New Dude With No Clue

What do you want to do with it? He asks from California

Need to get it appraised.

May need to generate some funds in near future for assisted living of Grandmother. Was told to mail the entire collection to "Heritage"(?) but it's probably 50 lbs or more. Realize that taking pix and posting here would give me some value estimates but there are hundreds of different coins involved (and thousands of individual coins when you add up full sets or wrapped sets). I was hoping to avoid the time/tediousness of taking and posting hundreds of photos by having a local and reputable dealer (Jersey or Maryland) look at the collection in person and offer values for each and/or the entire collection. Willing to pay for someone to offer that expertise too.

Hope that helps and thanks in advance for any advice.

I agree with Kurt, the Red Book is a great place to start.

Making a list of coins and posting your questions here can point you in the right direction. Pictures of the coins are encouraged, even from new users.

I agree the Red Book is a great resource, especially if someone is unfamiliar with a certain type of coin but for someone new to the hobby (or industry) you better realize you're NOT going to get those prices listed in the Red Book if you sell to a DEALER.

Example: You want to sell some coins from your Grandfather's collection on Craig's List and you ask for the listed Red Book price. You might find a private collector who's willing to pay it.

But if you go to a dealer and sell the lot (or even a portion of it) there's no way he's gonna pay you the Red Book listed price.

I'm not a dealer and I'm not slamming dealers, after all, they have to run a business. That means they buy low and sell high ( Red Book is high).

Coins seem to do well on ebay.

And now that I think about it, I've seen Morgan dollars (in particular) go for good prices at Estate Auctions at a local auction house.

Good luck.

Any ideas on local professionals (auctioneers, collectors, appraisers) that folks would trust to provide an opinion?

Our forum owners live in Dover. I know they are busy, and may not be able to help immediately, but since they used to reside in Jersey, they may know of good contacts in the area.

Also a fellow Moderator lives near AC I believe and may have some contact info for you.

I will contact them and inform them of this thread.

As far as in the meantime, follow everyone's advice thus far. Get yourself a RedBook and identify any key coins you have. Sort out the denominations and then by year groups. i.e., quarters, then to 1964 and earlier to separate the silver, then separate by types from washingtons to Barbers etc. That will make it much easier to start helping you.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

You can't go wrong with the phone book:

http://www.yellowbook.com/search/?w...olis+MD

If you have as many coins as you are talking about, you may also want to ask some trustworthy family members to help sort it out and look up information as well. There is no way to know the value of every coin since you sound like you have never collected them yourself, so if it looks unusual put it in its own pile. Also, I would suggest sorting out any that may be graded by a third party source, gold, silver (if you know what you are looking for) and any coins your grandfather may have taken extra care of. If you do not need the money right away I would also suggest shopping around and getting more than one price for the collection.

If you do have the time (and patience) it would be good to take photos and list as much as possible so you can have a person list as backup. Like others have said before, there are those that will buy from this site. The advantages there are that : 1.you get to set the price. 2. You do not need to pay for hosting, listing or selling to another site. And 3. from the time I have been here this has been the best site for honest collectors I have seen. If you do sell to this board I would also suggest getting in touch with the moderators because they can aim you to the people that will be honest and most likely to buy what you have.

The other advantage of the photos is that you can post them here and the members can help you out with what is in the collection. If you know nothing about them then any help is great to have and where there is a wide range of people that specialise in so many areas this is a great asset.