If you have been collecting rare coins for more than a few years, there is a good chance that you have “found money” in your holdings. What I mean by this is that there are a number of things that you can do–often with little or no cost–that can significantly improve the appearance and value of your coins. Here are five suggestions: 1. Send Your Coins to CAC.   
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As I write this, there is a real disconnect in the coin market. Simply put, despite what is very probably the worst economic year since the height of the Depression, the coin market remains comparatively vibrant. I think this represents something that many collectors are overlooking: this could be a great opportunity to clean up some of the messes in your collection and come out without taking a nasty financial hit.   
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Coin dealers are lousy economists so I don’t want to waste your time discussing the economic background of the last few days. What I would like to share with you is my take on how it’s impacted my business and what I see are the short term effects of the credit crunch, liquidity crisis, Dow meltdown, etc. on the coin business. My business was screamingly active in July and August.   
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Someone recently asked me a question that I thought was interesting and that merited a detailed response. To paraphrase this question, they basically asked me this: can you tell me some ways that I can improve my collection while spending little or no money? Are there any actual ways that you can make your collection better without dropping a lot of coin (bad pun intended)? I believe that there are and here are a few that came to mind: 1.   
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Assuming you want to sell coins at auction, does it make a difference when you do? In my opinion, timing in the coin market is everything. Here are some tips about when to sell and when not to sell at auction. Traditionally, people have assumed that it made more sense to sell coins at auction during major conventions like FUN or ANA. In the past, this was definitely true.   
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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.   
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