Why I Never Sell Coins

melvin289 · March 25, 2011 2:26PM

Forty some years ago, in the late 60's, I bought a blue Whitman #1 folder of Lincoln Cents, maybe half full, from a dealer at the coin club meeting. I looked at the coins and there was a 24-D, maybe AG at best in the 24-P hole. A friend I worked with wanted to buy the rest of the cents. He said he wanted to get into coin collecting. I sold it to him for the $10 I paid for it and thought nothing more about it. Someone else we worked with told me he was going around bragging that he had sold the folder for $20 to someone else. Now back in those days we made around $2.35 an hour. $10 was a lot of money. Now this really ticked me off as I was just trying to help the guy get started and got taken advantage of by him. That was the last coins I ever sold. By the way, I kept the 24-D.

Ron

mrpotatoheadd · March 25, 2011 2:31PM

<< <i>I sold it to him for the $10 I paid for it... By the way, I kept the 24-D. >>

So you sold it for the $10 you paid for it, and got a free 24-D?

Swampboy · March 25, 2011 2:34PM

Let it go Ron.
It'll be all right.

melvin289 · March 25, 2011 3:00PM

Even back then the coins I sold him were worth way more than the $10 I charged him. The story was the guy he sold them to had told him he was going to offer me $20 for the folder and he bought them to make the profit. I was friends with this guy, went to his house, helped his kids with their homework, knew the whole family. I would not have sold them to the other guy. I was just being nice to my friend.

Ron

Edited to add:

I rewalize that once he bought them they became his property and he could do with them as he pleased. It was just the principle of the thing. I would still have that folder to this day had he not wanted them.

Amigo · March 25, 2011 3:41PM

Maybe $2.35 an hour for you, not me. I was making 75¢ an hour working at a Drive Inn Restaurant.

Regards your thread, it's always wise to sell a coin or two from time to time. That way you're living in reality about what your coins are really worth.

Soop · March 25, 2011 8:02PM

spotthedog · March 25, 2011 8:07PM

What about the original dealer who sold you the folder for ten dollars? He maybe thought you were a nice guy, and was trying to give you a friendly head start in coin collecting.

OzzyAndy · March 25, 2011 8:19PM

If you never sell coins, it's your dependents that will have to sort through them and probably sell them for much less than they're worth, it would make that $10 loss look like chicken feed.

I'm only 33 years old and I'm currently getting rid of a huge amount of 'junk' I've accumulated over the years and reorganising my collection so that other won't have to stress as much over it. There will still be a huge amount of work if they want to sell it however.

Andrew

DHeath · March 25, 2011 9:19PM

Buying and selling anything is premised on so many assumptions. Based on the telling, you believe the coins were worth "way more than $10". What if they were worth $5, and both you and your friend found bigger fools?

DBSTrader2 · March 25, 2011 9:25PM

Did his kids ever find someone else to help them with their homework?

Maybe you can find comfort in knowing that, without your help, they ended up needing a tutor that ended up costing their father - - your ex-friend - - way more than the $10 profit he made off you and your friendship!!

- - Dave

keets · March 25, 2011 10:09PM

based on one experience forty years ago you made a decision and "I'll show you, I'll hurt me" is the best you could come up with?? it sounds to me like you were just an immature young man who had his feelings hurt and has never really gotten over it. as someoone else pointed out, you kept that 1924-D so made a small profit as a result of your investment in the folder deal, what's to gripe about??

move on dude. if this has been eating at you for 40 years i can't imagine how something really significant would affect your psyche.

BillJones · March 25, 2011 10:52PM

I suppose you can take that attitude, but I've found that buying and selling at advantageous times has allowed me to expand and improve my collection. Have some of the coins that I have sold gone up in value since I sold them? Sure, a lot of them have gone up in price, but so have the items I have purchased with the proceeds. All I’m concerned with is if I got a reasonable return on the item when I sold it, or when I took a hit, that I got a fair market price.

Sure, it’s aggravating when someone takes advantage of your better nature and pulls a stunt like that guy did with the partial Lincoln set. That’s why I rarely give breaks to so-called “beginners,” and I don’t believe in giving coins to kids. I think that they should do something to earn them. Then they will have more of an appreciation for them.

