I buy quite a lot on the Bay and have been amazed at the deals I have picked up. Even nice CAC coins below CDN Bid - Dollars, Commems, Walkers. Perhaps the other bidders are broke. Do you think this is due to weakness in numismatic coins or the overall market in general? I know bullion is hot but I believe bids for other material is static. Occassionally I will retail a nice coin on the Bay and do well but this is variable. Its like there are pockets of people who will pay the money amid the sea of those who are broke or just buying to flip it. Then when I see big name national dealers advertising coins in publications at bid + 40% I wonder where they are finding these people to pay this. Certainly they must be with what they are paying for their ads. Your take on this?
Sometimes you can get great deals. Same goes for selling. Sometimes I sell for way over what it's worth. Sometimes people don't bid and I get ripped off. I sold a Morgan for nine bucks, including shipping. I also sold a silver Roosevelt dime for twelve bucks. I've seen the exact same coin on ebay, one listed right below the other. One with no bids, and the other with many bids and way over what it's worth.
I agree, you can get some GREAT picks on Ebay!Ive bought countless items at bargain basement prices! my best aquisition was this XF1858-O Seated Liberty! I gave $12 valued at $165 and my coin dealer offered me $90!!I know its holed but the way I see it some kid probally headed off to war gave this to his sweetheart! You never know! Of course no sale!
There's something to be said for big shows too. Got a coin that goes for 225+ on eBay for 185 from a dealer at the Whitman show. I have had my share of awesome eBay scores...10 rolls of 90% silver halves for 2/3rds of melt for one...
Actually the summer is notoriously slow on Ebay and has been for years...I expect my Ebay sales to start picking up very soon and I was making very good profit earlier in the year during the recession so I know there is monry out there....it's just not making it to Ebay currently. It's a buyers market right now so don't miss out
I have also found some great deals on EBay lately. But it's usually when a coin is offered in an open auction. Those are getting harder to find. I think most sellers are trying to protect themselves from a loss, because I see more and more coins offered at BIN prices. A good compromise between BIN and open auction is the BIN or best offer option, which I tend to see a lot of these days. Some sellers are really willing to wheel and deal, make them an offer, you might be surprised at how low some of them will go!
I`m into many other hobbies that include various antiques, and although I mainly collect older bullion I do have and follow numismatics to an extent. The feeling going around many of the hobby related clubs and dealers is that there is not enough youth and newer collectors getting into these hobbies at the rates they were in the past. The cold hard truth is this.....There are many elderly collectors who have more money to blow on their hobbies in a week than some of Us have in a year. I have been to some of their houses that are on par with small museums. Think about what will happen when these people pass on and their immense collections slowly get dispersed via different avenues. Without youth, and newer collectors getting into these hobbies it will be the usual suspects (Us) left to carry the load. Eventually without the demand, things are going to drop in price. (economics 101) Throw in a slow economy for good measure as well. I go to some collector related shows and see some of the same things on the tables that I saw 15 years ago for the same price. When I bring this up to some people their reactions are mostly the same...."the market will turn around," or "the stuff don`t sell overnight," or my favorite..."it`s in the book for this." (yeah, and it`s got 15 years worth of dust on it too) From the sound of it, at least their are some people on ebay who are not in denial of the hobby and the current state of the economy, and will sell some stuff at a good price. At least they`re in touch with reality, because there are a boatload of people who are pig-headed and in denial. When I first started out in my hobbies I was fortunate enough to get involved with a few people who were very generous and wanted to promote their hobby. They understood the importance of new collectors. The torch is slowly being passed, and I`m still learning about many things. Now I try to encourage new collectors as well, and I always remember the generosity and outgoing spirit of those who sparked my interest. If We don`t want to see Our hobbies die We need to promote them when We can, however We can. This site is a good tool to encourage and inform new collectors as well.
I am not sure about broke, but I think people are cautious with their money. This combined with the fact that summer is always very slow makes for fewer sales and lower prices. I have been able to pick up some good deals this summer, I was happy I was still buying. It should pick up in the fall.
I never did profit on ebay just on coins, so I branched out. Video games sell great. So does Star Wars and Star Trek stuff. I make much more of a profit from that stuff.
I concur about the BINs being much more predominate these days. Unfortunately, however, the items that I'm interested in, most sellers aren't negotiating. Perhaps they'll go down by 10%, but even at 10% off, they are way over priced. For the specimens I'm interested, they sell for more realistic prices at other venues, and they are true auctions. I see the same stuff rotating over and over again, like haunted carousels. If the items don't move after 10+ rotations, you'd think these folks would figure out their prices are outta whack.
Absolutely noticable! I've been noticing that it's harder and harder to sell tokens. Not a problem tho' as I buy as well so it opens up the market for some really good deals!
It's only worth what someone's willing to pay! The sky has fallen on PF-69 coins! I know I'm stealing this line from somebody else!
They just said on the news that 17% of Americans are currently below the poverty line with more joining the ranks with every month that goes by. That's just about 1 in 5 people in this country. Of the 4 out of 5 that are left, there probably aren't that many who are interested or can afford being in the hobby, unfortunately. In the 1800s, life was pretty simple. There wasn't a whole lot of hobbies available. People just tried to survive and coin collecting was probably one of the few things available for people. Now with technology, there are so many hobbies available to everybody (meaning, different ways for people to spend their money) that everybody's spread out now. People tend to spend on what gets the most advertising. Almost all kids love video games. Some people like antiques. With the internet, people can find whatever they're interested in whereas in the past, people were probably a lot more limited to what was available in their local area. If there wasn't Ebay, prices would probably be sky high. The whole country has to compete now.
