Best way to sell your coins online?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by claycad, Apr 11, 2011.

  1. claycad

    claycad Junior Member

    I was wondering what would be the best way to list coins on ebay? None of the coins I am selling are very valuable, most will be low grade Indian Head cents. But in others experience who have sold coins on ebay should I list each coin individually or list them in consecutive sets? For example have cents from 1900-1909 in one listing instead of listing the 10 coins individually? Or should I just sell the whole lot of about 200 coins all in one listing? I've been an ebay buyer for years, but never sold anything before. I doubt I will make much money since the coins aren't very valuable and what money I do make will go into buying myself more coins to fill holes in my own collection, but would still like to try to make as much as possible.

    Also, I'm assuming that ebay is the best way for a novice to sell them online, but are there any coin specific auction sites that I may have better luck with? Thanks
     
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  3. jloring

    jloring Senior Citizen

    Since you have established feedback as a buyer, that helps somewhat.. but having "zero" as a seller might hurt slightly. However, you're not selling high ticket items, so that is in your favor. If you want to sell using eBay as a venue, I would recommend browsing through existing or completed auctions to find some similar to your IHC's and take note of the more successful ones. Pattern your auction from these, and you should do fine. And I feel selling in "lots" is more efficient... it minimizes fees and seems to attract more bidders, especially with low grade stuff. Good luck!
     
  4. coppertop5150

    coppertop5150 New Member

    pick out the more valuabe coins semi-key key dates sell them seperate.
    Take a nice pic up close obverse and reverse of each coin....

    Sell the rest of the ones that are not worth much in a lot...
     
  5. Vroomer2

    Vroomer2 Active Member

    I've been thinking about this, too. Have some coins that got upgraded and now I don't "need" them any more. Since they are graded, I was thinking about Teletrade doing it for me. Not sure though. Kinda put off on eBay.
     
  6. Traci281

    Traci281 New Member

    I actually started selling coins on ebay about 6 months ago and I have done very well. My dad gave me ton of coins and I don't collect a lot of them. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I always look at previous or existing auctions to see what they are going for and go from there. I would suggest starting with 1 coin that you want to sell for $5-$10 just to get your feet wet. It pretty much just walks you right through it. Be sure to be honest about any problems with it and get as close a picture as possible of obverse and reverse. I crop mine before I post so it's really close up. Honesty is the best policy on ebay and my feedback score shows it. (Fast shipping too.) Hope that helps!
     
  7. Hiddendragon

    Hiddendragon World coin collector

    I'd also suggest you have a good idea of how you are going to ship them and then ship for as little cost as possible. Many sellers try to make their profit on shipping fees, or overpackage coins and end up having to charge more. Ship it safe but affordable and you will attract more buyers and make more profit. There's no sense in the buyer spending more of their money on packaging because they're going to factor that cost into how much they bid.
     
  8. zach24

    zach24 DNSO 7070 71 pct complete

    In my personal experience I found selling small cheap cents such as wheats and indians in Rolls
    brought in the most money. Just list them as common IHCs People will still buy them for possible fillers
    for their own collection.
     
  9. Tater

    Tater Coin Collector

    take good pictures is the advice that I would give.
     
  10. claycad

    claycad Junior Member

    Thanks guys, I posted 3 auctions this week that end today. Two of them have bids, so I'm pretty excited, at least I know that I will sell them and finally get some seller feedback. A question on pictures though. Ebay charges for anymore than the first picture. for the auctions I've put up I put one picture showing both sides of the coin. This way I only have to put one picture that shows both the obverse and reverse and not have to pay to put a second picture of the reverse. After I did this I realized that people could be confused and think they are bidding on two coins. Even though I clearly say how many coins they are bidding on in the description, but I still don't plan on doing it that way for future auctions. I see many people use a service called auctiva (or something like that) that lets them put more pictures in the description area, but this is a $2.95 a month service for X amount of pictures then like $0.50 for each picture over the monthly limit.

    So my question is can you upload pictures to a free service like picasaweb or photobucket and put a link to the picasa album in the describtion or does doing this violate some ebay policy?

    While it would be easier then sell some of the coins in lots, I figure if I could sell them individually then that would raise my feedback. I've been thinking about selling IHC with a starting bid of $0.01 (face value, although I'd hope to get more obviously) with a shipping fee of maybe $1.00 only enough to cover the price of a stamp and envelope and offer combined shipping. Even though I wouldn't be making any money doing this, it may help me sell several items bringing up my seller rating. I would like to get atleast a rating of 100 or so before selling more expensive items. My rating now is 65, but all 65 of those transactions have been as a buyer, so even though I have 100% positive feedback, its all been as a buyer, never a seller.. My first auctions end today so hopefully I will receive feedback from those buyers.
     
