Help in Selling a Collection

I am looking for advice and comments on selling an old coin collection (accumulation). I am an avid and active coin collector, but over the past years I have gotten into more higher grade slabbed coins. I inhereted a pretty sizeable collection from my father, and I am now looking to sell the extras and not sure the best way to proceed. I have created some sets of the raw coins, and I will keep those in my collection. I have gone through the remaining coins and have determined the bid and ask values and have placed them into 2X2 flips. In total, the extra coins would seem to have decent value, and would like to sell them either piece-meal or in total and then use that money to buy more slabbed coins. For me this is as much a question of sentimental value as anything as the slabbed coins I buy from the proceeds will still be considered to me as coming from my father. I think most of you will understand this. This is the background.

The collection is mainly coppers (IHC, Lincolns), raw buffalos, and a horde of silver coins. On the coppers, anything with a bid value of less than a couple of dollars I just put into a large container and will save this for future grandkids to sort thru and hopefully give them the coin bug. Same for the buffalos and other non-silver coins. On the non-silver coins, the question for me is at what bid value is it worth trying to sell versus just adding to the junk box?

On the silver coins, when I look at the bid/ask values, many of them seem to have value above melt. I have placed the common date roosevelt and mercury dimes, washington quarters, and walker / franklin halves into a bulk silver container. My question is basically at what bid value above melt is it worth selling individually vs. just as bulk silver?

I know there are no single or right answers to my questions, but I know a lot of collectors and dealers use this board so I wanted to get your thoughts and opinions as to how to proceed. Thank you for your time and any advice.

 

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I'd have to agree. I would even see what the dealer would be willing to pay you in cash, then ask if he'd give you more in store credit. Most dealers will give you an extra 10% or so, depending on their profit margin, and financial situation.

 

I dont agree. Dealers are used to buying everything at wholesale. Sometimes 50% of what collectors pay. Thats about the furthest from top dollar you're going to get. I'd take my chances selling lots on ebay.

 

ebay is a lot of work but you'll probably get the most value using that method. If you have a good auction house in your area, you may want to explore that avenue. I go to several auctions in my local area of central NY that seem to always have coins. You may be able to get better value even after paying the auctioneer than you could at a coin shop.

 

Yes, and post in the open forum on here. :hammer:

 

Thanks for the comments thus far, all good advice. Please keep them coming. I buy on Ebay, but never sold and I do think that will be very time consuming. A more specific question. If I take a group of coins to a dealer, and have each coin listed by bid and ask values, in reality what type of offer should I expect to get; the total bid value for the group, or higher or lower than bid? I know this also depends on factors such as the dealers needs, etc. but just looking for a ballpark idea...thanks

 

Depends on the coin and the dealer. Give us some dates, any key dates?
Also, you need to know how to grade your coins, (unless they are all junk silver) then dealer will offer somewhere around melt.
Use This Calculator to Determine Melt Value on Junk Coins
Really what needs to be determined is key dates from common dates, and the condition of the coin.
I would say buy yourself a Redbook and look at eBay's completed listings, to see what your coins are going for.
Be cautious when dealing with any dealer. They can give you a good deal, and they can rip you off as well, knowledge is the key here. If you have knowledge and are confident coming into the coinshop, you should have no problems, and if you hear a number you don't like, counter, or move on.
eBay is a place for deals to be had, in otherwords you might not get what you want on your coins, once again, it just depends on the coin and grade of coin. Remember you pay a pretty large chunk of money to PayPal and eBay as well when you sell, keep that in mind as well. Also keep in mind when selling you need pretty good pictures as well.
You can always try selling some of the junk silver here in the open section or any other coin forum, as I bet people would be willing to buy some silver.

 

Yes I think you should try the open forum here. Post up some of your better Buffalo nickels too.

 

Many of the suggestions are very good. I happen to agree most with the suggestion to have the collection of coins sold by a live auctioneer. Please shop around. Many auctioneers in my area take 10 to 15% of the final value as their cut. But a good auctioneer can get collector's value or close to it (+ and -). I would suggest that you send your coins to a reputable auctioneer that consistently has coin-only auctions.

I go to coin auctions nearly every week in various areas around my home. There are auctioneers that focus on coins, antiques, and collectibles. Some only focus on coins. The turnout has been anywhere from 30 to 70 attendees that have a diverse interest, so it ends up that there is a bidder for every lot.

I went to an auction today and the auctioneer stated that he is looking for lots to sell in the coming month. I would be happy to send the information to you about the auctioneers in my area that regularly hold coin auctions. I'm sure that they would take out of state collections and sell them locally. In fact, I know they do. Since you've already put them in holders, it will make it much easier for the auctioneer to sell your collection. The only added work you would have to do is ship it to them and wait for the proceeds.

Send me a private message if you want any references to auctioneers that I know of, or you can check out this link for local auctioneers near you: http://www.auctionzip.com/

edit: I wanted to add that this is the route for minimal effort with a good return. Other methods of selling may increase the total return, but may require more effort.

Good luck

 

Well, last post here I made from my cell phone in the car up in WI so I can add a little more now. :smile

Good question.

