I recently won this lot in an auction. What would your max bid have been? Here’s what I paid: Spoiler $117
Well, the 1911 and 1912 nickels aren't worth more than a couple of bucks each. We can pretty much ignore them. The 88 nickel looks to be borderline EF-40, so raw maybe $125? The 67 No Rays I think has VF details but green issues that need to be taken care of before you can sell it. Problem free that would be $50? With the issues I can't be more than half that. 1909S Quarter is a VF-20. NGC lists that at $100. I'd be at $125 absolute max on this lot. "How did you do?" is a very subjective question based on what you want to do with these coins. If they fit into your set (or there are one or two you want to cherrypick and sell the others), then a stronger price may be warranted. If you are trying to resell them and paid full retail ($150), you got hosed.
Missed the spoiler... but that tracks pretty close with my estimate. To be fair, nowhere in his title or post does he say what he's planning on doing with these coins. My original conclusion stands - if he likes the coins and is keeping them, he did ok. If he's going to try to sell them, he didn't do that great unless I'm very wrong.
Sometimes I try to beat the seller senseless and get a rock bottom deal or walk. Other times, I'll pay full retail (or close to it) if I like it enough or it's a tough coin to find at any price for it's grade and be perfectly content. It depends on my mood and my intent to keep it temporarily and/or wait for an upgrade. I love to peruse auctions but after a while, the amount of junk to wade through cooks my brain, there is a lot of it out there, especially if you are just browsing and not doing a specific search.
I agree with everything you wrote. My intent is to resell. I wasn’t thrilled at the price I paid, but think I can still scrape a little out of this. I bought other items in this auction so it offset the shipping costs.
And this is where amateurs very often lose track of what they are doing. Every cost must be considered: - shipping to receive - time/labor to process/inventory/take pictures - time/labor to list on ebay or wherever you are selling, or fill out paperwork for submitting to an auction house - taking good pictures for selling - shipping (and materials!) to send out - fees for selling (Ebay takes a VERY large percentage of your sale price.... it virtually eliminates any profit unless you've gotten a steal on your deal) - literally the time cost that it will take to sell your item... it might not sell very quickly This is not to discourage a seller... this is to make you aware that if you buy $125 of coins.... you need to expect that you will spend a decent percentage of that "profit" on the actual selling of the coin. I know this because I have done this.
I am very curious to hear the eventual outcome of this. (please tag me in a post if you post it later.. i might miss it). What I'll say is, based on the price you paid, and considering all of the costs/time I listed in my previous post... I expect you to lose money on this lot. I will be very happy to be proven otherwise.
Again, I agree with everything you wrote. I only sell on Facebook due to the costs on eBay. This will net a small return for me. It’s more for the fun than anything else. If I were doing this as more than just a fun, side gig, I’d have ended my bid at $100, hammer included.
I agree that the 1888 is the star of the show here. It's a shame about that hit to the eye on the quarter. It's still a nice coin, but I'm not sure it would straight grade...?
I refuse to buy coins in lots. There is always a teaser in there that is tempting so the seller can unload stuff that otherwise wouldn't sell for much. I saw a deal one day where 5 Morgans were for sale, 2 of them were worth good money, the other 3 barely melt. It was all I could do to not bid on it. Glad I didn't.
