Value? Venue? 1954-S Nickel DDR FS-801 In NGC MS-66.

Well, time for a technique question.



I am sure what to do with this particular coin. A few months ago, I cherry picked this FS-801 in an NGC MS66 slab. I have several specimens of this coin already, so I would like to liquidate it eventually. However, I am not entirely sure how to do that in a way that maximizes the value. The 1954-S DDR is not a particularly rare variety. This coin would be considered top pop in the NGC slab, but there are 38 existing MS66 specimens of this variety. Asking prices on ebay are all over the place, but sold prices on slabbed specimens don't seem much higher than $150-200 for MS65 coins (no MS66 for 1:1 comparison, alas).

The approaches that I see available are:

1. Sell the slab with a written description and photos of the variety feature, and let the buyer handle it themselves. This seems like it would produce the least buyer interest.

2. Have it attributed inexpensively by VSS. This at least authenticates the variety directly on the slab.

3. Find someone with an NGC membership, and collaborate to get the coin attributed and reholdered. While I wouldn't hesitate to do that on an expensive variety, it seems like a lot of headache and money for not much value increase.

4. Other options? I would be happy to be enlightened.

I have a number of other coins in similar situations, so understanding how to correctly approach this as a seller would definitely help me.