I'm at the stage in life where I need to free up some cash. So far it's not too bad but it doesn't hurt to have more savings just in case something happens. When I look at my coin collection - perhaps it has gone out of control as I have boxes of them, ranging from mere change to bulky books. I remembered when I had to move house and when I placed boxes of coins at the trunk, it just seemed like I've loaded too much weight. So far I have been selling off some of the lower grade coins and common duplicates. That was easy. The real challenge comes to this - there's some coins that are easily in the range of hundreds of dollars. This would have been very easy if there was grade differences. But no, this is what I faced - 1) Similar grade but they are softly struck - one has weakly struck image on the left side, the other on the left. Put the two together and you have one perfect coin. Ugh. 2) One is in strong XF condition but environmentally damaged, the other in VF condition and lightly cleaned 3) Similar condition but different varieties. 4) Cleaned XF versus a decent VF 5) A holed F+ coin versus a worn coin. And the list goes on. My current aim is to keep the ones that have better eye appeal. What makes it harder to part with some of them is that even if I wanted to buy them later down the road, the sales record for some of them are in between 1 - 5 on a yearly basis, if not less. I guess at the end of the day, I can't just live on coins (unless I become a professional coin dealer). It might be a lot easier to just sell the whole lot off and not worry about it. Have you gone through such experience and what did you do?
I'd say put them up on ebay and auction them. See what others think they are worth. Maybe start the auction as low as you'd go without losing sleep over. Or it may be better to start at .99 cents to spark some interest. I once sold a booker t Washington graded ms65 for around 20 bucks because my wife said we needed cash. This was one of the not so lucky auctions that hurt. Oh well, you win and lose sometimes.
So are you not actively collecting any longer? I'm sort of in the same boat, but every now and then I run across one that I've got to buy, especially if the price is right. Nowadays though, it's with the intention of flipping it. Example being the March of Dimes coins. I sold them without ever opening the packages, several years ago, I would have never done that. The other day, I bought a couple lots of uncleaned ancients. Mysterious fun, eh what? I've given my world coins to my son - nice collection built over half a century (unfortunately during which I didn't have a lot of disposable income!). But you asked what I'd do if I were you. I'd sell 'em all and have fun doing it. Perhaps supplement your income or stash some for that rainy day that we know will someday occur.
know the price of what you are selling. maybe have a set price plus a best offer. this will all depend on fast you want to sell your coins ??? now or some time later ? I always find it hard to part with any coins I buy. sure there are some coins I could let go of. funny you did this thread because I myself have thought of down sizing my collection to buy other higher priced coins. I was thinking of doing a straight trade at a coin show. bring in a box of coins and say this for that. lol yes I know you could probably get more for your more coins if sold individually. it depends on which coins you want to sell/trade ???
There are several issues with this. First, if the seller doesn't have a lot of feedback, they may not get as much. Auction amounts fluctuate greatly depending on the time of year. USPS loses package then you will be out the money and the coins. The coin has to go for enough to warrant insuring them and you need a third party insurance carrier as USPS insurance is problematic. You have to deal with Ebay Buyer Protection abuse. It is there for good reason, I've had sellers that didn't send what the list (either dates missing they listed or sent completely different coins). Selling in person to a dealer at a show is definitely easier. I have sold junk silver there and got the same or more than Ebay minus the fees and got cash right away with no risk.
List it all on FleaBay @ 99c/No Reserve and let the bidding determine the sale price. When I decided to start selling things off, that's what I did and I have had no regrets. Chris
USPS loses package then you will be out the money and the coins You cannot be out the money and the coins, you never own both.
That's the way it goes sometimes. About 2-3 years ago, I listed a 2007-P Washington Prez $ graded NGC MS64 "Missing Partial Edge Lettering" @ 99c No Reserve. I got it from a US Mint bag, submitted it to NGC as one of my freebies and it sold for $228. Chris
Look at the bright side. Suppose the CIA bought eBay, Pay Pal and the USPS. Then, what would you do if you had a problem? Chris
If you're in no hurry to sell, post a "For Sale" once a week with a list of what you are selling and your price on here. And maybe partner with a local coin shop and get a table at the next show and display your wares - using his license for legalities and pay him a small commission for making it happen. Of course the best idea is to sell them all to me for face value, realizing that I'm your new best friend. And I would be - on paper anyhow! I'm interested in hearing how you end up, I'm looking at a 15-20 year horizon before I stop collecting and start selling off. I would like ideas on what you see work out best. Good luck! Enjoy your windfall!
Well then if you want to be technical. You will no longer have the coin and get nothing in return for it. Same as if it was lost or stolen. I think people get the drift but some need to be technical about it. Might be better if you exchange them at the bank, at least you will get face value. Anyhow, no matter how much the cost, make sure you use tracking with every transaction. Some will just say they never got it if they experience buyer's remorse or if they buy a lot of coins, they may just use tracking to tell if they got it. They may just not want to pay. At another forum someone suggested someone do that, just say they didn't get it since the buyer was not satisfied and the seller did not provide tracking. Another had a case opened, and after they provided tracking showing it was received, the case was dropped. I just got a message myself asking "did you ship the coin? tracking?". Second one recently just like it. I guess if you sell a coin for $3.75 your expected to spend $3 shipping it.
I never shipped anything with tracking regardless of value. My experience was that only about 1 in 500 items got lost and I could happily eat this miniscule cost. For the less sanguine I suggest self insurance, assume 1 in 100 items may be lost and add 1% of the average item cost into the shipping and handling. More casually, if your average item is $10, drop a dime in a jar for every item you send. Use the jar to refund buyers, have more and happier buyers with lower postal costs. This will allow you to send cheapcoins as simple letters.
For me, I just counted, it was one every 15 who asked me for a tracking number even thought they paid under $4 for the coin. The last one that asked that I told him I should have provided tracking and charged him for it. I have been getting these weird new users with odd random looking usernames. They are new users with little feedback and never leave me feedback which makes me question what they are going to do. I would not send anything over $10 without tracking personally. If you don't have tracking and they open a case, they win automatically. It really depends, people with a lot of feedback and or sellers themselves tend not to claim they didn't receive something when they did.
Join a Coin Club that has a low fee Auction that goes back to the club. You will be very surprised at how high the bidding goes. You may find a dealer at the club to display some at Coin Shows for you if you help pay for the table. This worked very well for me without the e-bay hassle etc. and I could track my sales. Ron W.
Sometimes there is a blessing in disguise. I decided to lump all my unwanted coins into several piles and sell them as such. I nearly threw this in the pile of unwanted coin and gave it one final look. I couldn't figure out what was it initially. Turns out this is a rotation error coin from Singapore. Singapore isn't too well known for error coins. Sure it would have given the buyer a blast. This is what a normal coin should look like: And this is what I found today: And to think I've neglected this pile of coins for a few years...
