Self-Found means exactly what it says: these coins were found by a collector during a hand coin search. It doesn’t mean you bought them by the dozens from a wholesaler and put them on the sales table with a price-tag. You can produce a Self-Found Lincoln Memorial Full Set in a special album called a “folder”. It does not include the 1960 and 1960d small dates, nor does it include the 1970s small date. That means that you can offer it as a premium, a “value added” to other merchandise, to sweeten the deal. The cost? Time and a few bucks, maybe a total of $5 for the whole set, if self-found. Retail value? If it’s all GEM BU, maybe $9 bucks. $4 profit if you don’t have to take it anywhere or ship it anywhere to sell it. Wow, huh? But there’s a good side to this; it just took me a few minutes, knowing what I was looking for, to figure out a fair retail price for the short set in a paper folder. Most folks would never be able to do this. Paper folder=$2 cost, pennies=$1.40 or so. At a total of $3.50, this is a low-risk item, and makes a great premium to assist the sale of a higher-priced item. Call it a “legacy” item and you’ll make the sale. Don’t sell the coin collection on the basis of value, but of history and legacy — actually, don’t sell the coins at all; give them away with every major purchase, and you’ll see those customers back for more, especially around Christmas and Graduation time!!! Put the same collection in a Dansco album along with the Key coins and you have a $450 retail. I use the folders for inferior coins, and give them away freely.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby