Trading Up

[benjmurts]

So a few years ago I had probably 1000 coins, none that were of any value over a few dollars a piece. So I traded some in here and there. Now I have a few hundred, some that are worth a few hundred $ a piece. I have also bought a lot of silver over the past few years.

 

My question to you is: What is the best method of trading up so I can get a few really nice high dollar coins? I would also like to complete my wheat penny set, 1922 and 1909s VDB.

Do I trade, barter, sell on Ebay, coin shop??? I have lots of silver halves, quarters, silver dollars, etc. Some stuff is higher grade, Well over silver value.

I want to get the best out of my current collection.

 

Thank You

 

[mkman123]

sell or trade some more items and get even better

[mumu]

I think some items will be better off sold to a wider audience via EBAY to get full value, while other items, such as bullion will be good in trades where they can be full valued due to demand. Youll have to decide piece by piece.

[physics-fan3.14]

Really depends on the kind of stuff you have. Ebay is a good place to get rid of common, lower value stuff - if you have the patience to deal with the BS there.

 

For silver that you'll just sell at face, take it to a dealer.

 

For medium quality stuff, Great Collections is quickly becoming the place to be. GC is very easy to deal with, and I had a pleasant experience selling my Franklin collection there (although the prices I got were pretty much wholesale - don't expect really strong prices there).

 

For high quality stuff, or rare stuff, I'd recommend Heritage. They have a $5k minimum, but that is going to be teh best exposure and widest audience for the real quality items.

[mumu]

Really depends on the kind of stuff you have. Ebay is a good place to get rid of common, lower value stuff - if you have the patience to deal with the BS there.

 

For silver that you'll just sell at face, take it to a dealer.

 

 

For silver that you sell at face take it to me!

[BillJones]

When you are trying to make a deal on coin, cash speaks louder than anything else. When you are trading one coin for another coin, quite often it is the dealer's retail price against you wholesale price. You might come out in the same spot, but more often than not you will get more for a coin if you offer it to a wider audience.

 

Sometimes when you are very light (have a low amount of money in something relative to its current market value) a trade can work to your advantage when you are trading like assets. That way you can defer the taxable gain on the item. Of course you really have to know your coin values to make this work, but sometimes it can be to your advantage,.

[Walkerfan]

I sold off a lot of my raw lower grade and MS coins that I didn't want. I did it a little at a time in smaller groups----mostly at B&Ms and coin shows. Don't accept the first offer----shop them around for a BEST price. I made money on almost all of my coins this way----the rest I broke even.

[James_OldeTowne]

I like the idea of trading coins and have used it to my benefit (and the other party's mutual benefit) numerous times. I've even done trades where my trading partner and I exchanged the same date/mm, but one of us needed an upgrade, and the other needed a downgrade. This is probably the finest "low-margin" way to get coins into your set, because often the trade is with someone at your same level (i.e., retail vs. retail).

 

That being said, there is a timing factor that can't be ignore. You have to find someone interested in the trade at the exact same time you are.

 

With cash, there is an advantage in that you can wait months or years for the right coin to come along, and not have to worry about having something the other party will want in trade. So overall, you're probably best off getting the most amount of money you can for the coins you don't want, and stockpiling a fund for future purchase.

[Matt_dac]

I've found it difficult to trade, as referenced by the other poster it may limit your opportunities. I would just try to sell them at the usual sources: Ebay, Craigslist, coin shows, and of course right here!

 

Good luck with the effort.

[Walkerfan]

You can always do what's known as a 'sideways trade', which means trading a lower end MS 65 (as an example) coin plus a little bit of money for a higher end one----this has worked well for me, too.