| Author |
 Replies: 18 / Views: 2,410 |
|
New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Hello all!
I'm in need of some assistance from the "experts". I have a father-in-law that has been collecting coins over the last 13 yrs for my two daughters to help them out with college. He has now passed them all to me to handle disposition and build their college funds. The problem is, I don't anything about coins in terms of selling. I don't have the time (nor desire) to travel around to coins shows, etc, and know I can't just walk into a coin dealer and plop down 4-5 toolboxes worth of coins and expect a payout.
So if anyone has any recommendations on the best(and easiest) method to obtain the best return on these coins?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
|
|
|
|
Valued Member
United States
55 Posts |
Take pictures of your coins, make a list of them, and share them here, there are MANY factors when it comes to a price of a coin, detailed pictures are a must. You may be able to sell them here, or somewhere else on the internet.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1088 Posts |
First off, get yourself a coin pricing guide book. Inform yourself of the value of the coins so that you do not get "taken". If they are mostly american coins the " Red Book" is your best bet for a reasonable price. If your coins are mostly world coins, go with the Standard Catalog of World Coins. If your coins are precious metals such as silver or gold, the price will change daily depending on the spot price of the metal. I hope this helped a little bit. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
 We get this question quite often. For us to be able to help you, we will need to know what coins you have. Then we might need to see pictures. How to sell them could depend on what you have. Common gold and silver coins would sell different then collectible coins |
|
Moderator
 United States
15459 Posts |
to the CCF. You have indeed found the right place for friendly experts ... and as such a representative of the forum I ask a few questions to help guide our replies ... I assume without prying into personal business that the father-in-law collector is no longer available to guide you on what the coins are and best way to dispose? That of course would be your best bet to manage selling the lot. If so ... give us some sense of what the collection entails ... USA coins? Foreign coins? Gold ... silver? Best would be a written description of what you see ... plus a few photos of the lot. We would like to help ... but your intro is way short of the specifics that are needed for us to offer any honest guidance. David Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.art |
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/fmv.shtmlThat 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.
|
|
New Member
 United States
4 Posts |
Thanks everyone for the quick replies. This all sounds like solid advice. The coins are all US to my knowledge mainly wheat pennies, Buffalo nickels, Morgans and Liberties, and tons of other silver quarters, dimes, etc. I was going to start cataloging and taking photos - does that sound like a good idea or necessary? I know will need photos to sell so I will get to work on that. Should I clean if necessary to identify? Also how should I store these, some are in plastic sheets, but some are loose. Thanks again for all the help! |
|
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
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.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2624 Posts |
You should not clean... cleaning could lose you a lot of value! (Collectors don't want cleaned coins, unless you know what you are doing 100% even an inexperienced collector can tell if a coin has been cleaned)
If they are in plastic sheets its probably best to leave as they are, if the father-in-law has been collecting for 13 years he probably has them appropriately stored.
Try to handle the coins by the edges and if they look like polished silver its better not to handle them with your hands at all, copper also can discolour after being handled as the moisture in your fingers will react with the metal.
|
|
Valued Member
United States
359 Posts |
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! Edited by ngs428
09/03/2012 10:34 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1116 Posts |
If your coins are not in what we call plastic flips, I would suggest that you wear some cotton gloves to prevent the oils in your hand from staining the coin surface. If your coins have been graded by an third party grader (either ie pcgs or ngc just to name two) be sure to list the grading service and the grade that it was assigned. for example: 1880, S, Morgan dollar, pcgs, ms65. If they are not graded, you should wear gloves when you store the coin in 2x2 flips or coin tubes. The more information that you include in your categorization the more helpful it would be of course. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
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!
|
|
Moderator
United States
56855 Posts |
Do not go by the prices listed in the Red Book, they are much to high and then you will be disappointed by what you are offered by a real buyer. A list and pics will be very helpful,good luck and try to have fun. Who knows you may get addicted and become a collector. John1  |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
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. |
|
Pillar of the Community
1283 Posts |
With the recent run up in PM's I believe this maybe a great time to sell, though I am buying. So when you are allowed to sell on here shoot me an email I would love to have the opportunity to buy the lot.
There are many others on here that would love to buy your collection, no just myself.
Good Luck and God Speed
|
|
New Member
United States
4 Posts |
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.
|
| |
Replies: 18 / Views: 2,410 |
Posted 09/03/2012 8:53 pm
