something similar for buying or selling? There'd be fees, but a lot less than inventing an eBay auction with a BIN, or sending to a big auction house...assuming the buyer and seller found each other. Just curious.
Do you, by chance, mean a consignment service? An escrow service is a third party who holds funds, usually under the premise that the monetary amount is backed thru some sort of security, until the second party completes their side of an obligation and the funds are released.
Not exactly a consignment service. Or, maybe yes that would work too. To make a short story long , I have a set at NGC I'm retiring. My close competitor has a few coins that s/he could upgrade. Some young pup of an upstart has arrived and taken the lead in the category. If the older one was interested in buying a few of my coins then s/he would have the top set (and take the lead if quicker to upload photos, shoot I have the photos I'd give him/her too). That said, a cold call/email to a person I have no idea who they are and they have no idea who I am might be a bit odd. I could do a BIN on eBay but frankly their seller protection sucks in cases of SNAD, item swaps etc. When I bought a house once it was from an person I knew--not a friend precisely but a person I'd gone to school with. We met, came to terms, and then had a Realtor do the sale as though she were the listing agent. We paid her 1% as she had zero work in terms of listing/showing/negotiating. She just did everything to make sure it closed properly. For this I was thinking more like if there was a third party who would ensure a coin was shipped (hey, I know I'm honest, but the other guy doesn't) and then would release funds (the other guy is probably honest too). I mean I have taken some great leaps of faith with purchases over the internet but generally because I 'know' the other person from board interactions or something. But a cold call/email might make the other guy wonder what the heck I'm up to and think I'm a scammer if I didn't offer some kind of guarantee. Or, I could stick with my original plan and ship off to Great Collections (they are fabulous) and just let the other collector know the coins are going up there. I am sending the coins that person would NOT want this week.
Personally, in your specific situation, I would begin by cold calling them. I've always been surprised how well simply sending a message can work. I don't have a registry set. Can you send messages directly thru NGC? I'm sure a buying/selling agent at one of the large auction houses would jump on the action. In fact, if this person is aggressively building a top set, it might be in your best interest to put the coin on auction. So, it could even be considered a small favor to make the offer to this person first.
I suggest you message the other collector through NGC and let it be known that you will be selling your set at Great Collections but that you would be willing to sell directly because you've enjoyed the registry competition. Because you are doing this person a favor, assuming the asking price is fair, by giving them an exclusive offer to cherry-pick your set, you should have the other party pay first and ship when payment is confirmed. The idea of an escrow service for holding payment or coins sounds like a great idea to facilitate coin sales or trades. However, I am not aware of any, and I doubt if any major auction house would handle something like this since it would seem to conflict with their main business. I recently had the pleasure to chat with a well connected individual in this hobby and conclude that this kind of transaction is often brokered through the informal network of dealers. So an alternative solution might be to ask your favorite dealer to "hold" some coins and help with the transaction for a third party. Best of Luck, Jack
Cold call, NGC registry allows this. If your leary about selling directly to them, why not use jkcoins on ebay as a consignor? He is a pcgs forum member that your also a part of so you would be helping a fellow member, well known, and has amazing photographs and gets top dollar. If you consign to him, then you can tell the registry person to bid
Love Jeremy/jkcoins, I just finished a consignment with him this month! I was hoping to avoid the eBay venue. But, I also would highly recommend JK for coins going that route.
