Need Advise On Collection

Keep it all. Divide it amongst yourselves by draft. When else would you have the opportunity to pick out coins you want to keep - for free? These belonged to a family member - don't you have any sentiment at all? That way at least you validate all the time spent amassing such a pile. Tell your sisters that it IS money and there's no need to "liquidate" it. Seems kind of pointless to sell it all. I wouldn't want my own collection to go to some dealer who gets all my hard work in one shot. If you're THAT hungry for cash - cut out the middle man and just sell it all directly to a collector who will for sure appreciate it.

Let the collector bid against dealers, as they have different motives. A collector will pay higher for what he wants, but buy the rest at a price where he can make a profit selling to a dealer. An example:

A collector brought us a nice little collection he bought from a widow who didn't want to sell to a "stealer" (yes, I saw that). He paid her $900, took out a few coins he wanted for himself (prolly worth a few hundred, based on what he sold), and sold us what was left for $1500. She prolly would have gotten twice as much selling to us in the first place.

That's why I suggested a minimum of three dealers.

In your gun example, if you left out "$1000", you prolly would have been OK. Sounds like you didn't like the dealer.

There is another option, in this area there are auctioneers that specialize in collectable coin auctions, know how to promote and advertise them, and many times (just as on ebay) you can get a higher price than actual value. But, as on ebay, you do have a commision to pay out for the auction.

This option also allows the family members to bid and purchase any part of the collection that you or they want. When the auction is over, the proceeds can be split evenly and those interested in any can work it out themselves!