Buying big collections on ebay?

i would like to buy a bis estate, hoping to resell it and at least get a few coins for myself.
is it possible?

 

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Sure, it's possible.

Do you have any experience with buying and selling coins?
Are you knowledgable about coins and grading and evaluating them?

Lots of things you need to consider before you become a coin seller.

Good luck.

 

yes i had some expierense
grading--have read a few books, thou not sure if this is enough.
planning to buy those estate collections on Ebay
not sure if its a good idea thou..

 

Reading the books is an essential step, but it is far from being sufficient. You really, really need to grade hundreds (preferably thousands) of coins before you lay claim to expertise.

 

well often if you buy cheap enough you cant lose you could always break into 2-3 lots and resell right back.

if they have a bad picture blow it up and scan the coins see if you can find anything intresting


never buy them from a dealer hes already checked through them.

as for making money well ive bought about 8 diffrent lots in last month using the principle i described above and ive spend about 60 usd on them including the postage and i found one coin i got 110 usd for alone plus sold most of the rest for about 350 usd.Ialso now have the junk left that i will just relist back as a job lot and probably get what i paid in the fiorst place.

just look at peoples feedback if they have been selling coins forget buying off them at all they will all be looked through already.


Another ploy and i will tell ya this yer prob in diffrent country to me is to search in collections using buy it now and look for the items newly listed, sometime people with no knowledge put a buy now on there load of old coins and you can snap em up before others notice them in the listings.work from the last page forward is the best advice i could give.

thats how i got all my good deals.

 

thjen sit back in your spare time and check the wording dates on them in a google search you oftten see if there making money and what,thats if you dont have books.check that way in ebay too and completed listings you will near always find out if its worth something like that.If it aint throw it in the junk box for a job lot

 

I have purchased a couple of collections from eBay. You need to be very careful which ones you consider. If all of the coins are not itemized, stay away. Many of these are padded with worthless modern coinage. Also, many of these collections advertise graded coins. Be sure that they list who the grading company is. There are a lot of fly-by-night grading companies out there. Coins in these holders would probably command more of a premium broken out of the holders. Take the time to figure the book price of each coin and don't pay more than 60 percent of that if you can help it - otherwise you may have difficulty turning any kind of a profit. Are you looking to resell on eBay or through some other venue? If you are looking to sell through eBay, I suggest that you take the time to put together a good description of each coin and provide clear, informative pictures. It has been my experience that the collections that are under $1000 tend to sell for closer to book price than those over $1000. Hope this helps.

 

Vlad,

Let me throw in my two cents here. Grading is the hardest part of this business. No matter how good you get, it will always be dependent on others agreeing with you. There are companies grading coins that most people still don't agree with.
There really is no magic secret to buying and selling coins, just 2 simple rules.
Rule number 1. Experience.
Rule number 2. Never forget rule 1

 

Well said, sir. Like anything else in life the more you do it, the better you'll become. I've done this all day every day for over a decade and I still learn new things all the time. And I still screw up. Consistently doing deals that are profitable does not come easy, or cheap.
Want to learn the coin business? Offer to do some free work at your local coin shop...and LISTEN while you work. That's one of the best ways to learn...also joining a local coin club will provide priceless experience and knowledge.
Hope this helps!
Nick