How would you go about selling off a small collection like this?

[pendragon1998]

I've got a lot of coins which I've had for years which I really want to get rid of - say 50 to 100 of them. They're mainly from when I was younger: common stuff, low to mid grades. Probably most of the coins are worth in the $2 to $10 range. Most are not bad, just not high dollar or condition, and there're maybe 5 or so that were previously cleaned, or just not well kept, but are still probably worth a few bucks to someone - for instance, the shield nickel or large cent I posted earlier. I've got some lower grade winged lib dimes, a few mid-grade morgans, Peace dollars and walking halves, couple hundred wheats, other misc. silver, etc...

 

 

I want to refine my collection - sell off all my low grade stuff in favor of buying fewer, more expensive coins. Ideally, I'd like to have a nice type set and just work on a few series as I become interested in them. I don't really want a bunch of other coins just sitting around. Also, I'm a newly-married grad student and I have very little in the way of available funds. My coin budget is super low, and getting even $100 or $200 would be a huge boost to my budget.

 

I'd like suggestions on how to unload my collection and make a fair take from it. I'm unsure of what venue I should go - eBay? I don't want to get eaten up by fees or spend years photographing everything, but I'm willing to spend a little time. What can I do to sell all these coins and not get ripped off?

 

Thanks for the opinions!

[TomB]

You may want to simply put together a list of what you have and start a thread in the marketplace. It might surprise you how many folks actually read that forum and obtain coins listed in it. Short of that, you would have to weigh how much selling each coin on ebay means to you vs. how much you might get shopping them to dealers as a bulk lot.

[DC Dawg]

One idea is to place a free classified ad in Numismatic News. You would need to purchase a copy in order to get their mail-in form. With the form, you can have an ad up to 25 words at no cost. For $5, they will repeat the ad for three week.

 

In your ad, you ask the readers to send an SASE for a list. All you do is type a list in your favorite word processor, print or copy the list for every request, and fill any orders. If you do this, you will need to accurately describe each coin. Also, you will have to include a cover letter specifying how payment can be made (money order... checks are held for 10 business days... etc.) and shipping charges.

 

I was able to unload fifty "mid-grade" coins this way a year ago. You will need patience because it is not a fast method!

 

Good luck!

 

Scott

[JamminJ]

Stuff like that does well on bidboards if you are lucky enough to have one local.

[World Colonial]

I have no experience with buying or selling outside of eBay but I can share some of my experience from there. But I can tell you as a buyer, that I will not buy any coin without seeing what it looks like first.

 

This past June, I sold approximately 100 coins in my collection which I classified similar to what you described or at least most them were. In my case, they were mainly items that I had accumulated when my budget was lower because that was all I could afford.

 

Taking pictures was much more difficult than I thought it would be and I would personally not bother to list low value items on eBay except as a group lot. Most of my coins were foreign and most of them were not slabbed. In total, all my coins sold for about what I thought they would (about $6000) and for what I paid for them but that was because a handful of my better coins did very well.

 

With my US material, most of them sold for less than I thought and what I paid for them. Proof sets did OK but type coins such as 1/2c, large cent and so forth did not. An 1886 uncirculated Morgan Dollar (my grade is about MS-63 blast white) got no takers at $15. My feedback is over 200 and I have no negatives, so I am assuming it was partly because of the quality of my photographs. But then maybe I just paid too much for this stuff to begin with.