Hello, and thank you in advance for your help. I was refered to this forum through a link from http://www.arstechnica.com, and I hope my question is appropriate. I recently inherited a little under 6lbs of 90% silver coins. My wife and I went through and did a hand count to try and figure out what we got (results included below). Based on that hand count, and the 90% silver coin prices listed at http://www.coinflation.com/silver_coin_values.html I posted an auction on ebay with a reserve price of $1,100. The high bid was only $787 and I'm trying to figure out why - It seems like the coins are worth more then that. If these were your coins, where would you try to sell them - and what would you consider to be a fair value? Hand Count
First of all welcome to the forum. Second of all (does that make sense?) what is the face value of the coins? Lastly, hang around and learn a few things. Ask more questions. You may have some decent INDIVIDUAL pieces there that will get more money if sold individually than offering them up as a lot. clembo
Howdy gryphx - Welcome to the Forum !! You received a pretty close to fair price. You need to keep in mind that nobody is going to pay you full silver value because they intend to sell the coins when they get them and they want to make a profit. You got about 20% under spot. The buyer knows that when he sells, the best he can expect is 10% under spot so he only offered 20% under spot. That way at least he can hope to break even at worst and make a little at best.
Thank you for the warm welcome and the quick replies! Clembo - The the face values is $101.50 GDJMSP - This might be a question - but where would the people buying from me sell for 10% under spot, and can I just sell directly to those people? I'm not commited to e-bay being the right venue for the sale.
The good news is that you received about a fair market price. The bad news is that the current fair market price for silver is probably on the low side of intrinsic value. Coin silver is not the same as other junk silver because it has a known weight and purity and in my opinion [note that this is only opinion] it will sell much closer to spot as it becomes more scarce. Edit: One dealer near me that I visited around Christmas is offering $9 for one ounce silver eagles that were probably selling for $16 at the time. It's robbery, but that's his offer price.
First, your reserve was really close to what you expected the final value to be. I've seldom seen a high reserve auction on eBay do well- something in the bidder psychology, I guess. I'd bet if you listed them for face value starting bid with a 7 day auction, a good description and good pictures that you'd get above $1,100 for sure. Second, you could sell them, as you alluded to in your second post, directly to someone paying more; one such entity (I'm in no way affiliated) is on the bullion direct nucleo exhange, currently offering to pay $1190.00 for $100 face value of 90% silver coins, other, similar entities exist. Third, as has been mentioned, you can frequently get better than melt (on eBay) for more desirable series like Mercury dimes and Walking Liberty Halves if you sell them separately, just make sure to take the multiple listing fees into account too.
Fisrt. Welcome. Second. Get a better picture of that Standing Liberty Quarter. Third. You might want to go through them and search for key dates.( dates that folks pawn thier children for.). You have to establish yourself on Ebay to get bidders to just buy a jar full of whatever after they only see the top layer of coins. go to coinvalues again and look at the pictures of grading. That will give you an idea of what is junk and what are better than average. Ok? Good now get that SLQ picture on here!!
Silver has been jumping arournd but over $17/ounce right now. Hard for the dealers but I really do think a decent dealer would give you at least 9 times face if not more. I know my local dealer buys strong. OUCH!
If your benefactor simply threw coins in a cookie jar like many people do and had no numismatic interest, and you have not taken the time to sort through the coins for dates and mintmarks of special value, then what you have may be a rarity, an UNSEARCHED lot. Most coin people view that term with deep suspicion as most auctions touting bags of "unsearched" are bags of bullion that have actually been searched and searched dozens of times so that anything left in the bag is worthy only of melting. Is it possible your benefactor just bought the bags as a silver investment and did not save them from pocket change? If you feel the coins have not been searched it may be a worthwhile and fun exersize to go through them with your family while sitting after dinner or whatever. First sort by quarter or dimes etc in one bag then sort by date into separate bags, then by mintmark etc. grab a coin value guide and see if you have some FINDS ( There is always a chance that one or two coins could be worth more than the whole pile. If it is just bags of pre 1965 silver then call around to local dealers and get their bid for 90% melt coins. melt price offered will be considerably less that the current 17$oz spot price on silver. whoever buys from you needs a cut, refiner needs a cut then the broker selling spot needs some. have fun looking
Welcome to the forum! :thumb: You didn't get a bad price IMHO for the silver, but I do think you can get a better price. I don't think you'll get over a $1,000 to be honest, but I think anywhere from $800-$900 you can look at for getting them. But before you sell, like craig suggested, check the coins for key dates and all, they are normally worth a pretty good decent some over melt. Best of luck. :thumb: Phoenix
They are on ebay, and you can sell directly to them. If they happen to see your auction and decide to bid on it. But apparently they didn't. That's just the chance you take with auctions.
I think you guys are really underestimating the value here- if it were me I wouldn't accept less than $1000, or conversely, I would consider any 90% US silver priced at less than 10x face value a bargain for the buyer. Consider these recent eBay examples: $100 face, sold for $1200 in less than 24 hours http://cgi.ebay.com/100-Face-Value-90-Silver-Halves-Quarters_W0QQitemZ130197882846QQihZ003QQcategoryZ11972QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem $235 face, sold for $2676 (11.4 times face value) http://cgi.ebay.com/235-FACE-VALUE-SILVER-BULLION-U-S-QUARTERS-HALVES_W0QQitemZ290201438696QQihZ019QQcategoryZ39489QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem $100 face, sold for $1165 in less than 24 hours http://cgi.ebay.com/100-Face-Value-90-Silver-Washington-Quarters_W0QQitemZ180212450408QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39490QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem $50 face, sold for $610 (12.2 times face) in less than 30 minutes http://cgi.ebay.com/50-00-Face-90-Silver-Coins-Dimes-Quarters-Halves_W0QQitemZ300197762501QQihZ020QQcategoryZ39489QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem If you open up the original poster's first attachment, he lists the dates (without mintmarks) of all the coins he has. With the exception of the 1917 walking liberty half, the rest are pretty common dates and assuming they're circulated (they look like it) are not worth more than melt value.
Just as a thought, you might get more money if you broke them down into small groups of coins with some theme behind them such as World War II silver, or short date runs, or several coins from the same year, or some other grouping. Many more collectors will buy circulated coins in small batches than large ones [MAYBE]. Take good photos so nobody is deceived about condition. It's all in the marketing when it comes to Ebay.
the problem with ebay is you can get a decent price, but then you have to pay their fees and it will be a lot less!
That's the first thing I thought of. If you don't know what dates to look for, get a red book. The $$$ values aren't totally up-to-date, but it sure does reveal what the key dates are.
