I have an acquaintance that may want to sell her collection. There's nothing really spectacular in the set, but it's a nice collection nonetheless. My question is, if she were to bring it to a dealer, is there a way of knowing beforehand what she may be offered? For instance, can a percentage of the Red Book value be used as a guide? If they're going to give her say, 60% of Red Book, I'll gladly give her 100% because I like the collection so much. Thanks everyone.
No annual price guide is accurate (even weekly ones are often inaccurate) and it is dangerous to assume that a certain % of such prices is a good or bad price. It depends upon the coins, their quality and current market conditions. Any general % that is suggested to you will probably be way off, as we don't have nearly enough information to provide meaningful feedback. Also, you are in a bad position to be objective about pricing the coins fairly if you want them for yourself.
I hear what you're saying, Mark. There's probably 100 coins, so I couldn't give you a breakdown of types and grades. I was just hoping there might be a rule of thumb that one could go by.
A dealer may pay 50% to 85% of retail for a coin. Closer to 50% for common, low-price coins and closer to 85% for less common, higher-price coins. His offer will also depend on how in demand those coins are. If he knows he can sell them quickly he may be more willing to offer more but if he thinks he will have to hang on to them a long time before he sells them he may offer less.
Thanks Hobo. From what I could see, they're mostly common types, and a ton of Mercury dimes (no 1916-D's though!).
Even if that were correct, there is no assurance that Redbook prices equate with "retail". Those prices are often outdated by the time the book goes to print and months have passed in the interim. If you are going to use a single pricing guide, I'd strongly recommend the CDN ("Graysheet") instead.
dont sell it to a dealer, that will be the lowest price you will get...sell each coin or groups of them on ebay...you will get more per coin that way...dealers will extremely low ball you. You best money will be selling to end collectors and not dealers.
I knew someone was going to mention the Grey Sheets, so I went to the CDN website. They're running a "try it out" special, all the different newsletters and a binder for $18. I think I might also tell her to bring it in to her local dealer to get a price. In any event, I'll give her a better offer.
She'll get more money if you buy it from her anyway, so save her the trip. Also, price guides are all around. I check the Red Book, Blue Book, and another price guide and no price was the same! For example, I checked my XF 1934 Quarter (large motto) and Red book had it for 8$ (or something), but Blue Book had it for 3$, and the other price guide had it for 16$ (or so). Anyways, just saying that the prices guides are just a GUIDE, they're ment to help, and not be the be all end all.
As others have said, just buy it yourself. I'd also like to add that while the Redbook prices are out of date, the greysheet prices receive more respect than they deserve [in my opinion]. They don't tell you what the coin is worth, only what recent prices have been. So if something is temporarily popular, you'll overpay if you use it.
TC - Something that no one else has mentioned yet - do you feel confident in your ability to accurately grade the coins and identify problem coins in the collection ? If you do, fine. But if you don't, then let the dealer look at it first. You don't want to do yourself a disservice by trying to help someone else out either.
I agree and I would also recommend you went with her to the dealer so you could hear what he said about the coins. I would find the helpful in making a final determination.
Just make sure you don't let the dealer talk her into selling the coins to him instead of you. Dealers never offer very much because they have to make enough money to cover their overhead. Whatever the dealer offers her for the whole lot tell her you'll give her 30% more than that and you'll both make out OK.
I agree with the let the dealer make an offer first. This will take care of the.. I wonder if he ripped me off. or I should of gotten more for them coins comments down the road. Let the dealer make an offer and take it from there. Like Doug said, the dealer will also weed out any problem areas you may miss. I know this is abusing a dealers time... But as a business owner in a different field, I get "tire kickers" every day.
