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 Replies: 20 / Views: 4,199 |
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Valued Member
Canada
93 Posts |
I am considering dipping my toe back into the Canadian market after a long absence to acquire an Edward fifty cent piece in EF to AU. I have always wanted one but could never justify the expense, but darn the torpedoes. I understand that the Canadian market has changed, so onto ebay I went. What I discovered left me a little unsettled. There were a total of 918 listing and only 11 in auction format. The BIN total - 907, auction 11. Do sellers not trust the marketplace to determine value or am I missing something? I did find one inventive seller quoting Trends in CDN but the listing in USD. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1984 Posts |
I think you hit the nail on the head. Coins that are unusual (like errors) will got lots of interest, as will tokens and certain other odds and ends. But "mid quality" material can get very little interest in any given weekly auction, especially for the less popular denominations like dimes.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1192 Posts |
No reserve auctions are like rolling the dice. Especially as summer approaches and there are less views/bids on most auctions.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3049 Posts |
I put up a few low and mid priced items... I was very impressed that I could see how many views and followers each item would get...
I think given that auctions are only for 1 week.... there's not a whole LOT of exposure.... if you could list an item for say 20 days you probably would get a wider audience to many who are seeking said item.... but if it's pretty common it's not going to get much action...
That's why I would probably keep at least the minimum bid to the lowest amount I'm willing to get.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
Auctions used to be the way to go, but now with the "make an offer" feature a seller is way better off to list Buy-it-now with the offer option. Offers will still reflect the market value, but are not restricted to a 7 or 10 day auction.
"Watcher" counts can be misleading as it's not necessarily people who are interested in buying your coin, and can simply be people with a similar coin that are curious to see what it's worth once it sells.
I agree with smallcentguy, errors, scarce issues, and higher grade coins are still doing well. But common pieces below AU are taking a beating. List in auction format with a low start bid and no reserve and you better be ready to sell coins for 99 cents (that you probably paid $10 for)
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Rest in Peace
10197 Posts |
Saame south of the border, hold on to your hat in a no reserve auction, at least may break even if you charge postage. Even BIN's w/Best offer can sometimes be disappointing...have an item with $3.00 FV NOT Book Value (USD) coins, folder, 11 silver coins at $1.10 melt, shipping of $7.60, Real invest @ $25.60, asking $29, offered $25, countered w/ $27...no sale. Gee, think a min reserve of $27 would work...ha, ha, ha!
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5393 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
10456 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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Replies: 20 / Views: 4,199 |
Posted 05/13/2017 7:32 pm
