I've decided to divest myself of part of my coin collection. I'm 81 and my physical condition is slowly getting worse. I still get around okay but my mental condition is fading. So I want to sell/auction part of my collection before it becomes difficult for me to do that. It would be more difficult for my wife to handle that since she has very little numismatic knowledge. I intend to start with sets that I consider complete and that I haven't looked at in a long time. I'm now trying to figure out what is the best way to do this and, of course, get my best value. EXAMPLE: I have a complete date set of Indian Head cents. They are all slabbed, mostly PCGS but a few NGC. They all grade MS-63, MS-64 or MS-65. Question 1: Should I look at auction houses (GC, Heritage, etc.) or individual dealers? Experience has taught not to ask a Question 2 until I decide about Question 1. I find that often my Question 1 is not the one I should be asking first. So I'm asking for advice and opinions that will help me get started on the right track.
I would have as detailed as possible inventory of your collection and send that to as many auction houses as possible to get their 'quotes'. Then let them take it from there, but pay attention. If your entire collection is similar to the quality you describe for your Indian Head cent collection, then I think a major auction house is the place to go - Heritage, Stacks, etc. Or you could just sell enmasse to a good dealer for as much as possible, but you risk 'paying' more in total since you're effectively wholesaling. Good luck.
Before I sent them off to auction, I would get a purchase offer from the specialist dealers in IHCs like Charmy Harker (The Penny Lady) and Rick Snow (Eagle Eye Rare Coins). Then, or even at the same time, you can get an estimate of likely auction proceeds from the auction houses. When I go to a big show, I often see gentlemen of our vintage sitting at Charmy's table showing off and/or negotiating a sale of a box or boxes of coins. So, if you can get to a larger show, that's an option. You can also just call likely dealers and ask them if they will be at such-and-such a show and you'd like to set up an appointment for them to look at your collection and make an offer. It often seems to me that there's a tradeoff between speed, convenience, security and price. These criteria aren't mutually exclusive always but they can be. Your best results are often only attainable through time and leg-work.
Thanks for the responses. Looks like this won't be a quick effort -- but I sort of expected that. Your last sentence is pretty much what I thought. My entire IHC set was bought coin-by-coin from Angel Dee's (Andy Skrabalak). He sits back-to-back with Rick Snow at the Baltimore Whitman shows. Based on a quick look at the Greysheet, the catalog value will be in the $25,000-30,000 range. If I approached a dealer I'd want to be sure that wouldn't be too much for them to handle. But on the other hand would an auction house charge a consignment fee which I assume a dealer wouldn't. So Step 1 for me is to flesh out the inventory (just looked and it's only about half done). Then I can start the search for what would seem to be the best answer.
My only suggestion is NOT to break up the set if you sell unless you sit down with a big-time, honest copper dealer, establish prices for each coin and a commission and let them do all the work.
It depends, usually on the value of the individual coin, not the set. For example, I think (someone correct me if I have this wrong), Great Collections charges a seller's commission of either 5% or 10% on coins that sell for less than $1000 and no commission for coins that sell for more than $1000. Heritage also has a variable seller's commission structure but I'm not familiar with it.
Well said. In essence, a quick sale of anything will yield least value back. If you take the time to advertise anything you should get the most value. I've never purchased anything off of GC but it looks to be popular. I would go that route.
One option is find a local coin dealer and see if they want to buy your collection. That may be better than selling online.
Kanga: Lots of good thoughtful answers already. A good complete inventory is necessary before you get into the selling aspect, IMHO, at least the actual selling part. I can PM you some thoughts/ideas on selling when I did it a couple times, don't want to take up too much space in the post. R/Joel
It depends what you want to get out of the experience. If you want the largest monetary return possible then maybe going the auction route would be best as opposed to try to sell each individual piece yourself for full retail. The later option would probably take a very long time depending on the size of your collection. One way to liquidate that I think would be a lot of fun would be to set up at a coin show or multiple and sell off your collection as if you were a dealer. That way you could personally interact with other people in the hobby. If doing so would be too physically demanding you might be able to contact a trusted local dealer and see if they could get you in contact with a local YN and see if the youngster would want a job in coins for a weekend. They could help you move materials and supplies around, help set up and share in your company throughout the show.
I think the above statement is the most important of them all! And, I think they all have merit to consider. I, also, would not like to see your awesome collection broken up into individual coins. I like complete sets. But, that's just my preferences. This is an area that I am extremely blessed in. There is a local coin dealer around 50-60 miles from where I live, and first he's trustworthy! Second, he'll give you top dollar for your collection. And, third, he can handle all of it if you decided to go that way. But, he's too far from you, and I know there are other trustworthy dealers out there, that also could handle large transactions and closer to you. I'm just thankful that I've got one close by. I sold most of my collection to him a little over 20 years ago. I've been building it back for a few years now, and am having a blast. I'll be praying for you to make all the right decisions.
