Large coin collection purchase question
Bigbuck1975
Posts: 1,276 ✭✭✭✭✭
How do you guys handle extremely large collection purchases?
Here’s the story - collector dies has over 100,000 Coins, kid wants to sell, wants $25k and has no clue what’s there. I will pay him fair but I am guessing there will be a huge time investment going through everything (depending what’s there) and don’t really want to spend weeks going through everything. I would assume the right way is to break it down in groups and assign value and pay % based on that. I also have the $$ available so sitting on it isn’t a problem but didn’t want to rob someone given they clearly don’t know what they have. I guess I am assuming value is there but it could turn out to be junk.
It sounds like the collection has pretty much everything including US and foreign based on my initial questions.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
Comments
First thing is look at the accumulation and see what is there. some things are easy to value ( ie 90%). others are not.
I would be more concerned about overpaying than ripping off the seller, this could easily be a trap that takes a huge amount of time to sell.
If you know a dealer that would be interested, maybe consider taking a finders fee for an introduction.
That's $4 a coin. If there are a lot of Lincoln cents in circ it could be way too much to pay. A quick look should give you an idea. JMHO
It's .25 per coin,
But still not worth it if it's mostly Lincoln cents, unless there are rolls of 09- s vdb and 14-d, which is unlikely.
I don't think that's $4 a coin....more like 25 cents a coin?
That could be a great deal, but still could be bad if its a lot of common circ Lincolns, clad stuff, etc.
I would think in a couple of hours, you could assess a ballpark gross value, then pass or play.
If you wind up getting far more than $25k in value, keep his contact info and offer him a bonus later.
This is my exact current thinking, unless it’s relively easy to assess value. Is 50% of market value a fair number?
50% of market value for things that are difficult to sell is probably reasonable.
FV for common clad coinage, memorial cents, Ikes, Kennedy's, etc.
50% of mkt value for junk silver and silver dollars is low, IMO, these have reasonably defined
buy/sell ranges, and I like to sleep at night. But I've heard testimony of estate buyers purchasing platinum coins as sterling from unsuspecting heirs, so to each his own.
I would also pay closer to mkt value if any truly scarce or nice collector coins happen to be in there, assuming you leave some room for slabbing, etc.
Keep us posted on this!
Sorry...….my math was flawed.
Most foreign I come across is worthless crap that can't even be spent in the country of origin. Don't even bother to look at that unless you really know foreign. I refuse to buy bulk foreign as my luck is not good. If I buy a collection and it has foreign coins, I tell the seller I'll give away to YN's for him if he wishes. Otherwise he can keep.
Good luck,
bob
Got to have some general idea of the contents to even begin to comment. You're right to recognize the Time and Effort element. Most large accumulations are full of junk that (almost) no one wants to handle.
Grouping like with like will help, and seeing how much silver value (melt), how much goes right to bank/coinstar (face), how much is modern proof sets (yuck and yawn). How much foreign bulk (by the lb.) etc..
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
The whole thing sounds fishy to me. Just picks 25 K out of the air how did he come up with that number?
Just proceed with caution and like the last quarter set fiasco be wary.
How did the person make contact with you a friends recomendation etc?
Lastly what do you intend to do with purchase keep it or resell it?
100000 coins is not a collection. It is a massive accumulation. It’s most likely a massive headache. I’d be averse to taking on such a project unless you really have time to kill, and a reliable venue with which to move stuff that isn’t likely to be appealing to most collectors.
100,000 coins does yell quality or collection. Most likely items pulled from circulation. May be worth $25K, but tat may be retail. Do quick separation by denomination and metal content. Good luck and have fun!
I would ask him to separate them by metal like and see if he has any gold coins to start with. Sounds like fun but it's a lot of money for not knowing whether you can come up ahead.
Please take some pictures and let us know. Good luck!
In my experience, if there are gold coins in the collection it is probably going to be good. If you know anything about coins, in five minutes you'll know whether to waste your time or not.
How exactly would that work?
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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I do not know how far away from you this collection is, or how much time you have. If there are truly 100K coins, it would be heavy and take quite a lot of space. I would recommend doing it in chunks. You have no idea if it is in albums, rolls, OGP, 2x2's. Look for 4-5 hours and give them an offer for that. A very big difference with rolls of dimes, quarters, halves if they are clad or silver.
100,000 cents is $1000, and if he pays $25K, he has lost $24K if the cents are worth 1 cent each.
