What do DEALERS want to buy?

Other than junk gold and silver for bullion value what do DEALERS want to buy? I was told the best way to find out what something is worth is to try and sell it.

Well I can't sell anything that I bought back in the 70's to dealers. Even the dealer I bought the coins from!!! So I guess my whole hobby is "money down the drain".

While they tell me they DON'T WANT what I have, I cannot get a straight answer from dealers on what they DO WANT to buy. By their reaction to that question, I wonder if they think I am asking because I'm going to pull off a heist and want to know what to steal. Maybe it's some big secret and they don't want to give away FREE investment advice. What I do get is a vague response like:

1) Bring me something I can sell.

2a) I want rare coins. (I brought in 1804 half cent - that's not rare?)
2b) Your half cent is not valuable.(So what is valuable - over $200?)
2c) Over $200 may not be valuable because ........and never finished the sentence.

3) I want high grade coins. (I brought in proof coins from 1940, 1950's and 1960's.)


One dealer but he told me he had a 1909svbd NGC MS 67 Red for $32,500 and 1914D MS 66 for $16,000. Are those good buys? Not that I have that to spend, but is that where the resale for coins is?

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I figure the best way to know what to buy is to first figure out what I can sell.

So what is that?????????????????

 

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Key dates in popular series. I'm sure a dealer would be willing to take the following coins off your hands:

1877 Indian Head Cent
1893 S Morgan Dollar
1909 S VDB Lincoln Cent
1916 Standing Liberty Quarter
1916 D Mercury Dime

They want to sell something they can move quickly, at a profit. Now the trick is to get them to pay you a fair price for those kinds of coins.

 

Are you sure you want to sell to a dealer? Sell directly to a fellow enthusiast if you can - auctions if need be.

 

My advice is try another dealer in another town. At the very least most dealers will buy scrap silver and gold. All the dealers I work with will buy coins such as the ones you are describing.

 

Or sell on eBay. There are plenty of fools (oops, I mean collectors) that will gladly "over pay" for your coins.

 

+1

 

Boy do a bunch of us resemble that remark just paid $83.77 for a fifty cent piece a few minutes ago. Not a key not a high grade but the other guy quit at $82.77.

 

Sellers do love bidding wars, that's for sure. Still, plenty of bargains to be had. Just a matter of timing.

 

That sounds like a dealer who's soon to be out of business. Sure, high grade keys are nice, but in reality, the majority of a dealer's daily business isn't conducting sales of $30,000 coins. A dealer's bread and butter is coin sells under $100. I'd find a new dealer to sell to.
Guy

 

Funny thing is the bidding war lasted all of five seconds we were both sniping a auction that opened at $69.00 and had no bids until the end.
But I finally got a AU 1937-S for my set. Actually a PCGS AU53 that is.

 

Well, you could have paid a little more for this beat up raw '37-S LOL.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1937-S-Walk...53?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item45fa2e2f8d

 

The true fact is that many dealers really will not ever be in the market to buy from knowledgeable collectors. They would never be able to stay in business with the margins that most collectors are looking for. So they look for estate sales and or the heirs selling collections to make up most of their inventory. Most of them will only purchase at near Grey sheet prices when they are filling a customers want list items IMO.

So this leaves a couple of options for collectors first is BST listings usually they are free but not much exposure, second eBay fees run about 10 to 15% but probably the largest market out there. Then comes the auctions houses like Heritage and TeleTrade if your coin or group of coins are over about $5000 they normally cost about 20% or so but offer the best way to handle the high end stuff.

 

I second the thought of going to another dealer. My dealer buys all types and is fair in his prices, Well, fair for what dealers pay anyway.

 

You have got to be kidding that guy is out to lunch on that.
One I got. http://www.ebay.com/itm/280754726928?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

 

Well said. The dealers I regularly work with around here are just like that. When I do transactions with them it's a [mostly] equal value trade. Typically I'll trade my US junk silver for collectible foreign coins. I come out ahead when dealing with the ones that just look at Krause instead of actually doing research. The ones who do both seem to offer Krause prices only when the actual market value is significantly higher. Otherwise they would offer around 50% of book value for better coins and offer like $4-$6 per pound for the common stuff.

 

I agree that it is better to sell numismatic items to fellow collectors in need of these items than to dealers running a business. TC

 

Unless you need the money ASAP. lol

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to try Ebay with .01 start. Somebody will be happy!

Interesting note that IF I did go for a high grade coin around 1980 it would may have been an 1887 MS 60 Indian cent. My old Coin Prices mag says $70. Thirty years later Redbook is $55 and online PCGS says $80. So I would have been either -$15.00 or +$10.

So I agree that unless you are REALLY sharp, collect for fun, not profit.

 

This is the smartest idea I have heard from a newbie here in years!!!!

 

To answer your question as a coin dealer, every dealer is going to be different but the short answer is that dealers want to buy what they know that can sell to their customers. Every collector is different. I have customers who have to think hard about what they are going to buy with $10 and I have customers who don't even blink at spending $10k on a coin. So we make offers on pretty much anything that comes in.

Some dealers are different. Some dealers don't have customers for certain items. Some dealers don't wholesale items or don't sell coins in bulk... therefore they don't need 2,000 partial date buffalo nickels.

It might just be that the particular dealer you went to sells either super high end coins or just junk. Or he might have 14 in stock already.