Question for the group as I am a newbie. But where do these sellers on EBay find all theses collections, lots and large groups of coins that the y sell? Anyone have any ideas?
Many of them are dealers and are regularly purchasing small, medium and large sized collections from private collectors. Although I cannot be certain, I would guess that in most cases the collections offered are assembled and are not being offered as they were purchased. In other words, a dealer purchases a collection and removes all of the key date material and then assembles these collections with what is remaining.
I see a lot of 'collections' being sold that are really nothing more than one or two interesting coins surrounded by a bunch of common stock. it's just window dressing - anyone can do it. Puchase a couple of good coins, and a bunch of bin style '4 for a dollar' types and take some snapshots.
I've seen one ebay seller selling coins by 2200 pounds lots. That is, by lots of one TON. In average it would be 220000 coins... I've seen also my local coin shop buying stuff from customers. It seems it would take them a couple of years to get just one such lot. Maybe I am mistaken, but there must be other ways for the bulk sellers to get the coins.
It is doubtful you will ever find anything worth while in these lots. They're great for the kids or you could get some type coins affordably. David
Rick, nds76, I agree with you, but the question remains: where does one get enough coins to sell them as 2200 pound lots?
There are a number of ways. These dealers/collectors accumulate coins for a long time from buying hoards of coins wether it be from auctions, individuals, finds, etc... David
in lots by the pound, both the buyer and the seller are going for quantity... if that's all you're looking for, fast accumulation can be had in a number of ways. Post an ad in the paper, ask dealers about their bulk stock go to flea market style auctions... there are so many ways to skin that cat - I don't recommend it.
I thought about buying one of these "so-called" unsearched lots for the heck of it. I know I wont get anything good but more curious whats all in there. David
I can shed some light on this, I think...although my time seems to be tight these days and I can't visit here as often as I'd like. I have a small but very busy coin shop. I buy a LOT of stuff, virtually every day there's collections coming in...sometimes just a handful, sometimes entire estates...boxes and boxes of stuff. Also, after years in the business I've got many established dealer friends that sell to me when they have accumulated a lot. Sometimes they ship it to me, sometimes they bring it to the store, sometimes we meet at a show. In turn I have some customers that buy this from me, either to sell on ebay, sell at flea markets, or maybe they have an order from one of their customers etc. The bulk items usually are: 1. Wheat cents. I buy these "over the counter", at coin shows, and from other dealers. Typically they're traded in bags of 5000. $50 face value in a bag. I sometimes buy/sell 30-50 bags in a month. 2. Foreign coins. Again this can come from other dealers, private collections, etc. Also many banks supply me with their long time accumulations. This is tricky because I have to buy it ALL and there could be a ton of it (literally) and I have to take everything, they want it all gone so there's no cherrypicking and no culling stuff out. Some high volume foreign coin dealers can be good sources of this material. It's nothing for me to buy/sell 1000 pounds per month. I've owned 10k pounds at one time on more than one occasion. My biggest deal to date was 66 tons. 3. 90% silver and 40% silver coins. These trade in bags of $1000 face value. There's always a market for this stuff. Usually small dealers accumulate enough to sell to the big dealers, who in turn supply it to each other, to investors, and to small dealers who have orders for it from their customers. There's other bulk stuff too but these are the most common items. I'm always willing to help if I can. If anyone wants more info you can pm me or email or phone or messenger pigeon or whatever. Just understand that this is not something you can simply start doing. It takes a LONG time to cultivate some of these contacts. Hope this info has contributed to the thread. Best, Nick
Tradernick, thank you for your reply - it was very informative. Thanks. As a side note, I have no desire to get into that business. I was just asking to satisfy my curiosity. You see, I just could not imagine a ton (as in 2200 pounds) of coins being casually sold and bought...
