What percentage of greysheet value should I expect when selling slabbed problem free U.S. Series coinage at a brick and mortor shop? TY
Wouldn't the "Bid" price represent the appropriate value according the the Greysheet definitions? I just don't understand why people would be willing to accept X% of a coin's value. We all have options for selling coins at retail. List them in the For Sale section with an asking price and see if they sell, what's the worst that could happen?
IMO, you would be lucky to get 25% under the current "Bid" price. Like others, I wonder why you do not either try to sell them here or open an eBay account and sell there. Either way would more than likely get you more $.
Don't expect any percentage. A lot, if not most, B&Ms don't pay attention to Grey Sheet figures when buying from a private individual, and some offer spot price of slabbed silver coinage.
The question is far too general and saying only "problem free US coins" means nothing. Also depends on the individual B&M.. have you ever dealt with them before or will you be an unknown walk-in? Are they a bric-a-brac dealer or somewhat specialized? Understand that not all B&Ms may have a market for what you wish to sell. You may have coins that bid is low on while others that you'll be lucky if they offer half. Keep in mind that CDN can be fine for some coins, but can be near worthless for others. In most cases, you might as well throw out any notion of making money or breaking even before you walk in the door. B&Ms have their place and can often be nice places to buy, but unless you have a standing relationship with the guy, rarely are they a good place to sell, especially if you have better and/or more esoteric material.
Doesn't really matter if it is a brick and mortar dealer or an internet dealer, that answer is going to be the same as the last time you asked. Anywhere from 50-80%. And with very common issues in low grades, probably less.
It all depends on what the coin is. A rarer or more popular coin that the dealer can move quickly will get a higher percentage of bid, a typical coin that is going to sit awhile will get a lower percentage, and a common coin that the dealer probably has multiples of will get a very low offer or possibly even no offer no matter what the sheet says. See Doug's answer, he knows what he is talking about. The sheet is supposed to be a dealer to dealer price guide, not dealer to public or public to dealer. As a collector you should expect to pay more than Ask and receive less than Bid. Definition of irritant: A collector who expects to be able to buy at dealer Bid and sell at Ask just because he has a copy of the Graysheet.
Why should a collector get less than a dealer for the exact same coin? If dealer X is willing to buy a coin from dealer Y for $Z, what kind of logic is it that a collector should only get $Z-25%? eBay coin sales and other online auctions are popular because collectors have grown weary of low-ball offers from dealers. I would only sell to a dealer as a last resort if I was desperate for money. I don't begrudge a dealer from making a profit but hey, he doesn't have to make it all in one day!
How is a dealer defined? sells b&m, sells internet, sells at shows , sells at flea markets, sells on coin talk, casually sells, sells alot, just curious? isnt everyone that sells a dealer?
That encompasses a whole lot of people. I've sold coins at shows occasionally, even have a resale tax certificate. So by your standards, should I expect Stacks to give me dealer pricing?
My definition wouldn't be a technical one, it defines a dealer from the perspective of a collector that is selling coins. Basically anyone that buys a coin with the sole intent of selling it for profit has to buy it for less than it is worth. I have also sold coins, I've even a few for more than I payed. But I initially purchased the coins because I wanted them for my collection, not to sell. Therein lies the difference.
How do you define anything else ? I know how to fix the plumbing and have done it; but I'm not a plumber. I know how to change out electrical switches, plugs, light fixtures, even wiring, and have done it; but I'm not an electrician. I've sold thousands of coins, but I'm not a coin dealer either. A plumber is someone who does plumbing to make his living, same for an electrician. A coin dealer is someone who sells coins to make his living. Anybody else is just somebody selling coins.
At my shop here in Florida I offer 60-80% of CDN Bid. My assistant will set them to be flipped on Ebay and we have been getting around 1.05 x Bid. The nicer ones, I will take to shows and sell for around CDN Ask + 10%.
I agree with everything you said except this... If, as a dealer, I give the bid price to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who walks into my store with a coin to sell, then I have to move those purchases to another dealer, best case scenario is I break even. So if I buy off the street at less than bid, and sell to another dealer, I have room for profit. If I end up selling that coin to a retail buyer at ask, then that's just a bonus. But as a dealer, I have to make sure I can make a profit from this type of buy, so I anticipate the worse case and hope for the best. But this also lets me sell retail at a percentage under the ask price, which gives me a little more wiggle room with those customers, so they continue to come back. Not saying selling on your own is wrong, but if you go the dealer route, this is why you can expect less than the bid price.
