Regarding possessional "attachment" to our collection

[Tozer]

Hello all,

I would like to get a fresh perspective on our attachment to our collection. I've been collecting world gold for a few years now and have quite a large collection. I started as a stacker, but after taking an interest in LMU's, it morphed into a something that border lined an obsession. I also had the idea that this was part of my pension and the plan is (was) to keep the collection until my retirement years.

I'm getting a new business of buying and selling men's large chunky gold jewelry and have learned quickly that there's really good profit to be made. So, I've been toying with the idea of letting my collection go in order to fund a large inventory of gold stuff to resell. I have an interested buyer in my collection. As I was sorting and photographing it today, I noticed how "attached" I feel to the collection, and now I'm getting cold feet. It represents a lot of hours finding these coins, and there is a joy in the "possessing" of it. Now I'm questioning the wisdom of buying stuff that is difficult to part with...after all, we can't take it with us. It kind of defeats the purpose of holding it until retirement if I won't let it go at that time. A friend of mine runs an auction house, and I see what happens to possessions that we can't take with us that one's family doesn't want to deal with. 

So the question is, how do you separate feelings and possessiveness over your collection?  

Thanks!

[Petra]

7 minutes ago, Tozer said:

Hello all,

I would like to get a fresh perspective on our attachment to our collection. I've been collecting world gold for a few years now and have quite a large collection. I started as a stacker, but after taking an interest in LMU's, it morphed into a something that border lined an obsession. I also had the idea that this was part of my pension and the plan is (was) to keep the collection until my retirement years.

I'm getting a new business of buying and selling men's large chunky gold jewelry and have learned quickly that there's really good profit to be made. So, I've been toying with the idea of letting my collection go in order to fund a large inventory of gold stuff to resell. I have an interested buyer in my collection. As I was sorting and photographing it today, I noticed how "attached" I feel to the collection, and now I'm getting cold feet. It represents a lot of hours finding these coins, and there is a joy in the "possessing" of it. Now I'm questioning the wisdom of buying stuff that is difficult to part with...after all, we can't take it with us. It kind of defeats the purpose of holding it until retirement if I won't let it go at that time. A friend of mine runs an auction house, and I see what happens to possessions that we can't take with us that one's family doesn't want to deal with. 

So the question is, how do you separate feelings and possessiveness over your collection?  

Thanks!

Trouble is that a lot of things you (and your other half) have may mean nothing to other family members. So my concern is over some of the really small items I have left, not the larger more expensive items. Unfortunately that’s why you sit in an auction thinking why are they getting rid of that’ etc. 

if you have a large collection then maybe you don’t need to sell everything, just get started and build up your business?

[James32]

Plan for the house to be free one afternoon, sit everything out on the dining table and start with a simple rule.

I can only keep the ten or twenty most liked sentimental things in this collection, I guarantee you will see items you will happily let go off.

You will even see items you have very little recollection of buying,so should be easy to let go off those.

The most important thing I'd recommend is to photograph everything for future trips down memory lane, I've had this coin type thing.

If getting this far has opened up a important/viable opportunity to improve you and your family life ( only you can decide that) then go for it!

Otherwise the opportunity will pass and yes the collection remains, but what do you think happens to it when it gets passed down?

[AppleZippoandMetronome]

Its all about perspective and what matters more to you at any given point in time. I think with any valuable collections its best to keep the perspective that its there as a long term store of value but equally its very useful to have should something come up and you need to release the funds. If you have a use for that value which will move you forward in life then in many ways its lucky you have that collection you can use to fund that instead of having to go into debt as many might.

One of the first things I collected when I was younger was sports cards - hockey mainly but baseball as well. I had an extensive collection that I spent a rediculous amount of hours chasing down, organizing, documenting, etc. However once I got into my early 20s and wanted to better myself - training, moving away from where I was, getting mobile, etc - the entire collection went without hesitation. At that point in my life moving my life forward was more important to me than those physical objects and I was extremely grateful that I had them to draw on in that way.

I think in reality when it comes to physical posessions there really are very few that actually matter. If you can liquidate your collection and use the funds to better yourself in business, later on down the line that may afford you a more comfortable lifestyle where you can pursue the things that really matter to you.

[Gordy]

47 minutes ago, Tozer said:

Hello all,

I would like to get a fresh perspective on our attachment to our collection. I've been collecting world gold for a few years now and have quite a large collection. I started as a stacker, but after taking an interest in LMU's, it morphed into a something that border lined an obsession. I also had the idea that this was part of my pension and the plan is (was) to keep the collection until my retirement years.

I'm getting a new business of buying and selling men's large chunky gold jewelry and have learned quickly that there's really good profit to be made. So, I've been toying with the idea of letting my collection go in order to fund a large inventory of gold stuff to resell. I have an interested buyer in my collection. As I was sorting and photographing it today, I noticed how "attached" I feel to the collection, and now I'm getting cold feet. It represents a lot of hours finding these coins, and there is a joy in the "possessing" of it. Now I'm questioning the wisdom of buying stuff that is difficult to part with...after all, we can't take it with us. It kind of defeats the purpose of holding it until retirement if I won't let it go at that time. A friend of mine runs an auction house, and I see what happens to possessions that we can't take with us that one's family doesn't want to deal with. 

So the question is, how do you separate feelings and possessiveness over your collection?  

Thanks!

