In my downtime today, I pondered the thought about selling some of my non-cull stuff on ebay. I haven't sold anything on that platform in well over 10 years, so I thought I'd ask here to gather opinions and seek advice from those who have completed sales / auctions recently on there. Is it actually worth it? I'm not looking to rip anyone off and would very likely start with smaller value items starting at $1 and let the auction do it's thing. Eventually I would get to some mid-grade items that would very likely garner more attention and higher values, but before I do that I would need to get some prior feedback on sales, which would hopefully be done through the earlier auctions. How do you go about mailing lower value coins? I'm not immediately opposed to just a plain white envelope (with it packaged properly and all) but figuring out the best shipping method at a relatively fixed price would be fairly pertinent. I'm very well-versed when it comes to ensuring packaged items arrive in the condition I sent them, but I can't stop a thief when I'm hundreds of miles away, so I would very likely use a bubble mailer for stuff that deserves it. Anyways, please feel free to chime in here and share your thoughts, experience, or even biased opinions. I'm all ears here!
I have sold a fair amount on eBay. Be aware that eBay takes something like 13.75% of each transaction, including anything you charge the buyer for shipping. My experience has overall been good. I prefer selling only cheaper coins or higher profile coins there because the fees are so high. eBay customer service is terrible, but thankfully I have seldom needed to contact them. Shipping through eBay is great. Just be sure to have tracking on every item. I save boxes and padded envelopes and reuse them with no trouble. I have tried auctions, and they don't generally end well for me. I have lost a lot through that. I have found that most people prefer the buy-it-now option. I much prefer uscoinbook.com, but sadly the customer base is not very strong yet. They take something like only 4%, so it saves the seller and buyer a LOT of money on bigger stuff.
I've sold there off and on since 1998. Yes, they will take a chunk of the proceeds but you are paying for the very large audience. Insulate yourself by starting prices (both auction and BIN) that cover your minimum and associated fees and you should be fine. As far as shipping I've found that buying a bulk of 000 size bubble mailers has worked very well for both common and higher priced items. I used to use priority mail exclusively for shipping w/ tracking but ebay now offers their own shipping label w/ tracking for lower cost items. Of course I'd never use a regular envelope as USPS sorting machines can do some serious damage. I did invest in a label printer a while back and it greatly increased the ease of shipping on my part. The labels just fit on the bubble mailers.
Do you use greysheet price for the BIN price? I have access to some recently-outdated greysheet magazines, so that might be an option.
What do they cost to purchase? And do they actually save money over the 000 bubble mailers? I've still got a small amount of those 000's but wouldn't want to spend more money on shipping than a potential sale price.
No, I look at what recently sold. For instance, I just listed an 1883 Hawaiian quarter. Before doing so, I looked at sold prices to get a feel for what the going rate is. Then I looked at current listings, their costs, and their conditions. I then took all the numbers into consideration and tried to price it at (what I hope) a fair price.
