Am I Doing It All Wrong?

Hey Helzels, thanks for the concern. I'm not in dire straights or anything due to my coin habit, but it cost somewhat more than what I anticipated to complete it in the grade that I wanted it in. By the way, I see that you have an online store selling very cheap coins. After I tally up the Listing and Final Value Fees from ebay, I could buy my own domain and do what you are doing. How hard is that to setup? What payment processor do you use and are there fees related to that?

My observations

Purchasing coins and re-selling in a short time frame usually results in a loss unless you have an exceptional eye for quality, superior knowledge of the market, and a way to liquidate your holdings for top dollar. Although mark-ups in coin collecting are much smaller than many other collectibles, they are however still significant and you must overcome these just to get the money you paid out of the item and break even.

Personally I plan to hold the items I purchase long term so that they might appreciate enough so that when I go to sell I will make some money hopefully. The conventional wisdom is that on the average coin if you hold it five years it should increase in value enough for you to break even when selling. Of course there are going to be some series (& coins) that net a significant profit while others will lose money due to market fluctuations.

If you really need the money then I think that ebay is your best bet and that under no circumstances should you try to sell the set whole. The coins will likely do better sold individually since not many collectors have the cash to purchase a type set whole.

sell the coins here when you are going to liquidate, free and will appeal to those that want raw

I was referring to Ebay-level stuff; Heritage seems to be far less affected as per your thought process.

When the market is depressed, it is the best time to buy. When the market is inflated, it's the best time to sell. I've been seeing some good deals out there, so personally I'm more in the buying mode than the selling mode.

I have to find some of these depressed coins. I have been looking at a lot of MS67 CAC Walking Liberty halves and the ones that are nice don't seem to be coming down. Most are listed and sell at or above guide prices. Maybe it is just my luck. I'm also hoping for some depressed Standing Liberty quarters prices soon.

Thanks. That makes sense. I think I was looking back only 3-4 years and thought things were still level. Just went to the NGC price guide and I see your point. I had not used the all tab of the price history page. Now I see the big drop from 2005 to now.

I didn't read the rest of this thread, but here's what I think. You are right that it may be easier to sell of an Early Eagle of 1801 rather than your whole 7070 album. However most of us aren't worried about that. When it comes to my 7070 I am not planning on ever liquidating it. If I was out of work or didn't have the funds, I would simply put the 7070 on hold and not buy any more coins.