What would be a fair price to pay for Franklin Mint State of the Union Set?
Mr_Spud
Posts: 5,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
My in-laws want to sell a complete 1969 Franklin Mint State of the Union silver set that they inherited from my grandfather in law. I told them I’d give them a fair price for it rather than let them get ripped off selling it to their local jewelry shop where they were planning on taking it to. I looked on eBay and the price the same set has been selling for seems to be between $550 and $600. Below are some pictures off of one of the ebay auctions so you can see the set I mean. They already shipped it to me and I have it, just not sure what to pay them for it yet. It’s in great shape, almost completely blast white, with just 3 of them showing some purple toning. The back cover has some adhesive residue on it for some reason. I figured the people on this forum would know what a fair price would be for me to pay them. I normally wouldn’t buy Franklin Mint stuff, but I don’t mind stacking silver. Thanks, in advance for any replies
Franklin Mint States of the Union Series
First Edition. 1969
Sterling Silver Proof Set
Each Sterling Silver weighs 14.5 Grams
50 Rounds
Mr_Spud
Comments
That set looks like the ones where the individual medals weigh an average of .45 troy ounce sterling silver; or 0.416 troy ounces actual silver contained; thus a set of 50 contains 20.81 troy ounces of actual silver. At 26.98/ounce set is ~ $561 melt.
I'm sure dealers will pay below melt... so use your judgement on what's fair.
Those are cool, I actually just picked up my state coin on a few weeks back and didn’t know much backstory on it.
Honestly melt value for sterling is very fair IMO
It's all about what the people want...
I would recommending limiting your eBay search to sold items. There are plenty of $600 listings that will not convert to sales. There are several recent completed sales ranging from $456 (+$7.75 shipping) to $530 (shipping included). eBay fees would be around $50 if the seller doesn't have an eBay store. Based on tincup's figure of $561 melt, maybe $450-$475 (roughly 80-85 percent of melt) would be a fair deal IMO.
Shoot them 500 and call it good for everyone.
Lots of speculation going on in the silver market right now... by the end of the week that set might be worth quite a bit more!! (see other threads regarding the play on SLV).
Any deal gets more complicated when family is involved.... and how much they need the money. Evaluate carefully!
It is a bullion buy. The family connection could cause problems. You may be better off just calculating bullion value and selling to a local dealer. The current price surge in silver is likely to be short lived so some price checking followed by quick action will likely be required.
When family is involved, second guessing will likely become an issue... Give them above melt and explain weight/price....show them a Kitco chart or similar. Good luck...Cheers, RickO