Years ago when I was active in a regional numismatic organization, they used to go after the dealers at their show for donations to their YN program. Nothing would gall me more than to see those kids out selling the coins, which had been given to them, on the bourse floor as soon as the YN program was over. Those kids were not becoming collectors; they were working the system; and that’s not the kind of values that we should have been teaching them.

keets · March 25, 2011 11:24PM

good post, Bill.

RYK · March 25, 2011 11:45PM

<< <i>good post, Bill. >>

I disagree. It was an excellent post.

ricko · March 25, 2011 11:55PM

I have yet to sell a coin. No reason for that, other than I like the coins I have acquired. I likely will sell my gold, in fact am presently trying to sell one particular set. If I do, it will be my first numismatic sale. Coins have been one of my hobbies since I was a kid, and possessing them for my personal pleasure has been my reward. Cheers, RickO

MrEureka · March 26, 2011 12:08AM

I donâ€™t believe in giving coins to kids. I think that they should do something to earn them. Then they will have more of an appreciation for them.

I certainly agree that it doesn't do any good to give coins to kids that don't appreciate them. But my experience, on both sides of the gifts, is that there are many wonderful and smart ways to give coins to kids that do appreciate them.

PerryHall · March 26, 2011 1:15AM

If I sell someone a coin and they are able to make a profit on it, I say "good for them". But, that's just me.

SamByrd · March 26, 2011 3:52AM

<< <i>If I sell someone a coin and they are able to make a profit on it, I say "good for them". But, that's just me. >>

DoubleEagle59 · March 26, 2011 4:00AM

When I sell a coin, it's none of my business what they do with it or how much they profit by selling it.

End of story.

Same applies when I buy a coin. It's no business of mine to know the seller's cost. Who cares if they paid $1 or $100 for it. If the price is worth it to me, I buy it.

johnny9434 · March 26, 2011 4:03AM

chalk it up as experience melvin. time to move on

mrearlygold · March 26, 2011 4:08AM

So much for "enjoying the ride"

melvin289 · March 28, 2011 12:40PM

I know it's been a few days since I first posted this but I thought I would comment. Yes I got a good deal on the folder of Lincolns from a dealer at the local coin show. But in return he had gotten a good deal on them and he said he had no use for them. I told my friend that I had removed one coin from the album and would let him have the rest for what I paid for them. By the way it was over half the #1 blue folder. The reminder of the coins were worth more than the $10 I charged him. I just don't like being lied to. I realize that after he paid for the coins they were his to do with as he saw fit.

The main thing is I wouldn't have sold them to the other party for the $20 he offered and would have kept them myself. I would have probably bought a few coins to go in the folders as I ran into them and had them for posterity.

Ron

Constantine · March 28, 2011 1:27PM

Ron, I feel for ya. It wasn't about the coins, it was the principal. I get that completely. How many times in the last 40 years have you thought about this transaction? I just say that because you may be reading into it more than the other person. You could have this whole scenario and motive that just isn't true. Maybe he was not bragging after all? Possibly, he thought no harm whatsoever on his part for selling it for $20? Chances are, he does not even remember the transaction 40 years ago. But you do and it has stuck with you. Just not sure why though for so long to be honest.

scotty1419 · March 29, 2011 2:47AM

This reminds me of...

airplanenut · March 29, 2011 5:19AM

I've lost out on good deals before. I've had people rub it in my face. But the vast majority of the time, I've won on the sale, whether it was getting a good deal and making a profit, or simply getting the price I was hoping for, even if it was just breaking even. I'd have missed out on a ton had I not sold coins in the past, many of which paid for upgrades.

I think the bigger problem was a friend lying to you, not the sale of the coins per se.

All that said, I always felt a bit uncomfortable when someone would give me a steep discount because I was young. Sometimes I was buying for resale, or figured that while the coin was going in my collection then, it might not stay long, and I didn't want to abuse their kindness.

ambro51 · March 29, 2011 5:21AM

you have a good memory. congratz

Why I Never Sell Coins

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