Greeting o' wise gallery. I need a little help. I have run across someone that is looking to make a few trades. Basically, I have some Kennedy halves, an IKE, and a Dansco album he wants. He has some S mint mark pennies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's that my kids need for their albums and he also has some mercury dimes to trade me. All of the coins are circulated. My question is I have no idea how to figure out a fair trade. I do not want to "make" money off him nor do I want to "lose" value to him. I want it to be fair for both. A few of the coins traded may have silver but most will not. Maybe use the redbook values but I have no idea how to figure out the grades, especially the coins he has. Thoughts? Thanks, Erin
In your case I suppose using the Red Book would be ok but you can't talk turkey without knowing the grades.
In my opinion, Erin, it's very difficult to get a 1:1 parity on your trade. Someone will always get the shorter end of the stick. I think once you realize this, then you may be more comfortable with trading. I trade on Collector's Universe and haven't had a problem yet. I usually wait for the person who suggests the trade first to ship and once I see/confirm a tracking number through the postal service, I am more comfortable sending my item for trade. Another thing is you also have to know the true value of the coin you're trying to trade for, if you don't do your homework on how much it's really worth and ask fellow informed collectors what their thoughts are, then you are already going into this shot in the foot... Hope this helps, bnb
More info Maybe this will help. First know that there is nothing of "high" value being traded. To my knowledge they are common circulated coins. This is not the whole of what we are discussing but it will help me get an idea. Let's say he wants 2003P, 2003D, 2004D, 2004P, 2005P, 2005D, 2006P, 2006D halves that I pulled out of roll searching. So 8 halves in really good shape but obviously not especially hard to acquire. In return he wants to give me some combination of 50's, 60's, or 70's "S' pennies he pulled from circulation and/or mercury dimes from the early 40's. Assume anything he has is highly circulated but dates are good etc. So for these 8 very nice but common halves ($4 face) what would be fair in return? Thanks! Erin
