Best way to liquidate a collection

Hi everyone, as the title says what is the best way to liquidate a collection? I'm talking about a large collection of 300+ that has high/mid to high value coins. Anyone have experience doing this? What was your experience like?

The way I see it you could:

Sell your collection off quickly piece by piece on ebay starting at $0.99. This may get you more money long term (if you attract bidders) but it's time intensive and not for the weak of stomach. You have dead beat bidders and the hassle of shipping coins out and the danger of them getting lost in the post. You're also committed to sell regardless of final bid. Ebay and PayPal fees...

Sell your collection on ebay with "Buy it Now" or Best Offer. This would take longer to liquidate and higher or lower grade coins may not sell at all. You'd have to deal with all the lowballers and shipping as above

Sell individual coins to your local dealer. If you have a good relationship with your local dealer you could sell parts of your collection back over time. In most cases you'd probably get around 50-75% of the coins value depending on the coin. It could be even less for low grade coins if they want them at all.

Sell the entire collection to a dealer in one shot. This may be the easiest but most difficult to do. Not many dealers have the capital to drop $20K+ to acquire a collection. They probably have a formula to work out an average price per coin rather than go through each one individually. You'd win some but you'd probably loose out more.

Consign coins to an auction house. Large auction houses have huge customer lists and good coins will command good prices. There is the risk of shipping coins oversees or across boarders but once there they handle everything. Fees may kill any potential profit and some may not sell at all. Reserve or no reserve? You loose control of how it is sold, some coins may go into group lots and important coins may be overlooked in the write up.

If you have time you could consign through a dealer with your minimum price. Dealer would pay you once coin is sold and he'd deduct his commission. This may be the best option but it would take a very long time to liquidate everything and they may not be interested in consigning lower value coins.


Did I miss anything? What has been your experience. I'm toying with the idea of starting over.

 

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Let me preface this by saying that I personally haven't sold my or another person's collection, but I've observed collections being sold (mostly on auction sites but occasionally via consignment or elsewhere).

Even though there are over 300 coins in the collection to which you refer, my first step would be to research and value the collection as accurately as possible. This may take some time but my point here is to set your expectations rationally rather than optimistically.

Suppose your research (on VCoins, Sixbid, ACSearch, etc.) indicates that the collection is valued at about $20K retail. I would then estimate the potential liquidation value using your fairly thorough list (above) of the various means of disposing of the collection.

For example, selling a retail value $20K collection to a dealer is probably going to bring in $12K - $15K at most, based on the dealer's risk, turnover, etc. Really, most VCoins dealers probably have the wherewithal to purchase a $12K collection if it has enough coins they're willing to add to their inventory. Is this a sufficient amount for you/the collector? If so, it's probably the fastest way to liquidate.

If that amount is insufficient, my observation is that you're probably going to have go the consignment/auction route to potentially maximize your return. Possibly you could choose the top 100 coins from the collection and auction them, or consign them, and then sell the lesser 200 or so coins to a dealer. This is a slower liquidation method, though, and if you want to have your top coins included in the higher profile auctions, you'll probably need 6 - 12 months lead time.

Personally, I would not want to sell a larger or even moderate number of coins individually myself through EBay or similar person-to-person auctions. It's just too much hassle for the incremental return.

BTW, when you write "...collection of 300+ that has high/mid to high value coins..." what are your definitions of "high/mid" and "high" value? For some collectors, "high" value is $50,000+; for others, it's $1,000+.

 

Maybe contact a few ancient dealers and give them a list of the coins for sale with approximate grades. Provide those that are interested a chance to see the coins (Pics maybe good enough to see who is really interested) and then get 3-4 bids on the whole lot. Highest bidder wins.

Just talked with ancient coin dealer that dropped $70K on a collection. This dealer said he offered 50-60% of what he would retail the coins at. He was bidding against 3 other dealers and had the highest bid.

