How many years of income is your collection worth?

[lighthouse]

I was having a debate yesterday with a buddy of mine over the ridiculous amount of money he spends on his car collection. He tried a number of methods to try to put it into perspective for me. And by the end of it, we were haggling over years of income as a measure.

 

Talking about this guy having a $10K coin collection or that guy having a $200K collection tells you nothing about whether they are wasting money on coins. Or for that matter whether they have invested very wisely and their collection is out-appreciating their lifestyle.

 

So I thought I would open it up. Ballpark the value of your collection, and divide it by what you make in a typical year. What do you get?

 

As an example, if you make $40K a year and your collection is worth about $10K, that's about 3 months worth.... I started this poll down in the Comics area and the results have been a bit surprising. I am curious how different things will be here.

[astrostu]

If I had more money, I'd spend so much more on coins ...

[Gold1-migration]

I am disabled but if I were to tally up the total value of My collection, I could buy 2 of the duplex's We live in now! Thanks to My Dad, God Rest His Soul!!

[bsshog40]

You Know it!!!

[rons]

Yep, Dad helped me out too. Surprisingly my Mom did also. They divorced early on but wound up collecting many of the same types of coins.

[just-john]

I checked 3 to 5 yrs because i only make about $2500.00 per year yup 25 hundred a yr

[Lem]

I would have to say less than a years income, but in my defense, I'm new to the coin world. On the other hand at the rate I'm buy coins I may be divorced by the end of the year!!!

[physics-fan3.14]

This measurement is very sensitive to the length of time you have been collecting. If you've been collecting for a year or two, I wouldn't expect you to have more than a small fraction. But if you've been collecting for 10 years, or 30 years, or longer, then I would expect the fractions could get rather high. Also, if you are good you can buy things at a discount, cherry pick, or buy sleepers or during a bust time. These would all increase your percentage, but not have any bearing on the propriety of the amount spent. As a result, the numbers on the graph from the poll are very close to what I would expect.

[CAP Freak]

3-5 Years

[okbustchaser]

A couple of years, but even then it is worth more then my house.

[Tim's Gems]

My actual collection 1 years worth. My liquid combined, close to three. How much does bullion count?

[James_OldeTowne]

A year or less since I recently sold off a whole lot of stuff. In fact, probably quite a bit less than a year (I'm not rich).

 

Prior, I probably had two years' worth of income tied up in coins!

[Kenneth F]

Same here, I could pay off my house and truck if I sold my collection.