Coin Dealers: Average markdown on trade in?

All,

I am going to meet with a dealer on Saturday to liquidate a lot of my smaller sets.

From what I calculated on eBay (conservative numbers), his offer seems to be 30% lower than what I could get on the open market.

This seem about the right percentage? For numbers sake, I got $6000, he offered $4215. I am going to negotiate to get to $4,500 if possible.

From my perspective, Conservative Total - 6% eBay Fees - 3% PayPal fees - avg. $5 shipping per (100 items) $500 - my time - dealer profit = 30%.

 

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Without knowing the items that is more than fair in my opinion.

 

A guy has to eat and pay the bills.

 

Sounds about right to me as well for common sets without knowing more about their condition .

 

If you want to get the larger amount, sell them on Ebay. Take the time to take good pictures, post them, answer questions and deal with bids, then more emails, pack them up and mail them at your local PO. Of course, you must wait for payment to be made. You may have to deal with returns. Then send more emails so your buyer will have the tracking number. Lastly, pray for all to go right so you'll have no problems. If all that is worth the 30% do it but I'd meet with the dealer, sell it all to him for the best price you can get.

 

Not cost nor time efficient to sell individually on eBay. Could I scrape out a few more bucks, sure. Do I want to? No.

 

I vote to accept the offer; all your problems solved in 20 minutes.

 

And that is the time/place utility dealers provide. I always hate those posts that whine about a dealer paying less than Ebay or what coins are selling for. If its so easy, go and spend the money to buy tables at local coin shows or spend all of the time, energy, and 10% Ebay/Paypal fees to sell on Ebay then.

Time/place utility is very valuable. That is what the dealer provides, instant cash right now and no further worries or concerns. Every single thing you buy in life could have been bought cheaper somewhere else. Buy a can of corn at the grocery store? The same can could have been bought in a case from a distributor. The grocery store provided you time/place utility and earned the profit they got from you.

 

If the $6000 is retail value of your coins, $4215 seems like a pretty fair deal to me. That's a little more than 70% of your number, which I don't think is bad at all. While I'd try to get a little more money just for the sake of getting the most out of your coins, if he doesn't budge I'd take his offer.

 

Average markdown on trade in?

That should be mark up.

You mark up for sale, from purchase price

just being technical

 

I'd take the money , it sounds fair . Then you're done .

 

Is are the time, effort and associated costs of selling these coins yourself worth $1785?

Me? I'd take the $4215 and let the dealer bear the onus of selling.

 

I think you found a nice fair dealer. he's not trying to take advantage of you like so many others would do. He's treating you with respect and not like you are some kind of dummy.

 

OP, to give you perspective and show you why its impossible to answer I would offer this. If your coins were problem free, collector grade coins in a popular series, (say nice VF liberty cap cents), I could see the dealer paying closer since he can have 10 collectors willing to pay retail today for those coins. On the other extreme, lets say they are all 1970's era proof and mint sets. In that case 40% of "list" may not be out of line. This is because everyone who wants one of these has them, and every dealer has 10 of each date in the back and maybe has had them for a decade or two.

Therefor, the immediate marketability of the coins, as well as also the possibility of starting a bidding war, are also concerns and will affect the dealer's offer. VERY GENERALLY, for reasonably common stuff 30% is not out of line, but like I just said that percentage is completely dependent on what you are trying to move. Even knowledge greatly affects it. I have seen US dealers offer like 5 cents on the dollar for ancient coins, since they lacked the knowledge to know the true value.

 

20-40% reduction, not of value.

 

You should not assume you can sell everything, and time is money. Sounds more then a fair offer. Hope you post what decision and action you take. Good luck!

 

the amount of time to break up collections and sell them off it rather high.

No to mention retail space (rent), electric/water, payroll, insurances (omg), handling returns, federal and maybe even state income taxes, buyer scams....yeah 30% seems very fair. Again it all depends on what it is...this wouldn't fly with a bag of silver.

You even used the word "liquidate"....I hear that and I would be thinking 40 - 60% of retail.
-Wes

 

There's another word that doesn't quite fit here: trade-in. The OP isn't doing any trading, he's selling. If he was taking other merchandise instead of cash, it would change everything.

 

I'm not sure where you calculated your $6k number from, but if that is the retail price then it seems like he is giving you a fair offer. I'm not sure what sort of material you are talking about here, but when you say "smaller sets" I think of modern commems and mint sets. These are usually tough to move unless you deal in volume, so a 30% haircut seems perfectly reasonable.