Poll: I don't get it....

Mark wrote:


All of us who collect coins have our favorites. Personally, I like to
collect Morgans by VAMs.

On the other hand, I am sure we all look at some aspect of the hobby,
and say to ourselves, HUH??!! I don't get it!

For example, I just don't get the registry set craze, especially for
modern business issues. Why would you spend the premiums that some folks
spend for a coin just because someone slapped a number on the slab?


What is it that you just don't get??


The preoccupation with slabbing (entombing) of coins

And the ridiculous differences in price between some of the grades.

ome of the grades you cannot really tell the difference with the naked
eye and yet the price differential can be $1,000's

Colin Kynoch

Mark wrote:


All of us who collect coins have our favorites. Personally, I like to
collect Morgans by VAMs.

VAMs are one thing I don't get.
Actually I don't get collecting any coin group by minor varieties
such as die marriages in early cents and half cents. Don't understand that
fascination at all. I accept it but don't understand it.

I used to just shake my head at collectors who collected commemoratives.
Commemoratives for gods sake! They are not actually coins anyway!
Well my collecting habits have evolved over the years and I now get that.
I collect commemoratives.

I don't get why common coins will often sell on eBay for considerably higher
prices than I give at coin shops
or by mail order or at shows. It is fascinating to me how eBay is a market
unto itself sometimes.
I don't get modern condition rarities, slabbed coins or registry sets.

I do get collecting moderns, foreign, tokens, medals, paper money, errors,
type,
date mintmark sets, year sets, commemoratives, ancients.

I wish I was rich enough to get collecting gold but I just don't get that
:-)

Dale

Mark wrote:

... What is it that you just don't get??

Why the vending machine industry, in particular, appears to have
forsaken dollar coins!!??!!

(Apologies for the numismatic theme-buster, I really did enjoy the other
posts!)

--Dave

"Mark" wrote in message
...

All of us who collect coins have our favorites. Personally, I like to
collect Morgans by VAMs.

On the other hand, I am sure we all look at some aspect of the hobby,
and say to ourselves, HUH??!! I don't get it!

For example, I just don't get the registry set craze, especially for
modern business issues. Why would you spend the premiums that some folks
spend for a coin just because someone slapped a number on the slab?


What is it that you just don't get??



Mark

There are people who collect different early barbed wire too.
How about seeds, matchbooks, coffee mugs, little decorative shoes, perfume
bottles, horseshoes, discontinued candy bars, twine (I actually saw a guy
with a 12 ft. ball), potato chips shaped like famous people and objects,
roller skate keys, marbles (this one guy had his whole house just covered
with marbles), license plates, hail stones, gall stones, kidney stones,
pickeled frogs, insects, tree leaves, cactus, old coffee cans, old cigars,
hats, Dale Earnhardt (Jr. and Sr.), old wedding dresses, Disney animation
cells, ashtrays, christmas tree ornaments, pens, rocks, milk cans, old mason
jars, John Deere junk, Elvis velvet paitings, anything to do with Nazi's,
mass murderers trading cards, Smokey and the Bandit movie memorabilia ( I
swear I know someone), National Enquirer, any kind of baseball junk without
authentication (something like 90% of all that is fake), movies on beta,
8-track tapes and religious artifacts--anyone know where I can buy St.
Micheal's toenail clippings? TIC
Now having a full collection of modern business strikes--now there's a hobby
of Kings!

"Chris S" chris(at)imt.xohost.com wrote in message
...
"Mark" wrote:
What is it that you just don't get??

Purchasing coins based on TV infomercials.

Paying 20%+ of the value of a coin to have it slabbed.

the logic of selling a choice coin, which could easily bring book value from
a collector, to a dealer at 50-75% of book value because the dealer has to
turn it around at a profit.


Slabbing a coin you don't plan to sell right away (except where
verification
of grade or authenticity is a condition subsequent to sale).

paying to slab ANY coin for reason other than authentication


Modern bullion coins.

The market for colored coins.

High-priced errors and varieties.

Keeping duplicates, triplicates, bazillicates, or hoards of any kind.

I often kept multiples of current coins I could get at or near face value
when I was just starting out and quantity meant as much as quality.


Roll collecting.

I have a nearly complete circ & BU roll set of Lincolns back to 1927. Now I
feel compelled to fill in some of the missing key rolls. Don't EVER start
this!


"Eye appeal" as a grading criterion.

I like "eye appeal" as a purchasing criterion.

Bruce

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 17:26:50 -0600, Mark wrote:


All of us who collect coins have our favorites. Personally, I like to
collect Morgans by VAMs.

On the other hand, I am sure we all look at some aspect of the hobby,
and say to ourselves, HUH??!! I don't get it!

For example, I just don't get the registry set craze, especially for
modern business issues. Why would you spend the premiums that some folks
spend for a coin just because someone slapped a number on the slab?


What is it that you just don't get??



Mark

I dont get the registry set craze either. To me its just some people
with alot of extra money and trying to outdo each other. But hey in a
weird sort of way it helps to keep the coin market "hot".....

Gary

"Bruce Remick" wrote:
I like "eye appeal" as a purchasing criterion.

I absolutely agree! It "get it" as a purchasing criterion, but not as an
independent grading criterion. What is eye appeal, other than the aggregate
of luster, color, strike, and surface preservation? Even the ANA grading
guide calls it "Basically a combination of all the previous factors". If
that's what it is, then why is it considered a grading factor by itself?
Aren't each of the other factors significant only because they affect eye
appeal? I think of eye appeal as the weighting of other grading criteria,
not as a stand-alone criterion.

--Chris




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"Stujoe" wrote in message igy.com...
"Mark" wrote in message
...
I think that's what bothers me about the registry set craze, and I think
it's been said in this group before. People aren't collecting the coins
as much as they're collecting the slabs.

I know not all Registry participants are like that but I also believe that
some are. The registry sets are an interesting idea but the fundamental flaw
of the whole thing is that it takes absolutely no knowledge to have the
'finest set'.

I think the fundamental flaw is elsewhere.

Traditionally, coin and stamp collecting was different from all other
forms of collecting in that only governments could issue coins and
stamps. Unlike a commercial organization, governments would never "go
back" and issue a new run of 1804 Dollars, 3-legged buffalos, or key
date large cents. This isn't necessarily true for collectors of
Coca-Cola cans, Disney merchadise, car models, or Beanie Babies
(ignore for a moment the possibility of a mass "discovery" of hoards
of coins, like what happened with the Morgans).

The Registry set craze isn't about coins, it's about rare plastic,
product of a specific commercial organization. As such, PCGS and NGC
make no guarantees as to how many MS-68 - MS-70 2004 Lincoln cents
will be "produced" in the future. With gradeflation and economic
pressure, it's almost certain to assume that supergrade moderns will
continue to be produced. As such, I view registry sets not as
numismatics but rather as the collection of commercial products - the
"products" of the slabbing companies, thinly veiled as numismatics.

From: Mark

What is it that you just don't get?

1) One pound silver rounds being called "coins"
2) How the shopping on TV coin sellers can sleep nights.

8-]

Coin Saver

1. Wheat pennies
2. Slabbing modern pocket change