In the US coin categories there are roughly 711,000 coins listed. However there are only 21,000 true auctions in the same section. By true auction I mean auctions with at least two current bids. I wonder if Ebay has the stats on percent of auction to buy it now in years past.
There are probably a lot of online dealers who are reluctant to risk their inventory on low winning bids. Even though they don't have the overhead costs usually associated with a normal B&M, they still have to have some assurance that they will recover their costs. Chris
I understand why dealers may be reluctant to take risks. However, most of the starting bids that I see are significantly above current market values. It is not surprising that they close with no bids when they are priced so high that nobody in their right mind would bid on them. How do dealers actually sell these coins? Perhaps they use Ebay to advertise the coins and then sell them via private transactions?
I also wonder how the average buy-it-now price compares to the coins' actual book value. My guess is a multiplier of 3X. The problem is that eBay effectively removed listing fees a few years ago, which means that sellers no longer have any incentive to cut down on their number of overpriced listings. There's no longer any downside to continually renewing the listing of an overpriced coin because who knows, you might just get some idiot to buy it.
I'm not just referring to BIN prices. The starting bids on many of the auctions are beyond ridiculous.
Volante's point applies there even more so. EVERYONE gets a large number of free auctions per month. Other than the time it takes to set an auction up initially, there's simply no incentive not to keep relisting at the same ridiculous price over and over again. Which would you rather -- get market value for lots of coins, minus 10-15% fees, or get 2-3x market value for occasional coins (minus the same percentage)? The answer will depend on how much you paid, I suppose, but I imagine there are lots of people looking for the big payoff. And, of course, there are people who simply have no idea of a realistic price. The ones set unrealistically low are snatched up instantly (BIN) or bid up (auctions); the ones set unrealistically high... linger, and accumulate.
I try to be realistic in pricing most of my coins. However there are some coin I really like, and wouldnt mind keeping. Those I will price high, and if someone wants to take from me they will have to pay my price.
I've looked through a lot of sold listings, which include both auctions and BIN, and have yet to see any coins that have brought 2 - 3X market value. However, most of my searches are for certified type and key date coins, which probably tend to be purchased by people who know what they are doing. This may not be the case for other types of material that have more entry level buyers. It would make sense that a lot of overpriced coins just accumulate and clutter up the site. The statistic bkozak gave us was for listings. I wonder what the ratio would be for coins that actually sold. From what I have seen the proportion of true auctions is much higher.
My experience with eBay is there are 130,000 ngc and pcgs us coins. With all of the filters I use I look at no more then 200-300 at a time. But I totally agree with the comments above about unrealistic prices on the majority. I said I have found good deals on eBay but not at shows. It probably is just a statistical equation because I can filter 130,000 to 200-300 in one click, and get all the good opportunities lined up where at a show you have to literally look coin by coin. In my prior thread people did list good deals at shows so they have to be out there . As a punishment for breaking civil laws the government could simply make you buy 10 coins on eBay but at random. Personally I would rather pay a fine.
There are a lot of BIN coin listings with ridiculous prices. It creates a lot of clutter. It's not just for dumb buyers though. Some of those listings are probably dumb sellers who paid too much for the coin and they're praying for someone to come along bail them out (rather than take the loss and move on).
