Advice on evaluating friend's coins, please.

Discussion in 'What's it Worth' started by Browns Fan, Nov 28, 2018.

  1. Browns Fan

    Browns Fan Active Member

    I've evaluated four small collections for friends. All were easy since they were common silver dimes, some wheat cents, and common Morgans. However, more people are asking so I'm wanting to be better equipped in the area of pricing, with the goal of being honest and realistic. I have the Blue and Red books, Guide to Morgan dollars and all the usual searchable online guides. I usually roll it all together and come up with a price. What source or method would you recommend?
    Also, I tend to want to educate folks a little about condition, rarity, and their selling options, but there is so much to cover it's hard to be brief. Good idea? Thanks for any suggestions.
    How about those Browns!
     
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  3. Roman.Coins

    Roman.Coins New Member

    Also a Browns fan... Was at the game Sunday.
     
  4. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    @Browns Fan , there are two types of prices--the price to buy and the price to sell. Most people with coins they don't know about are more interested in the latter. People who find prices for similar coins are often severely disappointed when they sell them, or try to sell them without luck. You need to decide which type of price you are going to communicate to your friends. If you have never actually sold coins you may be surprised when you do. Most people are. Go to a big show and offer a "$150" coin to dealers. You might not get any offers. If you do, they might be very low compared to what you expect. So, it is hard to tell a friend that, yes, to buy it would cost X but to sell the whole batch you will only get Y, a fraction of X that could easily be only 25% of X unless the coins are really special.
     
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  5. Browns Fan

    Browns Fan Active Member

    Incidentally, I didn't make an offer to buy any of the four. One friend came back a few months later and offered to sell for 70% of the prices I gave.
     
  6. thomas mozzillo

    thomas mozzillo Well-Known Member

    Tell him to take them to a dealer and see how much the dealer will pay. Tell him not to sell them to the dealer but come back to you. Better yet, go with him to the dealer. You'll be in a better position to buy.
     
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  7. ToughCOINS

    ToughCOINS Dealer Member Moderator

    I understand your motivation for giving the answer you did, but that is the wrong answer on two counts.

    1. It robs the dealer of the time and energy invested in quoting, not to not to mention the opportunity cost of any other activities he may have conducted in the same time.

    2. It gives the OP a short cut, and delays his learning the necessary information experientially.

    If the OP wants to be fair to the dealer and to himself, I think the thing to do is explain to the friend that he is still in the learning process, and would like to see how good his quote is by first quoting on his own, and then getting a second quote from the dealer afterward for comparison / validation.
     
  8. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    I believe what you are doing is a service and I applaud you. Much has been said already about wholesale versus retail price estimates. If you were to add anything to your brief education you are offering while evaluating collections is a clear understanding of the difference. You don't want to lose a friend because you told him his Morgan was valued at twenty-five bucks and he is miffed because the local dealer offered him sixteen.

    Only reason I say that is because I made this very mistake with a trusted friend. His father had passed and left him with a hoard of walking liberty halves. I inventoried and did a spot silver calculation and give him a very loose value based on spot. It was roughly $8000.00 in silver value alone. The dealer he sold them to did the exact same calculations I did and offered the man $6800.00. My friend called me after the transaction to ask me about the difference. Well, it was obvious to me. The dealer needed to make money on the deal and I failed to think about and mention it up front. I felt pretty bad about that.

    And I am sorry that my Panthers will have to hurt your feelings next Sunday.
     
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  9. PittsburghMom

    PittsburghMom Active Member

    I'm worried that friends will start to take advantage of your generosity eventually. That's what happened to DH and I with computer help anyway. Every family get-together seemed to end with us fixing computers while everyone else laughed, snacked and played games. It gets old after awhile.

    If you are going to consider trying to grade them, please keep in mind that all sorts of things can affect the grade. Errors of course, but also toning, whether they've been cleaned, etc. Also, the books are not always up to date. I learned that the hard way years ago when items were selling for around 20% less than book value. At the same time, I've had a few coins that ended up being worth more than book value when news came out. I just don't know if I would want to take on the responsibility of grading someone else's coins unless you have a lot of experience doing so.
     
  10. Roman.Coins

    Roman.Coins New Member

    The Browns are scheduled to beat the Texans Sunday. They are then scheduled to beat the Panthers on 12/9. :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2018
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  11. Mike Thorne

    Mike Thorne Well-Known Member

    You can use the monthly "Coin Market" in Numismatic News for retail prices, but you really should try to convey to friends what they could realistically expect to get from the coins. And that's not retail prices. I have my whole collection inventoried on the Heritage Auction site, and with each coin the site gives both wholesale and retail prices a la CDN and Numismedia pricing. It also tells you the value of the coin in the next lower grade and the next higher grade. If I want to get the wholesale price of a coin I want to buy (i.e., don't have), I simply add it to my inventory and thereby get all the prices I want. Of course, I have to remember to delete it from my inventory. Another free source of rather high retail prices is the PGCS Price Guide.
     
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