After 40 years of collecting I've got my first chance to buy part or all of another persons coins. I'm looking for advice from those of you that have experience making offers to people looking to sell. My initial thought about making the offer fair to both parties is if the seller makes more than he would selling to a dealer and the buyer pays less than he would buying from a dealer. The seller is an elderly gentleman so my guess is that most of the coins he has pulled from circulation over the years and kept in jars/tins. I ordered a set of Greysheets and hope they will be here before I go to look at the coins. My understanding was that the bid price is what a dealer would pay another dealer for a coin, but I've been reading here that people at shows can buy coins at the bid price so I would guess the dealer must have paid less than bid for the coins. When your making an offer do you offer bid, a percentage below bid, or somewhere between bid and ask? My wife only remembers him mentioning having Indian and Wheat cents. I'm guessing most will be common dates in AG-VG condition. Is there such a thing as "Junk Copper" boxes, and if so what is an average for a dealer to sell them for? If he has some low grade common silver what is a fair amount below melt to pay to be fair to him but still be able to make a profit if I can sell to buy other coins I need? I guess all this boils down to me asking how to figure an offer that is not so high that I make it not worth the effort to me and not so low that I become the "jerk" ripping-off people for their coins? I really appreciate any help you can give me.
Before you see the coins you should call the local dealer and see what his offer is for 90% silver, wheats and IHC. I then would offer a little more. My guess is that your offer should be 7.5 to 8x face on silver and a $.75 -$1 on Indian Head and .025 on Wheats. I would check craigslist.org to see what other people are offering too. If you buy it in bulk I would also make a deal with him that if find any rare coins in the hoard you will split it with him. In other words if you find and 1877 IHC you will split the value. Best of luck and let us know how it goes.
I don't think it would be fair to assume that the coins are all junk and worth bullion value. If you take the time to look up the coins in the greysheets or from recent auctions, paying him something like 80% of that value would probably be fair. This is probably more than he would get from a dealer but less than the dealer would sell them to you for.
Thanks 65GT350. That gives me a good starting point. I don't have a real local dealer, but I'll call someone in the state and ask the questions. Thanks Cloudsweeper99. I didn't intend to say I thought the coins would only be worth bullion. I was just thinking about my dads jars of well worn common date silver Roosevelts and Wheaties and imagined finding something similar when I go to look at his coins. I always called my dad a coin collector, but I think a better term would be coin saver. My wife said she thinks the gentleman told her he had 1,200 cents. The fun is going to be seeing what he thought was worth hanging onto over the last 80 years. I do plan to really check the coins and not assume they are all just commons and value them accordingly. In addition to helping me figure out the money aspect I was curious what people do find when someone says they have some old coins to sell and would you be interested?
I would do some checking with what silver is and such and pick your prices like this... $3.50 per Half Dollar---that price is what I would pay if Spot price was at $3.75-$4....these are just junk silver--common dates....and like $10 for a silver dollar----$1.50 per silver quarter---$.90 per silver dime---$0.04 per wheat cent---$1 per IHC....and so on. And if you do see a key date then I would go by last years Red Book.....that is what I did one time and it ended up being right around BID....also that way if the guy asks to see a price you can pull out one book and you don't have to go through sheet after sheet trying to find it only to have him ask why you won't pay him ASK for the coin. On most large lots of coins most people aren't going to look at dates untill after you buy---count the coins---make an offer---if he takes it great! Speedy
I like x times face. That way you can't get messed up on the math and it creates less questions from the seller. In Speedy's example he is paying 9x face for dimes, 6x face for quarters and 7x face for halves. When I buy coins I buy them for bullion value, it makes the transaction easier ($40.35* 8= $322.80) . In reality the circulated stuff is bullion unless it is a key coin and key coins are a rare find in non collectors hoards. That doesn't mean that I just add up and buy, If the guy has Walkers or SLQ or Barbers I would go through those quickly looking for key dates and make a separate offer for those coins But every 1938 Walker that I have seen has not been a D. You should also put a value on your time. If you are going to sit there with him and catalog each coin you should deduct x amount for the x hours spent from your offer.
