Say you were searching an inherited safe that, say, your great-grandfather left you. In the back, you find a hoard of coins - two full rolls of 1914-D cents, (or ANY scarce coin) ranging in grade from AU-55 up to MS-65. How would you deal with the find, from a collecting and money-making standpoint? How could one sell so many examples of such a rare coin, without hurting the value? I assume the value of high-grade pieces would fall quickly, right? You can only keep such a find secret for so long... I'd keep a few of the choicest examples, and then I don't know what I'd do - sell them slowly, I guess... Joe
Your right, don't sell all at one time just slowly leak them out. And of course keep a few of the best for yourself.
I'd probably grade 2 of the highest quality coins and keep them for myself. Many dealers would be wary of raw high end key coins, suspecting fraud. You don't want to depress the market on these coins but you still should get something out of it. OK, maybe send a few to the 3 top TPGs and then sell them individually. I hope, one day, to be in that situation. Yeah, that'll happen!
I'd probably send them all to either NGC or PCGS. Then, keep the nicest example or 2 and sell the rest individually.
Hypotheticly, I'd have one of the most talked about contests ever with 10 winners then unload the rest slowly.
First thing would be to NOT post about it here! Once the word is out the price will drop wether deservedly so or not (50 new specimens added to a population of several thousand, unless all grade really high should not overly effect the long term price) Second I would not send them all in for grading at once. reason? same as above. I would release them in small quantities over a decent period of time through different reliable auction houses after having them slabbed of course. Richard
Joe, 14-Ds aren't even close to scarce, and if you found a roll of them you could sell them however you chose without affecting their price. However, if you were talking about a truly rare coin, I would dole them out to a few dealers over an extended period of time (a year or two), or a large number of dealers in a very short period of time (and hope they don't find out)...Mike
ICG is the only one of the big 4 that do not have a visible population survey, so you could hide some coins from the market in their slabs. This will keep the market price fairly stable. Cross or regrade with PCGS or NCG when ready to add to the market, you will make the price of the reslabbing. Consider taking a discount and wholesale a few to several other coin dealers if the timeline is too long. Jim
Such a find could cause problems with dear old Grandad's estate. I think I would keep quiet - try and unload the lot to a single source or individually very slowly over time.
Leadfoot beat me.....but he brings up a good point. What would be a "rare" coin where a roll or 2 would shift the pricing within a year or so. Using a total PCGS population of MS60 and above , in a popular series like Lincoln cents, would it be 10 total, 100, 1000, 5000? here is a list of a few with approximate total MS60- up RD. 09VDB 10,000 09SVDB 2,000 09 S/horS 360 17 DDO 10 24D 150 31S 2,000 55DDO 250 72DDO (I) 2500 95 DDO 11,000 The first thing that strikes me is that one can not go by just the population reports, as hype, sentimentality, "holes" in album all play a strong part. I can't readily come up with a formula. Jim
The 1916 Standing Libeerty Quarter is the circulating coin that has the most volatile price history, and it is because of the sceneario you described. I'm not sure what time frame exactly, but every year or two or so someone would die with several of these coins in their estate. Many times the people that inherited these coins would put them all on the market at the same time or close to it and cause the price to drop, but the price would always go back up eventually. Not that I will ever have to worry about this happening to me, but here is what I would do if it did. I would keep some raw, send some to PCGS, and send some to NGC. I would sell one every 3 to 6 six months for about 18 months or so. Then I would quit for about a year and restart the process again. Of course it is easy for me to say all this since I am not actually in that situation. , but I sure would like to be. I've always wondered if I had a coin say worth $5000.00 or more would I really trust the mail to send it to be graded, or send it to a buyer. I know there are companies out there that can be used for the shipment of high value items, but I've also read of problems with these. Can one self deliver a coin to NGC or PGCS? ICG is located 2 or 3 miles from my house, but one is not permitted to self deliver or pick up.
You can deliver coins to PCGS of NGC at any coin show that they attend. other than that i don't know. Richard
If I would have a really expensive coin I would probably do that "at the show" thing I guess, although I can't quite picture myself walking around with a $10,000.00 coin in my pocket. But, say for the "rest of us" type coins being graded, don't they charge a premium for the grading at shows?
A true rarity, sell them to dealers (face to face) as you need to. I dont think I would consider the state or effect of the market. I mean if you have 150,000 in value and you get 100,000, well that seem pretty good, I think.
I wouldn't worry about mailing such a coin as long as you ship it by registered mail. Registered mail is VERY VERY safe. For high values stay away from the other mail services because they would be questionable. Items go missing from them all the time. But Registered mail almost never ever ever ever goes missing.