To me this hits the nail right on the head. I only deal with 2 brick and mortars. Both won't pay anything on modern stuff 1) because they have so much of it and 2) the value CDN or otherwise just isn't there. One guy when I was back dating proof sets simply threw HIS CDN at me and said ask plus $1. The other will show me CDN and buy at bid and if need be no less that 10% under on older coins and currency. Again they only do this because I show them a lot of business, I sell coins and some other stuff to them especially broken gold/silver jewelry for scrap. I also refer people to them to buy and sell even just appraisals. To me the main keys are to make yourself known to them so they can put a name and face together and earn your worth don't go in playing little price games. Know what you are doing and talk intelligently about coins. It will open up a world of discounts, and better bid/ask prices that a nobody off the street looking to flip some stuff will never get.
Ya know, the subject of this thread always kind of gets to me, for several reasons. One of them is that many if not most collectors have what I call false expectations. In other words, when the time comes to sell they expect to be able realize full retail, or even more than what they paid. But there's a couple of problems with that line of thinking. Foremost among those problems is that odds are the collector over-paid when he bought the coin. Now many don't want to believe this, many more refuse to even believe it's true. But in most cases it is true. And that makes it very difficult if not impossible to achieve their desired result. Recognize this, understand it, and accept it - with most coins there is approximately a 40% buy/sell spread. That is just a cold hard fact. And it is a big nut to crack for the collector to just break even when he sells his coins. And if you over-paid, that nut just got bigger. Another issue is that most collectors tend to look at things with a very narrow focus when it comes to selling their coins. What I mean by that is that they always think of the realized prices they see on ebay and only focus on that realized number as being what defines whether they make money, lose money, or break on a sale. But that realized number is not what defines it. For from that realized number you have to deduct the ebay fees, currently 15% unless I am mistaken. And then you have to add in all of your time and effort to accomplish an ebay sale. And that is for just 1 sale. Now multiply that by a hundred, or several hundred, or a thousand - depending on how large your collection is. Selling a collection on ebay will take months, and could take years. Remember how long it took you to put that collection together ? Well, it's little different time wise when it comes to selling it. But back to the numbers, say you go the ebay route. That 15% automatically gives you a loss, if you manage to sell your coin for the same amount you paid for it. And most times you won't be able to do that. I know you think you will, but you won't. And every percentage point below what you paid for the coin reduces your realization from 85% on downwards. And if you over-paid by even 10%, which most of us do, at least, then you are automatically down to 75% - without even doing anything. And that is assuming that you have already over-come the 40% buy sell/spread. Now, once you look at those numbers and realize what they mean. That offer of 50-80% from a dealer, without all the time and effort it would take you to sell all of your coins individually, that offer starts to look a whole lot better. And not only that, it looks like a fair price. Do you know why ? Because it is a fair price. But because we are human, we don't want to acknowledge that. Because to acknowledge it would mean that we weren't nearly as smart as we thought we were. I've said this a thousand times over the years if I've said it once. As a collector, sell some of your coins every now and then. That one simple act will teach you more about coin collecting than anything else you can ever do ! Now most people who read these comments will do one of several things. Some will ignore it, some will refuse to believe it, some will just claim outright that I am wrong. But eventually, even if it takes until after you die with your collection intact, it will be proven that I am right. Don't be afraid to open your mind, look at and accept reality, regardless of how much you dislike it. In the end there is no escaping it. For eventually reality will just walk up and slap you in the face.
I'd say you only missed one thing Doug, and that is that you didn't allow for time value of money into that as well as a factor that keeps a collector from making a true profit. If you have a coin you paid $100 for and you keep it for 10 years and you sell it, after all those difficulties that Doug mentioned, ebay fees etc, you have to clear $130 just to break even. And if you do you then owe 28% tax on that mythical $30 profit. If a collector makes a true profit on his coins after all that it's a small miracle.
Well Michael you and I have been posting together on boards like this for what, 13-14 years now ? And in all of those years only a handful have believed those comments when they read them. 'Course a whole lot more believed them when they found out the hard way. More still yet to come I suppose.