$4 coin versus 25 cents a coin, ahead if all cents,
Maybe numbers are not the strongest suit for coin collectors?
But 90% common quarters valued at $2.75, it would take about 9100 to break even on the $25K investment. But roughly 80 quarters to a pound, so there would be 113 pounds just of quarters.
Better bring a 3/4 ton truck.
If you decide it's worth it, BUY it in chunks.
By that I mean actually do transactions as you go along.
Do NOT go through it all and then see if it's a sale.
Many are the times you can waste time and they say, "naah."
If all 100k coins are the same denomination and US coins then the face value of the coins would range from a low of $500.00 (half cents) to $2,000,000.00 (double eagles).
If the coins are modern, with no silver or gold content the face value would range from a low of $1,000.00 (cents) to a high of $100,000.00.
A $25k asking price relative to face value would be either too high or just right or too low.
One would need to look at the 100,000 coins first thy o get an idea what is there before you decide sake an offer.
Beware of paying much of anything for very low value material. The costs associated with selling such material will probably be more than what it can be sold for.
Do not be worried about being "fair", which usually means paying too much. This is a business deal, period.
Most folks who have called me to value or buy a collection don't have a ballpark figure they're looking for unless either the (now dead) owner said something at one point, or the number is some sort of family lore.
The usual approach (and we have no way of knowing how you got involved) is to ask someone like you to look at the coins and get an idea of value. That's a big collection to appraise potentially for free.
I'm in agreement with @Insider2 that even a 5-10 minute cursory examination is going to tell you whether the time investment is worthwhile. Are there lots of slab boxes? Rolls of Morgans? Bags of 90%? Like I said, just a quick review will tell you a lot. Any other advise I could offer, given the dearth of information, is of little value.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
I have a feeling they'll be mostly wheat cents.
The kid wants 25k but doesn't know what he has. Doesn't sound right. Have him bring to you a sample of say 200 coins and pack your heater.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
As time consuming as it is, you need patience when you're examining a large costly collection. That's just part of being a collector. Good luck. I hope it works out for you !!!
Unless you know the seller personally, and I mean personally like a family member, friend or neighbor, then you can presume the seller has solicited other buyers as well. Frankly, you should be more concerned about the seller robbing you, rather than you robbing the seller.
Just off the cuff, unless you provide a lot more info about the lot, it seems like a project to make Ebay money rather than you making money, along with a huge waste of your time.
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I agree with I2, armed with numismatic knowledge, are you going to get some time to examine this quantity of coins? Is a clock ticking on this situation? Gold and silver US are easy to spot, 25K is a lot of your money. Are you the only potential buyer? The quantity of coins is irrelevant, it's how they were accumulated and stored that could be a clue. Peace Roy
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It's not like Storage Wars, you need to take a look and see what's there. Buying with a blindfold on is not wise.
Bulk foreign should be bought at $5 per POUND.
Bulk wheats should be bought at $150ish per bag (5000 coins) which works out to about $4.50 per POUND.
90% should be bought at between $9 and $10 per $1 face value.
It is very easy, though somewhat time consuming, to value a 100,000 coin collection UNLESS it's all in 2x2 holders on coin pages.
The problem with a collection of miscellany is that you need to have an outlet for the stuff you don't want. Margins on coins are generally so low that, honestly, it is rarely worth the time to dispose of the dreck even for a dealer who can do it faster than you.
On the other hand, if it's not money that you need back in a hurry and want to play around with a giant pile of coins, there are worse ways to waste your time. If nothing else, you'll come out of the experience with a greater appreciation of what it's like to be a dealer.
When I was a dealer, I bought a nice accumulation of Indian Cents from a family hoard. There was a 1877 in it, but it had been lightly cleaned and could only be authenticated by ANACS because the major services were body bagging problem coins at that time. There were a number of semi-key dates like 1870, '71 and '72. Some of them were nice circulated pieces in VF and EF, but there were no Uncs or AUs.
The keys and semi-keys sold rather quickly, but it took a long time (over a year) to sell all of the more common dates from the 1880s and '90s at the shows. There were a few problem pieces, but most of them were nice, brown VFs and EFs. One dealer, who had a shop, commented that it was unusual to see a nice group of circulated coins like that for sale.
