Talk me into going for the "box of 20"
mrdq
Posts: 1,186 ✭✭✭
I'm going to keep my halfdime collection and build it more BUT the 15,000 other coins that I have need to go.
What's the Philosophy, Strategy, Motivation, explanation and or other reason behind this collecting approach?
Do I take my top favorite 20 coins, box them, dump the rest then just concentrate on the 20 coins that catch my eye? Do I sell one before I can add one or can you briefly be at "21"? Do I dump all the coins and start with an empty box?
What did you do? how do you approach it?
What's in YOUR box of 20?
What's the Philosophy, Strategy, Motivation, explanation and or other reason behind this collecting approach?
Do I take my top favorite 20 coins, box them, dump the rest then just concentrate on the 20 coins that catch my eye? Do I sell one before I can add one or can you briefly be at "21"? Do I dump all the coins and start with an empty box?
What did you do? how do you approach it?
What's in YOUR box of 20?
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Comments
I'm not necessarily doing a "box of 20", but I found no reason to keep coins I didn't like on their individual merits.
Good Luck,
Ron
I think I get the "focus thing". But there's just no way I could be happy with just 20 coins to enjoy, as wonderful as each may be.
It's such fun to pull out a box I haven't looked at in years, and go through them one at a time. The missus says I really know how to kill time. What a horrible saying. I am immersed in time, I figure.
Sell me the top 20 that don't make your box of 20.
Lance.
-D
-Aristotle
Dum loquimur fugerit invida aetas. Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.
-Horace
15,000 is a lot....but, do what makes you happy.
When we were getting out of SAEs (we still have raw and in the album but got rid of most of the graded ones), even the toned ones, we went through and kept the couple that we liked the best. Sold the rest.
Other than that, I/we have a "no plans on selling", "don't want to sell", and "well, these are dupes and we could sell if I ever got off my butt".
The ones that are my son's, from board members, go into the "not selling".
The ones that would be harder to replace (toned and somewhat unique that way), go into the "don't want to sell".
Others could be gotten rid of but just haven't gotten there.
So, no box of 20. I don't believe in that, but you should do what you want to do.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
But this topic has been discussed many times on this forum...you should do a search and read some of the threads. They are often pretty funny.
Here is what I said in one of those previous threads:
Do NOT focus on the number.
Focus instead on the idea of making sure every coin in your collection is the best you can obtain and afford.
The box of 20 concept enables you to ensure that each coin in your collection is at least equal to the others...it is a "less is more" concept for collectors who believe that having fewer, higher quality coins is better than having many lower quality coins.
But again, do NOT focus on the number. For example, if you collect classic commemoratives and it takes 50 coins for a basic silver type set, then your box of 20 becomes a box of 50.
But, by limiting your collection to the lowest number of coins necessary, you focus your buying on coins that improve your set. If your set of 50 silver classic commemmoratives is complete, then you must sell a coin to add a coin. Therefore, you force yourself to make sure that any coin you are considering will actually be an improvement over what you already have.
Do NOT focus on the number.
By the way, I hope to have a box of 372 when I'm done building my type set of pedigreed colonial coins.
So I may end up with a box of one or two or three. It appeals me to either make some money in 10 or 20 years rather than hold stuff that probably won't.
John
Never view my other linked pages. They aren't coin related.
Instead of trying to collect a long series or any anything that catches
your fancy you know that you have just 20 places for coins. This forces
you to really thing hard as to the appropriate coin for a space. When full,
You will have to sell a coin before you buy a coin.
As for the collecting philosophy, you can collect keys, type in say half dollars
or type across several series or even spectacular coins with spectacular looks
and or toning. This approach also can save you money as you will not be able
to buy a mish mash of coins that may be hard to sell. Decide on the grade of a coin,
that will provide you with the quality you like at a price you can afford.
Camelot
just make sure your numismatic library never has fewer than 20 titles in it!! this is MUCH more important in my opinion
www.brunkauctions.com
I have often thought about keeping a Box of Twenty
when I sold off my collection. I have been hard pressed to
decide which 20 coins I would keep until I hit the Shady Acres
Nursing Home.
While at the ANA, there was a booth that sold Burl Wood Attache Cases;
the case contains four trays of eight slabs each. The dealers' booth was
four away from my table, so I passed it quite often. The last day of the ANA,
I finally broke down and bought one.
Now, I'm harder pressed to decide which 32 coins I'll keep
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coin collecting is not a hobby, it's an obsession !
New Barber Purchases
'dude
for a talk. I brought in a corroded Roman sestertius, a British twopence from 1797, a USA twenty cent
piece and two cent piece, a Russian 5 Kopek, and several more. All of these coins are able to be
handled by non-collectors, a fact that my audience loved. Having several hundred coins like these is,
to me, what being a coin collector is all about. A single box of 20 coins in slabs leaves me cold.
I think I would start by making a list of my TOP hundred or so coins to shoot for and developing a selling tactic to pay for them. Can narrow the focus as the numbers get smaller it will take some time unless those 15,000 are mostly going to go into a coin star machine. And even if many of them do go that route that is OK accumulations can become collections.
BTW my aim is a little more limited I just want to get my 15,000 down to about a thousand or so. And yes I still have those rolls of Presiz bucks to get rid of and the coffee cans of cents and nickels from the roll searches.
Have fun and IMO thats what it is all about.
My box of 20 coins, with pictures.
U.S. Type Set
Box of 137.
There is no way you will ever get to a box of 20, or 32, or 300. You are addicted to coins, and would feel very lonely without all your children.
If one is through putting together sets, and would really like to downsize, and you eyes are going, and you only want 1 small safe deposit box, rather than 3 big ones, then go for it.
But in the meantime, the only way one becomes proficient at grading, and know the market for a series, is to do the complete series, whichever it is. That knowledge is irreplaceable, and the warm feeling off doing it is lost--if you only have a box of twenty from the start.
JMHO