Fellow Sellers/Dealers....why be 2-3x over market ?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by GoldFinger1969, Jan 6, 2022.

  1. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    Just wondering if some of you who have sold on Ebay can tell me why folks would continue to list/relist stuff at 2-4x the most recent sales price ?

    I mean...are they hoping that a truly dumb buyer stumbles on to their merchandise ?

    I get that being 25-50% over market maybe the price moves in your direction and there isn't anybody else selling one of yours so you get lucky....but with continued availability of a non-rare (esp. modern coins)....what's the gameplan on being 100-300% over the real market and recent sales prices ?

    As an example, a commemorative coin that has sold for $100 give or take $20 and I see a few people "asking" $350 and up.
     
    john65999 and Stevearino like this.
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. expat

    expat Remember you are unique, just like everyone else Supporter

    I think it is people hoping for a fast buck by fleecing the unitiated. Statistically, the crazy asking prices are rarely achieved. A quick look at sales realized to get an average of real selling values, and the majority of buyers move quickly on to another offering.
     
  4. tommyc03

    tommyc03 Senior Member

    Plus, when you get enough free listings, why not continue to let items float and cross your fingers.
     
    Stevearino and GoldFinger1969 like this.
  5. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    "There's a sucker born every minute"

    Not said by PT Barnum
     
    johnmilton likes this.
  6. imrich

    imrich Supporter! Supporter

    Please, I'm not a seller on the sites that you'd probably use, but if I SERIOUSLY want a coin I will continue to politely adjust my offer, even when the coin is relisted and I'm no longer allowed to offer.

    It appears the average seller today believes or knows that the coins currently can't be replaced. I'll need to locate another seller. I'll probably need to offer on a different (i.e. grade/date) coin.

    It's my opinion that your Fiat is being diminished in value by current "cash redistribution" efforts, but "scarce" coins aren't.

    I suggest the days of buying coins at wholesale pricing is changing.

    If you've a "better" advertising source who has that which you desire, buy from them, rather than stating others are over-priced.

    I'll buy your pre-1933 certified U.S. Gold coin collection at current C.D.N. sheet price, or argue that you're "over-priced". What do you have? P.M. me!

    JMHO
     
    GoldFinger1969 likes this.
  7. imrich

    imrich Supporter! Supporter

    SilverMike likes this.
  8. stldanceartist

    stldanceartist Minister of Silly Walks

    I think I would agree with some of the comments thus far about "fishing" for a sucker - but without knowing the exact items in question, I feel like there's at least room for someone to question "how far off are they really?"

    In other words, pricing collectibles is as much an art as it is a science. Every coin is different - although yes, I will also agree that there will be coins like say, PF69 clad State Quarters where one might not differ much from thousands of other similarly graded examples. But there could be a number of situations where a particular coin might need a closer look when comparing to similar items:

    What if the owner considers the coin undergraded, or if the owner considers the color a plus when trying to accurately gauge the correct market value? What about unattributed die varieties? What if, like a situation I've encountered quite a few times, the coin doesn't have any comparable sold listings to compare to when the seller initially lists the item - but then sometime down the road, other similar items do end up creating a solid list of comps...but the seller doesn't have the time to constantly keep researching every item in their inventory? I think many people significantly underestimate the amount of time/energy it takes to maintain an online inventory - on just ONE site, much less multiple sites.

    I've frequently encountered items where I had to completely formulate a "guesstimate" price for something I want to sell, from an 1800's Norwegian copper coin that I just kind of made up a number I thought was fair based on what little info I could find (it sold within two minutes of listing on eBay, so I probably underpriced it) to die varieties like the MS67 1942 Walking Liberty Half DDR I found - at the time I found it, there weren't any comps.

    You can ask around, but most coin shops I've been to are much more comfortable giving you buy/sell spreads on junk 90% than registry quality die varieties or world copper coins. I've asked people here for advice on what items are worth, and most of the replies are in the vein of "what someone will give you for it" which is just so, so helpful...

    So, as a seller, I do my best to come up with a price that I think is accurate and reasonable. Sometimes I'm wrong. If a buyer is interested in something I have, and makes a good case for why they should get that coin at the price they want, I'll always listen. If it doesn't sell for a while, I lower my price - but try to keep in mind that it's entirely possible that no one has seen that item available for sale, and my price was a good price. That's also a factor to consider.

    One final thing - sometimes people are just dumb, and will never listen to a reasonable offer. I remember asking about some common silver Ikes (blue packs) at a flea market, and the owner quoted me a price about 4x what any coin shop would sell them to me for. Since he was so far off, I had to ask why - he said because he'd bought them when silver was $50/oz, so he needed to get that price to get his money back. Of course, the only way he's gonna sell those at that price is if he finds someone who knows nothing about coins, and those people do exist. But outside of that specific situation, he's gonna keep those coins for a long, long time.

    And since his price makes sense to him, he's not gonna change it.

    Just my humble two cents, hope it helps.
     
  9. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    STL, I can tell you the commemoratives are moderns....the National Park Foundation Saint-Gaudens replicas in silver (not the Indian Head which does go for about $200).

