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 Replies: 28 / Views: 3,949 |
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New Member
United States
6 Posts |
Good afternoon! I had an interesting experience today I wanted to share with the members here. I have a coin collection I am looking to liquidate, as I've lost interest in the hobby. I took my collection to a local ANA certified dealer to appraise and make an offer. The spot value of the collection alone was about $900, most of it Uncirculated and about-uncirculated late 1800s-mid 1900s silver coinage with an aggregated greysheet value of about $2000. The dealer offered me 750 for the collection. The most hilarious part of the meeting was the dealer offering me $15.00 for a mint-state, full luster 1889 VAM-19 Bar Wing Morgan, at which point I looked in his case and pointed out he was selling the same coin at the same grade for 80. Is this a common practice for dealers now to only buy at spot and sell at full numismatic retail? If so I might have to part my collection out on the 'bay. |
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
 to CCF fellow Michigander. Can't answer your question, but hope you will enjoy our site. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
840 Posts |
Without seeing photos or a list of coins in the collection it's hard to assess the price you were offered. But, off the top of my head, I'm not surprised by the offer. There's not a lot of profit on some low- or mid-range coins. And it's a lot of work to grade, price, store, and sell these coins. And I bet that dealer lists his coins on auction sites too - that's a lot of work for a few bucks. Same thing with bullion - I've never met a dealer that pays melt, there's no profit in that. As for the Morgan you described - yeah, that hurts, but I'm still not surprised.
Overall, I think you'll do better on an auction site, but as you list, sell, and ship each of your coins, remember all the work that goes into it. Then you might understand the offer the dealer made.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
The more common the stuff the lower the offer. The more stuff you try and sell at once the lower the offer. Being a first time customer many dealers will low ball especially if they think you don't know what you're doing. It also depends on how easily they think they can sell it, do they have customers for that type of stuff ect.
Overall though collections are generally bought for a few key things and then a couple bucks is tacked on for the rest.
There's a lot of factors that go into it but yes you probably would do better selling everything yourself or at the very least breaking it down into smaller groups when you shop it around
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3402 Posts |
There had to be some numismatic value over the spot so that was a real *** Edited by Staff | The bad word filter is in place for a reason. Bypassing the filter and making the intended word obvious anyway is completely unacceptable. *** offer.
KK
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5241 Posts |
One test of how fair the offer was would be to take it to another dealer and see what they offer.
Others can suggest how realistic the greysheet is as a buying guide. Such things exist in Canada but they are often much too high and dealers may pay a lot less.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
If you don't need the money quick, what about ebay? |
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New Member
 United States
6 Posts |
I am most likely going to go ebay; going by recently finished auctions I would get almost what the dealer offered for just my proof sets; the dealer offered a total of 200 for 2007-2014 proof sets and it looks like just the 2012 is consistently selling for >160 on ebay. The fees are a pain but the dealer was offering me 25% value on a lot of these coins. I am in no hurry to sell. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
The melt value was about $900, greysheet value about $2,000 and most of it Uncirculated and about-uncirculated late 1800s-mid 1900s silver then it must be common date U.S. silver coinage (AU and MS silver that's worth double melt). A dealer offer of ~85% of melt is pretty common in this situation. Brick and mortar dealers are not collectors so you would be better off selling on ebay or directly to a collector to realize closer to what your collection is worth. You could also call APMEX and get an offer from them that might be well above melt but still under greysheet of course. I have been happy doing bulk silver sales to APMEX in the past. Good luck! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1309 Posts |
FYI lots of folks selling on facebook, no fees unless you use a pay site.
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Valued Member
240 Posts |
You'd be better off driving down to NC and selling them to me... Think ebay minus 10% ... That's 3% better than you'll do on ebay. (The overhead is 9% + 1% + 3%.) Just not sure it's worth your time... not to mention the gas. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7620 Posts |
....to the Community! Dealers are in business to make money and running a brick and mortar store ain't cheap. Low offers equal more profit. In my opinion a dealer being a member of the ANA, authorized to accept PCGS/ NGC submissions (or being a member of any other organization) doesn't mean diddly squat when it comes to offers they make on coins. My favorite is a dealer here in N Texas that slaps up a banner over his table at coin shows that proclaims he is an "Authorized Coin Broker". My question for him has always been "authorized by who"? You are better off to take your time, do your homework and farm it out yourself online. Good luck! |
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New Member
United States
6 Posts |
I am not sure how to sell on Facebook, or if I would feel comfortable doing so.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
FYI lots of folks selling on facebook, no fees unless you use a pay site. Instagram, and a lesser extent Reddit too. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8715 Posts |
to the CCF!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
You could open an ebay store for about $25 on a month to month basis, and cut your seller fees to %6. |
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Replies: 28 / Views: 3,949 |
Posted 11/17/2018 4:03 pm
