Selling a coin collection

[pambsky-migration]

I am looking to sell a rather extensive coin collection of my father's. I am unsure as to sell now or not.

 

Can you tell me, does the price of the collection go up as the price of silver goes up?

 

Also, what is the best way to go about selling a coin collection so that I don't get taken advantage of?

 

I have a lot of silver coins.

 

Thanks

[gmarguli]

DO NOT CLEAN THE COINS NO MATTER WHAT!!!

 

The value depends on the rarity, condition, demand, and to a less extent the metal the coin is made of.

 

Go to your local library or book store and get this book: The Official Guide to US Coins AKA Redbook. It will give you a very optomistic value of the coin along with a little insight into grading it.

 

Take a few pictures if you can and post them here and we can give you a GENERAL idea of the condition.

 

Look at eBay auctions to figure out what these coins are selling for. Figure a dealer will give you 25% less.

[pambsky-migration]

Thanks for the info. However, are you saying just because the price of silver is high, that does not affect the price of the coins?

 

Also, what would be your suggestions for the best way to go about selling the coins so that I don't get "ripped off"?

 

Thanks.

[lazeroo]

it dosen't really matter if the coins are silver.

 

and you need to go and buy a red book buy rs yeoman.

 

then do some homework.

 

the more you read about coins the more you will make .

 

you can sell them on ebay.(if you spend some time learning)

 

or you can find a dealer to help you.

 

or just put some of them up on this website and the people here will be glad to help you.

 

 

email me if you have any questions.

[TomB]

You have received excellent advice thus far, you would be wise to follow it.

 

In general, your collection will be closely tied to the price of silver only if the coins are what is known as "junk silver". These are issues like circulated silver Roosevelt dimes and such. They have little numismatic value and are traded at or near the price of bullion.

 

Let's hope your collection has very little junk silver in it.

[reid1836]

The suggestion that you purchase a Red Book is a very good one . The books proper name is A Guide Book of United States Coins By R.S. Yeoman.

Look at each series of coins for the highest values in the lower grades to start. These coins usually have a specific date in which all grades are highly valued they are known as key date coins. To achieve a key date coins maximum salable potential it should be graded and encapsulated by one of the top grading services such as NGC. Inspect the coins that you feel are good candidates for professional grading to see if the have any damage of any kind. Any coins that have damage should NOT be sent in for grading and encapsulation. Only the cream of the crop so to speak. The key date coins that you don`t send are considered to be raw. A term commonly used within the hobby to define a coin which has not been professionally graded and encapsulated. These raw coins are still of value. Another book entitled Official A.N.A. Grading Standards For United States Coins will be helpful in determining a relative grade for them. Both books mentioned are a minimal expense of around $25 for the pair and will serve you well in guarding against being taken to the cleaners. If you plan to list them for sale on e-bay you should mention what ever defects you notice and add pictures of the coins themselves in your description.

An honest and forthcoming seller usually sustains higher sale prices even for their problem coins. Integrity is the lifes blood of a coin dealer. Even if only a dealer for a day !

[goose3]

sound advice!

 

esp. the part about posting them here!!

[Bruceswar]

Another thing that will help you if you decide to sell online. Take good, clear pictures of the coins.. I can not tell you how many times I see a coin I might be interested in but the pictures are so bad I pass on it. If your collection has alot of Foriegn coins get a World Coin Price Guide

[pambsky-migration]

Thanks all for the advice. I wonder how though I put them up on this site or ebay when there are literally hundreds of coins. Is there any society or organization to get an honest evaluation of coins in Chicago?

 

I will pick up the books suggested.

 

Thanks once again.

[reid1836]

Are you familiar with the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center ? There will be a large coin show there on June 24-27. There will be many dealers there. You could show the collection to several of them and get their estimations of the collections value.

Then have a better understanding. I would also advise you not to accept any offers until you have drawn a consensus of the value from several different dealers.

[reid1836]

Also you need to understand that dealers buy prices are wholesale and their sell prices are retail. There is a very wide gap between the two.

