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 Replies: 9 / Views: 3,262 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1081 Posts |
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. Previously posted in Canadian Coins and Colonial Tokens. ***
Hello all,
I'm curious to hear about people's strategies for selling coins - at the moment my own views are rudimentary. I have found that coins that are scarce, particularly nice, or likely to be in high demand tend to do well if they start off listed at a low price where only bids are taken (that is to say, no 'buy it now' option). There's usually something of a feeding frenzy towards the end that drives the price up.
Though is this risky? Do valuable things sometimes go for much lower than they're worth.
In contrast, solid, collectable but unremarkable coins seem like the sort of thing that will take a while regardless - maybe best to just list them for close to what they're worth and include both a 'bid' and 'buy it now' option.
Any thoughts on this?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
For better items I determine how much I want for a coin then start it as a 10-day auction at about 10% lower than my estimate. For common items I research how much they are selling for on ebay (NOT how much they are listed for) then start a 10-day auction at the lowest amount that won. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
849 Posts |
I am with kanga on this one too. I would only do "buy it now" if I had a bunch of identical coins like a roll of a given year from a bank roll where they are all basically the same. I don't like to do "best offer" because I hate to haggle. Others might love that aspect.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
Quote:
Do valuable things sometimes go for much lower than they're worth. the final selling price IS what they are worth, just might not be what you were hoping for. good stuff sells for good amounts, the common stuff would be better off sold in lots of 5 or 10 starting an auction at $1 will gather attention, but then you have to be prepared for a bad set of circumstances and sell it for a $1 i personally prefer to buy coins listed as buy-it-now that have the make an offer option. I've scored many coins for half - 3/4 listed price. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5668 Posts |
Quote:
the final selling price IS what they are worth That's not exactly accurate. If selling by auction, the final selling price is what it's worth to a limited set of potential buyers who happen to view your listing during the week of the auction. There may be people willing to pay more but weren't watching ebay that week. So there is definitely a risk of selling an item for less than its value if selling by auction with a low starting bid. If you're patient, Buy it Now is the safest way to go. Of course, there are times when a bidding war in an auction will cause the selling price to exceed what you would have accepted. But in general, I think final prices by auction tend to be lower than BIN sold prices. Edited by Zurie
12/06/2020 5:18 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5178 Posts |
I don't see how "Buy It Now" can work if you overprice your coins to begin with. Case in point: I was watching a 1848 Gulden in AU condition that was marked at $165. Much too high in my opinion. Anyhow, this coin was listed on ebay for weeks and weeks and weeks. No takers. Then the seller decided to change to format to a 10 days auction starting at $0.99. I decided to join the bidding and the coin sold quickly at the end for $56 (someone else won as I did not want to go as high as $56). Moral of the Story: do you want to be a "museum" and sit on your coins for a very long time, or do you want to sell so you can buy something else and make a profit again? No selling = no profit. Edited by NumisEd
12/06/2020 3:54 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1949 Posts |
In general, you will most often net the most with a buy it now sale.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5668 Posts |
@NumisEd, if he had listed it at a BIN price of $75, it might have sold after a reasonable length of time at that price. No one said you have to overprice your coins when you use BIN.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5178 Posts |
I guess the issue between auctioning and BIN pricing is that in order to recoup the ebay fees, you need to price you BIN coins 10-15% higher than the theoretical market price. However, that might not yield a sale in a very long time as your are uncompetitive to those sellers without the ebay overhead. On the other hand, selling via an auction might costs you money as the coin will probably sell at or slightly below market pricing and ebay will still take its cut. So you immediately lose 10-15%. Edited by NumisEd
12/06/2020 6:58 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1359 Posts |
I usually list coin auctions with a starting bid of what Ill take for it. I also have some that are slightly under full value with a BIN make offer. Yes, sometimes coins do sell for much lower than they should when they start out low. But they can also sell for more than you value them for. All depends on several things. Time its ending, category, description, pictures, bidders, etc...If you have a price in mind that you would sell for, start at that price or a little under. If you start at 99 cents, there's always a chance it sell for only that.
Edited by Kloccwork419
12/14/2020 1:32 pm
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Replies: 9 / Views: 3,262 |
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Posted 12/06/2020 08:48 am