Sadly for most of us you can't, its so hard to part with certain coins

I just got a 3g gold panda through today and i got it at below spot and should sell it now but for the life of me, my mind is arguing with itself and i'm torn, the gold pandas are amazing and i dont want to part with it but common sense says i should

[FlorinCollector]

29 minutes ago, James32 said:

Plan for the house to be free one afternoon, sit everything out on the dining table and start with a simple rule.

I can only keep the ten or twenty most liked sentimental things in this collection, I guarantee you will see items you will happily let go off.

You will even see items you have very little recollection of buying,so should be easy to let go off those.

The most important thing I'd recommend is to photograph everything for future trips down memory lane, I've had this coin type thing.

If getting this far has opened up a important/viable opportunity to improve you and your family life ( only you can decide that) then go for it!

Otherwise the opportunity will pass and yes the collection remains, but what do you think happens to it when it gets passed down?

Best advice here. Done this about 1 month ago to set my main collection at 10 pieces. When a new one comes in one goes out. 
 

I thought I wanted to keep them all but when laid out and to keep only 10 some were easy to let go of.

Edited March 9, 2022 by FlorinCollector

[SidS]

I can give a bit of perspective on this one.

First, I have collected both gold and silver in the past. The silver I kept, the gold I sold off entirely.

I had a number of sovereigns, half sovereigns and some half guineas. Some I was quite attached to and liked, particularly my 1688, 1769 half guineas, my 1912 half sovereign (my first gold coin) and my 1889 sovereign. Bought them between 1994 and 2003, so as you can imagine gold was trading at $250-$350 an ounce (Brown's bottom). All bought dirt cheap compared to today's prices.

Then the gold price shot up on the way to what was the ATH in 2011, I bailed out of gold in 2009-2010 and cashed in very well, but below the high. I don't regret that at all, missing the 2011 high and all, I did okay. But imagine where I'd be sat now if I still had it? Much better still.

I do miss the coins I mentioned above, the rest I was happy to part with and have no regrets from a sentimental point of view.

The silver I kept and have added to over the years - I wish I'd stuck with gold to be honest and ditched the silver in 2010, but alas hindsight.

So you can regret it both ways, parting and wishing you hadn't, but also not parting and wishing you had. Silver bought at $5-$25 an ounce, I could have cashed in at $30-$40 an ounce and put it into gold. But the silver is still here and bubbling along, not exactly in the red, but not exactly exciting.

[Tozer]

These are all great (and meaningful) replies and I appreciate them all. Thank you. It's an empty house today, so I'm going to lay them out and have a proper analysis.

[Gordy]

2 minutes ago, Tozer said:

These are all great (and meaningful) replies and I appreciate them all. Thank you. It's an empty house today, so I'm going to lay them out and have a proper analysis.

i just did that last sunday..... its therapeutic 😂

[TeaTime]

My mind tells me that all of my collection of little round bits of metal is for wealth preservation. When i think of selling any of it my heart screams at me that i am an unfeeling philistine. 

But that's the difference between stacking and collecting i suppose.

 

 

[SovereignBishop]

I love my coins but when I have enough saved to put a large deposit down on a second home. It will go.

similarly if I ever needed some cash I would do what James said and sell my least favourite bits.

always the worry though that I would buy coins again at higher prices in the future but for now, I have managed to save more than I ever did in a savings account.

 

[sovereignsteve]

I find I enjoy the searching to complete a set or series, date etc more than actually owning them.

Once it's complete, I put them aside and find I rarely look at them again.

I have completed several smallish, specific sovereign series and then sold them. I don't regret it.

The only rule I have is if I sell something I seriously consider buying something else. I find I usually do so, even if it's just a bit of bullion.

[Bigmarc]

Personally I would mentally treat it as a loan to yourself as you have found a fresh passion with the potential of creating a larger future collection of what ever direction you wish to go. 

I have done this a couple of times and granted not to your level of a collection but all with the view of turning it into a larger stack. My last big sell off was where I wanted to raise a large sum for a new laser machine (Etsy seller). I had replaced what I had sold within a year.

Edit.. wasn't my last big sell off, I raised some cash to go into the crypto market, currently 60% down, just thought I would add as a matter of Ballance 😁

Edited March 9, 2022 by Bigmarc
Hadn't finished

[Stuntman]

Most of the physical PM coins and bars that I have are part of my collection as opposed to part of my stack, so I'm thinking of it far more in terms of a long term store of value rather than something to turn into cash in the short to medium term.  My next of kin can do what they like with it if I still own some or all of it when I depart this earth.

If push came to shove, I would limit things down to something like 5 pieces of silver, 4 pieces of platinum and 10 pieces of gold.  The other 80-ish pieces would go, but only if I really needed the money.

[Paul]

If you have the mindset your stack is always available for sale, at the right price you can sneak good profits along the way. Buy the best value deal when you have spare cash. You see you can realise a bit profit move it on. Provided you keep trading in and out you're always going forward. Rather than buying a monster box of maples waiting for them to go to £50oz  (which I have done to ) 

[adamantio999]

Very interesting discussion.

14 hours ago, Tozer said:

So the question is, how do you separate feelings and possessiveness over your collection?  

I don't separate them. My possessiveness and my discipline was wat kept me in check from liquidating my collection.

This was before losing everything on the boat accident. Now I own nothing.

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by adamantio999
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