[Coinosaurus]

Quite probably what you have is an accumulation of what is referred to "junk silver", which does move in line with the price of silver. Silver is high now, but if you believe the government is printing too much money & that we are headed for more inflationary times, then perhaps it would be better to hang onto the collection for now.

 

The advice to head over to Rosemont and have multiple folks look at it is good. A number of dealers there probably won't have any interest in it (not all dealers are interested in all coins) but if you are patient you should be able to get a few offers. It's a fairly competitive environment, so if you get multiple offers you should have a good idea of what it is worth.

[TomB]

Be aware that if you have a large amount of material and are asking for a fairly well thought out estimate, then you are likely going to encounter at least one or two dealers who will charge you for the information. Find this out upfront. There is nothing wrong with this if you know it and are willing to pay for it. Many dealers will do this for free. It really depends upon what you have to sell.

[Count_Erfit]

As a dealer, I did several types of appraisals.

 

If it was just to pick my brain with a clearly stated intent to use my info to sell to someone else, I charged an appraisal fee of a modest $35 per hour.

 

I would also sell it as a "steering expert" for 10%. This was for sizeable collections and I would let the seller sit in on the purchase to the end user.

 

I would do "free" appraisals for those SELLING to me. However, I would show them the red AND blue book and do ONE COIN at a time. This way, I could purchase the coins without having the whole thing done and then the seller saying "I wanna think about it."

 

I invited them to shop around and let me bid against other dealers.

 

Or I would SELL them reference books if they indicated that they in NO WAY wanted me to get the coins or any pay for my time.

 

"Up front" and fully disclosed. No playing with tire-kickers or estate executors looking to use my expertise without compensation.

 

There is however NO SUBSTITUTE for educating YOURSELF and then deciding how to proceed. If the collection warrants, an auction HOUSE (rather than eBay) can look at it and offer an advance against it. THEIR aim is to bring the price as HIGH as possible so their commission is the maximum available.

 

Good luck on the sale.

[Trime-migration]

I am neither a dealer nor an expert on the best method for a non collector to sell a collection but will offer some practical advice.

Unless you are hard pressed to distribute an estate or need to sell for taxes, I would take my time in selling. Your father spent a lot of time collecting these coins. Become as informed as possible.

First you need to have a gross sense of value of a collection. If the coins are slabbed then it is much simpler to do this. If these are circulated coins and/or raw coins the process is much more difficult and you will need more help.If it turns out that this is a very valuable collection then there is no question that there are many dealers that are willing to assess your holdings at no cost and offer a price for some or all. Valuable may mean different things to different people and most dealers are not interested in bothering with significant effort over a large collection of ordinary coins. An independent assessment will cost a fee but it might be worth the money if the assets are significant and you could find a truly knowledgeable and independent assesor. There are many wolves in sheep's clothing.

I would be very careful to get several assessments and offers. The industry is uneven in integrity and there are many who salivate over naive holders of inherited coins.

Good luck in your assessment and sale.

[Here]

Sounds like some good advice so far, HOWEVER, you don't sound like you're really into it. This is my suggetion. Look in the ANA magazine and read some of the ads in there from the dealers, auction people,etc., and flat out call a few and see what they say! That's what I did for selling some of my coins. If your collection is large enough some will even travel to you. The one I finally settled on even helps me get some onto E-bay. If you don't have a ANA magazine I'm sure one of us would send you one. Someone mentioned taking a few of your coins to the coin show.

 

Yes, dealer prices are different from retail prices. Dealers will work with you if at all possible to liquidate your collection so that it is benificial to them and you. And there's nothing wrong with that! If you are not already familiar with selling on E-bay or Yahoo, then I strongly urge you NOT to attempt a "go it alone sale". I've seen auctions on E-bay fall apart because the seller didn't know what they were doing. Before they knew it they were having 20-30 coins going off eveyday, get snowballed, get behind, then 20 neg feedbacks pop up, and then.....If you do go it alone, stay small at first i.e. 5-10 coins a week.

 

The next to the last worst scenario for you in selling them is straight to a dealer/wholeseller at their price. If you didn't pay anything for this collection, then you're ahead! The worst case for your collection is having it stolen or damaged before you get rid of it. That does happen and is something to consider. Jerry