Advice on selling

Hi Coin Talk,

My father and I have sold probably close to $100k in graded coins over the years on eBay and I was wondering your thoughts on Coin Dealers/ Gold Dealers/ Jewelry shops.

eBay is just a hassle, its pretty inconvenient, slow process, risky (got scammed 1 time! for $700 bucks), and expensive.

I have a TON of coins I need to start shelling out and I wanted to know if Coin Dealers are even worth my time. I found 4 in my area that have good reviews (take that with a grain of salt). I have used an online gold dealer (name slips my mind) when I sold a few gold eagles that were pretty much valued at gold price.

It honestly comes down to time. For the amount of coins, I just don't have the time. For example, I have hundreds of Silver Eagles, Commemorative sets, Royal Canadian Mint coins, etc.

Also, would an auction house be something worth while?

Looking for some advice.

Thanks!

 

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No time to sell those fantastic coins? Really?! Why sell them, just donate them to me and I will sell them donating the money to Charity!

 

The sad truth is if you don't take the time to sort and sell each coin individually you will lose money. Dealers, even the good ones, need a profit margin just to keep their lights on. Everybody's time is valuable and that comes off the value of your coins. I would expect you would receive metal prices for pretty much what you have. If I was in your position I would do a quick cherry pick of anything worth a decent premium and then shop the rest across the 4 reputable dealers. You won't get top dollar but your time saved will hopefully make up the value.

 

You're going to have to invest some time, here. The quickest path is to sell locally. Ebay is cumbersome, time-consuming and aggravating, not to mention that your stuff could be stolen outright and ebay won't lift a finger to help. Auction houses typically take too large a commission and the process takes forever...they want you to send them the coins weeks or months in advance then they pay 45 days after the auction.
As a long time coin dealer my advice would be to visit your local shops...all of them...with a few pieces and see how you're treated. Tell them that you want to get an idea of value and that you want to talk to different dealers to decide whom to deal with. Hopefully the dealer you're most comfortable with will also have the higher price. You don't have to tell them at first that you have a large collection, although once you're comfortable with someone you may find they might pay more when quantity is involved.
I would also advise if you have a large amount of bullion to NOT sell it all at once. If you spread it out over several weeks/months then you can dollar cost average and that ultimately will put more money in your pocket. Coin shows are another option but may involve travel and transporting your coins, so security is a concern.
Don't sell gold eagles for gold price, as any decent dealer should be paying you a little more than that. Krands, Maple Leafs, etc may only bring spot or even a touch less but Eagles should always sell for more.
Hope this info helps...if you have any other questions just email or post here
Nick

 

Heh... I wish I could.

Yeah, that is what I am thinking. The pain comes when I started looking at how many Silver Eagles and Silver 1oz coins I have. It is just so overwhelming to even imagine listing each one on eBay, paying 10% fees, shipping, insurance,etc.

Sorry, I sold to APMEX, they gave me spot price + 100 for a handful of my coins. I think I sold them 5 more common Gold eagles.

We sold some of the big guns right away and it was frustrating losing $500-$600 bucks to eBay. I have about 6-7 safes full of coins. I grew an emotional attachment to them, but it was my Father's collection, not mine, so I decided to sell them. I will keep some smaller stuff just for kicks. I think the majority of the coin value is in 7-10 sets, but those 7-10 sets make up 5% of the total amount of coins.

Time is definitely a premium for me, but I pretty much am looking at PCGS guides and taking 10%-15% off as a guide. The good thing is he bought the majority of these gold coins in the mid 90's.

Are you recommending that I sell the high ticket items myself via eBay or will a shop give me decent value? For example, I know one set goes for around $6,000.

Side story: We horded 25th Anny Silver Eagle sets from the mint in 2011 I believe. We made so much money so fast it was ridiculous. I think we still have 5-6 MS70 sets. We would get a box, send em right to PCGS for grading, and sell them instantly on eBay. Sometimes we didn't even bother to get them graded and just sold em brown box. Good times....

 

And by local shop, I mean gold and silver dealers. Pretty much pawn shops, or jewelry stores. No shop that purely buys and sells coins.

Thoughts on that?

 

You could also try the For Sale section on the forums here. Someone always willing to buy at a fair price.

 

I wouldn't sell any coin that has numismatic value to a pawn shop/jeweler under any condition.

 

Will keep that in mind. Never hurts to post what I got and see what someone will pay. Still risky in my mind still.

I mean would you consider a gold and silver dealer a pawn shop? The shop I am interested in looking at is on JM Bullion if it makes a difference

 

I would say here first. Just get a list of what you have and prices. I'm sure you'd get rid of a lot and their wouldn't be the fee's from Ebay. Plus having a completed list of what you have would be nice for when you sell the rest to shops etc etc.

 

Before you totally dismiss all pawnshops keep in mind some specialize in coins and bullion. I would shop around a bit like tradernick suggested.

 

Oh, I have a list of about 50 sets. Unfortunately, it would take TONS of time to spreadsheet the rest of them.

How do you make selling on a website ,without any structure in place for fraud, safe for selling? Serious question, I wouldn't mind selling coins to coin collectors instead of shops, but seems risky. After getting burned once, I only shipped USPS registered mail and that was a HUGE pain in the a...

Not to mention, picture taking... I never could figure out how people take such stunning photos of their shiny coins. I even tried devising some sort of system to eliminate glare, but eventually, just use my iPhone to take clean enough photos.

 

Selling here does require some trust. But I haven't known anyone to have trouble here. You don't need photos for everything. Just an idea. I mean everyone knows what an American Silver Eagle looks like.

 

Coin photography is 60% lighting technique and coin placement, 30% lens quality, and 10% everything else (equipment, software, etc.). Check out the book "Numismatic Photography 2nd Edition" by Mark Goodman. Learning to take good photographs is an investment in both time and money but you will attract more bidders and get higher prices with a top quality photograph.

 

Sigh... I just know I will never be satisfied going through a dealer. However, I absolutely hate selling through eBay because they are absolutely crooks. They side with the buyer and there are too many thieves on there. It would force me to sell so slow.

Thanks, I will check it out.

 

The pcgs price guide is a waste of time and pixels. Very unrealistic pricing, as coins can easily be purchased for way less than their posted values. In my experience the coin and bullion world generally scoffs at the high values there.
Creating your own website to sell coins on is a difficult, uphill battle. Unless you're in the IT industry I'd advise against that. I'd advise against ebay too, for bullion coins. After they take their fee the money you get paid is far less than a coin shop would pay for the coins, plus having them stolen outright by the postal service or a crooked buyer is a real concern.
When I advised you to visit shops, I meant coin shops. Try to avoid gold buyers and pawn shops.
Selling coins doesn't have to be as hard as you think. If you have hundreds of silver eagles, chances are they're all worth the same. So don't feel obligated to try and sell each one individually. I bought 240 silver eagles this morning and it took about 30 seconds.
I'm guessing your $6k set is the 1995 10th anniversary Eagle set...4 gold coins and 1 silver eagle. Came from the mint in a red box with felt inner box and coa. If that is indeed the set you have, check the silver eagle for hazing....those are notorious for having acquired haze over the years. Just to give you a baseline of value, I just bought one a couple weeks ago for $4800 and sold it for $5100 in perfect condition. A set with haze would be less.

 

Close (and I actually think I do have that set). Here is a brief snippet. I would love any input. This is only just breaking the surface.

 

It's simple; you want every last dollar on the table. Good luck.

 

Neat stuff. DON'T take it to a pawn shop, you need a coin shop...preferably a visit to several of them.