Do you know the worth of your collection?

[panzerman]

I collect coins for the the joy of the hobby and the history behind each piece. I find it sad that the market values are insane.

🤐

Back to topic/ A haven't the foggiest what my collection would be worth/ to me its not important/ but I do want to keep on collecting for many more great years. Coin collecting = happiness+ sense of goals to aspire too+ knowledge and researching your treasures+  is healthy since it brings so much pleasure.

My other interest is this....

[kapphnwn]

Do I know the worth of my collection. Actually no. I have slightly less than  600 Greek and Roman coins.  Both groups are roughly the same size with the Greek being slightly less numerous than the Roman. Looking at my collection I would suspect that about  25% of the value of my collection is in 25 coins. That being said, trying to make an assessment of value in the current very volatile market is risky at best. At the moment my most likely course of action is to put my collection in an auction and as I have said numerous times before. AUCTIONS ARE CRAP SHOOTS. You roll them bones and sometimes you get snake eyes. A case in point. 

This is a screenshot of one of my coins sold in a recent CNG E Auction. I had valued this coin at $200. In this auction the estimate was $100 and the coin hammered for $150 ++ Okay great. Coin did not perform all that well but did okay. However this auction was the second time this coin was offered by CNG. In that auction it was estimated at $150 and got no bids. Thus had someone bid on this coin in the last few minutes of that auction he would have got the coin for $90. I am assuming that no one bit that time assuming that the coin would reappear at a $100 estimate. Thus they had a chance to get it at $60. It didn't work out if that was their plan. So in closing I have only the most general sense of the worth of the collection. 

 

[Finn235]

If my wife asks - they were all free!

If the tax man asks, I paid $1,000 each and lost substantially on the sales.

Really though, I don't think my collection's value could be determined except through a sale - probably 60% of my Roman coins and 90% of my Greek coins (wherein at least 80% of the value lies) were bought as group lots, which have been partially sold already, either at a profit or loss. I could, through great pain, try to figure out the sum of what I paid, less the dollar figure of my net income from sales after fees, shipping, taxes etc etc.

On one extreme - I was able to make a profit while keeping these coins, so it was like I was paid to take them?

 

On the other extreme, I grossly over estimated both the average condition of the coins in this lot, as well as my ability as a sub-1,000 feedback seller on ebay to not get taken to the cleaners. Each of these "cost" me something like $200 - which of course none of these would sell for much above $50 if I were to sell them.

[red_spork]

I have a very good idea of what I paid and a rough idea of the value if I were to sell the coins in my collection today at the kind of auctions I normally attend. but as has been pointed out, auctions are highly variable, as evidenced by many of the coins in my collection that were bought for less than they'd previously sold for or in some cases quite a bit more than they'd previously sold for. One thing I have no idea of that will severely affect things is who will be in the market when I go to sell. For instance this victoriatus is exceedingly rare, a single die variety of the Q victoriatus with a Q on the shield and only the second die known of the thousands of dies cut for victoriati with a letter on the shield(the other one known only in a single example). I have no idea how many collectors care but in my experience, having collected victoriati for quite a while now, I could see this coin go anywhere from $500-$5000 depending on who is at the auction. I know several collectors who care but on any given day any one of them may be on a buying hiatus and any of them could decide tomorrow they're bored collecting coins and will no longer be buying. Alternatively a hoard could pop up tomorrow with 20 examples of this die and variety and satiate most of the collectors who care about owning the type.

 

As a specialist I've got a lotta coins like this, maybe as much as a fifth of my collection. I have no idea what they'd hammer for and I hope I don't have to find out any time soon.

[JayAg47]

57 minutes ago, red_spork said:

I have a very good idea of what I paid and a rough idea of the value if I were to sell the coins in my collection today at the kind of auctions I normally attend. but as has been pointed out, auctions are highly variable, as evidenced by many of the coins in my collection that were bought for less than they'd previously sold for or in some cases quite a bit more than they'd previously sold for. One thing I have no idea of that will severely affect things is who will be in the market when I go to sell. For instance this victoriatus is exceedingly rare, a single die variety of the Q victoriatus with a Q on the shield and only the second die known of the thousands of dies cut for victoriati with a letter on the shield(the other one known only in a single example). I have no idea how many collectors care but in my experience, having collected victoriati for quite a while now, I could see this coin go anywhere from $500-$5000 depending on who is at the auction. I know several collectors who care but on any given day any one of them may be on a buying hiatus and any of them could decide tomorrow they're bored collecting coins and will no longer be buying. Alternatively a hoard could pop up tomorrow with 20 examples of this die and variety and satiate most of the collectors who care about owning the type.

 

As a specialist I've got a lotta coins like this, maybe as much as a fifth of my collection. I have no idea what they'd hammer for and I hope I don't have to find out any time soon.

If I posses an extremely niche coin that also cost so much, I wouldn't leave to some mainstream auctions. I'd rather contact actual big names like Aaron Berk or the likes for their opinion and try to sell it to them. Of course I don't have any experience selling any ancient coins, let alone consigning to big names, but just my 2 cents. 

[AETHER]

My collection is nothing to look it, but it means the world to me. I don't know what it's worth.