Hello and an apology. I am starting off asking for something without a previous contribution, thought or post. Please forgive me! Quite some years ago an older, now late, friend restarted my coin collecting, primarily for investment. Bill moved South and later died and my collecting fizzled as spending time with Bill was part of the "deal." Most of my coins were bought 20-30 years ago. He encouraged me to buy quality in quantity... Roll sets of keys in any issue, but only at the high end. So I did. Now I am looking at moving some stuff out of the safe and I see a problem with the plan! I am not a dealer and I am not going to start selling at shows. To reap the full reward for Bill's good idea I need to break up some rolls... I think. That sounds like a lot of selling... I got to look through incredible quantities of coins with Bill and high grade them. A dealer cherry picked a '21 Morgan I got in a roll and said it was simply the nicest Morgan dollar he had ever seen. I had already agreed and the dollar was priced where I thought it would NEVER sell. He paid and giggled doing so. He later confided it was the single best buy of his life... So now I have a few questions to start and I am certain this will generate many more, if you kind folks will indulge me. I have an original bank roll of '63 D Franklins. The top coin is toned and has fantastic bell lines. The other end has another toned coin that looks like a great strike. SHould I break it open and hope there are lots more like the top coins inside? PCGS or ANACS grading worthy? A roll set of '43 cents, picked for quality, claimed to be 63 and better and in clear plastic rolls since 1980. They look great through the plastic. Suggestions, please? Roosevelt dimes selected for FB and dates... Many rolls to deal with... Thoughts and suggestions, please? Mint and proof sets? Most of the best dates I sold already, but a number from the '50s are not as moveable and later stuff even less so... Obviously I understand why dealers get paid and do not expect to get this sold in any easy way... I just want to start trickling the stuff out and look for a good way to get the flow to increase, while maximizing my return on my efforts. Thanks again! I have been lurking here for quite a while and picked up quite a few good pointers already! Thanks! art
Howdy hap - Welcome to the Forum !! Selling the coins is easy enough, doing what you call maximizing your profits is the hard part. The only way to get maxium profit is to sell them all 1 by 1 to private individuals. But as you said, that is a lot of selling. What I usually recommend is that you find a trusted dealer and sell the coins in one lot. You would get a fair price, but not a smuch as the other way. I would suggest you contact this gentleman - Alaska Coin Exchange
Whoa, first off, welcome to the forum! Seems like you came to the right place. It might take a lot of work to sell them, but it should all pay off in the end. Don't be in a hurry, just take your time, and things should sell, sometimes at top dollar if you learn how to do it right. Best of luck to you, and feel free to post all the questions you can think of! Also, you might want to check the coins for varieties and errors, as these can sometimes add a significant premium to most coins. Best of luck! :thumb: Phoenix
Hi, it looks like the last two replys gave you some very good advice. You might want to check with a good dealer about grading/pricing your coins. My local dealer charges something like $40- $50 an hour to go through a collection. Ask up front what they would charge to grade/price your collection. You might want to have some of the better coins put into airtite holders, that way you can enjoy the coins if you decide to keep them. The dealer can even send some flawless coins to be slabbed by a grading service. Just don't open the rolls and handle the coins, cloth gloves should be worn in most cases. If your a novice it may be wise to let a good dealer help you. If i did'nt need the money i would probably have the better coins put into airtite holders & enjoy them! Can't see coins when their in rolls, but an airtite holder will protect them while you handle them. You can then put them into an album that holds airtites(you don't even have to arange them by dates or mintmarks if you don't want to). Sometimes a coin will change in an airtite, depending on the air trapped when the coin was added. Welcome to the forum.
Welcome to the forum! I would agree with both GDJMSP and Phoenix that selling them to individals would be the best way but it will take some time to do so if you have a lot of coins to move. If you do not have the time then one of the bigger Exchanges would be your best way to move them but you will not get the premium price.
Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions! I have bought and sold coins to most dealers in town and in the state previously. I was more than a bit disappointed by the offers I got from the last one I went to and have not been back. Somehow even I can figure out a proof set from the late '80s is worth more than face... thanks again! art
Hap, It looks eBay is getting a decent price for Rolls of Franklin's in uncirculated condition open and displayed. A roll can lose value by opening if the coins are spotted in some way either due to the paper from the roll or storage conditions. That's the risk though as I'm sure you know with opening a roll. I have seen the damage the paper can do to coins below the top coin and it can look pretty bad.As far as slabbing goes if you look at eBay the slabbed coins don't seem to be selling high enough to justify the expense. just my opinion. Would love to see pictures of the Halves on the ends! Franklin's are really beautiful coins! eBay in bulk may be your best chance to get more than you would at a dealer and cut the selling time to a minimum. Good Luck Darryl
Hap - do you realize though that you probably got fair offers. Proof sets from the '80s may be more than face, but just barely. You can buy them for under $10 all day long, some as low as $6 or $7 - and that's full retail. So when a dealer makes a buy offer you can expect half of that.
