When assembling a collection, timing is truly everything. This goes for when you are in the process of adding to the collection or when you are disassembling it. In this article, I’ll explain how timing will, no doubt, affect you in the assembling of your set. I can’t count the number of times I have said to collectors that their holdings need to be looked at as a long-term endeavor.

was recently asked a few interesting questions by a reader and thought it might be interesting to answer them. In no order, here they are: Q: In auction catalog descriptions, are there certain giveaways that lead you to think the cataloger doesn’t like the coin? A: A good auction cataloger is like a good journalist: impartial and able to state facts without imposing personal prejudices.

I recently returned from Dallas where I was viewing auction lots for Heritage’s August Signature Sale. Heritage never seems to run out of coins to sell and, as usual, their catalogs were massive. In fact, I am thinking of charging them for a chiropractic visit as a result of a throbbing shoulder courtesy of having to schlep the catalogs through DFW and Portland airports in my now-deformed briefcase.

Coin World Trends lists prices for every Uncirculated grade between MS60 and MS65 with the exception of MS61. So, how does one go about figuring a price for a coin graded MS61 by PCGS or NGC? This depends on a numbers of factors: what is the price differential between MS60 and MS62? How rare is the coin in MS61 and in the grades above this? How strong a level of demand is there for the specific date in this grade?

If you only attend one coin show per year, the summer ANA is probably the biggest bang for your buck. Every major dealer in the United States attends this show as well as leading dealers from Europe, Japan and Latin America. The fact that this year’s edition is in the great city of Denver (which is generally a nice spot to be in mid-August) makes the 2006 convention a must-attend for the collector.

There are three Baltimore coin shows held each year. It is a general consensus that, of the three, the summer edition is, by far, the least active. This year’s summer Baltimore show held true to form and, was for the most part, sparsely attended and void of much activity. To be honest, the only reason I went to this show was the fact that I was very low on inventory and hoped to buy a few new pieces.