Is it a good idea to take a break from coins every few months?
291fifth
Posts: 24,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
Determine:
If your collection has any real direction.
If your collecting interests should be narrowed.
If what you are buying is desirable material.
If you are "being buried" in what you buy.
If it's time to consider selling some material.
If your collection has any real direction.
If your collecting interests should be narrowed.
If what you are buying is desirable material.
If you are "being buried" in what you buy.
If it's time to consider selling some material.
All glory is fleeting.
0
Comments
Actually, I think one should do what he or she feels comfortable doing. Certainly, if being around coins becomes uncomfortable, you should take a break!
<< <i>It is good for your bank account. >>
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Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>I spend less time on coins during the summer, when the lush green fairways and the devilishly tucked pins beckon. >>
This reminds me of the helpful advice I received a few years ago when my iron play was horrendous: Take 2 weeks off, and then quit.
<< <i>I would say its a good idea to once a year sit down with your collection and rethink your goals, your coins, and where you are heading >>
If I think about it too long and hard, I will surely quit.
It goes back to the Woody Allen shark analogy .
CCU, I like that golf advice.
Here's where I spent all last rainy Saturday. There wasn't another soul in sight.
<< <i>If one needs to think of all those things, one is no longer a collector. Not sure what you become, but those thoughts no longer make it an enjoyable hobby. Cheers, RickO >>
I respectfully disagree.
Thinking about all of these things is healthy, and advisable in my opinion. Plus it doesn't mean that you now have do anything differently, just that you took a step back and evaluated where you are.
I'm in the process of doing some numismatic soul-searching. We should collect because we enjoy it, and if we can no longer enjoy collecting we need to consider whether we collect at all, or at least what we are collecting.
The moon money and the coin doctoring and the gradeflation and the crackout game and the dominance of slabs have all made collecting what I collect far less enjoyable. So I'm in the process to see if this is just a phase I'll grow out of, or if it's a more permanent shift in my sentiment. I don't want to sell much of my collection if this is just a phase. But if this is a more permanent change in my thinking, I'll be selling most of my slabbed collection eventually and looking more at Darkside stuff and lower grade raw U.S. coinage.
So to those who have PM'd me in the past wondering if I were interested in selling any of my coins, stay tuned. I may be if my disillusionment in the better (and mostly slabbed) U.S. market remains this high (or gets higher).
In short, I love coin collecting as much as ever. But the coin market and the coin business have me a bit jaded.
<< <i>
<< <i>If one needs to think of all those things, one is no longer a collector. Not sure what you become, but those thoughts no longer make it an enjoyable hobby. Cheers, RickO >>
I respectfully disagree.
Thinking about all of these things is healthy, and advisable in my opinion. Plus it doesn't mean that you now have do anything differently, just that you took a step back and evaluated where you are. >>
I agree with your disagreement!
Other than a couple world 1 oz silver coins per month I'm not collecting right now. I was spending $400-$600 a month on coins, but I'm going to take that money and use it towards a Greece vacation in September. I still read Coin World and these forums, but the most US action I've gotten lately was a roll of Washington Dollars, which I spent.
I'll be back.
Like ziggy29, I recently went through a bit of numismatic soul searching. For a long time I had concentrated on acquiring key dates in the US Federal Series. Along the way, I would pick up a Colonial era coin now and then and I realized that I was getting more enjoyment from the Colonials and the stories and history that went with them than I was from the key dates. Plus, something entirely unexpected happened...once I had acquired all the obtainable key dates in a series (Lincoln cents, for example), I was no longer interested in the more common dates - there just wasn't anything special about them any more.
So I literally took a break to re-evaluate my collecting goals...and decided to sell the Fed Series key dates and concentrate on Colonial era coins.
Collectors and collections naturally evolve. One day I may decide to trade all my Colonial era coins for gold. I doubt it though.
It's also very enjoyable to see the profits from holding all these years. You learn more I think from selling than from buying.
Dan