Looking at a Friend's Collection

A close friend asked me to look at their collection that belonged to their father when he died 20 years ago. They said they know the collection was worth quite a bit back then. I will, of course, give them the best advice I can. I'm doing it for free because I always look for opportunities to enhance my grading skills. They said I could have first dibs on buying something in return. More than likely, it will be out of my price range, but it'll be fun to at least try to help.
My question is, should I ask them to contact their attorney or some other professional since it is an estate collection? I know we both trust each other and I'm certainly not out to get the better of them. I have no real interest in it other than the experience. I mainly want to get them the best chance to make money should they choose to sell any of it. I just wonder if a lawyer would hinder that. Should I point them in the direction of eBay since we are both familiar with that? There are few dealers I would trust to send them to so I think they would probably be better off asking me or someone I know from my coin club who would do it for free and have no ill intentions.

Any thoughts? Anyone had a similar situation?

 

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You're doing a nice thing , but your also in a tough spot , I'd wait on the lawyers tillyou determine the aproximate worth , ALL YOU CAN DO IS TELL THEM ABOUT WHAT THE COINS ARE WORTH THEN IT'S UP TO THEM TO GET A LAWYER OR TAX SPECIALIST ,Good luck .
rzage

 

I am not a lawyer, but if the dad died 20 years ago, it should have gone through probate at least 15 years ago. At that point, it has nothing to do with the estate - it is theirs.

 

Rlm is correct, all an advisor or a lawyer would do would be take money and tell them the same.

You'll know if it's high end " Heritage " type stuff, or just an average coin collection. What I do when buying, is make a solid cash offer, then have them check around with others, coin shops, etc......I usually get the buy after they compare offers.

Ask to take some pics and post them here !!

 

So, here's what I'm planning:

- Whenever I look at the collection, I plan on putting any loose coins in 2x2's free of charge (God knows I have plenty to go around).
- They already know that I am by no means, an expert. However, I know a little bit about each field and really focus on Morgans. From what I understand, there are lots of Morgans, so I should be able to help quite a bit.
- I will document each individual coin by date, mintmark, my grade, and rounded figure of value.
- I will take obverse and reverse pictures free of charge and put them on a disc for record keeping.
After that, I figure they can take them to a dealer or other informed person to sort out the rest. I just want them to maximize their potential. Hopefully, there would be something within my price range that I would be interested in buying from them. I would give them FMV of course. I also suggested to them that if there is anything extremely rare or valuable, that submitting them to NGC might not be a bad idea if they're planning on selling it.

I appreciate everyone's advice so far. I want to do it right, but if a lawyer would mess it up for them, I would rather it just be between us and maybe a third party like their kids or something.

I am pretty excited that they asked me to look at them. I take it as a good sign of trust and it'll give me a chance to hone my skills.

 

The first thing to tell them is:

"Don't clean the coins!"

There are horror stories of heirs doing that. They thought they were making the coins better by polishing them so they were nice and shiny. And they destroyed most of the value.

 

They're big into antiques and already know not to clean them. I did remind them though.

 

Before you get too carried away with you plans, I think you need to get (or give us if you already have it) some territory of what this collection consists of. If you have 100 nice Morgans, your approach makes sense. If you have rolls (plural) of silver coins, multiple albums, and multiple series, what you just described may be way over your head and mostly needless.

 

Well, even I haven't seen what I'm going to be dealing with. From what I understand, they're mostly individual coins. I understand what you're saying about rolls, etc...

 

Why would a lawyer be needed? Unless a lawyer is really needed I think it would be money wasted (not to mention the much he may stir up to justify his fees).

 

The first thing we do, lets kill all the lawyers.....(Henry VI)

 

Sounds like fun at least. I wish people would ask me to take a look at their collections more often.

 

That's what you call a good start! ha ha.

 

I've helped a few friends with collections they either wanted to sell or just identified and sorted. I also do this for free, and even though I enjoy getting to see and inspect old coins, it does cost a few dollars to buy supplies for storing and preserving. Its nice of you to be so generous with your time and money.

Take your time, and share some good pics if you can. I hope your find some rare birds in there.

Allen

 

It seems like you're ready to do a lot of work for them. I would think they'd be willing to at least give you a good deal on some stuff if not give you something free for the hassle. Would not seem unreasonable to me.

I wouldn't get too excited until I saw exactly what was going on. I've seen people with small collections blow the worth way out of proportion. But who knows? Could be interesting what you may find.

I would think your evaluation would be much better than a dealer's because I think very few dealers would give an honest price on anything. Anything Ive ever tried to re-sell to a dealer, in ANY hobby is always common, or junk. But you go to buy from them and it's gold. I hate the game.

You will at least have a good idea what stuff is when you run across it and be able to identify any rarities that may come up. Despite not being an 'expert'. Should help them a lot. Then they should keep what they like and the rest to Ebay.

 

Talking to them, I found out that their dad was a dealer in Tennessee for decades. The collection was supposed to be for the kids to live comfortably on for later years. They told me that when they looked through it with the family attorney 15 or 20 years ago, it was valued around $350,000 (that could be a liberal estimate since it was with an attorney and not an appraiser). Either way, that was 1988-1993 dollars. Surely, some of it has increased since then. They told me that the mom sold some of it a while back but the majority of the collection was in tact.

I agree that a lwayer would just be extra money wasted (as always). As far as it costing me a lot for supplies, it's not. I have enough 2x2's and staples to last me until Rapture. I'm just glad to do it for them. If I find something I want to buy, it will be worth the added work and sacrifice of supplies to add a nice piece to my collection. If not, I will have helped out a friend who I know would help me if I needed it.

 

It sounds like there could be some expensive coins in this collection. If you find anything valued at $200+, I really think you should advise the owner to have those coins graded by PCGS or NCG before selling them. If these coins are not graded, it will be very difficult to sell them for their true value either to a dealer or at auction (eg E-Bay).

 

Couldn't agree more. From your added information, this does sound like it could be quite an undertaking, borderline adventure! Keep us posted.

 

WOW, that information changes things considerably. This is the type of collection that Heritage will send a representative to view personally. I still think you should take a look at the collection first, just so you get to view and catalog a high end collection. After you are done, I think you should advise them to contact Heritage and let them handle the dirty work.

 

If the attorney knew what he was doing, he should have estimated its value as high as possible (at least in most cases). That way they minimize the tax paid on the profit when it is sold. The estate valuation is the cost basis when sold. BTW, at those costs, I would be willing to bet there was an appraiser involved during probate.

Be sure to post some pics and let us enjoy also.