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Coins as a good investment? Yes or No!-Discuss!
By fred | February 21, 2008
Several years ago I asked my two sons, Rick and Scott what they would do with my collection of U. S. coins collected in the 1960′s and 1970′s. They said they would likely sell them to a coin dealer if I died. Knowing that they would likely get raped of any profit I decided to try and sell some of them mayself on eBay. That was my first attempt at Internet selling. Holy mackeral! The profits were amazing. Of course you have to realize that almost 50 years had gone by since I started purchasing the coins, so we are talking about selling coins that I purchased from 30 to 50 years ago. Still the profits far outweight most other investments.
I was fortunate in that we had a coin dealer near my home back then – and he gave me some great advise. He told me to try and buy as many rolls of pre 1964 silver coins as possible, he said to buy the best I could afford, what they call “BU” meaning “Brilliant Uncirculated coins” coins that have never been circulated for use, just as they came out of the mint -then put them away in my safety deposit box for 2o or more years.
Sally, my bride then and now (we have been married as of now for 58 wonderful years) – well Sally was not overly supportive – we had our two boys, just young kids, we had our household to support and she was not overly pleased with what she called “Fred’s foolishness!” related to buying coins. Well, I did as the coin dealer advised me to do, with every spare cent I could get, or that we could spare. I had thousands of coins, all silver all pre 1964. Why 1964? Because after that date the U. S. government mints started to eliminate silver in all coinage they minted. U. S. coins now are all just ‘clade’ coins with no silver content.
So why mention this now? Because if I had it to do over and I heard the same thing I would do exactly as I did back then those many years ago. Yes, instead of paying $10 or $20 or $50 dollars for a roll, like I did then, I may have to spend $300 or $500 for a roll. But I would save up and do it!
Tuck em away, if you are still young enough to do so, keep em in a warm safe place, spend a few bucks for a good safe – safety deposit box at a bank. Never keep coins in a damp place as the dampness can distroy the value of your coins quickly with mildew. Then when you get old, need some income, break the rolls down, sell the coins individually – the profits will blow your mind. I will lay bets that you will realize hundreds upon hundreds of percent in profits. Why? they are not making the coins anymore – BUT – they are making a hell of a lot of people. AND among all of those people they are making– is gonna be a lot of new coin collectors, willing and able to pay you a huge profit for those individual coins you are now willing to sell them for mega bucks.
Lets hear from you about this – have you any experience in this, little is needed – love to hear from you about this super fun hobby and method of making money. Uncle Fred
Topics: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
February 27th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Hi Fred,
What do you think about rare gold coins? I was told that rare gold coins are now selling for close to melt value and that they present good buying opportunity. If you bought them, would you hold them for 20 – 30 years or would you sell them, when, and if gold reaches new highs?
Love reading your blog,
Linda
February 27th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Hi Fred,
What do you think about rare gold coins? I was told that rare gold coins are now selling for close to melt value and that they present good buying opportunity. If you bought them, would you hold them for 20 – 30 years or would you sell them, when, and if gold reaches new highs?
Love reading your blog,
Linda
February 27th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Hi Fred,
I’d say no, at least in my case. I have about a zillion pounds of excess pennies, probably worth more in metal value (illegal to melt them, though) than face value, but who wants to count, much less store or carry around a zillion pounds of pennies? About the only other thing in that field I have are some silver dollars and a commemorative complete Kennedy coin set uncirculated in its plastic display case.
But even if I had valuable coins, I wouldn’t want to part with them and if I did, would probably get screwed. Selling or buying stuff on eBay or even at a garage sale has never grabbed me. I’d rather give old stuff away than sell it–much easier that way. (Obviously, I’m not much of a business person.) And I’ve seen precious little on eBay that seems like a good deal.
However, I did look at you store on the site and am amazed at all the items you have listed. How do you find time to do that and where do you get all that stuff? (The item I liked the most was an amber necklace, probably because we once did a story about amber washing up on Danish beaches.)
Blog on! I don’t want that puppy peeing on my keyboard.
Ola
(To those unfamiliar with that name, it’s a common male moniker minted in Norway; a variant of Ole, Olav or Olaf–in case anyone is curious.)
February 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Ola you are gonna have to wait a minute, Linda comes first, after all we have to be gentlemen here.
So my beautiful Linda way on the other side of the country – first I have to ask you a personal question. Are you in any way related to a Marvin Voss? Marvin was my childhood buddy, we lived next door to each other in L. A. from the ages of 8 to 15 or so, a wonderful guy that got lost over the years.
Gold-I am a gold bug now, I would not sell gold in any form, right now you want to keep it and get more – if you can get rare coins, U. S. gold coins, Kruger Rands, etc. at or near the price of melt gold, even at a premium, and I had the extra money, was a lot younger – I would buy.
There are wild tales by many experts that gold in the next five to ten years will go to $1,500 an ounce. I am not sure that is true but, even if half right, it would be the smartest thing a person could do. I consider it zero risk, safe, and extremely smart especially for those of you young enough and that have 20 to 40 years or more of your life to look forward to appreciation.
I would also buy some gold stocks. I think Yamana or is it spelled Yumana Gold one or the other. I have a bunch of shares in my wife’s portfolio and would not sell it for love or money.
The company is not hugely profitable this year – why? Because they just gobbled up three smaller companies and made stock swaps etc. They have huge hunks of land that have huge proven gold protential in there portfolio, the reason they gobbled up NTO. Check on the bulletins of this company, check out those following the company, do your research and you will like the company also.
So – my answer Linda love – is if I was a young lady like yourself, with a good income and assets I would buy gold, I would buy the coins first, try and buy the best you can what they call BU Brilliant Uncirculated if you can. I would not buy bars of gold, besides the coins I would buy stock in good solid companies like mentioned above.
