What Do Reasonable Dealers Buy War Nickels For?

Other than the higher grades, MS60+, the War Nickels do not offer a whole lot in numismatic value. Like most other Jefferson nickels they were mass produced. True they offer a way for folks to invest in silver, but not in the same way quarters and dollars do. With the most recent drastic drop in silver, it has made some skidish about silver. I have seen a lot of items on ebay sell for under spot. Most dealers know what they need, know what they want to pay. I just feel this dealer did not really want them.

Dealers almost always seem to try to make a killing off one person, at least around me they do. Everything is way overpriced and they offer you .25 to .40 cents on the dollar for what you have to sell. I have a 1927s quarter and it is somewhere between vg8 and f15 condition. The price for that condition is somewhere between 60 and 138 dollars. This dealer started at 10 dollars and I said really that is the best you can do and he said alright 15.

I think 85 cents is the last dealer offer I heard. You can do much better on the bay.

My understanding is that the silver in them is difficult to reclaim because of the manganese in the coin as well. Dealers know this and know the smelter won't pay them spot because of it. Ebayers, however, seem willing to pay the spot silver price.

Rollhunter,

Current spot on a War Nickel is around $1.90. Now if you were to sell on ebay at spot and offer free shipping, because who wants to pay all of those fees with the coin they just won? If you were to ship that one coin with just a postage stamp that is just 44¢, but you have no way to prove it was mailed or delivered. I always use the mail feature on ebay, because it provides delivery confirmation. Now the minimum to ship is $1.75 with this method. 2.9% + 30¢ Paypal fees is 36¢. ebay fee is 17¢. So all those fees add up to $2.28 that is 38¢ more than what spot is on a War Nickel. Now granted if you sell in volume it is much different. Your spot value on a full roll(40) is $76. Shipping via ebay would run you around $2.75. PayPal would run you $2.50, and ebay fee would be about $6.84. So now your total cost for selling and shipping is about $12.09, or about 30¢ per nickel. That is a profit of around $64 for the roll, but this does not factor in how much you paid for them. If it were say $1 each that would only be $24 profit on a $76 sale. Not exactly paying the mortgage with that margin.

I disagree with you seal... unless you are paying a rent charge on the item you are selling how long it sits there has no effect on how much you pay for it. Example is car dealerships pay lot fees for the cars, if you buy a coin or find it in a roll and than put it in the show case there is no fee's you own the coin. That is a false tactic to justify lowballing someone on an item, because people take it so personally when they get lowballed. I also disagree with your 3 to 5 times value. My father was into sports cards (until they crashed) for close to 15 years and made a good amount of profit every year and he gave 50 to 60 percent of the value of cards when buying them from private collectors. I do agree with you that they don't have to buy everything presented in front of them, they may have enough of them or maybe just not be interested, but when I showed him the coin he said he was very interested in it for some reason. The funny part is he actually confronted me a few weeks ago when I was at local flea market and I bought some 2 x 2's from the other dealer there. He asked why I bought the 2 x 2's from the other deal when they charged more, and I told him that I had bought coins from him and all my 2 x 2's and alot of other supplies, but when I upgraded a coin and wished to get rid of the old one and he low balled me on it and I didn't appreciate it so I took my business else where. He never said anything back to me and went on his way. I could tell by his response he knew he got caught and that was the end of it.

rkrj, every dealer pays a rent charge on every item they have, unless they OWN the building. It is those very items that pay for it. Cash flow is very important in a business like coin dealing. I have been in the antique and collectible business for over 20 years. I too did baseball cards. a margin of 50% to 60% on a $2 card or coin would never pay the bills, EVER! I have owned my own space and I have rented space, I have even done shows. Especially now with the ecomomy as bad as it is, traffic is S L O W. Dealers have to pay taxes, employees, insurance, and the list goes on and on. Every single item in your inventory is costing you money sitting there until sold.

What do you think would be a fair price offered on the 1927-S? Remember the collectibles market is flat compared to 10 to 20 years ago.

This is very basic retail business common sense, and economics 101.