 

Having had recent experience of a friend selling part of a huge collection of Ancients I would advise an auction house but research them all thoroughly and negotiate. My friend was advised to sell over three auctions because his volume could saturate the market but withdrew the balance of his coins after the first auction because he experienced appalling service. The Auction House was a major London company but because of the volume were too lazy to catalogue individual coins but grouped them in batches of 4 with low estimates to "attract" buyers.
So what happened to my friend was that $200 dollar coins at current auction house prices were catalogued at $200 - $300 for 4 and sold at $400 so 50% of value less of course commission plus sales tax, net result a total disaster.
He is pretty disconcerted (pissed) and will now sell his coins with a specialist ancient auction House such as Naville or Roma who will list coins on an individual basis as this is not a hoard. He negotiated a lower fee than advertised but if the auction house sells cheap that is irrelevant.

 

Don't just blindly trust a company to do right by you. As long as the coin sells, even low, they get money. Getting you top dollar is the least of their concerns. Even if you consign for a set percentage. Once they sell it they can move on to the next, so trying to get top dollar out is sometimes more effort for them, personnel and time wise, than simply listing it with little fanfare and taking what happens.

 

Another way you could approach this is to make a list of your coins, grades, and mark what retail value should be, as well as dealers purchase price. Put a mark or note if on any you would be firm about getting a certain amount or more from it. Carry them to a large coin show and look for dealers specializing in your types of coins. See what if any they want to purchase and what they offer. If at or above your minimum, sell. If too low or no interest, move to another dealer. If a rep from a major auction house is there talk to them about your whole collection.With what is left, find out which ones are good candidates for you or someone else selling for you on ebay. Put up the real cheap ones no one is that interested in on ebay yourself.

 

Starting over with another type of ancient coin or another era of coin? I sold one ancient coin on eBay as an experiment and lost money in the deal. I've heard some sad stories about ancient coin collectors—strapped for money—selling to dealers who do not specialize in ancients at considerable loss.

When I part with my collection (no time soon I promise you) I'm going to have my collection generously appraised. Then donate the whole collection to a church or a university. I'll then be able to claim it as a charitable donation on my income taxes.

If you donate the collection to an institution it may be named after you—“The Jay GT4 Collection”

 

This is why I suggest taking the top coins from the collection -- maybe it's 10 coins, maybe it's 100 coins -- and considering auctions or consignment of these individual coins. Of course, this must be communicated explicitly to the auction house or dealer: You want each coin listed individually with a reserve of $XXX. If the dealer or auction house is unwilling to do this, then you'll need to find a more cooperative reseller.

This is the range I would expect a dealer to offer.

This is one approach to maximizing your return on the collection, but has the potential to take a very long time and require an unavailable amount of your time to accomplish.

Fundamentally, you have to make a decision about time spent selling vs. total amount received. These two factors are directly correlated -- you can't escape that financial reality.

 

Like others have suggested, I would recommend an auction house you are comfortable with.

Btw, there are many collectors with the wherewithall to buy $20+k collections. For dealers that is nothing. It all depends on the collection and the collector or dealer's specialty. If for example you had a collection of Parthian coins, you will probably maximize your return talking to a Parthian specialist collector or dealer.

 

I would recommend EITHER consigning the coins at retail OR consigning the coins at auction, OR perhaps a combination of the two. In both cases, a trustworthy, reputable and popular dealer is key to getting the best prices and the quickest sales. I would not recommend direct sale on eBay, for the reasons stated above. I would not recommend wholesaling to a dealer, because 50% of retail is all you could expect at wholesale (I think your 50-75% is overly optimistic).

 

Quite a way to leave a legacy! So generous!


Thanks,
Jacob

 

Thanks everyone for your input.

I've always traded up with my ancients to get fewer but better pieces. I'm at the point now where it requires a big sell to take it to the next level.

Donating coins would be nice but no guarantee the institute will want them or even keep them. The last thing we need is coins stored away in the basement collecting dust.

The big dealers can and will drop big money to acquire a good collection but I wonder how many small local dealers can. I'm not interested in ebay, auction house or dealer consignment is probably the best bang for your denarius.

 

Auction house or dealer bulk buy is the QUICKEST result, but not necessarily the highest return after wholesale discount or seller fees are deducted. If you can patiently wait, a retail consignment can do very well and yield a larger percentage of the sale price (depending on the venue).

 

This will likely be your best bet for a good number of them. The auctions are to risky for the majority of sellers and you'd likely end up eating it on a good number is not most of them.

