Newbie In Need Of Guidance

http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/fmv.shtml

That site can help with ballpark prices and completed ebay listings to see what things are selling for.

Like mentioned a list and pictures would be helpful for how to sell them.

If you dont want to travel I would recommend selling them on ebay, youll get better prices then selling to dealers anyway. The only catch would be while the higher value coins are definitely worth the effort some more common lower value coins may not be worth the time and effort to list but its up to you to decide what is worth the extra time.

Dont clean them until you get confirmation of what they are. If their only value is bullion its okay to clean them, but I would suggest not cleaning anything until you get more familiar with all of them and whats what. A list and photos couldnt hurt, itd be a lot easier to get help on here if you could supply that or at least supply the list and you could get information and what deserves a closer look and go from there.

Cataloging will be a good start. The catalog should include the coin's year, mint mark and type. Example, 1880, S, Morgan dollar.

Purchasing a Red Book is highly recommended. It will help you identify the type of coin and where the mint mark is located. It can be purchased at may book stores or at Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/The-Official-...25652&sr=8-1 for $10.17.

Once a catalog is posted, pictures may be requested for some of the possibly more valuable coins. Photographing every coin would take a lot of time..

Cleaning is not recommended. I would avoid it.

Storage for this large number of coins could be done in 2x2 coin flips or coin tubes or more secure, depending on what you have.

Hope this helps!

The very first thing I would do is spend a few hours with your Father in Law, and discuss the features of the collection, so you can learn as much as you can about it. Neither your wife, NOR he, will mind that.

That time would be well worth the return in family relations AND financial returns.
HE is the expert: after all, HE was the one who put the collection together!

When you DO sell, you will have a much better idea of what you are selling.

HASTEN SLOWLY!

Lots of great advice so far. As already noted, do not attempt to clean any coins.
If you get a Red Book by Whitman Publishing, great for information, lousy for prices. As noted there are there are other price guides out there but the problem is, almost all are based on what you would pay for a coin, not selling one. Selling a coin is not an easy task unless you are a dealer yourself.
Do not take coins to a coin store. They will normally give you a price of about a tenth of what you have. If you know the values, they may offer you as much as half.
You already stated you do not wnat to go to coin shows. To bad since that would be one of the better places to sell them all.
If you have the time and knowledge of ebay, possibly the better place to sell them. Of course there too, would take a lot of time and possibly not great results.
Investing in coins has never really been a good idea. It is supposed to be a hobby and usually the only people that it is profitable for is a coin dealer.
To sell them to memebers here would take several hundred posts and you don't sound like you want to stick around that long. And if you did, you may well become a coin collector yourself.

Thank you all for the advice. My next dilemma is do I need to buy 2x2 cards to place all of the coins in that are not in albums? Right now there are some in the 2x2 3-ring sheets, however they are not in 2x2 cards but just sitting in the pockets and taped closed. In some cases there are coins rubbing each other (which can't be good). Also, what about tubes, what are they used for, complete rolls of the same year coins, or do you mix and match years, etc?

How is all of the various methods of protection and storage used and why?

I know all of these are probably very basic questions to many of you, but I'm just not sue on whats necessary and best in terms of reselling.

All of the above is really depending on what your future motives are for those coins. For now to purchase additional 2x2 flips for coins that may be worth less than the price of the 2x2, makes no CENTS. And if any of those coins are worth a minimum of a few dollars, then those should be in at least a 2x2 flip. No coins should be rubbing each other. Scratches will devalue a coin. As to what is put into those plastic tubes, it is up to the individual. Some do put entire rolls of the same, other just put extra coins in them, etc. And too, when you say Albums, do you mean Albums or Folders. An Album is sort of like a book that you turn the pages and see both sides of the coins. A Folder is sort of just that, a Folder and you can not see the reverse of the coins. For some better explanations try searching the web with places like Wizard Coin Supply or go to the Whitman Publishing Web site and request a free catalog.
You really should know what you have before you decide what to do with them. You don't want to start spending money on something you would not get any back in case of a sale.