I’d be robbed a second time instead of being happy that I got paid off enough to start collecting again.
Mr_Spud
Back a few months ago when my collection was nearly “lost” to having my bank open my SDB and contents given to another party in error, I thought about exactly this question… I believe I would consolidate that money and collecting focus and stick to a “box of 20” concept, and only buy a limited amount of “must have” coins. Much easier to manage and liquidate when the time comes.
Luckily I had possession of my collection (not a common thing!) when the bank decided to give the contents to someone else. I did in fact recover everything else (jewelry etc) in the end, but it sure got me thinking.
Other passions include golf, Moto Guzzi motorcycles, and Euro motorcycles in general.
Chris
Replacement would be virtually impossible, so no.
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
Many of my most prized coins would not easily be replaced with comparable coins. As for the others - as much as I like looking for affordable examples of die marriages and die states of LS half dimes that I don't yet have, I think it would be quite painful to go through the effort of reacquiring the ones I already have. So, if I found myself without all my coins, I surely would start collecting again, but I may well focus on something different.
And to answer the questions - no...
Collector of Liberty Seated Half Dimes, including die pairs and die states
Hell no!> @Russell12 said:
Hell, no! Again.
I don't do this for financial gain (duh!). I work to be prudent in how I spend my money on coins, but the fun is the chase, culminating in the capture, and then having it/them, and enjoying that ownership.
That said, there are pieces of my collection I would sell "for full value," if that were easy, and never look back. My collecting interests have evolved over the years.
Lol. I voted "no" on stolen. They is hard. But I did vote "yes" on selling. It would be fun, I think, to start over.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
No
My coins and currency worth much more than I paid (those points in time). I put a lot of time and work in procuring that. One’s sent in for grading even more.
Waiting for the edit. . .
No, too much time invested, plus the huge amount of time to clean up the mess that my pack of dogs and 00 buckshot would do. Ugh.
Before “full value” is calculated do I get the extra two grade levels that ownership adds? Since all my coins (raw and slabbed) are undergraded, I need those extra points to be satisfied with cash
Even at that, I would restart, but not start over. I’d take all that money and probably own 10 coins and then go from there. The collections would not resemble each other in hardly any way.
No to both questions
Sure, but how often is a collector presented with the opportunity to sell their entire collection to one buyer at FMV?
No. No possible way to replace a piece of individual family history and I couldn't begin to put a price tag on it... This coin and change purse was found in my grandmother's effects after she passed away in 1973. My family came to this country in 1845 to escape famine in Ireland...
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
A collection is dynamic and multifaceted, not a single entity. Even if there are multiple pieces that qualify, that should give any collector pause and momentum to reevaluate to consider moving such elements along. A collector isn't built at once or sold at once.
>
I think Mike, and a probably a few others here know (and some may remember) my story.
It took me 7 years before I could even look at them again. And that only happened because I helped a friend sort through a collection he and his Dad assembled and it got me WANTING to look again.
No way do I think I'd make it back if it happened again.
“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
The hypothetical above: "If someone would buy your whole collection for it's actual current value, would you sell and start allover?"
"Someone". "Whole collection".
I sure as hell would not want my coins stolen for the same reason many have pointed out. I have way too much time invested in my collection.
What kind of question is this?
Sure, but in the ongoing discussion of hypotheticals and what-ifs that go on for endless discussions, I pointed out that for any collector at this moment in time, they should be constantly evaluating their collection. Are there pieces they WISH would be stolen? YIKES, if so, correction is needed. And IF SO, then that takes incremental progress. Just like the creation of the collection in the first place.
Again, I don't think any collector who's halfway happy with their collection would want their collection stolen.
My original response was to your statement that "if a collector preferred the FMV for their coins, they would have sold them." I didn't say anything about what a collector might want with regards to having their collection stolen.
It's now 2 different questions.
If the OPs fully-insured collection is stolen, we'll know it's an inside job.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
The OP didn't help matters by asking a separate question in the middle.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
And apparently, I didn't help by responding to a comment by someone other than the OP.
Lol. It's always a bit of a crapshoot. People don't read the whole thread. When you respond to one comment, unless you edit, you respond to multiple people. And people other than Joe and Red can be a little defensive. Lol
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.