ANA Selects eBay to Deaccession Duplicates

Pretty much have to agree with Ursula Kampmann on the recent ANA decision to use eBay to sell-off duplicates from the ANA collection. She questioned why the ANA would chose eBay over all the other firms who have donated so generously to the ANA over the years. Check-out what Doug Mudd, curator of the ANA museum has to say about it:

ANA Money Museum to Deaccession Parts of Collection - CoinsWeekly

Apparently, Mudd believes selecting the world's largest purveyor of counterfeit coins to liquidate duplicates from the ANA collection serves to "advance the hobby".

 

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I don't see a problem with this plan. No highly prized, high dollar items will be offered, so the big auction houses (where the "little people" rarely visit) are out of the question. Do you propose they use etsy? I don't think people will confuse their listings with counterfeits. This sounds like a logical plan.

 

I am wondering if the ANA Collection provenance will add value to these coins, even the lower-grade ones.

 

Aka eBay likely gave them a sweetheart deal to do so. But yea it makes sense if its just low value stuff

 

Hopefully the ANA will use NGC for the countless coins that
need certifying. Stacks/Bowers should have volunteered to
have special auctions to do this project. Personally, I wouldn't
use Ebay.

 

Why not just make a website to sell the coins?

 

Or give them away to ANA subscribers when they renew membership. That is, if the material really is as low value as many have assumed. Numismatic News used to do that with American Silver Eagles back when they were $5.50 each. Renew for a year and they'd send you a free silver Eagle.

 

Considering that NGC pays the ANA of course they will

 

I'm sure it's all about the fees and the ease of selling on ebay. If I read correctly, the new fees that went in to place when we all had to change the way we accept money, are actually about 1/2 a percent less than when we used paypal. If I read correctly.

 

I don't think there is anything easy about selling on eBay. Twenty years ago it was easy, but not so much now days. The world-improvers at eBay can't leave well enough alone. I waste as much time navigating the new "features" and announcements as I do listing my items on their site.

The rapacious fees eBay now charges all aside, eBay was much better when it was the unregulated "wild-west", free of eBay's constant interference in transactions. Did some buyers get ripped-off? Yes, they sure did. But only the buyers who didn't know how the site worked back then.

To compensate for the tiny minority of low-intelligence buyers who were taken advantage of, eBay has instead implemented this gargantuan DMV-like bureaucracy in an attempt to arbitrate it all. In spite of all that, plenty of people still get taken advantage of, only now it's the sellers who are prey. The inability of sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers that are gaming the system makes it my last choice when selling anything. I still use it, but list only about 2% of the listings I once did.

For anything significant, I call Stack's. They answer the phone with a human and connect me to a consignment director in less than 45 seconds most of the time. Go ahead and try that with eBay. After wasting hours on the phone with their call center in the Philippines a few years ago, I ended-up at their table at the Long Beach Show to resolve a problem. That's not something I am willing to go through more than once.

 

The most I've ever paid for a coin is about $500, so I look with admiration at Stacks, Heritage and the other wonderful auction houses - that are great if you are a big dollar collector or seller, but of little use to the rest of us. I don't think it's likely I'll ever buy or sell anything at Heritage or Stacks, and I'm quite comfortable with that. I'm glad they'll be on eBay, it's a platform I've been using, mostly for buying, for over 20 years, and I look forward to maybe picking up a few shiny new things.

 

I still buy on eBay, I just don't sell there for the most part. For instance, if I see a coin in MS63 sell for $3,200 at Stack's or Heritage, and there is an exact duplicate Buy-It-Now on eBay only in MS65 listed for $2,000 --well, I'm all over that provided it's a coin I actually want.

 

They should given the honor of the auction to Great Collections or another reputable service.

 

Unless they're the most incompetent organization on the face of the earth there's 0% chance the ANA is just opening up an eBay account for the sales. They got a offered a deal with special terms and fees that they liked so they accepted and then did a press release like always. If it was really about the widest audience they would have picked Amazon but Amazon probably had little to no interest in it

 

They talk about the items being "low value" so that pretty much knocks out all the major auction houses unless you just want them to bulk lot stuff. That pretty much just leaves ebay, maybe great collections and a bunch of other small venues. Then you have the fact they want it to have as wide spread exposure as possible. That pretty much knocks out everyone but ebay and maybe great collections, but I think ebay is probably better known than Great Collections, and ebay will handle things of lower value than Great Collections would probably be willing to handle. So the choice of ebay makes sense.

Considering NGC is the official grading service of the ANA, and pays them well for that designation, I'm sure they will.

 

Does anybody know their Ebay "nomen" or name? The ANA internet site didn't have very much information

 

I have always advocated an auction open to members only. This is not the first time this subject has been discussed. When I was a Regional Rep (80s) there was a general thought that since the entire collection "belonged" to members, any future sales of member owned coins AND library holdings should be by auction open only to membership.
Oh well....

 

I agree. If it were to go to one or several of the auction houses, few people would have access and in some cases pay a premium. EBAY is a very logical choice.
Semper Fi

 

This entire opinion is negated, due to adding "Semper Fi", and at the same time making a case for logic.

(insert very big smiley face here..use 2)

 

The last paragraph of the article states that ANA members will be able to acquire deaccessioned objects at a discounted rate as a benefit of membership.

Hmmm. Wonder how they will accomplish this?

EDIT: Heres the link to the site for those interested.

Ebay ANA