I hope this isn't too much of an inane question. I'm starting out selling just a few silver dollars and a roll of pre-1965 quarters locally in Manhattan. I've leafed through a couple of books, and the dollars (1880, 1890, 1921, 1921) aren't considered anything special in terms of collectibility. So far, I haven't had any luck with my hopes that someone could recommend a specific dealer, but the price I'm being offered is around $20-$21 each. Is there any reason I should look elsewhere?
One of the difficulties of new people to coin collecting is understanding that condition is just as critical as date and mintmark in determining value of coins. Please post a photo and we can grade them for you to make sure they are just common silver dollars. If they are just commons, $20-21 is not the greatest price, and most collectors would pay more. If you just want to be rid of them, and they are all common issues/grades, then its not horrible. Chris P.S. Please post photos of the quarters too! Any coin could be a sleeper and worth more than simply melt.
Welcome ccarroll.... you're being offered approximately 80% of melt value (and melt right now is around $26 plus). Some dealers offer a little more, but $21 is a fair offer. However, since coin values are "condition driven", higher grade common date examples can carry a premium. You have a few options... you could try selling them on eBay (and even after fees, make a few dollars more than your current offers) or try selling them here on CT after you have ten posts. Either way, good photos of both obverse and reverse are a must. There may be other venues, I'm sure others will chime in. Good luck!
If you're willing to pay small fees, you'll likely get better prices by maybe listing them on eBay or other auction sites. If you're taking them to dealers, $20 a piece seems reasonable if they're going to turn around and try to sell them from $30-$40 each. Remember, dealers cut the value so they can make money or they wouldn't be in business if they bought something at X amount of dollars only to make X amount of dollars on it. I see a lot of common date Morgans and other dollars being sold anywhere between $30 to $40 on eBay currently.
Common circulated at about 80% of melt still gives the dealer a margin. Probably not going to find too much better at dealers. BTW a $40.00 item sold on eBay only nets the seller about $34.00 been there done that.
And even if the OP sold these for $30 on eBay, he would still realize about $5 to $6 more per coin than a dealer would offer.
Would that include shipping, handling and insurance? Not sure myself what paypal and ebay fee's are. Then the headaches of dealing with some ebay buyers might make earning a few dollars more risky. In this case I would probably go with the dealer - cause it is only a few dollars more. Just my opinion of course.
Find a dealer, or B&M shop that would offer you around $5, at the most, under spot price, which is a going rate at most places. If you get offers of $22, take it as you won't get anything higher unless you try and retail them on craigslist.com yourself.
Thanks, y'all. I do indeed understand that condition is crucial, and one reason mine aren't anything special is that they're certainly not in mint condition. They've all been circulated and have varying degrees of wear, having been casually passed to me by my grandfather, for instance. Unfortunately, I'm totally low-tech and can't do photographs or Ebay. But I could do Craigslist, where the person could look them over himself, and that would be worthwhile for me if they might still be worth $30-$35 each. Of course I have no idea what the dealers who'd buy them would sell them for, and I imagine they wouldn't want to tell me. Or maybe they're just immediately consigning them for melt-down. Chris, even if I can't take photographs, would it be of any use to list the dates of any earlier quarters, maybe the 1930s-1940s?