    They mostly go for $75-$125.....some folks asking closer to $400 ! :wideyed:
     
  10. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

    Believe it or not it’s to do the buyers a favor. People want to pay more. I once did a sales experiment after arguing with an associate about pricing. There were approx 60 coins listed for sale, different sellers, all identical PCGS, same grade, priced similarly in and around $500. I told him I’d make a sale in an hour, and lowered to $450. After an hour, I lowered it to $425. By lunchtime, nothing. After lunch I’d lowered to $399.99. Finally, before heading out for the day, lowered to $349.99, expecting it would be sold by time I got home…Nope. I checked once more before turning in for the night…nothing…So I then raised it to $678.90…Got up around 7am…Sold.
     
  11. KBBPLL

    KBBPLL Well-Known Member

    I once watched a Canadian 1948 dollar, I think it was MS60 Details or something, sit on ebay for three years. At some point you conclude that they don't really want to sell it.
     
    GoldFinger1969 likes this.
  12. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

  13. masterswimmer

    masterswimmer A Caretaker, can't take it with me

    I had a similar situation/experiment I conducted. Not coin related, but an experiment on human nature.

    I was looking to unload a relatively large aquarium on a hobby specific forum. The aquarium was acrylic and scratched up horribly. It held water, but it was trash for a display tank.

    I listed it in the B/S/T forum and wanted to just get it out of here, so my offering price was FREE. Come and get it and it's yours. A week goes by, nothing. I bump it to make sure it's being seen. Week #2, nothing. Bumped again. Week #3, nada. No interest at all. Bump. Week #4 and it began feeling like Groundhogs Day. Nobody wanted it.

    This is when I decided to do my social experiment. I closed the first listing and relisted it for $50. Within 1/2 hour, ehhh, maybe 45 minutes I had not only an inquiry, but a bona fide, full price, 'I'll take it'. Gone, out the door by the next day.

    My conclusion... if I (or anybody) don't see value in something I own, why would someone else? Put a value, however low on something you're looking to get rid of, and others will also see some value in it. Offer it for free, people, rightfully so, will say to themselves, it must be junk. The seller wants me to take their garbage.

    Human nature is a funny thing. It doesn't always correlate to what we believe is sometimes just wanting to do a nice gesture.
     
  14. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    There are people that list a coin and buy it themselves. Then a short time later they resist it for a little more than the now recorded sales price. Buyers think they have another chance so they bid the coin up over it’s value.
     
    tommyc03 likes this.
  15. delila1

    delila1 Undermedicated psychiatric patient

    This is actually a big pet peeve for me. I really hate seeing dealers trying to charge at only be described as unrealistic prices. There are very few Fields in America
    Where it is OK to try and charge 10 to 15 times what going rate is.
    I understand when there’s toning or some other reason why a specific coin should be rated higher on price but there’s a lot of times where it’s not like that and it’s just the same.

    You can see this rarely another field so for example Walgreens and CVS don’t make there money On the super expensive drugs what they do is they charge way too much for the common cheap meds which is what I would consider “ripping people off “

    I went to get 90 tablets of 5 mg Cialis from CVS they quoted me 250 with insurance with good RX. I went to Costco Same exact drug same dose same number of tablets no insurance cash only no coupons $16. The only other industry I see this in is cbd. It’s very common to find strip mall stores or dispensaries That Sell at 5 to 10 time wholesale cost.

    Honestly I find all this behavior disappointing well this is America and you can do whatever you want I find it personally distasteful and personally do not live this way. There’s a big difference between what somebody should do and what is the legal.
     
  16. Marsden

    Marsden Well-Known Member

    1. Listing is free.

    2. A lot of people have heard that prices are increasing, often dramatically. A certain amount of self-fulfilling prophecy.

    I'm putting my major want-list items on the back burner for now. May or may not be a mistake.
     
    GoldFinger1969 likes this.
  17. KBBPLL

    KBBPLL Well-Known Member

    I often see outliers in sales history on HA and PCGS that are 2-3x what others sold for in the same grade, so I think another factor could be sellers just grabbing the highest price they see without considering other factors for why that particular coin was such an outlier (scarce variety, way undergraded, etc).
     
    -jeffB likes this.
  18. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    I haven't seen it myself....it COULD be the case, and it makes sense sort-of.....but still you would think with information available at a keystroke that folks would know where the market generally is.
     
  19. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    Even at the FUN show, there were over priced deals, especially if the coin had a CAC sticker. I had hoped to up grade my Letter Edge Bust Half Dollar type coin. There was a common date, MS-64, CAC graded coin was on the floor at $4,200. The coin was a very nice MS-64, but it had no upgrade potential unless you got lucky.

    The Gray Sheet numbers are $2,200 for MS-64 and $4,200 for MS-65. You would think that the selling price would be $2,800 to $3,000, but the "what can you do?" price was $3,700.
     
    longshot and GoldFinger1969 like this.
  20. KBBPLL

    KBBPLL Well-Known Member

    Pretty easy to find them. Look at MS64 history under this 1892 10c: https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1892-10c/4796. Half a dozen coins in the $144-288 range and then two for $600 & $660. Both the latter were the same coin with a gold sticker and somebody probably also loved the toning. A pie-in-the-sky seller sees that and thinks, heck mine's worth $700.
     
    Marsden and GoldFinger1969 like this.
  21. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    I have seen better looking toners than that 1892 Dime in MS-68. I don't like the straight toning lines on the reverse. I know that's minor, but when you get to that grade and price, you get very fussy.
     
    GoldFinger1969 likes this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page