GDJMSP So offering $.91 on an item he expects to turn around for $6 to $7 is reasonable? If it happened again I think I would still feel less than charitable toward the buyer. Particularly when his proof set pricing was significantly higher than your quotes. Perhaps a better point was the offer for CC dollars in GSA cases for about 1/3 PCGS values... Which brings this up... Any thoughts on the PCGS site and their value lists? Are they retail, wholesale or a pipedream? thanks art
Pipe Dreams - just take a look at eBay closed auctions or even closing auctions to better help set expectations. I watch certain types of coins like halves and nickels and hardly ever see them come close to PCGS prices. I bet the dealers here that work shows or have shops will tell you the same. Those would have to be some really bad sets to take .91 cents. That said what he probably should have said is I will never move those so I will pass rather than insult you with an offer so low you don't sell them. Just a guess. Maybe try to get an old-but recent copy of the grey sheet to better help set expectations. You can buy a electronic copy for a minimal price on their web site.
USS656 What about Ike sets? I guess it would have been telling if we had talked about them! They still seem to be the red-headed stepchildren of numismia. Is anyone actually collecting them? With huge numbers to choose from I put together 4 sets of very high grade dollars... Suspect it was wasted time from the investment angle... art
Hap - be more specific if you can about the coins. What GSA dollar for example (prices vary greatly for different dates) and what is its grade ? Post pics of you can. And as for the PCGS price guide, as was said, it's so far from reality that it's a joke. To tell you the truth this kind of thing happenes all the time. People will keep coins for years thnking they are worth a lot. But when push comes to shove they seldom are. And I'm not trying to knock your coins, I'm just being honest.
You are pretty much correct. Yeah folks collect them, but Ikes are a dime a dozen. The only one in the whole set really worth anything in high grades is the '73. Of course that depends on what you call a high grade too. And if they are raw, you can expect far less.
GDJMSP I am playing hooky from work I really should be doing so I cannot take pictures right now, but I have the right stuff to take really good photos and a bit of experience in that regard... I can live with Life's Little Disappointments. I have a little handful of the GSA CCs... A couple toned in the plain cases and a number more in UNC cases. An 1880 CC VAM 9 I-3 R-5 that is particularly well-struck, shows a bit of wagon wheel luster, but borders on too mirrored for that... very lightly baggy on the cheek, but nothing deep or distracting. Lightly might not be the best description, as there is quite a bit, just not deep or beyond minor. I can see it going 64 without any problem and I avoid predicting higher. There is also an '81 CC that is a better strike with a fair amount of frost on the devices and some mirror on the fields, but there is some wagon wheel luster still. It is slightly baggier, but again, nothing deep nor distracting. I believe it would make at least PL and anything below 63 would really disappoint me. I have not attempted to determine which variety it is. After that they are mostly common date CC coins ('78,82, several '83s, several '84s) I picked for looks or price... though poor examples of those were high-graded out. Some are still in the original shipping boxes to remote AK villages with early '73 postmarks. None are ugly or problems. Some toned ones that are clearly UNC, mostly 83 and 84 IIRC. art
Post pics when you can Hap. But just so you know, '82, '83 & '84 CC dollars in 63/64 retail for $200 or less. A dealer's buy offer would probably be about $140 - $150. '78's aren't much better. The '80 & '81 vary greatly depending on grade with reatil anywhere from $300 and up. So what exactly was this dealer offering you ?
WELCOME TO THE FORUM. My suggestion is pending on just how much and how fast you really want to get rid of some or most of those coins. Being a coin show fanatic if I were you I'd try to find some coin shows. Now if your not in the mood to become a dealer, selling at such shows or on ebay, you may want to strike up some deals with a dealer at a coin show. Explain you have lots and lots of rolls of coins and give them examples. Possibly you'ld come out a little better than at a coin shop. Probably the best thing is to become familiar with ebay though and try selling them there. It will take time but you should come out with the largest amount of profit. Of course you could just send them all to me and let me worry about that problem:smile Naturally if you not in a hurry, stick around here, get a lot of posts, let some of the memebers get in on this. Or as notd just send them all to me.
Just Carl Please post your mailing address so I can package them up and get them headed your way... It is so kind of you to offer to help with this job! I had not noticed an auction site here and have not looked for it yet, but caught references to it in several threads. Will just need to figure that angle out for some of these coins... As an aside, a co-worker was getting under the skin of several different folks. He moved out of state and someone got the bright idea to send him a housewarming present... Several gay magazine subscriptions were sent to his name... But his new neighbors' addresses... art
