Coins We Love: 🏃Exit Strategy🏃

This week has been a long one already, but quite successful. In the office, we have the current auctions featuring a pair of fascinating collections, including a fantastic Registry Set of Walking Liberty Halves ending on the 27th of February as well as a wide variety of Morgan and Peace Dollars in the Skyline Drive Collection ending this Sunday, the 20th. However, I found myself on the road during the Super Bowl (bad planning on my part) and visiting the Long Beach area Monday-Wednesday. Unfortunately, I had to cut my trip short by a day due to a snowstorm in Denver canceling my flight, but it was just as well so I could get back to the office with our new purchases and consignments. We also had Dale Larsen picking up a collection on the West Coast and John Call making a few rounds in the state of Virginia. Along with Amandeep Jassal in the New York area and our newest addition, we’ll announce next week that roams the Florida area (as well as various regional shows), we’re continuing to expand the DLRC footprint in an effort to better serve collectors across the map of the continental U.S.

While in California this week, I had the opportunity to meet with a few customers that are in the middle of their collecting phases, enjoying the challenges of acquiring pieces that fit their goals. One of the highlights of my trips that are less show-oriented is when I get to speak one-on-one with clients and discuss their viewpoints on the current market and collecting. Their questions and observations are often quite different from what we as dealers see, but it allows us to shift our mindsets a bit to see how we can be of further service. This week’s conversations led us down a path that was a little unexpected, but we ended up discussing the different types of exit strategies for collectors.

Some collectors perform “maintenance” on their collection regularly by selling off their duplicates as they go and not accumulating large quantities of things like proof sets, etc. However, most collectors (like myself!) end up just accumulating more and more items. Thus, when the time comes to move on from the collection, it’s a bit more of a process.

We’ve found that there are at least 4 types of major collection exit strategies that we encounter the most:

-Build to Complete a Set (and then sell and move to the next set!)

-Long-Term Enjoyment (Collectors that collect and sell when the time comes to retire from the hobby)

-Legacy Collector (Building with a family member or friend to pass the collection to them)

-Collecting for Investment (Long-Term Strategy)

These are all fantastic reasons for collecting and one is not more valid than the other. It’s purely a personal choice and it’s part of what makes the hobby interesting for each of us. However, when the time does come to retire from collecting or to clean out your safe and/or safety deposit box, the method of how you put together the collection can often come into play. While you’re building the collection, every coin dealer would like you to buy coins from them and come back again and again over time. What may be more important to know is if your coin dealer is interested in buying or helping you sell your collection once you are ready to let items go.

If they weren’t interested in that part from the beginning, it’s akin to driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Thinking of an exit or selling strategy for coin collections is often put off until the time comes and that’s a dangerous mindset. The relationships you build while collecting can be as important as some of the pieces in the collection. As they come into play during all phases of your collecting, it’s an important concept to keep in mind. At DLRC, we’re here to serve you, no matter your phase or style of collecting. Ultimately, the decision is always yours as to how you prefer to collect, but our goal is to provide you with every single option from the beginning of your journey to the end. That’s the main reason we do what we do…to share the journey with you and to be your Partners in Collecting.

Thanks again for following this week’s ramblings and we hope that you enjoy some of the highlights mentioned below. Thanks again for your loyalty, friendship, and business!

Numismatically Yours,

John Brush and Your Friends at DLRC

Click here to continue reading!