"P.Nichols" wrote in message
om...
I realize many people consider coins a bad investment, and that many
of you here are into the hobby of coin collecting more than the
business of it.

I was told 2 years ago, "Don't invest in coins, they are not a good
investment". But I read some books and did some research and decided
that it made more sense to buy coins than it did to invest in stocks
or bonds.

Once you win an auction for a coin where can it go in value in the short
run? Nowhere really--prob. down.
If you know a lot about the grading system and how each service grades them
maybe you have some that are undergraded. Resubmitting the ones that look
undergraded and hoping you get a higher grade can get you a lot more cash in
the short run, but the chances of that happening are probably not very good.



So anyway, I bought about $4k worth of coins from ebay, mostly Morgan
dollars, a couple gold coins, mostly PCGS or NGC graded coins, a few
graded by other certification co's.

But here's the rub: according to recent price lists, my coins have
almost all gone up in value and are now worth about $6k as opposed to
the $4k I paid for them a year and a half ago.

Will PCGS still be demanding a premium for their opnion in 10 years or not?
Take any of those out of that PCGS slab and go try to sell those. Talk about
a rude awakening.



Now, my questions to you kind folks are these:
1) Have most people made good money on their coins the past year or
so(i.e.; did the market generally rise in silver and gold collectible
coins)? Did I just buy at the right time, or do I have some talent for
buying coins, or did I just get lucky?

Back when gold was about $800 an ounce maybe that was the time to get into
gold.
The economy has to be just a total disaster before gold, silver and coins
become a good investment. Basically a global economic collapse. IOW cash
would have to have almost no value at all and everyone is looking for
something of base value to protect themselves.

2) If the idea is that I want to make money on my coins, should I sell
them now (since the price is up on them) or is it likely to go up even
more, so I should wait?

I made the investment because I am trying to get money together to buy
some property. We are still a ways away from having enough money, so I
could wait if I thought the value of graded MS64 and 65 silver and
gold coins is generally going up. Or I could sell now and put the
money in stocks or an IRA or ???

If you had invested in an indexed stock fund two years ago you would have
made more than 2 grand by now. The average was what--7 or 8 thousand and
it's almost 11 now so.....
Esp. if one of those split just after you bought.
A Fidelity growth mutual fund gets @ 25-35% a year now. Coins won't get that
kind of return only when the econoomy is really really tanking.
Interest rates on loans are at an all time low. Maybe you can get a loan for
a downpayment? I know of some people who did that, bought some land, sold
the land after a short time and still made money.
My number one advice is to get rid of that credit card debt before you do
anything. If you got one anyhow.




Please advise. I realize no one has a crystal ball and so no one can
give a definitive answer. But I am just asking for an "educated guess"
from you people who have been around awhile in the coin game and
probably have some insight into the current and future market of
collectible Morgan dollars and St. Gaudens. For me, making $2k is a
great deal, not a small amount of money, and I just want to keep my
$6k in the place where it is most likely to grow, with not too much
risk. If it goes back down to $4k, that wouldn't be so bad... My
instinct is to cash out the $2k I made by selling some of the coins I
think are least likely to have good increases, and put that $2k into
the coins I think are more likely to increase.

No guts no glory!
People who remained in the stock market after the crash in '87 made their
money back 10 years sooner than people who chickened out and got all "safe"
at about 3% interest.