Advice On Selling Coins In Canada..ebay?

Don't use the 'require immediate payment' listing option and do enable your combined shipping account option on both ebay.ca and ebay.com (see http://goccf.com/t/303834). Many Canadian buyers use ebay.com instead of ebay.ca. Doesn't sound like you'll need to worry about hitting the $30k sales requirement for HST but even if you're selling less and particularly if you're selling at a loss and/or in a higher HST province selling to lower HST provinces you may want to do the math and decide if it's worth registering for HST and being able to claim the refunds. If you're going the BIN route with ungraded coins try pricing the 30%-50% of list range as a general rule. But it's best to do the search to see what everybody else has theirs listed for and what they've recently sold for and price accordingly. If you're going the auction route then you save yourself some work on that. Also, don't bother paying extra for BIN option with auctions and buyers will tend to avoid auctions with the reserve option as well. 7 days is fine for auctions so again, don't bother paying for longer. Consider time zones so your auctions end in the evening or on weekends across most of Canada.

I used to be just a coin buyer on ebay starting in 2013. But starting in 2015 I started to sell on ebay - mostly selling off coins as I upgraded to better copies. I think I have sold about 50 coins on ebay - most as auction format. Prices have ranged from $2 to $150 with only three coins going for over $90.

I have never done tracking and never had an issue with any of my coins arriving but you might not be comfortable with that. As a buyer I factor in shipping. If seller A has a coin starting at $30 plus $10 shipping and seller B has the same coin at $30 plus $2 shipping I can bid up to $8 more for the same coin if that makes sense.

Starting bids low can attract more auction bidders and some get caught up in it and the coin does well. On the other hand if it is a quiet week with little action, a coin that trends at $50 you might start at $9 and sells for $16 when you were hoping for $30.

Start with a few sales that will be under the $20 range until you find your comfort level for risk and selling style.

I do not wish to ship all over the world either but I do USA shipping. I don't sell a lot there as I am selling only Canadian coins but two of the three over $90 sales I have done have been USA. With their strong dollar, a coin that a Canadian would pay $100 for, it only costs them $80 U.S.

There is a forum category on this site about ebay. Maybe you will get more responses if your question is posted there.

I would not worry about selling coins internationally if the values are not too high. I have shipped a few thousand coins around the world. I use regular mail unless the value is quite high. My cut off now is around $150 although for repeat customers I have sent more expensive coins than that in the mail. My losses in shipping are almost nil. I am sometimes nervous sending things off to Russia, India and China. I have probably had most of my losses there. But if I am selling Indian, Chinese or Hong Kong coins they are the highest bidders. The Russian buyers seem to like odd ball stuff that in my mind I am usually pretty happy to unload so I don't worry too much about it.

If you are trying to sell ungraded but decent quality coins on line top quality photos are a must.


Make sure you pack things well. Postal machines will test packaging. 2x2s are always good but I have seen pliofilm split open. You should never be able to feel a coin moving around inside the package.

See my post for mailing ebay coins in the "check out my newest ebay score" posted by gidgit in this forum section. You'll also see "what not to do" to mail a coin in that discussion.

Do sell to the U.S. At least 1/4 of my sales went to the U.S. The only problem is if the envelope is too large or heavy (over 50 gms.) to send first class, you may need a customs declaration sticker, which means you have to go to the post office. Usually you need one on bubble mailers (too thick), which sucks.

Buy stamps on ebay - I bought several lots of uncancelled stamps of different values last year. One lot was 500 P stamps (85 cents ea.= $425) which were (uncancelled-on-paper). I soaked them off, and ended up with 500 usable stamps on a $210 + free shipping Buy-it-now. No need to go to the post office and pay $1 for an 85 cent stamp. Please don't bid against me.

If you appreciate any of this advice, please wait to sell your coins until I have managed to sell all mine in about 15-20 years.

Thank you to everyone for the great advice. I'm starting the process of setting everything up and referring to your advice when doing so. I'm going to start off with some lower priced earlier U.K coins. My question is; Is putting coins in lots an easier way to sell coins. Example: I have six coins in a series, this year to this year. They are all worth five dollars or so. Is there more success in selling these coins in lots? $5 x 6 coins, $30? Or does putting in a consecutive series allow you to add a little value. This is just an example that I could use for different coins from different countries. I've been looking and it seems that lots are all one coin or random years from a period of time. But nothing consecutive that I've found. Thanks again for your thoughts on this.

Yes, using lots is an easier way to sell coins. But you probably won't get as much for them. You get the best prices from retail collectors. Who are generally looking for a single coin to fit into an empty slot or upgrade or whatever as they've already been working on their chosen set/series for a while. Lots tend to go more to the bulk silver buyers who aren't interested in paying any more than melt or resellers who are only interested at wholesale prices. However listing individual coins is noticeably more work. And that additional work will generally follow the law of diminishing returns. If you enjoy doing the extra work then go for it. If you're doing it for the extra money you'll probably make more spending the time filling out on-line surveys ;-)

CATALOG PRICES!!!

Hahahahahha.