My point is that it takes time and patience to sell even the no problem coins of the common ilk. You might think that paying half of Gray Sheet is a rip-off, for the seller. Given the time and effort you have to put in to catalog such material, and given the fact that you ultimate selling prices are going to be at or a little under Gray Sheet, the low sounding price is fair. It takes time an effort to sell circulated common date material these days because it is now so out of favor.
Bulk foreign at $5 per pound ... no way ... far too generous for what is mostly junk, junk, junk. Never assume that there will be "something good" hidden in such material.
Bulk wheat cents at $150 per bag ... no way ... why would you even want to buy bulky trash like common wheat cents? You should probably charge the seller to haul them away.
Are the coins in rolls, loose in a cookie jar, folders, slabs, 2 x 2s - it depends on how much time is involved to even look at the coins, and whether or not he's willing to let you do a cursory examination.
The truth is, you do have to have a clue as to what's there. Otherwise, WTH?
I knew it would happen.
A review of the material is necessary prior to any decision. I would never buy blind. A cursory review of precious metals will give you a base, silver, gold, platinum. Then group U.S. coins in modern and pre-modern groups for a ball park figure (i.e. colonial/1800's vs. proof/mint and bulk new). Foreign in another group. That should not take more than an hour or two. Make an offer (or accept his). Then, if purchased, and an in depth review reveals some significant high value coins, you can always write him an additional check. Cheers, RickO
What about foreign silver? It doesn't require deep knowldge to see if that's in the mix. Is even that problematic?
Sounds like a good setup to become a dreck dealer for the next 5-10 years, hauling junk from show to show.
Time is money!
He who knows he has enough is rich.
100,000 coins is a lot of coins. Something tells me there is not as much gold and silver as we would like to fantasize about. I will guess rolls of state quarters, rolls of wheats, rolls of clad halves, maybe some franklin mint coins etc. It would be hard/expensive to amass a 100,000 coin collection that had a lot of gold, silver, and highly collectible coins. If you go through with it, it will be interesting to see what this kid has to offer.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
It's crazy to ask if a hundred thousand coins are worth 25K When you don't even know what the coins are!
That’s a bunch of coins. I can’t imagine the time to sort through all of this , and then the time to resell would be enormous. Too nany question. Is their gold, Morgan’s, Buffalo nickels? I gues you can sum it up pretty well in a couple of hours. This is the reason I have everything I own on a spreadsheet with the day purchased and the amount paid.
" kid wants to sell, wants $25k and has no clue what’s there".
That should be a red flag right there.
...looking for a FREE appraisal
If you have the knowledge assess it yourself and Lowball an offer
What type of coins mostly? World coins, US coins? It all depends on the silver coins. When you have 100K coins, you are not collecting by value, you are only a hoarder. What is the easiest way to accumulate 100K coins? You get most of them at face value or slightly above.
Well, face value alone on the coins has to be worth many thousands.
I phone a friend. And the good Lord knows some collections are way more than my banker will loan me. He's not that great of a friend. But five figures is better than four. If I could just get credit in the 7 figure range I wouldn't need to phone a friend.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
The kid is 50 years old. The 25k was really pulled out of the air. He figured they must be worth something. He started to look and gave up as there is too much there. It took him 3 days to move it to his house and 4 truckloads (back seat of club cab).
And the referral came from a co worker of his who is a friend of mine.
I was looking for suggestions on how you guys handle huge hoards to see if you had tips or suggestions on quick ways to break down and assess value. I understand there is no way to see if it’s worth what he is asking. Worst case if it’s all US, it’s worth $1000 minimum in face value, lol
I can buy a group of 500 paintings for $5000, should i do it? They're big and heavy, just so you know.
Hey, worst case, the frames are worth $250, right?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Maybe the lot consists of 100,000 microscopic variety and error cents! If so, you could make a fortune selling them to cherrypickers! Right? Right? Right?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7431402/banksys-famous-girl-with-balloon-artwork-is-shredded-minutes-after-being-sold-for-1m-at-sothebys-auction/
My impression is that foreign silver is a bear to sell. Maybe that’s wrong, but that’s how I interpret it.
Some foreign silver is heavily debased. When I was in high school in the mid 1960s, I used to wonder how Mexico could have a peso represented by a silver coin when the peso was worth so little in foreign exchange. Despite the fact that coin looked and felt like a nice piece of metal, it contained only 10% silver. I’m sure that there are foreign “silver coins” that look good, but are heavily debased. It makes picking the good silver pieces out of the pile harder.