A good friend of mine who's mom is getting on in her years has recently retired and is moving into a retirment village thing... She has known me for 15+ years and knows I collect coins... The other night she was talking to her son/my friend and told him to get ahold of me and see if I was interested in it or she was going to take it to a local junk/antique shop.... From what I know, I'm interested.... It seems she has been buying Proof Sets, Mint Sets, and other special edition sets,and prolly a lot of Franklin mint crap too for the last 30 or so years or so.... She does not have every set in order as she is missing one here, three there, one here, etc.. etc... But its a lot... I did see several in each decade 70, 80s, early 90s... More than I have and have seen from someone I know... Its all Moderns, nothing Slabbed, no 2x2s or Albums... The oldest thing would be a jar full of Circulated Pre-64 coins... I'm not sure why she has accumulated this mini-hoard as she knows nothing about coins and doesn't really care about them or their history... :desk: When talking to her about it, the best I could get out of her is that they might be worth something one day... I've seen a bunch of it, but not all of it... I'm supposed to go look at it sometime soon, in the next few weeks... What I'm wondering is how should I go about making her an offer??? I mean what price list should I use to go off of for this??? These are good friends, so I want to be fair and offer her more than a Coin store or someone else would... I don't want to rip her off by any means, but I'd like to get a good deal myself.... If I was going to pay retail, I could just get them from any coin store... Does that make sense???
Show her the red book perhaps? Or she could take them to a coin dealer and if you can't better the deal, well there it goes.
treat them as you would want to be treated...show her what its worth...get an idea what a dealer would pay and let her know what that price would be around, then...come to a mutual fair agreement...good luck
That's what I was going to say! :thumb: :thumb: If it was worth that much to me, I would probably offer to top the dealer by 10% or so, to give myself a good deal and your buddy's mom a fair price at the same time.
http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=21650 That's what I came across. I bought alot of it for $300 then I gave them A price guide for the "good stuff". There was nothing really spectaculer but it was a good hoard. I found some half cents, 3 cents, large cents, proof sets, and lots of junk silver!
If someone asked me if I wanted to buy their coins ("or she was going to take it to a local junk/antique shop"), I'd get a list of everything and ask her what she wants for it. If it's a good deal, I'd buy it, if it doesn't seem so, I'd make an offer. Showing people "the red" book and/or other inflated price guides just gives the wrong impression of true worth, and sets people up for disappoinment when they find out what a dealer (or anyone) will offer. Personally, if she took them to a dealer to get an offer... I'd offer to match it and let her know her collection is in the hands of a collector she knows and trusts. Why would she sell it to the dealer and not you? I see no need to offer 10% over. Of course, all of this assumes it's something you want. Don't make the mistake of buying all this stuff just to buy it. I bought years of proof sets (one of those things that tends to make one want to get every one for some unknown reason), before realizing that I'll probably never get one of each year, and even if I did, I'm not sure it would be the centerpiece of the collection. I mean I have the 70, the 71, the 72, the 73 and years before that, and years after that. They aren't rare, the condition is nearly the same in every set, and I'll be long dead before they are worth more than $5. I suppose I should say that I'm more of a type collector though. I don't collect one coin of every denomination, P, D, S mints, etc., and really can't understand why anyone would. I have friends that do that (or try to, he has many, many albums he's working on and says he'll probably never finish anything due to it heh). It would drive me crazy. Just make sure it's something you want (the point of all that).
I don't have any tips, other than what samjimmy said about offering her the same amount that a dealer would, and her knowing who it is going to. Either way, good luck! :thumb: Phoenix
I was thinking about using the CDN Grey Sheet and offering her Bid or Bid +10%... The last coin show I went to I bought Proofs and Mint sets from two different dealers... They both handed me their Greysheet and said they would like to get Bid on everything on the table... So, I looked up each set, thought prices listed were fair.. I bought one of each that they had....
Personally, I'd avoid doing business with friends or family, just so there won't be any hurt feelings. I would help her evaluate the collection and find a dealer that is willing to pay a fair price. My $0.02, 09S
Sorta, kinda agree with that. It is just to logical that in the near future someone else will say WOW, that was probably worth millions. And he bought if tor WHAT? Like selling a car to a freind or relative. Anything that goes wrong is because you took advantage of them. Read what samjimmy suggested and think about getting involved.
I think that as long as there is a third party appraisal, this could be a good thing for both you and your friends mom. I personally wouldn't have an issue with paying a little a over a dealers quote if I really wanted the coins. Your friend and his Mom are less likely to feel taken advantage of this way. The coins go to someone they like and they feel will appreciate and care for the coins. If she has any emotional attachment to the coins, this may be of some comfort. I am sure you will do what you feel is right and fair or you would not have asked the question to begin with. Good luck!
Doesn't sound to me as if she does. Sounds to me as if she's moving and wants to more or less dump them (along with many other things) so she doesn't have to pack them and take them along... On price sheets, it may be worth $500, but in the interest of dumping them, she may take much less (and I don't feel that's taking advantage of anyone). When we moved, we dumped $1,000's of dollars worth of stuff for much less, just so we didn't have to take it. I sold a year old $450 lawnmower for $100 (no lawn at the new place so what am I going to do with a $450 lawnmower?) I gave away stuff worth hundreds to people I knew could use it. To me, coins aren't any different. She may want a few bucks over face for the sets... so be it. Ask her what she wants.. she'll get a few bucks to buy something she does care about and want.
Open and honest communication with your friend and his mom. Figure out what her intentions are and make sure everyone is happy before you walk away from the table. If not - pass on the lot and keep your friendship in tact.
If they're close friends, offer to take the coins to several dealers and get offers, then pay a bit more than the highest offer. If you're CDN knowledgeable, you could pay BID and that would be VERY fair. No dealer will typically pay that much...many will sell their stuff at bid, as you mentioned. Hope this helps, tradernick
Howdy, When dealing with friends/family why not do the same thing you would with a car? KellyBlueBook has Private Party Sale price. It's the difference between trade in and retail. Split the difference between wholesale and retail with her using Red and Blue book pricing. You can show her both - and you both win. It's honest and fair. peace, rono
