Monday, July 1, 2013

The Truth About Your Own Coin Collection

So when you look at your own coin collection what do you think? Most collectors and hoarders think that their collection is never big enough. They want to go and get more coins, more coins that will complete their collection. But, the truth is their collection will never be big enough or complete in their eyes.
Now if said collector was to hit the lottery and was able to retire and never worry about money again was to collect coins, what do you think they would do? Well, I'll tell you what, the first thing I would do is buy that million dollar coin I want. But then what about afterwards? I know I'm still going to go out and look for more million dollar coins.
By now you're probably thinking what is this jacka$$ rambling on about? Well let me explain, if we was to take a step back and look at our collection we would understand that our collection is never big enough. And that even if we were millionaires we would still never be satisfied with our collections. This is the sign of a true hoarder / collector or whatever you want to call it.
Here is my remedy. Take a week and don't look at any coins, cards, comics or anything you collect. Get away from the city, country, cardboard box or wherever you reside in. If you can't get away focus on something else. Taking time off or slowing down lets you enjoy coin collecting. It also lets you analyze your collection, what direction you want to go in. Or what coins you don't favor anymore and can let go of to fund your purchase in the right direction. Perhaps you want to start a new series of coins to collect? All these are things a collector need to think about.
They say the brain can analyze a hundred things within a minute, though at seven in the morning I feel completely opposite. But back to the point, sometimes its good to slow down and look at your collection. After all if you never look at it and only buy stuff, you're not really enjoying your collection.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Storage, Protection and Ease of Access to your Collection

Yup, this is another post about coin collecting supplies and storage. Its been talked about for ages and a million times but it never gets old. Cardboard flips, mylar holders, airtites... which one to choose? Well none of them are perfect and you're always going to find fault with whichever method you choose. I'm going to narrow it down to the two methods I like the best and analyze them briefly.

Airtites - I finally decided to go this route with my better coins. They offer good protection are not too expensive and are relatively easy to locate. I even bought Airtite tubes to put the holders in so they're not scattered all over the place. Everything was going peachy until I started looking for variations and VAMS. Yes, I know I have a tendency to torture myself. But what I realized was that there was no way I could label them. Which leads me too...

Coin World Slabs - These are square or rather rectangular and they can fit in a box. They come in a variety of sizes and are not terribly expensive. Usually a pack of three runs about a dollar each, but if only I was buying a few and not almost a hundred of these I wouldn't mind using them. The other thing is, how do I label these slabs? I have to spend more money on their labeling software and then again on their custom labels? Sorry but I'd rather spend that money on coins. Also their inert stuffing, okay they call it inserts but I like stuffing, are green. Seriously? Green? Couldn't they make it some manly color like pink... I mean black? I'm not decorating a Christmas tree,

And back to supplies and storage. Another thing I must warn collectors about are safes. I have read far too many collectors asking, "why are my coins changing color" and "what are these white stuff growing on my boxes"? o_O

Make sure your safe is not the fireproof type. Many of these kinds of safe are not suitable for coins. They will tone or damage your coins, also make sure the safe you use is bolted down to something or better yet, hidden away from plain sight. A portable safe is useless if a burglar can carry it away to work on it on his or her spare time.

And lastly, don't worry too much about your coins. Remember, they're only material items that can be replaced if damaged or lost. Although it may cost you, its not the end of the world.