Anonymous Offer Made for My Galerius Follis

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Al Kowsky, Jan 20, 2021.

  1. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Yesterday while watching the CNG Triton XXIV auction I received an anonymous offer, via Heritage, for a Galerius follis I won from one of their auctions 4 years ago for $300.00, pictured below. The coin sold for $188.00 + NYS tax of 8% + $15.00 for shipping, bringing the total cost to $233.00. Heritage charges a minimum of $40.00 for making this transaction, bringing the offer down to $260.00. It would cost me at least $15.00 to mail this coin insured, bringing the actual offer down to $245.00, yielding me a profit of $12.00 o_O. I really wonder if Heritage or the person making this offer understands how these transaction work :smuggrin:. Do they really think I'd sell this coin for a $12.00 profit :rolleyes:?

    Galerius  follis, Slab Insert.jpg NGC 4252553-039.jpg
     
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  3. Spargrodan

    Spargrodan Well-Known Member

    Sounds like a terrible deal.
     
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  4. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

    I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you for $12.
    brooklyn-bridge-sale.jpg
     
  5. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    To be fair, its not as bad as you are saying. The NY state sales tax is not uniform, in fact maybe half of all states exempt coins from sales tax. I know Iowa does. So, you cannot blame the offerer of not knowing that aspect of it. Blame Albany for that.
     
  6. Theodosius

    Theodosius Fine Style Seeker

    Your first sentence makes it sound like you won the coin 4 years ago for $300. I had to read it a couple times to understand that the offer was $300. :)

    I would say only take the offer if you are shifting the focus of your collection away from tetradrachms like this into some other area. You would be getting your money back that you could apply to other types of coins. I'm kind of thinking of doing this myself to focus more on artistic Greek coins. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what kind of coins I enjoy owning the most.

    John
     
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  7. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    They are idiots
     
  8. yakpoo

    yakpoo Member

    They contacted you, not the other way around. My guess is they have a buyer looking for your coin and they are acting as a Buyer agent. If it's a coin you love (who wouldn't?), then tell them you would be a seller at $1200...and see what they say. If they say "No"...Oh, Well...no different than if they hadn't contacted you at all. Just be prepared to sell if they say "Yes".

    Value = Collector Base / Availability...(Yakpoo's value equation).
     
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  9. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I don't think the majority of people appreciate the full costs of wheeling and dealing in coins. We get great services from coin dealers but they are well paid for their services. I do not know the pay scale for employees of the big sellers (CNG, Berk, Heritage) but these are not small staffs and someone has to pay them. If we expect a high level professional staff, we can't expect these people to work for minimum wage. Obviously coin dealers hope you will change collecting emphasis often. I am not a coin dealer so I really would prefer that FFIVN will still have the coins he has today when he turns 100. I really would love to know just how often each and every coin has sold since it was removed from the ground. I have three coins that I have owned for over 50 years. I hope those collectors who change their interests as often as they change their socks keep doing it paying the salaries of all those CNG etc. employees who might not be able to keep that job if the only coins they could sell would be from collections of deceased collectors. Our economy counts on people who buy a new house, new car, new furniture etc. on a regular basis and pay the costs involved in making those changes.
     
  10. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Not really worth it for $12. Now if they had said $600 it might have been worthwhile.
     
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  11. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    You could always respond with a higher counter offer and see if they take it.
     
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  12. catadc

    catadc Well-Known Member

    The net price was 188 USD, and gets now to 245 USD. So is an increase of 57 USD, or 30%. What @Al Kowsky is looking for is to transfer all the fees he paid for the purchase of the coin and all the fees he will pay for the sale of the coin to the future owner, and get a profit on top.

    Corroborating this with what Doug said, the future owner is expected to pay for all the costs of selling the coin, or, in other words, it is expected that the price of the coin, after 10 sales, will triple without any profit. Add a profit margin each time, and the price will sky rocket.

    Is this model sustainable, assuming that the coins have a faster turnover than Doug's? I would say not, but would be an interesting exercise to see other's expectations.

    Selling model.PNG
     
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  13. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    ..well 12 bucks is 12 bucks..if they've rang your bell, do what @yakpoo said ifn ya wanna sell it..
     
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  14. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Without regards to statistical "mumbo jumbo", I didn't plan on selling the coin at this time & when I do I'll ask considerably more than $245.00 :p.
     
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  15. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Sorry about the confusion :confused:. I probably should have constructed the sentence differently ;).
     
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  16. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Diocletian era folles & Levant Tets are my main collecting focus, so those coins aren't for sale :cool:.
     
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  17. yakpoo

    yakpoo Member

    Just tell them that and see what they say...if anything. You're in the driver's seat. This way you can see their hold card without offending anyone.
     
  18. Romancollector

    Romancollector Well-Known Member

    The same thing happened to me with my Constantius II solidus. Even though the offer was higher than what I paid for it (incl buyer's fees), it only ended up generating a profit of $30 or so when Heritage's selling fee was added. Instead of selling it, I made a profit of $1020 having it auctioned.
     
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  19. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    ..tell'em to contact me...i'll sell mine for $300 minus fees :D
    Galenius Maxinimus follis Hercules reverse 001.JPG Galenius Maxinimus follis Hercules reverse 002.JPG
     
  20. Curtisimo

    Curtisimo the Great(ish)

    I don’t think it’s unreasonable to make a polite offer slightly above break even on a coin any more than I think it is unreasonable to politely decline such offers.

    The person making the offer would have no way of knowing anything about the collection (or inventory) of the person they were offering to. From the potential buyers perspective it could be considered as the beginning of a negotiation. I would think most coins sold by a collector are as likely to lose money as to make money at auction so some collectors might be happy to make a little profit with minimal hassle depending on their situation. You never know until you ask. (FYI: no I was not the one making this offer :D).

    I don’t blame you for not wanting to sell this one. Nice coin @Al Kowsky . Here is a silvered Diocletian / Genius Follis that I need to get around to re-photographing
    3A7CAD54-CB92-44D8-B14A-3C4B3FDA588D.jpeg
     
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  21. Iepto

    Iepto Active Member

    It's not visible to the bidder what the profits that the seller would net. For example, I wouldn't know that you had to pay sales tax when buying the coin originally -- this depends on where you live, anyways. Heritage doesn't advertise their fees either -- so if I was leaving a bid, it would seem quite reasonable to me that when Heritage sold it for 188$ (after Buyer's premium!), to add another 120$ to the offer.

    It may be more reasonable if heritage provided information on that, but... as it is I can't say I blame the offerer for their offer.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2021
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