I'm breaking up mint sets....to spend

I noticed the same price inflation among a number of countries' silver coins I watch consistently.

 

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Hey, Doc. He is talking about breaking up mint sets. A mint set is heat sealed in a plastic envelope and contains one coin from each mint of the circulating series. They are uncirculated and you can cut them so that each coin is in its own little plastic tomb.

 

Why not make "grab bags" and sell them here on CoinTalk to YN's?

 

Spend them, but keep the silver proof sets. You can always cut them out later and sell the silver coins. They keep nicely in those plastic packages.

 

There are a lot of coins in these sets with substantial premiums though the market is a little thin right now. Even the cheap sets can be busted up at a profit when the markets are stronger. You might as wqellcut up the sets that have no premiums or low premiums and spend all the typical specimens and the culls. Why keep a '79-D quarter in MS-63 in a mint set when you can get a nice Gem in a set for the same price? If a mint set is junk it will still be junk when the prices head back up. Now's a great time to find the nice sets and spending the poor coins assures you don't have them after inflation ravages their value further.

 

I have a few regular proof sets I have packaged up and ready to ship once I put them on ebay. They are the 68,73,76,77,and 82. Proof sets. 1968 being the only silver proof set. I have another one of those, all the others I don't collect. I usually start my auctions off at .99 cents or the face value of the coin (s)

 

The starting price is a bit of a conundrum for me. EBay strongly recommends 99-cent starting prices and for big-ticket items I've started at $99. But I got burned on that recently selling an item which invariably brings $350 to $400 and it went for $125. It'll probably get returned anyway (even though it is NIB). Usually the low starting price does produce bidding and viewing activity and reserve prices cost a lot and discourage bidders. Oh well.

 

You get at least 50 insertion fee free listings a month. So you can start your big ticket items with high starting prices (the price you hope to get). If it doesn't sell, you can list it again. Low starting prices are good for popular items where you expect to get a lot of views.

Reserve prices are a big turn off for many bidders. If I see an auction and it says 'reserve price not met', I think I might be wasting my time by bidding.

 

Can't you just buy it yourself for a higher price if it goes way below what you want? I mean, you still have a fee to pay, but...

 

Strictly forbidden.

 

I've been buying some clad stuff from ebay lately from mint sets. You may want to lump them together and see what happens. Put a set of 70's (70-79) D nickels or 70's S nickels and see if you can get additional money. You might be surprized at the result.