looking for advice on selling modern commemoratives

[schwett-migration]

Hi Everyone.

 

I have a small collection of modern commemoratives which I am no longer interested in keeping. I looked around a bit to get a sense of the value of these coins and was surprised to see how much variation there is between the various 'proof' grades.

 

http://www.pcgs.com/prices/frame.chtml?type=date&filename=modern_commemoratives_mod

 

I'm somewhat familiar with the grading of other non-proof coins but frankly from looking them over i couldn't say whether they were MS/PR-64 or 65 or 70. Given that the total value for the collection varies by 3 or 4x (assuming that none are PR-70) would I be best served by sending the coins off to be graded? They were all purchased directly from the mint in the early 80s and have sat in their boxes ever since. Is it safe to say that all of the variation in quality for these coins which are untouched since they left the mint based on the quality of the strike?

[gmarguli]

Welcome to the forums!

 

The PCGS Price Guide or more accurately the PCGS Price MISguide is a joke. They fill it with numbers that their member dealers WISH they could sell coins for. Even David Hall, PCGS president, sells coins for much less than this guide. It's a scam!

 

For proofs only PF69 & PF70 slabbed ones will bring a premium. Anything lower than that it is not worth it slabbing them. They'd sell for more raw.

 

Even at PF69 you very well might get more money (figuring in the slabbing fees) if you sold them raw. Only PF70s will guarantee you more money.

 

The average grade of a mint proof during the modern commem era is probably PF67 or better.

 

If you want to slab them, try a few and see what they grade and what they sell for. See if it is worth it.

[schwett-migration]

Thanks for the quick response.

 

If one were to make a wild guess, what percent of untouched modern commemoratives are PF70? .5? 1? 10?

 

It sounds like it's not worth my while to grade them unless there's a chance any are PF70.

 

What's the best place to sell ungraded coins? EBay?

[gmarguli]

Somewhere between .5% and 2.5% are probably going to grade PF70. The later date the coin, the higher the odds of a PF70.

 

eBay would be a good place to sell them. A local dealer might give a good price. Do you have a local bid board? They would sell well on the bid board.

[jtryka]

you could also list them on the buy/sell board on here, or on other forum like PCGS, as many collectors might be interested (that would likely mean higher prices than a dealer might offer). Many of us, like me collect only raw modern commems with all the boxes and certificates, etc. Generally, though, greg is right and it's not worth slabbing unless you get a PF-70. If you do send them in though, take them out of all the plastic cases, I sent one in once, and it came back in a PF-68 holder without the original plastic (even though I asked PCGS to return it) and I ended up selling it for less since it was a low grade and didn't have all the original packaging.

[BillJones]

I too collect the modern commemoratives only with the original boxes and papers. My interest is pretty much limited to Proof coin sets where a gold piece was included in the issue.

 

As a dealer, I have generally had a hard time selling these coins for much over "bid" at the shows when I could sell them at all. Therefore if you try to sell them to dealers, you will need to adjust your prices for most issues to 10 to 20 percent in back of "bid."

 

Most of the time I have ended up selling the gold commemeortives to the wholesale dealers who supply coins to outfits like Home Shopping Club. These dealers don't care about the boxes or the papers; they just buy the coins. It's a shame, but many collectors just don't seem to care for these coins, even when they are attractive and were issued to celebrate something that was worthwhile.

 

The "Uncirculated" versions of these coins sometimes sell for more because of low mintages. I think that a lot of the interest here comes from speculators. It would be to your benefit if you could look at a recent copy of the modern commemorative page of the Coin Dealer Newsletter (Gray Sheet). It is issued every other week.