Thanks Linda for joining me at my Chipping BLOG, love having you aboard.
Now to Ola-
For those that don’t know, Ola is another former Chipping from the rough – subscriber like Linda above, so I know them well. Ola, your problem is motovation, you are comfortable, so you do not have the proper motovation to make bucks.
By the way that amber necklace in my ebay store -costumejewelryetc – (gotta put in a commercial here) is a beauty. I have a super supplier of those precious stone necklaces that I am keeping mum about. Selling way under $10 buck each I gotta protect my source.
Ola, you have done it mostly wrong in investing in coins. First off, pennies were dumb, especially if they are just Lincoln cents, I have a few rolls but not much, for several reasons. One they are too darn bulky to store and put out by the mint in the billions. Now if you had collected the U. S. large cents of the mid 1880′s that would have been a horse of a different matter.
If you will note from my original comments in starting this BLOG, the old coin dealer that helped em told me to buy only pre 1964 silver rolls and buy them in gem BU (Brilliant Un-circulated condition) that is what I did. I invested almost $10,000 in 1960 money back then. Sally my now bride of 58 years was not pleased back in those days as we had the kids to raise, a big house and pool, several cars, a lot of expenses. Anyway, it was the smartest thing I ever did. I have in some cases sold one coin of a roll of Mercury silver dimes for the amount I paid for an entire roll of 50 coins. Yes, it is fifty years.
Selling on eBay takes time, but is highly profitable. You first have to take excellent pictures of both sides of a high value coin. Then you have to compose a good sell. I try to be completely honest, if a coin has a tiny flaw I say that it has and where. By doing that you build a list of buyers that follow you, when I list a good Morgan or Peace dollar they are quick to bid.
Also you really need to set up an eBay store, I have found that often a coin, a piece of nice jewelry will not sell in a weeks eBay auction it is too fast. So– I research the item, what other stores are selling it for, what the ending bids amounted too — then set a “buy it now” price on it, no bidding. I have often sold coins and jewelry at far more than the auction prices. Having an eBay store gives buyers time to look, write you for questions,- then buy. A store on eBay is a must if you have more than just a few items to sell.
The reason I started my costume jewelry store on eBay is because my collecting coins are running out, I will bet that if I evaluated my returns whenever I finish selling all of my collected coins the return will average about $50,000 on the $10,000 maybe much more.
I will soon start selling off a buddy’s collection, he has more than I did. I will receive 30% as my share for doing the photo work, listing and auctions, or selling stuff in my eBay store, the book work and shipping he will sit back and get a weekly check. Another friend heard about it an wants me to sell his coins, and a lady down the block wants me to sell off a bunch of costume jewelry she has purchase over the past fifty years. She says that at her age, she has given her kids and grandkids all they wanted and the rest will likely be trashed when she dies so wants me to see what cash I can get for her. Looking at her stuff she will get a few hundred dollars with ease from her 70% of the porfits – so it looks like I do not have to worry about my coins running out as I can just convert to selling stuff for other buddies and folks.
Yes, it is time consuming, but what the heck at 78 I can’t travel much, athletics are out. I hate sitting on my duff just reading. Love business so selling on eBay my stuff or others is a ball, love it.
Anyway, gotta run Ola, be a good boy and comment all you want, love hearing from you. I think I told you my Old Danish Dad was always pissed at you Norwegians, figured you should still be Danish like you were a few hundred years ago. Be good – Uncle Fred
February 27th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Fred, the reason I “collect” pennies is not for their value, but exactly the opposite. They mount up unused so I toss them in whatever huge jars and other containers happen to be nearby. No idea what else to do with them except perhaps sprinkle them on my driveway gravel to brighten it up, but that would be tacky.
Going off topic: as for eBay, it’s not lack of motivation that deters me selling stuff there, but because I completely lack the marketing gene. I don’t mind making money, though, and do enjoy playing with stocks that have done very well over the years.
I’d love to buy one of those amber necklaces from you for my wife’s birthday coming up in mid-March, but do not have a PayPal account, having canceled the one I have over a dispute in which they exhibited the worst customer relations and time consuming lack of communications I have ever experienced. (I won in the end–long story–but the event just pissed me off so much that I told them to bug off and leave my bank account alone.)
As for your Old Danish Dad being pissed at the Norwegians, my Old Norwegian Mom, and all of my family that are still in Norway truly love the Danes. Maybe because the written “gammel norsk” not “ny norsk” language is so close, maybe because the Norskies were tough enough to get out from under their thrall–even though King Haakon, the first Norwegian king after independence in 1904 var Dansk oppringelig.
The Norwegians, however, are mightily pissed off at the Swedes for their neutrality in WWII and cooperation with the Nazis (forgetting that they also cooperated with Norwegian refugees and resistance fighters).
So it goes. Politics as usual. As for present events, (Republicans aren’t even on the map as far as I’m concerned) Hillary lost my support in part because of her vote to invade Iran which Obama opposed. IMHO, he is a man of honor and true to his word; the best hope, I believe, for a brighter future that will somehow restore honor to our country after eight destructive years wrought by GWB et al.
But we won’t know until after election night in Nov.
How about starting a topic on the economy: inflation, housing and credit woes, consumers on the sidelines = the stagflation of the 70′s. I’m not spending any of the money the idiotic Bush administration is sending us. I’m adding it to my savings account. What a asinine way to try to revive the economy. We’re in “deep do-do,” as the elder Bush once commented.
Guess I’ve veered off the Coins as Collectibles topic enough for now. Sorry about that.
Ha en hyggelig kveld,
Ola