Thanks Speedy. Have you made bids on many peoples collections? Are people usually happy with your offer or do they think their coins are worth more? I'm not sure if he'll just have a small jar of cents or a trunk full of silver. I'm looking forward to finding out. 65GT350 - It does make sense to use one multiplier for common silver. Since this if my first time doing this I'm not so worried about my time. I'm hoping if this goes well he may refer people he knows to me with coins to sell. Has that happened for anyone who has bought a collection?
Sounds like the seller is not a numismatic person and wouldn't know if he had any rare coins. That being the case, I like the idea of buy these coins at fare market value (what your research and concious desides) and then offer a good faith promise to share a percentage if a rare/valuable coin if found. You can be honorable or deceitful. There are too many deceitful people out there all ready. You sound like you will do the right thing for yourself and him. Good luck, hope you fine some great treasures. Have fun!!
I'd ask what your intentions are with the coins you're buying. I'm guessing there's things that you want for your collection but what about the duplicates or coins you don't want? Here's how I'd advise you to set your buying prices. Find out what your local dealers are paying for different items like proof/mint sets, 90% silver, etc and A. Pay a bit more than the dealers offer, if you plan on keeping everything, OR B. Pay a little less than the dealers offer for items you want to sell. Just be fair and be honest. Good luck and have fun! Nick
Well I haven't made alot of bids on collections as I'm not a dealer or anything.....but I have done a few. One time some of the coins were plated and such and the guy just knew they were pure gold and that I was ripping him off.....most of the time though the person will come back with a counter offer that is alittle higher...that is why I start low. My prices that I offer is normaly the same or higher than what the dealer in town offers---- I've found that when dealing with someone who isn't a collector, they ALWAYS think their coins are worth a ton---a banker friend of mine had pulled alot of silver out of change in the years at the bank and bought it to me the the other day to get a value of---it came out to around $1100 or alittle more----they thought that was just really bad...people think that just because a coin is dated in the 1800's or early 1900's it is worth thousands if not millions....and a low grade G-4 is a really nice high grade with lots of detail coin. Now when I'm making an offer I try to sit down with the person and point out things about the coins such as.... This coin has damged here....and therefor is only worth $xx.xx where as this listing shows such. Since silver is at $xx.xx that puts the value of these at $xx.xx This coin is harder to find and therefor I'm willing to give $xx.xx Remember---there is no such things as an offer too low....other than lower than bullion. If they really want to sell they will counter offer and if they don't, then count your blessings Just as a side note---when looking at a collection I want to buy I don't take down the price for my time---looking through coins is a pure enjoyment to me and I like to look at them even if I'm not going to buy them. Plus, most of the time it doesn't take too long to make an offer---you go though the coins and put all of the dimes in one stack, quarters the same, so on and so forth....then go back and count each stack and write that on a piece of paper--then get the paper that you have written down how much each coin is worth in silver (while counting the coins you will see any such coins that would jump out at you as needing a higher value)....take that price and multiply it with the number of coins and there is your offer for those coins---add all of the prices together and there is your offer. Now one last thing that I would post----Lets say that you come down to the offer and it is $1005.89....I would either round that down to $1000 or up to $1010....rounding the $$ is most cases isn't going to hurt....while we would all like to round down sometimes its best to take up to the next $. Just some things to think about Speedy
walterallen, I do think that sounds like the best way to go. I'm definitely not out to make a profit at someone else's expense. Thats a good thing to consider tradernick. I have never sold any of my coins but if there was a bunch of stuff I already had I would like to use them to get things I need. More good info Speedy. Explaining why all the coins aren't worth the MS-65 price in Coins magazine (If he has one) will be a good idea. A little education will hopefully go a long way.
Thank to everyone who has responded to this request for information. I feel like I have a pretty good starting point. The only item not mentioned is the nickel series. What is a good starting point when looking at Buffalo and Liberty nickels in G or so condition that are common dates?
For Nickels I would go to Ebay and do completed auction searches and find what is the going rate for avg. circulated grades...I think most of the time its like $.50-$.75 a coin. on Buff Nickels watch out for: any of the 1913 TY-2's 1921-S 1926-S (they are hard to find in VF+) 1924-S same as the 26-S 1931-S Speedy
