What is your "Buying Strategy?"

The psychology of a private sale is: “What is the least I can give and still buy the coin.”


The psychology of an auction is: “What is the highest price I am willing to pay to buy the coin?”



Which category do you fit into ?

 

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I'm a cheapskate by heart.

HOWEVER, I have learned in my short time here that sometimes I need to just suck it up and be willing to "settle" for a fair price for a coin. Hope that makes sense.

 

I try and buy silver with only paypal. I sell random junk on eBay and use the money for more silver.

 

research! become familiar with completed auctions. get to know the mintage. see how often your coins come up. if they never comes up then that tells you some coins are way more rarer than others. I have had some coins on hold for 5-10 years because they never come up for sale. I have had 2 come up when I was out off money to buy them. that sucks when that happens.

 

I always ask for a lower price. sometimes they do deals and sometimes you have to pay full price. It all comes down to supply and demand. how bad do you want the coin ? once I made payments on a coin. lol yup 2 payments. my demand was greater than my bank account .

 

I buy what is interesting to me at a price I believe is fair, (or less). I always have been one to pretty thoroughly research something before I buy and have a pretty good memory, both things have helped. I just two days ago got a Shahi Tagin Turko/Hepthalite coin on Ebay listed as a Sassanid coin, (I know, means nothing to most people). I recognized the coin, saw it was misidentified, and the price was about half of what they usually go for, probably because it was not identified properly.

Anyway, I am a collector/hoarder. I do not worry about resale really, but do want to pay at most the market price to leave more money to buy even more coins. So I do research, lots and lots of research, but its not for what profit I might make on a coin, only to make sure I have properly evaluated the coin and market price before I decide to buy.

 

My policy is this:

1) Know your field in and out
2) Buy when you know a coin is a bargain. If it's a duplicate, upgrade or stash it away and or sell the lower grade coin when the price is right.
3) Always have a stash of reserve just in case a rare coin pops out of nowhere. Be prepared to sell duplicates where need be.

 

In person, asking for a lower price is OK. On CraigsList, if some jerk wants a lower price without ever having seen the merchandise, he never hears from me again, whether he might eventually turn out to be a Buyer or not. Asking for a reduction without knowing what you're buying -- that's an insult, in my book. I find this more with sports cards and book collectors than with coin and stamp collectors.

I very rarely have a max bid in mind on eBay; I watch the bidding. Plus, the less the Seller knows, the more I'll bid. One of my favorite Sellers doesn't know jack about his material, and I buy two or three items a month from him. There's usually a surprise to the upside.

 

“What is the highest price I am willing to pay to buy the coin?”

I think I am in this camp. For me, buying a beautiful coin that I absolutely love is an emotional decision, not purely a financial transaction. So I tend to come up with a maximum I am willing to spend, then try to get the coin for anything up to that price.

A few times an auction has gone above my max price, but I am only losing by a few dollars, and I think "aww hell" and bid higher again anyway (if I really LOVE the coin). Sometimes I win, sometimes lose. I feel better if I lose by a lot.

For bullion coins (mostly silver), its not emotional, its a financial decision. I try to dollar cost average and have a budget I spend periodically on silver, just like any other asset class. So if the price isnt right I pass.

 

Neither

Whats the coin worth to me

 

I prefer a private sale or 1 vs 1

Auctions or 1 vs many, just don't seem to work out for me on the buying end.

 

Both, to some degree.

I don't fully subscribe to either philosophy, especially the first. I have paid more than the asking price on coins before, because I do not want to take advantage of a person that doesn't know the value of the item they're selling.

For example, I won a collection of PDSS Kennedy halves a while back. The buy-it-now price plus shipping was somewhere around $80. I thought there must be something wrong with the listing, because the melt value on the silvers alone was around $80. When I received the coins, they were exactly as described. $80 worth of silver and maybe $50 face value for the clad. I sent the guy some extra money via PayPal gift because I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night otherwise.

When I bid on an auction, my "highest bid" is what I estimate will ultimately be the least I would be able to offer and still buy the item(s). If I get outbid, which happens a lot, so be it. Every price point between the current bid and my highest bid will likely be outbid, so I don't see them as realistic buying points. If I do get it for any more than 10% less than my highest bid, then that's great, but that rarely happens.

 

My buying habits are simple. If it is something I want - I buy it. I collect for pleasure and not investment, so if a pretty or rare coin becomes available that I want - I go after it hard. Do I lose money? Sometimes, but I lose much more money playing golf every week...

 

Bullion=lowest price I can get. Period.

Numismatics=How is the eye appeal to me. Is this something I will want to pull out of the safe from time to time and oogle at? If so, I pay accordingly.

 

I buy cool coins when the opportunity arises.

 

Buy the highest quality for the lowest possible price, and have a reference book in my library to properly justify the coin is a genuine issue.

 

This is it for me too! I rationalize the expense with theoretical resale value but I know I'll never sell my coins.

 

I'm the exact opposite. I prefer to agree on a price before meeting, that way neither of us is wasting our gas money to meet up. If they ask for a lower price after showing up I say "no, take it or leave it, we agreed on the price." Now having said that, I've never done high-valued items, so perhaps that is different.