  11. Lon Chaney

    Lon Chaney Well-Known Member

    Lately, to avoid the picture fees, I've been uploading images to imageshack and putting thumbnails in the auction. And I write "Click thumbnails for larger images." That seems to work well for me.

    And on another note, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to search closed/finished auctions on ebay. I can only search current auctions. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
     
  12. RaceBannon

    RaceBannon Member

    Lon, click on the "advanced search" link next to the search title bar on the search engine at the top of the eBay home page. If you go down the page once you are in advanced search, you will see the option that allows you to select "completed listings".

    Check only this box, and the item # or description of the item you want in the title box, and you'll get completed listings for similiar items and the $ amount they sold for in the last 30 days.

    Best possible way to do market research on eBay.
     
  13. jloring

    jloring Senior Citizen

    As stated above, at the top of any eBay page, click "advanced" next to the green search tab... this takes you to the search page. Under "enter keywords", type in whatever you're searching for (such as "Indian Head Cent"); below that check the box that says "completed listings". That's it!
     
  14. Lon Chaney

    Lon Chaney Well-Known Member

    I got it. I was doing advanced search, but for some reason I missed the "Completed Listings" check box. Maybe because I was looking for "Closed Listings," but either way... thanks!
     
  15. BUncirculated

    BUncirculated Well-Known Member

    It's on the left side of each page of auction listings, under Show Only:

    eBay.jpg
     
  16. Lon Chaney

    Lon Chaney Well-Known Member

    I see you have a chat window open with someone called "sexymomma."
    Niiiiiice....
     
  17. jloring

    jloring Senior Citizen

    Yep.. best to clear your screen shots before posting, especially if you're married to someone other than "sexymomma"..
     
  18. bigjpst

    bigjpst Well-Known Member

    I use photobucket in all my listings. Just click on the HTML tab behind the Standard tab on the description box and paste the html code into the description. I could not tell you if it's against ebays policy, but I have been doing it for at least 2 years. I would recommend you make the album private though that way if someone clicks on the picture they don't link to the album and other pics. (could cause some confusion for bidders or open a door for scammers)
     
  19. claycad

    claycad Junior Member

    Okay, thanks again, I will start using photobucket then. Now onto another question I have. What about shipping? The most convenient way for me from where I live would be USPS. I might invest in a cheap postal scale so I can have an idea of what shipping will cost me before I put it up for auction so that I don't over or under charge for shipping fees. I see the USPS flat rate envelopes advertised a lot but have never checked the prices of them so don't know if it would be cheaper or more expensive. Also I've gotten things from ebay that had like a paypal printed mailing label, but I've never been sure how that works, would it only be economical if you sold thousands of items on ebay to invest in the materials need to print your own labels? I'll do more research on that myself, but for some of you experienced seller, whats the best way you think there is to ship? Flat rate or invest in a postal scale for instance?
     
  20. bigjpst

    bigjpst Well-Known Member

    I also buy my shipping directly from ebay. I just use my digital coin scale. I sell mostly certified coins and they don't differ much as far as packaging. I always pay for the delivery confirmation. It is nice because you and the buyer can both track the shipment in "MY EBAY" I usually send USPS first class, but there are size and weight restrictions. I have yet to have a problem, but there are threads here on CT where others have, so do some research. As far as printing the ebay shipping prints on my standard printer and I just cut the label to size and tape it on the bubble mailer. For small single coin shipments you may want to find a cheaper option. Good luck
     
  21. Hiddendragon

    Hiddendragon World coin collector

    If you are selling low value coins, my advice is don't try to get fancy with your shipping. I have been listing a bunch of 1900s British pennies recently that I don't expect to get more than one or two bids. I ship in a regular envelope with the coin in a 2x2 and surrounded by a printout of the paypal payment form. I charge 75 cents, which covers the stamp and the eBay and Paypal fees. That way people can buy from me for less than $2 or a competitor who is selling a similar coin but charging $3.25 for shipping so he can ship in a totally unnecessary bubble mailer. The last thing you want as a buyer is to end up paying $4 for a 50 cent coin because of shipping. That's how I see it at least.
     
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