Question About Listing Coins for Sale

[Hack]

I have been selling some coin on eBay. When I do an upgrade, I often sell the replaced coin on eBay to help offset the cost. I have tried the various selling methods of best offer, buy now and auction. Most of the coins that I have been selling are Morgan Dollars. If I list a coin as a fixed buy now price, what is the duration that I should expect a coin to sell? If the coin does not sell, how long should I list the coin before reducing the price? If you sell on eBay, what selling method do you prefer and why?

 

After selling coins on eBay, I do have a little better understanding of what a coin dealer goes through when selling coins.

[physics-fan3.14]

There are several factors that will affect how quickly a coin sells. A nicer coin, more attractive coin, will sell faster. A coin that is a good deal will sell faster. A popular date, variety, or condition will sell faster. There really is no rule.

[AHFreak]

To expand on what PH3.14 said, As soon as you get your questions answered, it changes on the next one. Or another way to say it, is that as soon as you finally think you have it figured out, everything changes on you....

 

IMO, you will be and do just fine if you do your best to price your coins accurately and fairly, and also use high quality photos in your listings..

[bourse28]

For fixed BIN priced coins on ebay I have had coins sell in 3 weeks (I thought would take forever, if sell at all at that price) yielding super profit and others sit there forever even priced at or near wholesale. There is no real reason to it.

 

BIN make offer gives you a little more flexibility but it takes someone who wants the coin who will make an offer.

 

Quickest way is auction. Basically USA coins are realizing about 70% of Market Value on ebay (based on my analysis of stuff I sell or track on watch list to possibly purchase) vs CW Trends, TPG Market Value etc. Some much lower others higher.

 

If you want to do blow outs, liquidation - start as auction slightly below CDN Bid. It could be 5c on a $30 coin or $5 ib a $150 ciub, I have been doing some of these from Iphone (phone takes great photos) and the app gives me option to list two more times if it does not sell first time. If it does not sell after 3 tries, relist slightly lower. Whats happening is the people looking at it probably don't have any money, bad time to sell (Summer worst), or just looking for whatever rip they can get.

 

If you are brave and want the item to sell for sure simply list at 99c (not recommended).

 

Many people are ignorant as to what they can sell their coins for (unrealistic expectations, overpaid, bad strategy, forced sells in horrible market) and really have no real clue how the coin business works (or even care) or how to do a true P&L and then have the gall to bash dealers. Selling your coins on ebay is easy and inexpensive vs a table at a show and will give you an idea on what is involved in selling coins.

 

There is no guardian angel or Santa in Numismatics. If you make a bad decision buying (overpaid, market timeing, etc) expect to pay some tuition.

[KMAG100]

The approach I like the best is to put it out to auction at a minimum start price that I will take for the coin. sometimes they sell for that price with only one bid, sometimes they get heated up and sell for way more than I expected. Some times they have to be relisted several times before they sell.

 

In general I do not like to put limits on how much someone will pay for a coin, I let the buyer decide how much they want to spend. I focus on what I will except in terms of price. I try to stay away from getting greedy, and let the natural flow of an auction style sale hit when it hits and get what I want when that is the best it can do. Of course this is just a hobby to me and not a business, so set profit margins are not as important to me as it would be to a dealer trying to make a living buying and selling coins.

[Nutmeg Coin]

You can do the buy it now with offer offers, probably the safest option and I would agree with most of the points made here. If you do a price minimum with an "auction" you may get a few bids. Watch how GC gets some of their results which you will never get generally on ebay. Imaging can be critical to getting near retail.

[bourse28]

For quickest results simply start the coin at some percentage behind CDN Bid or at BV or simply 99c. Otherwise its difficult to predict.

 

You could list it at retail and BIN / MO if you have a lot of room in it. It could be there quite awhile. I have listed coins at retail which lingered for over a year and others which sold in a couple of weeks. There is no easy method or reason to it.

 

Listing at 99c auction style will generate lots of bids and result in a sale at the end of the auction. The result could be way below your expectations.

[Raisethis2]

The buyers on E-Bay have been conditioned to believe that almost every raw coin has been messed with. Accordingly, 20% back of Grey Sheet bid is a fair starting point and will result in approximately 50% sales for raw offerings.

 

Unfortunately, the bottom feeder mentality has bled over into certified coins also. Sometimes you just can't find a buyer. Even at 20% back of bid. When you add in the E-Bay and PayPal fees totaling about 9%, your abt to suffer a loss.

 

Great pictures are an ABSOLUTE MUST!!! If you can't manage this, sell them through Great Collections, Heritage, Silvertowne or the like depending on the actual value of the coin.

 

 

[RWB]

"Listing Coins for Sale"

 

It should not make any different to buyers if the coins are listing one way or the other.

 

For coins that are in plastic slabs, it's easy enough to correct listing. Simply put the slab between two books and that will prevent it from listing left or right. Raw coins are more difficult to handle and really should not be shown on edge and listing one way or the other....better to lie them flat.

 

 

[bourse28]

If you want move it right away start at 99c opening bid. Otherwise YMMV. In terms of raw coins, if its rather inexpensive no problem.

 

I had an slabbed common date NGC (Fattuy) MS63 Peace Dollar I bought for $37. It had horrible reverse PVC toning. I cracked it out, dipped it (got the unattractive toning, PVC off and it looked much nicer and lustrous) and listed it on ebay fixed price for $49 describing it as CH BU (I do not use numerical grades for raw coins). It was a nice 63 but not worth submitting in hope of a higher grade. It sold within a week which was a pleasant surprise.

 

One auction I was watching, a really horrible fairly common Morgan Dollar (black streaks) the seller described as AU (I would have called XF) brought around $37 (CDN Bid was $40). IMO it was a cull not worth not much more above melt. Don't give up on selling raw coins on ebay.

 

Coins expensive enough to justify the slab fee and still raw usually do not do well.

 

 

[Nutmeg Coin]

An in state dealer told me they were getting phenomenal results on ebay; when I checked their results easy to do with an advanced search, I saw they were getting around GS on ebay whether they did BIN or auctions. (Guilford Coin "father-time-coin"). They have been selling only since September, previously they said they hated ebay. OH coins occasionally bring more in real auctions. I guess it beats shipping excess inventory to the wholesalers.