Last night, I purged my image archives, deleting images of coins I USED to own

[James_OldeTowne]

It's been my habit to keep images "forever" of coins I used to own. Recently, I've realized that I never go back and look at such images. After all, if I "used to own" the coin -- in other words, I've sold it -- then it must not have been something I couldn't live without anyway. So, I cleared up some 30 Gigabytes of storage on my computer by getting rid of all such images. I removed them from my backups, too, so there's no going back!

 

It was a liberating experience. It's kind of like stripping all the "noise" from your core coin collection, allowing more light to shine on the centerpieces. I should simply focus on coins I own now, and enjoy them in-hand, rather than reminiscing about things I used to own. No more pack-rat saving of image archives for me!

 

Looking at pictures of coins, no matter how good the image quality, doesn't even remotely compare to looking at actual coins. Indeed, anymore, I consider it more a distraction than anything else. Our reliance on internet and images does have a way of detracting from the overall coin collecting experience.

[kryptonitecomics]

Several months back my computer took a nose dive on me and my brother restored my pc which at the time meant that all of my images were lost. My other brother had a program that was able to recover about 90% of what I lost and I am glad. I find the old images are quite useful when posting to the forums where someone might want to see an example of a certain type of toning or maybe they have picked up a coin I used to own and I can post my images of the same coin.

 

I guess I treasure the images just as I would treasure family photo's as these coins were part of my coin family at one time and in most cases...when I sold off a collection is was not by choice but rather necessity or divorce etc. I probably have around 200 gb of images and I even save the images of the coins I sell on Ebay....

[physics-fan3.14]

I keep some of my old images - the particularly special coins, or those that are hard to find, I will keep. My collection is nowhere near the size of y'alls, however.

[Dcoin]

Why get rid of them? For 50$ you can get 500mb of space on an external hard-drive.

 

I know how invaluable resources like Heritage archives have been to me, in a way you were building your own archives.

 

Its not about living in the past its about preparing for future purchases.

 

[robec1347]

I'm with Dave. It wouldn't cost that much for a dedicated archival HD. Old images are great learning tools. You may not still own the coins, but unless you've given up your rights to the images, they are still yours.

 

Besides you never know when there's a doctor in the house and you'll need an image of yours to compare with another.

 

[Coindude]

Wow Bob, is that what the coin looks like now? Wonder what they used.

[robec1347]

Wow Bob, is that what the coin looks like now? Wonder what they used.

 

Not to hijack the thread. I was just illustrating reasons not to delete old images.

 

I love the look of the TrueView image. The bottom image is how it looks now. Believe it or not, this coin (not mine) upgraded from PR65BN in the top image to PR67BN in the bottom image. I don't believe the current owner ever saw it prior to it being a 67. It is a remarkable coin, but I have no idea who was responsible or what was done.

[bsshog40]

I keep some of my older pics of coins that I had to sell for reasons just to remind me which ones I'd like to replace one day.

[James_OldeTowne]

Disk space wasn't my reason for deleting all the old image files. With about 2 Terabytes, I'm not starved for storage . I just felt like old images are old baggage. I'm only looking forward from now on.

[Walkerfan]

Disk space wasn't my reason for deleting all the old image files. With about 2 Terabytes, I'm not starved for storage . I just felt like old images are old baggage. I'm only looking forward from now on.

 

Besides that's what the NGC Collection Manager is for. You could always keep a record of them in there....even if they are SOLD coins.

[braddick]

Keeping photos of coins you used to own is akin to keeping pictures of ex-girlfriends in your wallet when you're married.

 

Either scenario feels like you're cheating (on the current wife or current coins.)

[HiHoAudio]

I become quite attached to my coins and loathe selling any of them but sometimes it is necessary to afford new additions. However if I have taken a decent photo of the coin then I can always admire and enjoy it even if it no longer lives in my safe deposit box.

 

Then again all of my photos maybe take up 10gB of space, not 30 or (HOLY COW!) 200gB. I am a lightweight...