My wife’s friend’s mother had a bunch of stuff which I looked and assessed a rough estimate value. It took around 4 hours to do this and my eyes got tired! There were a bunch of common circulated silver Roosevelt Dimes and Washington Quaters, about 500 wheat cents where I cherry picked a 1922d in VG, some worn Buffalos and Liberty Nickels, a few common early commens, 27 common circulated Peace and Morgan dollars, 10 circulated Indian head cents, and other stuff. the highlight was a $5 1886s half eagle. I used the gray sheet to estimate the values and graded the collection conservatively. She is looking to get rid of it but I want to give a fair price. Have any of you bought collections and could you give advice?
For the circulated silver dimes and quarters, the amount of silver in ounces is face value multiplied by 0.72. Multiply by 0.67, then offer spot for that much silver. 1921 Morgans and common circulated Peace dollars bring about $16.50 each right now. Earlier date common circs are about $17.50. The 1886 $5, assuming it's not a high grade coin, probably about $320.
What? Absolutely not. Circulated junk silver should be sold at 11x face. If you buy from her at around 9x face that should be about what a coin shop would pay her. There's no reason for you to rip this old lady off. You should pay 90 cents per dime, $2.25 per quarter, $4.50 per 90% half. The post below recommended that with silver at $15.40 right now that one silver dime (.07234 asw) that should be worth $1.11 should be purchased from her at 10 cents x 72 x .67= or 48 cents per silver dime! That would be ripping her off.
I was thinking about a 10.5x compromise, which would be better than what you would get from a coin shop.
Correct. Also allows you to make a little if you're selling it, because unless you piece it out retail, you're not getting .72*spot per dollar face value.
Which works out to about 10x spot at $15.40 an ounce (Today's silver price). I think that is perfectly reasonable.