Potential 50k Purchase, What are they worth???

[ft88]

I have come across a huge coin collection from a seller who isn't sure what he has. Truth be told neither do I. The original collector recently passed away and the heirs are looking to sell. If he is willing to sell out of convenience what would generic prices be for various US coins. ie $100 for each $20 gold coin. $10 for silver Peace and Morgan dollars, $5 for half dollars etc... I have no idea the going rate. Yes I can buy a guide but that can often be very misleading and I don't know how to grade.

 

Please keep it simple as I have very little experience with coins, though I do know comics and baseball cards (which is how I came here).

 

I will gladly fill any want lists offline for those who can help and since I am a coin newbie you will definitly get a great deal. I also have no interest in collecting coins so everything will be put up for sale.

 

I do know that he actively collected in the late 50's and early 60's. They are in binders and were taken care of, at least by 60's standards. He generated a list of coins on that old type 50's graph paper, I'll try to get ahold of it and bring it out here if I can. Mostly I would like to buy them for a reasonable price and flip them to collectors who truly value them. I imagine the total value is in the neighborhood of $50k, though that is a guess. I love these kind of deals, but I don't want to pay 20k for a collection that guides at 30 g's but sells for 12.

 

I'll set it up another way. What would you pay, sight unseen and the story above, for 100 Silver dollars 1880-1910, 100 Buffalo nickels, 100 pre-1900 Indian head pennies. 100 XXX coins pre XXXX date. Remember, these are truly unsearched.

 

Thank you for any help, anything is appreciated.

 

Ed

[truthteller]

Hi, you are in an interesting position. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give approximations without looking at the coins. It's like saying what's my car worth without knowing the make, model, year or condition. In additions, there may be counterfeit gold coins in the lot. The best advice for now is to obtain the services of a respected coin dealer in your area and seek a commision deal, whereby the dealer will give the inspection and buy prices, then you and the dealer will split the profits or use a commision to consumate the deal.

 

 

TRUTH

[Hoot]

I know of a very honest and friendly coin dealer who will travel to buy a collection. He would likely pay you more that what you will get by attempting to sell things the way you are. He is a very accurate grader (a former PCGS grader) and pays the going bid for coins he buys. His mane is Dale Willams and he runs a shop locally (Bozeman, MT) called Williams Gallery/Collector USA. His shop manager is Dan Wahr. They are willing to talk over the phone and give you the best ideas that they can provide. Thier number is 406-586-4343. You'll do well by contacting such an honest dealer.

 

Hoot

[TomB]

There is truly no way to give you an accurate approximation of this collection's worth since we have no parameters to go by. You should either buy a Red Book and an ANA Grading Guide and learn how to grade the coins in order to value them or you should pay to have the collection carefully gone through by someone who knows coins. Either way, this requires more work than it appears you are willing to attempt. Also, it appears that you are trying to rip the collection from an unknowledgeable owner and then flip the coins quickly for a huge profit. If that is the case, then bringing in someone to appraise the collection for you is unlikely since they will give the information to the collection owner or will just cut you out and buy the collection without you.

 

As for your theoretical sight-unseen collection, if I had to buy it I would pay about $7 each for the dollars, 25 cents each for the Buffalo nickels and 50 cents each for the Indian Head cents. To be honest, what is most likely in this collection is bulk junk and you will likely have a harder time moving it and make less money than you anticipate.

[ft88]

Thank you for the answer, thats exactly what I was looking for. Its funny that on one hand it looks like I am trying to rip off the owner and on the other hand I need to bring in an expert in order not to get ripped off myself.

 

You brought up a very valid point in that if I bring in an expert, I will be pushed aside. About the only thing I can do is make a reasonable offer, play the probability game, and if there is a gem or two I'll profit and if not I'll break even. Thats all I'm trying to do.

 

I will go out and educate myself on coins but I know that it can take years to even become close to learning the ropes. It doesn't sound like the colletion is worth as much as I suggested, but he collected for nearly 20 years during the 40's and 50's so it can't just be dreg.

[TomB]

Since I haven't seen the collection, I can only go by my own experience in telling you that I would anticipate the collection to be made up of coins largely pulled out of circulation. If that is the case, then the nuances of grading an AU vs an MS coin are largely gone and, therefore, grading is much easier. Nearly every coin series is fairly easy to grade in the circulated grades and this will cut down any knowledge gap quickly.

 

The reason I think this collection was largely pulled from circulation is because of the types of coins you mention. Both Buffalo nickels and Indian Head cents still circulated in the 1940s and 1950s and the pieces that were out there were mostly common dates in very low grades. This is why I brought up such low prices per coin for these series. Many of the Buffalos likely have no dates and there is a very good chance that nearly every better date Indian Head cent has been cleaned at least once as this was common practice at that time. I don't know about cards and comics, but a cleaned coin gets hammered in the value department.

 

I have gone through several collections that sound similar to this one. One was from a 97 year old woman and she collected Lincoln and Indian Head cents in the 1930s so you can imagine what I hoped to find in there. Unfortunately, although she had more than one complete set for each series, all of the better dates had been cleaned harshly. Another collection I looked at was from a gentleman in his 70s and he collected Barber coinage in the 1950s. Although his coins weren't cleaned, they were all pulled from circulation and were of exceptionally low grade and low value. The collection that hurt the most, though, was from another gentleman in his 70s who collected MS Washingtons in the 1950s and 1960s and had a complete set. I was hoping for some early date gems, but he stored all his coins in plastic holders that degraded (contained PVC) and the coins were ruined.

 

So, grading the coins is going to be the easy part of this endeavor. Determining the coins that have been cleaned, tooled, damaged, have verdigris or that are counterfeit is going to be the tough part.

[ft88]

Thanks Tom, I'll look out for cleaning most definitly. If I get any toned coins you'll be the first to know.