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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5397 Posts |
As a seller ... why would I commit financial suicide by using auctions . BIN let's the seller control the end result.
Auctions unless for unusual or exotic items are trolled by bottom feeders for the most part . Not all but certainly most.
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Moderator
Canada
10458 Posts |
I only use auctions when I think it is too nice to deposit it at the bank - but I desperately want it out of my basement....
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2843 Posts |
As a seller, I pick and choose what items I "trust" the market on and which items I will probably take a loss if I try.
It boils down to this. An item with a wide appeal that is relatively affordable will go fine with bidding. An item that is waiting for that one guy/gal who collects it will be a BIN.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1984 Posts |
The main reason to go for a no reserve auction is that you will move material. I tend to buy a fair number of accumulations that have a few treasures but a lot of mundane common stuff. For me, all I want to do is move out the mundane stuff quickly because there is always another accumulation with good stuff that can come in the door. So my approach is move material in and out quickly without worrying about getting top dollar for each piece. I get a lot of buyers telling me they like the approach....I guess they don't like the world of high BIN items.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2495 Posts |
If you really want to sell a coin at the true market price, list it on ebay starting at $1. You'll get about 50% of trends. That is the true 'value' in today's garbage Canadian coin market. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1461 Posts |
I use both. For example I always list common year Silver Dollars at .99 and generally come out ahead of scrap. One of the reasons why I do auctions for average coins (or ones with safe margins) is that it draws potential buyers to my BIN items. When I run auctions, I almost always sell a few BIN items. In periods where I slow off the auctions, it also slows down the store sales. Auctions can go either way. Sometimes I get way more than expected, sometimes I call myself inappropriate names for giving the coin away. In the end it all works out. Sellers who run auctions get far more visibility that ones that don't. Last but not least, ouple of observations. I can't tell you how often I have coins at a BIN with a best offer that get no action and yet when I send them to auction, I get more than the original BIN (more of an exception but it happens). Also, exposure matters. Not long ago I listed an auction for a 1870 50 Cents inverted V with a start price of 99.99. It ran for 10 days with no bids. I relisted right after at the same price, the coin sold for 150+ with multiple bids.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1273 Posts |
It's a strange place ebay. One week you can sell a coin for $20.00 and the next week, the exact same coin could get one bid for $0.99. It frustrates me immensely. I have had coins listed for a year, before auctioning them off and fetching more money than I was asking anyway! The thing is, there's something animalistic about auctions, especially when its a rare and interesting coin. Buyers can get carried away in the heat of the moment, which is good for sellers! The problem with buy it nows (And best offers), is that they can sit for months before you get a decent offer or sell at a good price, and lets say the item has 37 watchers...as soon as it sells you always get a message saying "HAS THE COIN SOLD?!?!" And I think to myself, "Yes it has, why didn't you buy it in the past 18 weeks that it was listed?" AND, the problem with auctions is that more often than not, you don't get the value you want! It's difficult, so I think the best thing you can do is do a mixture of both, and make sure that photos and descriptions are absolutely spot on. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1442 Posts |
ebay Auctions = seller suicide at twice the ebay fees yes...every 1 out of 10 times you'll be surprised and an item will sell for more than a desired BIN price...but that does not make up for the 9 out of 10 times you get raped. ebay shot itself in the foot with the way they handle auctions and I think the fact that 99% of auctions now are BIN and 1% are real auctions says it all... there is simply NO incentive to take the risk. And on top of that ebay will charge you 9% instead of 6% for BIN.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1461 Posts |
ebay is slowly becoming the price barometer for the hobby. Gone are the days of shows being disconnected on price from online sales. And although it's possible for dealers to occasionally "hook" someone for a coin they desperately want or need, it's becoming more of an exception than the rule. Anything of value will generally get it's fair market price unless it is cherry picked on variety or bad pictures on grade. Rarities, varieties and specialty coins always do well. Common coinage is a whole different story.
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Valued Member
 Canada
93 Posts |
Thanks for your insights into the Canadian marketplace for coins. I buy and sell collector/antique pipes on ebay and I must say that it a very different marketplace. Same demographics, stronger demand. I list all my pipes at a starting price of $9.99 and there have been very few that have not achieved what I consider fair value or better. Has the demand for common material diminished that much, and if so, why haven't the prices dropped to reflect the change? I understand that errors and tokens are strong, but the overall strength of the hobby is weak. Have the shiny offerings from the RCM usurped the demand for the more traditional coins? I'm not laying blame - I'm trying to understand what happened to the hobby. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3049 Posts |
Lots of people used to collect.. that number by my guess has been on the decline... all the common coins that people once held on to are in the market now... Simple supply and demand really....
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Valued Member
Canada
75 Posts |
I wholesale a lot of coins through ebay auctions for liquidity reasons. We have 3 brick and mortar stores and can not pay rent or hydro with 1922 pennies  As thecoinhunter stated, the auctions do tend to bring BIN sales of the better stuff. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2495 Posts |
ebay is and always has been the price barometer for the coin market. 50% of trends is the norm nowadays. Don't blame ebay's policies or fees for this, as it has nothing to do with the market. Since 2008 we have been in a depression and I'm not just talking about the coin market. Only 0% interest and easy money policy has kept us going. But I digress. Let's just say that sellers who have their BIN coins set at pre-2008 levels (80% to 100% of trends) are definitely dreaming in technicolour and we can all sit back and admire their BIN coins collecting cyberspace dust on the shelves of ebay's webpages.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5828 Posts |
The problem with ebay and coins is that, even for rare dates, there are a LOT of basically the same coins on ebay. You don't see that with militaria... There are lots of generic stuff, say WWI production M1910 canteens, but there arent hundreds of them on ebay. An ebay search for "1909 S VDB" on ebay in the small cents category came up with 468 results. An ebay search for "M1910 canteen" in WW1 US militaria came up with 31. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5397 Posts |
Let's get real, the Canadian Coin Market may be sick for many reasons, but the overall coin market is far from dead. ebay is a great outlet for selling coins and collectibles, but far from the only outlet. Coins have been a great way for me to earn a decent living for years and if anything there is more interest now than ever. My financial statement says last year was the best ever sales and profit wise. The coin market is a true example of a free market business and it is either adapt or die . You either change it up or you are out of business very quickly. All the whining in the world is not going to fix anything. Canadian coins are blooming awful right now on ebay and at shows, but we have no trouble selling good US , world , especially oriental ( China , French IndoChina, India, Japan and Korea) as examples. Also any better tokens , militaria and medals are just fine thank you very much. |
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Posted 05/13/2017 10:34 pm