Some dealers may give you melt value on the silver. Some less. While most everything on ebay sells for insane prices over melt.

If there's rarer stuff, you can expect the dealer to take a glance and say it's, cleaned, screwed up or they have too many of them. Some guys will pick and choose what they want and then throw you a low ball offer and see if you'll take it. And then act like it was the best deal you will get anywhere.

I'd sell each type you have in a lot. A lot of the silvers, a lot of the cents, a lot of the buffalos and just liquidate. That's only 3 ebay auctions. Highlight the more expensive ones. It's really not that much work but I definitely wouldn't bother with listing them individually.

As someone else said, definitely try the open forum here first. Might save you all the headaches from either of these previous options.

 

In the early '70s, I collected about as heavily as any 12-16 year old with a paper route could. My sources for coins was limited...relatives, banks, Numismatic News, U.S. Mint, and the local coin store. Since my funds were limited I often had to sell unwanted coins to buy new ones.

The "rule of thumb" back then was to expect about 50% of Red Book...for average coins...or the going bullion rate, whichever was higher. I quickly learned that high-end key date coins were the way to go if I wanted to make any money in coins.

My point is...you can't begrudge a dealer their living. However, you need to take some time to develop a relationship with a dealer first...buying and selling. You generally won't get a fair shake from a dealer just walking in off the street.

What's different these days is the internet/eBay. A lot of people like to run eBay down, but they probably forget what coin collecting was like before the internet. It's soooo nice to sit at home and have access to so many different type of coins. I see people make way more than 50% on their coins...even after fees, but they still complain.

The question comes down to...how much is your time worth? If you have nothing but time and think it would be fun to sell on eBay...go for it! If not, seek out a dealer...but be prepared for an offer that may be less than your bid/ask numbers suggest.

 

I would sell the primo stuff individually, sort out the high grade coins first. Then consider selling some bags and rolls using ebay or whatever. Especially useful for the average stuff. Take the remaining junk to a dealer to save time and trouble....

I unloaded a bunch of junk silver last week. My dealer paid me 12x face and I felt that was a fair price. For example, the silver quarters at 12x paid $3.00 each, the melt is about $3.20. It was fast and simple transaction.

You won't get as much from a trusted dealer as you would retail, but it takes a LOT less time than selling individually. I don't mind "paying" my dealer to take the hassle away sometimes. :smile He works hard for his money too.

 

The first thing I would recommend doing is establishing a true value of your collection in todays market. That means conducting a collection appraisal, if you are qualified or having a reputable appraiser assess the collection ( of course for a fee ).

Secondly, unless that appraiser makes an equitable offer to you, than take your collection to a prospect purchasing dealer and solicit their offer. You may be surprised what happens. However you will have some ammunition to backup your bargaining position.

Gd, is correct when he suggests that trying to liquidate a collection in a venue as EBAY, is not only time consuming and certainly not a financial advantageous means of liquidation for an entire collection.

Please tell us what you personally estimate the value of your collection to be and which three coins are your highest market value coins.

Third, you may want to consider bringing your collection to your local coin club auction night and having multiple dealers view your collection. Your collection will have greater exposure( no cost involved ), to competing dealers.


Good luck with that, let us know how you made out.

Thanks.
Best of luck with that.

 

Depends on items but 10 to 20% back of bid.

Depends on items but 10 to 20% back of bid. Many modern proof and mint sets are much worse though.

 

I think most of the running down of ebay generally has to do with ebay's lack of effort to stop the counterfeits from being marketed on their auction site. I've defended ebay's policies when people cut them down over charges. The fees you pay on ebay are pretty small compared to paying rent, insurance, utilities, taxes, and still take enough home to make it worth your time to run a coin shop of your own.

 

I'm sure many long time collectors are in the same situation as the OP.

I gave up on selling one at a time on Ebay after about 100 lots.
Way too much time and after the fees, I was working for almost nothing.
There was a point for me that I just wanted it gone so it was sold on Ebay in lots of several hundred coins each. It may not work for everyone but it did for me and I never looked back.

 

I'm not saying it's easy making money on ebay, and I'm not saying all the fees are fair either. There are quite a few alternatives out there now also, but most don't have the volume of customers either. Ebay kind of has the market cornered for now.

 

Thanks to all for the well thought out answers, much appreciated. I will use the advise, but in the end it seems the decision will be based on how much time and effort I want to put into it. I am not contemplating selling my entire collection, I am still very active. Most of the key dates I want to keep in the sets I have built. I was probably not clear, but what I am trying to sell is the "accumulation" that I inhereted. My main question is related to the non-key silver coins. For example, when I categorized my mercury dimes, I separated out coins that have bid values above $3 as saleable above melt at today's silver price. Not much money per coin, but when you have several thousand of them, on paper this seems like a lot of money, almost enough to finally get that 26S PCGS-64 Bullalo I still need. But in reality, how much will I really end-up getting for those several thousand mercurys, and how much time/effort will be involved. Then there are the quarters, then the halves, etc. That was sort of the thought process I was going thru when trying to figure out how to begin getting the acumulation ready for sale. Thanks again.

 

Why not give your fellow collectors first shots at your extras on the open forum. I may be interested in a few myself.