Home Buy, Sell, & Trade - U.S. Coins

How to choose an auction house?

lermishlermish Posts: 1,846 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited April 28, 2022 12:12PM in Buy, Sell, & Trade - U.S. Coins

Other than eBay, I've never listed anything at an auction house. I'll be selling ~20 silver commemoratives in medium grades. As a buyer, I've been very happy with GC...not UNhappy but less so with HA and SB(not sure if it's the interfaces or the higher BP%).

Does anyone have any insight with listings with these or other sites? Any recommendations or just general advice?

Thank you!

Comments

  • Coll3ctorColl3ctor Posts: 3,310 ✭✭✭

    FB groups there are many...

  • SoldiSoldi Posts: 2,017 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Legend and Laura Sperber give excellent advise on this topic, including things like if you can buy it from a dealer don't auction.

  • lermishlermish Posts: 1,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Soldi said:
    Legend and Laura Sperber give excellent advise on this topic, including things like if you can buy it from a dealer don't auction.

    Do you have a link or a source I can read?

  • doubleeagle07doubleeagle07 Posts: 395 ✭✭✭

    Honestly most of these aution houses will charge the seller a 15%-25% fee. On top of that you might be exposed to the 1099K form where your going to have to pay taxes on anything over $600 sold. Your best bet is social media like instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. or on a forum like here where their are plenty of truthworty buyers you can get refrences from and will pay a fair price, probably more than you would get after fees and taxes. Good luck with selling.

    Successful transactions with: AnonMan, Commoncents05, JJM, PerryHall, Danielp, greenwr, Along, Herb_T, Downtown1974, masscrew, coinnerd, liefgold, JWP, Relaxn, Pnies20, Weiss, Type2, dm679864, pointfivezero, and more!

  • lermishlermish Posts: 1,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @doubleeagle07 said:
    Honestly most of these aution houses will charge the seller a 15%-25% fee. On top of that you might be exposed to the 1099K form where your going to have to pay taxes on anything over $600 sold. Your best bet is social media like instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. or on a forum like here where their are plenty of truthworty buyers you can get refrences from and will pay a fair price, probably more than you would get after fees and taxes. Good luck with selling.

    They charge the seller a 15-20% fee in addition to the buyers premium?!?!??

  • davewesendavewesen Posts: 5,761 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @lermish said:

    @doubleeagle07 said:
    Honestly most of these aution houses will charge the seller a 15%-25% fee. On top of that you might be exposed to the 1099K form where your going to have to pay taxes on anything over $600 sold. Your best bet is social media like instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. or on a forum like here where their are plenty of truthworty buyers you can get refrences from and will pay a fair price, probably more than you would get after fees and taxes. Good luck with selling.

    They charge the seller a 15-20% fee in addition to the buyers premium?!?!??

    it depends on value of coin
    GC is 0 if an item hammers $1000 or more
    some have said they get great terms at Heritage, but they sell alot
    proxibid and hibid have sellers that may give better terms for consignments.

  • lermishlermish Posts: 1,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you, very interesting article.  This may not be the proper forum but I have a mini rant.
    She makes a good point that selling true rarities next to more common coins may lead to lower prices.  At the same time, it seems like a huge amount of sour grapes and "back in my day." Back in her day, (some) dealers inflated grades on raw coins to an unsuspecting public.  Now, despite potential gradeflation and commoditization, there is true price discovery and we can determine what is rare and what is not with the help of a more liquid market and pop reports.  As a commemorative (among other types) collector, I am looking at my Swiatek book published in 1990, right after the coin crash and with TPGs only a few years old.  As an example, the 1928 Hawaiian, which is one of the keys, had a price at MS65 (in 1990) of $19k with it being highly recommended for future growth.  After 30+ years of inflation and growth a MS66 just auctioned yesterday at Legend's for ~$4000 with BP.  To me, the good old days don't look that good.

  • SoldiSoldi Posts: 2,017 ✭✭✭✭✭

    3 years ago I paid full Retail for one from Pinnacle. I still think I caught them napping, $3100, can you believe it, by far the nicest Hawaiian I ever owned. Unfortunately I sold it for a quick profit. Commems and 1987 to 1992 are a difficult coin market to explain you almost need to teach while answering for the TPG "good bad days" they were treacherous

  • skier07skier07 Posts: 3,650 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @doubleeagle07 said:
    Honestly most of these aution houses will charge the seller a 15%-25% fee. On top of that you might be exposed to the 1099K form where your going to have to pay taxes on anything over $600 sold. Your best bet is social media like instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. or on a forum like here where their are plenty of truthworty buyers you can get refrences from and will pay a fair price, probably more than you would get after fees and taxes. Good luck with selling.

    Savvy sellers don’t pay 15-25% if their consignment exceeds $10k.

  • alexercaalexerca Posts: 243 ✭✭✭

    I myself buy most of my stuff at the auction houses and great collections is my favorite. I receive the hammer price for coins I sell and I pay a buyers fee of 10%.

  • jonrunsjonruns Posts: 1,196 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Consign your coins to a dealer that does a lot of business with a specific auction house to leverage their better terms and service...if you are interested in consigning with Heritage I suggest you contact forum member zas107 to discuss the specifics...

  • goldengolden Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I just consigned some coins to GC at CSNS.

  • Jinx86Jinx86 Posts: 3,666 ✭✭✭✭✭

    GC is fast and easy with low fees. They are quickly gaining more and more market. I used to avoid selling high dollar coins there. Not so much these days.
    SB has never treated me poorly. Only having sold a few world rarities through them I have limited exposure. They emailed me a shipping label paid for grading fees. Shipped the coins to Hong Kong and kept me in the loupe through everything.
    HA is buy far my favorite to buy from. Nearly all the research is right there on the page. Decent images, just factor the fee into my bids and set my limits.

  • jesbrokenjesbroken Posts: 9,155 ✭✭✭✭✭

    EZ...Great Collections...professional, superb service and best fee structure. My opinion.
    Ian is the best.
    Jim


    When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln

    Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
  • JMoo100JMoo100 Posts: 112 ✭✭

    Agree with jesbroken - Great Collections charges a 5% sellers fee for items under $1,000 and do not charge any sellers fees for items over $1,000. Their buyer premiums are best in the business as well at only 10% (compared to others typically 20%)

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