I don't understand why CT-er's list Silver on eBay

Seems like, right off the bat, you are doomed to a grossly inferior price.

Ebay takes 9% (or somewhat less), PayPal takes 3%, postage eats you up unless the Buyer pays it, and they will of course reduce their bids accordingly if they know they are paying postage, and, the cost of postal insurance has nearly doubled in the past 3 years.

Then there's the buyers' suspicion that there's only 39 silvers in your roll of quarters -- further hedging/reducing their bid (and in case of complaints, eBay invariably takes the Buyer's side of the story), etc., etc.

Isn't it much much simpler just to sell your silver face-to-face at your LCS or better yet, a local coin show where there's a little bit of competition? What am I missing here?

 

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most coin dealers buy at 15%-20% below spot. i buy and sell on a small scale (im not a professional dealer) and i buy @$17/oz and sell @$24/oz. this is about standard. on ebay people are willing to pay spot or higher because they do not necessarily have to make a profit like a coin dealer.

 

doug44, I don't understand it either..........heck one step further........why not sell it here???

Its free to sell here, why give ebay all your fees and all that? Their are many people that will buy coins here!!

 

jlogan, buy at 17/oz? Ouch, even local stores will pay spot or a dollar below spot.....

 

the 2 coin stores near me buy at $16 and sell at ~$24

 

I buy silver at 16 times face at lcs, and sell it on Ebay for 30 to 40 times face on Ebay. I dont mind paying my business partner.

 

i have sold some coins on ebay before that i thought i would get "x" for and end up getting "x + 30%" or "x + 100%" or "x + $40" even after fees.

plus, the chances of someone looking for the coin I am selling at a coin show, or a LCS, etc, is slim. on ebay, the world is my customer; someone wants it.

 

on ebay, on ebay on ebay

 

My dealer pays me spot, 5% less for foreign coin junk, Charges me 5%-15% over spot for junk and bullion.
This is the way I've always known it.

 

Amen I wish people would just post their coins for sale here first before putting them on sleaze bay I've bought some wonderful coins that way but the second you put them on fee bay I'm done it don't matter what you got or how cheap it is I'm not doing business on there I had it with their policy's years ago and will never again do business on there besides I much prefer to give my money to a fellow small business not a huge corporation

 

rysherms, I'm not talking about individual collector coins, I'm talking about bullion or near-bullion, especially smallish lots.

Big difference. I do not hesitate to put good singles on eBay; my Feedback is about 2080, 100%. I see CT-er's put $10 face in silver quarters on eBay, and I know they are getting thoroughly beat up. My question reverts back to -- why do they use eBay for bullion?

 

Is it possible they are buying say a monster box of American Silver Eagles and selling them individually or in rolls of 20 and, even with all the fees, still making a handsome profit?

 

I generally net (after fees) around melt on ebay. My LCS pays something like 13x face. Financially, ebay has been okay for me. *knock on wood*

 

Hotpocket, yes, that's a possibility. But it sounds like a lot of hard work, and the process of making a lot of small sales eats up a lot of time and energy, and time is all we've got.

 

What really ticks me off is that a lot of CT'ers list coins on eBay and then list them here. Why not list them HERE first? No fee that way. If they don't sell, your out nothing.

 

How on earth do you sell it for that much?

 

Because ebay has a wider audience. Silver is popular with collectors, and you can bet that you will probably get more hits from ebay than you would from this forum.

 

Ya no doubt about that. But I think more people should at least try it here before selling it on eBay.

 

Well, yes, for rare coins. But only a fool would pay 30x or 40x for bullion.

Think I'm going to try a little experiment. I have almost a roll of XF-AU Mercs, and will put them on eBay three at a time. I figure I'd have to get $7to break even, based on 49c postage. If they bring $9, which seems unlikely, I'll try another lot of 3. It's still a lot of work to make a couple of bucks, so I'm dubious.