Yep, I'm a greenhorn trying to learn from my mistakes. Sold my Dad's collection to the 1st dealer in line at a coin show for $945 and turned around and bought 3 gold coins in return, he got me both ways. What do you think they were really worth? I had a 1804 draped bust which I thought graded for about $200 , he gave me $30. Bought a PCGS 1998 Silver Eagle MS69 on E-bay for $30 which inclued shipping, is it worth it? Thanks for any help!! Dan
Well let me first welcome you to the forum. What type of Draped bust coin did you sell? Did you have this coin graded by anyone? What is the date of the Silver Eagle? Now comes the tough part. If you sold the coins for $945, you must have been satisfied with the price. Hindsight is always 20/20 When buying or selling, knowledge is the key. Numismatics is not an easily learned subject. It takes a lot of time and effort. Grading is a tougher thing to learn. It takes quite a bit of time viewing many coins to learn this art. It is and will probably always be subjective. When it comes time to sell any coin, the buyer and seller must come to an agreed upon price in order for the transaction to take place. Both will be satisfied at the time. Now either party may change their view afterwards, but this should be viewed as a learning experience. If you feel that you were on the losing end of the deal, take some time to learn from your mistake. This is the only way that you can make better decisions on any future transactions. There are quite a few people here at CoinTalk that are willing and able to help you in your quest. Ask away, and we will all do our best to help.
Your 98 Silver Eagle has a retail price of $50, so I would say that you didn't do too badly. Now a dealer will not pay retail prices, so you have to take that into consideration.
Welcome Dan. I did a quick search of completed auctions, on eBay, for PCGS MS-69 1998 Silver Eagles. Including S&H, the lowest went for $28.41, and the highest went for $45.80. I would say you did pretty good on your's.
How can someone or a dealer sell a coin for quite a bit below PCGS? do they buy in bulk so they get better prices?
Dealers don't go by retail prices. We use what is commonly referred to as the GreySheet. It lists coin wholesale prices on actively traded coins. Sometimes the difference between wholesale and retail is quite a bit. Once you have examined enough coins, it becomes easy to spot cleaned or altered coins. There is a lack of original luster on cleaned coins. There are many factors involved, but most can be learned over time.
bigelk - Based on your question I am assuming that you mean below the prices listed in the PCGS Price Guide - yes ? If so then what you need to know is that those prices are for most part highly inaccurate & inflated. I have, over the years, seen a few coins, very few, that were accurately priced or valued in the PCGS Price Guide. But the vast majority of them are way too high. Even David Hall Rare Coins ( owned by the President of PCGS ) sells PCGS slabbed & graded coins for less than half of the prices listed in the PCGS guide. Most price guides list only retail values and even then they may be high. The Grey Sheets mentioned by National dealer are much more accurate but as he said they list only wholesale values. In order to give you an approximate value for the coins you sold we would have to know a bit more. A list of the coins in your dad's collection and the grades for each would be required.
The greysheet does not list prices by grading service. It only gives values of coins that are actively traded. Silver Eagles are listed. They are only listed as MS or PR. Grades are not given as Eagles are traded as bullion.
