It's been a long time since I've posted anything here so my apologies if I'm not putting this in the right place on the forum. I've recently been laid off from my job and come into hard times and will be needing to sell off my coin collection (minus a few personal favorites). I was wondering what your thoughts were on selling everything off as a lot or separate it into smaller categories like pennies, nickles, silver, specialty coins, etc. I'm concerned that if I sell it off all together that I won't get a fair price, and we unfortunately need as much out of it as possible. What are your thoughts?
I guess it depends on how fast you need the money. If you start by offering your stuff here on Coin Talk the only expense would be shipping.
Probably both. I would lump the lower valued coins and sell the higher valued ones individually. It might take too much effort to sell something individually only to see it go for a dollar or so which may not worth the time.
Plus, you have to put a definition on "Fair Price". I've been told by certain dealers that 15% back of bid is a "fair" price for them regardless of what you paid for what you have to sell. Provided they even want what you have to sell.
When one is unemployed, one's time becomes more available, and inherently less valuable. We should not forget that the OP's goal is to get as much out of the collection as possible.
I voted coin-by-coin (of course not one buffalo, etc.), but if I got an offer for the whole mess that I couldn't refuse.....
It's really hard to say because I don't know exactly what you have. Wheat cents might be best by the bundle while older silver coins might be best individually. I agree with what everyone is saying, put some items up for sale here and see what comes out of it. I think the biggest question to answer is how long do you have to sell the collection off?
