Tried to sell silver to LCS today...bad to worse news

I don't mean to offend anyone over this. Business is contentious. It's easy to see both perspectives.
Buying and selling common stuff at melt is a different discussion than selling a single numismatic rarity or even an entire collection. As someone else said, no doubt there is work involved. I suppose if you view a dealer as maybe one step above a pawn shop for easy liquidation, then there is a cost for "easy" and if that's baked in the recipe, you can't be upset over a low offer. It can motivate you to demand lower prices when buying. It's very easy to over pay for something you want. If the coins been on ebay for two years, it's too expensive.
And of course, not all shops or dealers are created equal so your mileage will vary.

 

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When silver hits mid-30's try again. Metals aren't high enough right now for me to cash in the chips just yet.

And try multiple coin shops. Someone who may have been in the business longer than the next dealer might just pay 10-15% more for your goods.

 

You are so right I had a bunch of odd coins of low value. I saw an article in Coin World a few years ago, there was a guy looking for coins and related stuff for boy scouts working on a coin collecting badge. I thought about it for a while and decided to help him out. I had a large amount of odd coins i was going to ship him. However, I didn't want to send just odd coins so I decided to toss in a lot of modern clad commemorative half dollars I acquired when I purchased a bunch of modern silver commemorative dollars. I don't remember amount of commemorative clad half dollars I sent but I think it was around 25. These half dollars were still in the capsules from the mint so they were never touched. PROOF AND MINT STATE I think the package I shipped him had to weigh about 15 lbs. The way I looked at was that even if only a few kids get the coin bug it was worth it. As you said give them away to kids it's the best way to help the hobby.

 

To give a collector an idea what they will have to PAY a dealer for the coin.

That's a problem. Many people think there is one set percentage of guide price that a dealer will pay. There isn't. The percentage of discount will vary from one series to another depending on how popular the series is, and will also vary within each series depending on how common or rare the coin is, AND whether or not the dealer has similar pieces already in stock.

For example if you come in with an 1893 S dollar the dealer probably doesn't have one, he probably has a lot of clients collecting Morgans looking for one so it probably will be a fast turnover item. In such a case he will be willing to pay a much smaller percentage back of wholesale guide price that if you brought in a 21 D Morgan dollar. He has a couple dozen of those and every morgan dollar collector in his client list already has one. It doesn't matter what the guide price says, your will be lucky if he offers melt value. HE DOESN"T NEED IT.

Or say it is a rare coin in a not widely collected series, say seated quarters. Yes it is rare, no he doesn't have one, but he get maybe one or two people coming in looking for seated quarters in a years time. If he pays close to guide price he is going to have that money tied up for a LONG LONG time. And most likely he will eventually sell it out wholesale to a specialist dealer. So his offer will be at a big discount off of the guide price because he is either going to have to hold it a long time or sell it at wholesale which will also be at a discount off of the guide price.

 

Can you imagine trying to make a business out of coins? I, for the life of me, can't. I'd lose edited. God bless the folks who make a go of it.

 

Imagine the initial investment in order to have good inventory.

 

The LCSs are paying about 10 to 15% below melt. They typically hedge on buying to avoid getting caught with high priced inventory when silver spot declines, along with the fewer buying customers than normal. BTW, the LCSs also sell lower than the big bullion sellers. It should be noted that .69 times FV is effectively 5% (.69 versus.723) below melt for 90% silver. That’s acceptable to me versus packing, shipping, insuring and waiting for a check from a big bullion buyer. Also, the Executors wanted the Estates settled before the end of 2020. As is frequently the case, I must act on some transactions quicker than optimum.

Pre-COVID-19 shutdown, we had a local show (which I did not attend) at which some bullion buyers were actually buying above melt according to an attending friend.

 

Ah, OK, I was confused by what you wrote -- you said "69% of spot silver", which I interpreted as 31% below melt. I see now that you actually meant "69% of the spot silver price per ounce for each dollar face value", and as you say, a dollar face value is only .723 troy ounces of silver.

5% below melt is a really good price. I'd consider selling some material right now if I could get that price conveniently and locally.

 

I think what most collectors can't tell is a respectable dealer from a not so respectable dealer, so yeah, its hard to know if the offer is fair or it is a low ball from a not so respectable dealer.

 

I agree with that as well. Just the horror story's we have heard about, anecdotally here on CT, that for instance, one dealer at a coin show bourse mentioned to another that looking around there was not one dealer there " who wouldn't bury you in a coin to your neck and steal your shovel". If they would do that selling they would probably do the reverse on buying. The onus is definitely on the collector when buying and selling, and part of that is being able to walk away from a perceived bad deal. You gain an advantage, IMO, with knowledge and buying the best or highest quality coin you can because those seem to hold value (not to mention have higher appeal to me personally while I posses the coin for my enjoyment) and are more likely to be desirable to someone else when the time comes for a change in stewardship.

 

In my limited experience it is the person on the side of the counter who knows the most that wins (most times).

 

Bottom line for collectors. Junk silver and common coins will always be junk silver and the common coins will always be considered common so don't assume you will ever get top dollar for them. 90 percent junk silver coins are simply bullion and are treated as such. One other thing I'd like to point out is I would avoid paying big money any modern coin dated 1950 and later. I've seen some very high prices paid for this stuff. Nutty Prices!!! I think the price is driven by the PCGS and NGC population reports, hype or the Home Shopping Network.. What I'd like to point out that those population reports are worthless to us to estimate value. For every modern certified coin there could be far more just sitting in collections or dealer stock. Or just sitting in a safe deposit box that no one has bothered to look at for 20 years or more. I had this happen to me just yesterday. I went to the vault to get some coins a friend asked me to store for them. As I was pulling his coins out I found two 1958 proof sets I had forgot about. I took a look at both of them. One appeared to be an average looking set. However, the second set was really nice. Every coin looked very high end. Proof 69's or better. What did I do after looking at it? I put it right back where I found it and left. So it could sit another ten years before I look at it again.

 

I just mentioned this in another thread..... was watching Tomaskas show last night on tv for about 30 minutes. They were selling PF70 V75 ASEs for $1500. Raw BU Morgans in 5, 10 and 20 coin sets. $119 a coin that a dealer would probably give $25 a piece for if they even wanted them.

At some point people buying these are probably casual collectors who will get bored with the idea of holding these and come to somebody's shop looking to "cash in". The next thing you know those people will be here starting a thread, "LCS tried to rip me off!" lol Just thought I'd share.

 

I’d say most small town mom & pop LCS are run by skeezy thieves. Period.

I live in a town of over 100,000 people. We have one LCS, and the guy who runs it is a complete jacka**. He will swindle anyone and everyone who doesn’t know better. It’s disgusting.