NOTE: This thread is not an ad. I am not trying to sell anything; I am just asking questions. Recently I have been trying to find money for an iPhone, but I have not had any luck with selling coins to get it. I have an extensive collection and whatever I offer (on eBay) never even gets a "What's the lowest you could take?". Is there something that I'm doing wrong? I always describe what I am selling and get the best photos possible, along with prices that get lower and lower as the auction nears a close. If you have any suggestions about what I should do differently, if it should be about description or trying to sell somewhere else, that would be great. Thanks, Alex.
well, you could also post what you have here in the "For Sale" section. I don't know what you have, maybe I'm interested
I start all my auction at 99 cents, put them on for at least seven days, and provide a good description and good pictures. If it is a foreign coin, it has so be old or silver/gold. Common foreign coins often fail to sell. What kind of coins are you selling? Can I also see an example of your listings?
I sell often on Ebay. I typically get 70%-80% of Redbook. Better than 50% which you will get selling to a shop. I start my auctions at .99, and let them sit for seven days. I start usually on weekends so most likely, someone will be home at the auctions close.
It depends what you are selling. Anything silver will sell, but common coins might not if there isn't a high demand or if a lot of other people are selling them. I sell foreign coins starting at 99 cents and list about 20 at a time. Maybe 1 or 2 sell each auction cycle. It's no way to get rich.
Ok... but what kind of coins were you trying to sell? Silver always sells, especially if you start well under melt, and will often be bid up to at least melt or higher. Offer free shipping, buyers like that. If BIN, don't price the coin too high.. eBay is quite competitive. Now, if you're trying to sell common clad coinage, especially raw, ungraded examples, well... that will probably never sell. OLD will sell easily, modern is tough. For example, you can't go to the bank and get a roll of presidential dollars and try to sell them for a profit. It just won't work, and if they do sell, fees will eat up any profits. Now if you have a bunch of low grade Walkers, well, you can bet every one of them will sell if priced fairly. So let us know what your selling!
It would be a violation of forum rules for the OP to post his ebay name or to post links to some of his auctions, unless they are completed auctions. So questions like this can only be talked about in a general sense.
It your coins don't sell it's because your asking price is too high. I would advise switching to auctions with no reserve starting at $0.99 for a week. It's worth pointing out a interesting dynamic with the buy it now option. If you have 20 coins for sale buy it now and the price is full retail the only ones that will sell are the ones you undervalued. There was a person selling around 10 large cents with a highish buy it now price. I bought one from him because it was a rare variety worth three times his already inflated asking price, the other nine were common overpriced stuff. I checked back on him a month later and he still had all 9 for sale...
Many bidders will not even search BIN listings and for those of us who do, there is a lot of stuff to wade through so we make our searches very specific. Also, searching BIN only and lowest price first will show you the least you could buy it for and generally a bidder wouldn't exceed that price or they would just buy that one. If your item isn't superior to the lowest priced item, it isn't going to sell period. You'll also notice people really don't bid on items with reserves or high starting bids. They are turned off from those listings and you can often win them with the opening bid. Many times I have bid on an item only to have it bid up beyond the seller's original BIN price. So to sum it up: 1. Make sure your listing has as many keywords in the title as possible. If it is certified the grading company and grade should be listed. If it is silver, gold or even copper, make sure to mention it in your title if you can fit it- whatever you would search when browsing. A description for a 1955 $.01 should include the words wheat, cent, penny and lincoln for example. 2. Auctions also give your items more exposure. You will get more bidders and watchers when you start low vs. even a fair BIN price. Generally, if you include a best offer option, you should expect to raise your BIN price higher than what you would really take. 3.Look at the past completed listings and see what they are selling for. Also, look up the items for sale and find out how much and how popular the items are.
