Survey Results: Do you plan to spend more or less on your coin collection during 2009?

Results from this week's coin survey: Do you plan to spend more or less on your coin collection during 2009?

I plan to spend less.
53 votes (35.1%)

I plan to spend more.
52 votes (34.44%)

I plan to spend the same.
46 votes (30.46%)

I was somewhat surprised to see an almost even split between the three options. There weren't many comments on the survey, but I can think of a few potential factors that could come into play. The slowing economy may be causing some people to curtail spending, causing some to spend less. Poor investment performance may be causing some people to decide to spend more on precious metals or collectibles, which may perform better. Long term collectors who have been through ups and downs may be happy to continue spending the same amount each year.

It would be interesting if there were results available from a similar survey for prior years to see if trends are changing. I'll plan on running the same survey in early 2010 so we can start to have some historical data!

Tags: survey

Comment by Chris Annandale on January 28, 2009 at 10:53pm: I plan to buy copies of every US gold coin I can lay my hands on. I am sure the UHR may have a larger than usual run, but the issue remains whether the Mint can actually deliver on all sales, for several reasons.

Also, if the gold price does go up as some suspect , some orders may go unpaid due to the associated cost. If the storm is perfect, there may be less than folks thought .

Consider this. A lot of people can only buy one or two gold coins a year and I suspect many of those collectors will choose the UHR as this years coin. If this is so, it leaves less buyers for the other gold issues and coupled with a perceived (or real) shortage of gold , the other gold issues may be made or sold in lower than average numbers, making them more collectable.

I for one suspect this will be the last year the Mint produced any gold for some time to come. Those who make it a full time occupation to suppress the price of gold are running out of ammo.

Chris Annandale

Comment by Gary on January 29, 2009 at 4:46pm: As my budget may not be as much as some others here. I plan on spending what I can afford on coins. Which is usually not more than a $1,000 a year. I'm going try and fill some of my key date slots and maybe a gold coin or 2 . The rest will be on my collection I'm trying to build, which is one silver coin for every country.

I'm not much on proofs sets but... Besides the prez dollars, the new lincoln proof sets, and the silver quarter sets I will probably stay away from proof sets. What I might get on the Silver Eagles who knows. I may stay away from that too and buy one for this year later.