I was offered today 68 different Barber Half Dollars in a Dansco Album. The entire series is there with the exception of the following five coins: 1892o 1892s 1893s 1897s 1903 The seller was asking $910 for the coins with the album. This amounts to $13.38 per half. Is this a good price based on the dates/mintmarks/condition of the coins? Should I plan to counter with another offer or is $910 fair? Here are some scanned pictures of the obverse of the coins: Thanks for any help/advice.
Its not a great price. Most of them are worth melt, and the better dates seem to be all AG with problems. I wouldn't want them, I guess it depends if you wanted them
neat set! Perhaps see if they can go down a bit on the price to like 10 a coin or something. Barbers and walkers do get a slight premium versus normal 90%
I put a complete set together a few years ago. Not an easy task if you want full reverse rims. When all was said and done it amounted to quite a bit of money. I guess it depends if you will be happy with worn reverse rims or not. Keep in mind to finish the set you will be spending hundreds more.
I wouldn't see it as $13.38 per half. I'd see it as $9/half as a base price -- if you've got a source for non-slick Barber halves at melt, I'd love to know about it -- plus maybe $10 for the album, giving a base of $622. Then maybe $30 over base for the 1913 (but the wear pattern makes me think it's bent), $50 for the 1915, $70 for the 1914, $40 for the cleaned 97-o, $40 for the cleaned but somewhat less worn 96-s. That's within $60 of the asking price, and there's probably enough value scattered among the other better dates to easily cover that. Of course, that's no reason not to bargain. It's not a great deal, although it's probably fair, but I wouldn't jump on it. Then again, I'm cheap. My set's comparable to that one, although I've got a smattering of F or better examples, and I think all the keys are filled in now (with some rather slick). It was fun to put together over time as a "bargain-hunting" project; getting it all in one fell swoop would be, well, a different sort of fun, I guess.
I found out that this half dollar collection was recently bought on Ebay. Here is the link to the auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=121275042617 Seems like he was only asking for $10 more than he paid (including shipping). As initially thought, he would't budge on his asking price. I have decided to decline his offer. Thanks for all your advice.
Well, that does boost my confidence in my eBay-calibrated valuation skills. (In other words, the eBay user community arrived at about the same valuation as I did.) I'd still stake some money on that 1913-P being bent, though.
