A time to sell

Greg, unless you're in dire financial straits, I would recommend holding on to the collection. If you bought them recently, in the past 5 years, at retail prices, you're going to take a loss that will leave a pretty bad taste in your mouth. Let them sit 10 or 20 years - it's not like they take up much room. You collect quality coins - they will appreciate.

 

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I went to your Facebook page and saw photos of some coins that will sell easily but not necessarily in the highest level sales. The Gordian is a Gordian I and will sell for enough to pay a commission but it would not be the highest realizing Gordian I handled by places like CNG. Even nice coins of common, lower demand rulers would not bring enough to cover the minimum cost of handling from big sales. Those are the ones I would see sold by vest pocket dealers at shows. My question is how much would be eaten up by postage and a fair cut for the small dealer. Finally there are the coins that are probably not worth the postage unless Australia post is less than it is here. This includes Sabina, Valerian II, Quintillus, Agrippa and most of the late Romans. You main task is to decide if you will sort them into the piles or consign the bunch to someone (like JA ?) who would have to decide without emotion which ones would go best in which venue. How much you lose on all this will depend on how close to retail you paid and how much extra cost you incurred in postage/taxes etc. which never get repaid by the next buyer. I'd look at the whole group and ask what planned trip you can take for the total paid less 50-75% expenses in selling. My wife just got back from a 10 day cruise which showed me how expensive travel can be. I stay home and buy coins. Best wishes on the sell-off.

 

I'm not an expert, but it seems like it could be easy to get cheated on reddit? It works, though?

 

If you use the "paying for goods and services" feature on paypal, you can upload a tracking number to the transaction. If the item isn't delivered, you can open a case with paypal and have the money refunded, same as on eBay. This protects both the buyer and the seller. Never gift the money unless you're paying someone you know well, as there is no buyer protection with gifted payments.

 

Worked for me. I sold 50 or so coins, anywhere from $3-$400 each and every single transaction went fine. I don't think you're any more likely to get scammed than anywhere else if you take some basic precautions.

 

A few Vcoins dealers accept consignments, but this could be a long process. Maybe Vauctions, they recently had an auction though, so I don't know when the next one will be held.

 

I would consider JA said as well. Until you sell, you haven't actually lost money. I also want to echo the sentiments of others - pick your favorites and hang on to them! Likely you'll never be done with this hobby though you may put it on hold for many years.

 

I don't have any dire need to sell; it's more the realisation that continuing down this path limits my ability to do other things I want to do. Your advice is definitely something I must consider.

 

Thanks Doug. I think it shows that I have no great love for LRBs; my favourite coins are the ones I've spent the most money on - like the Gordian I, Balbinus, Pertinax, the Leo solidus, the Alex III stater.

I have a day job to fund travel, it's just I can do more travel without the constant diversion of funds to coins. I have a trip to Africa planned in February. I realised I could be going much sooner if my focus was just the travel.

I'll take your advice, and that of the others, on board. I think consigning to auction houses is off the table, and if I was to sell, it would be an eBay store where I can take some control over pricing. As it stands, today, I still have a collection I'm quite proud of.

 

So just put them aside and go travel. When you're in your 50's, like me, and have spent 30 years globetrotting, and when it feels like a damn chore to even get in the car and drive one measly mile because you're out of toilet paper, so you use paper towels instead, that's when you'll pull out your coins and appreciate them like they were new.

 

Really? Now that's bad.

Like a few others on CT, I have done my share of travelling. I still try one large trip per year, but it's getting tougher every time I go. And after I'm in my destination for a week, I'm ready to go back home, to my own bed and my pillow. However, I still get the urge once in a while for an exotic trip and some strange cuisine. @John Anthony has it right. There will be a time coming (sooner than one might expect) where you will want to stay put and perhaps pick up collecting where you left off. I know it's difficult, but try to think long term before you decide to sell. Good luck whatever you decide.

 

What I see here is nobody would like to see you quitting coin collecting, and I think the same

If you're not at urge to sell your collection, I would keep at least the "core" of the collection, say an Abafil minibring with 40 meticulously chosen coins, sell out the rest of it, and consider a focused collection, small enough in size, cheap enough in price, that I could put together for a reasonable price.

For personnal reasons, I've had to dramatically reduce my coin budget the last three years (by ten times, or so), but never considered selling my collection. I sold a few, bought very few, and everytime I "needed a fix", went to buy a british modern coin (sorry, I like them) for a couple of bucks (euros actually) and have been happy as much as if I had bought an Octavian denarius. Time will come again soon when winter-sleep will be over

Whatever you decide, think well and good luck
Q

 

For some reason about 15 years ago I decided to sell off my early Roman pieces on my website and just keep the later period coins (Constantine and up). I can tell you now, seller's remorse is worse than buyer's remorse.

 

+1

 

Coins, coins, coins!! => must sell them!!



Me no listen, me no listen => don't sell my precious!!



Geesh Smeag, what a fricken sell-out!! ...

Oh well, I still think that you totally rock (good luck with your globe-trotting, my very cool coin-friend)

Cheers!! (you're a good head)

 

Well, the wisdom of CT is persuasive. Really, the only coins I wouldn't be sorry to lose are the ones I never liked in the first place - space fillers through the LRB years, which at some point I intended to upgrade to siliquae, argentei and solidi. Decisions, decisions.

 

Haha the internal battle in my head is very much like Golem and Smeag!

 

Greg - you have clearly 2 passions and it is not required that you do both at the same time. Please don't sell your coins. Take it from us "older" folks that your passion for them is obvious and this will be something you regret unless you must have the money today. Many of us have done that, me included, and regret it. My dad sold his ancient collections in the 1960's at about your age to pay for a surgery he didn't want to borrow money for at the time. He sold coins he could never get back and tells me about it to this day!

Sell your coins when your tired of the hobby or quit collecting. Your not done collecting by a long shot. Put it on hold, stick them in the vault, and go travel like Marco Polo. They will be waiting for when you are ready.

And when you get older, you will hopefully have the resources to pursue both passions like an idiot simultaneously. I write this on vacation in London tonight, after having lunch with the Russo's and reviewing the NAC auction that is coming up in December. Couldn't have done this at your age. Believe me. I get your passions.

 

Hmm.. sage advice everyone. I guess it would be nice to have an ancient coin collection already established to come back to. I don't know when I'll get sick of travel - i keep pushing the envelope to get more off the beaten track. In February it will be Sudan and Eritrea, bringing my country count to 72. Not even halfway there yet!

 

If you're going to keep your favorites (likely the coins which would also bring the most money), you may as well keep them all. Would you really get that much money from selling the ones you don't want? Would the proceeds would go far towards funding your globetrotting? As others have said, someday you'll want to resume collecting. Who knows what new obstacles to coin acquisition might be in the pipeline? What if rebuilding a collection isn't possible or if it is far more expensive when you're ready to return?