Your best option in general will likely be a combination of everything those. Some special pieces will probably do best at an auction house or taking a strong dealer offer if you don't want to risk it with high end items on eBay, more common things that dealers generally lowball or things with a thinner market will do best with BINs, and low start auctions for anything you just want to get rid of at any price.

What they'll likely do is make an offer an offer where basically they're just paying for the keys/best coins and anything else you'll essentially be giving away for free. This and the no reserve eBay option are the two worst ways to do it.

 

If there's a dealer who would be interested in your material, but also has a lot of the better stuff you want to trade up to, you may do better to negotiate a trade.

Another option that is intermediate between eBay and consigning to an auction is CataWiki. (I'm going to try it for individual pieces.) Buyers have more confidence in the genuineness of the material, so it fetches better prices than on eBay (at least if you're a relative unknown on there). You have more control over the listing, and they run auctions every week, so it wouldn't take too long.

 

I largely did this when exiting the US market and switching into ancients. In my case, I picked a trusted dealer and had him slowly liquidate coins, some via private sales, some via auctions, and some he bought outright.

Unless it's material for which a dealer already has a buyer lined up, you're going to take a sizable haircut trying to sell outright. I'd instead suggest spreading the consignment around, especially if they're all of a similar collecting sphere (collectors only have a fixed amount of money and if you dump a ton of coins which would be bought by the same people, they'll run out before they can buy it all).

If your coins are worth more than $300 or so each, I'd steer clear of eBay and instead consign them to a real dealer. If you know what you want for them and want to just go for fixed prices, Harlan Berk's Buy/Bid sales would probably suit you well.

If you're wanting to roll the dice a bit, consigning them to CNG is what I'd suggest. I just dropped off some duplicates myself and will have some more to give them in January. Depending on your price bracket, they could find their way into the next Triton auction, Mail Bid sale, or eSale. And they certainly get enough eyes on the coins to have them sell for good prices.

Overall, unless you need the money very quickly, I'd suggest being as patient as possible and trying different avenues. However, once you put out a coin, it won't be "fresh" so ensure you're selecting the right sales venue for the coin and setting a fair price for it. Having it go unsold could reduce demand for a while.

 

If I were wanting to sell my coins the first thing I'd do is put out an email to 15 or so specialist RR collectors I know with offers based on what I'd expect the coins to hammer for at auction on some of the rarer pieces or those that are of special interest (i.e. interesting dies, overstrikes, etc). I'd prefer to sell as many as possible to those collectors who would most appreciate them before then selecting those that are still worth enough to consign to an auction house and sending them off and the rest I'd likely consign to a trusted retail dealer. I also keep track of who I was bidding against for various coins and would probably send an email to the underbidders giving them a second chance before consigning to auction as I've found that to be a good way to sell off coins and get what you paid out of them.

 

That's really practical advice.

 

I never like seeing a collector part with his collection, except maybe to upgrade.

 

I'm sorry but 300 coins is not a large collection and $67 per coin average is not high/mid value. You received good advice from several above but all were premised on 'coins over $300 each' or some other measure not met by the numbers given originally. The most important thing in selling anything is to make the method fit the market. There are dealers who would take $67 coins on consignment and charge a minimum of $50 per coin to sell them. You need one that charges a minimum of $5. There are dealers who will buy $20k outright but you can not expect them to pay as much as a consignment seller might bring. You do that when time is a factor. 50% of fair retail would be very generous for a large group of low value items you want sold right now. Then we have the problem of what is fair retail. A coin that sold on a CNG sale for $67 against a $100 estimate is not 'worth' $67 when you sell it. People pay dealers like CNG more because it includes professional services like authentication and attribution. When someone with zero feedback posts that same coin on eBay, it may not attract bids at half the price.

If I wanted to sell 300 $67 coins today, I might consider offering them to a dealer who buys outright (several years ago, I sold some to Frank Robinson) or takes consignments of that level material (our own John Anthony comes to mind) but even offering them the coins will cost you postage mailing them to them or their offer. That is what makes taking such a lot to a large show attractive. You can show them to several dealers and take the best offer. Most will turn them down saying they already have too many coins like that (possibly true, possibly not). Everything I have said would be different if the average coin was $6700. No one will make you an offer sight unseen based on your estimate of retail value. Most of us think our coins are worth more than fact supports.

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