Unexpected developments due to a sharply rising gold price.
jkrk
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Back in the 2014-2018 period We were buying buying a fair number of pre 33's DE's utilizing the discounts with E-Bucks and bought a number of lots from overstocked sellers. WE wanted to own some pre 33 gold. We also bought coins from various auction houses and wanted to move some years we upgraded.
In 2018 we decided to move some of our dupes/upgrades by opening an E-Bay store.
We sent all the coins to CAC for a counterfeit check as well as giving us an idea as to what coins to move. WE were mainly buying generics so we understood the sticker was worth up to $100/coin (not much more).
Our cost of selling a coin was around $100-$150 given the gold price so all was OK. CAC was looking at the coins and only charging for those that stickered.
We caught a break during covid as premiums rose sharply and we easily absorbed the cost of selling.
Now with gold @$4000, E-Bay is charging $350-$400/coin that sells so we are out of the generics biz as far as the store is concerned.
If we buy a $6000 coin, we now need $6500 to break even so we have reduced our buys. Our focus now is to buy coins with slightly rarer dates that sell for a small premium to spot. If we need cash we consider selling moderns or pre -33's at wholesale.
We are not complaining but find it interesting how the price rise affected us. Our Inventory is marked up so we have no complaints.
The $4000 gold price has essentially knocked out our store In addition, we can no longer send in coins to CAC since a $4000 gold price knocks out our economy submissions. Do we really want to pay for the tier up when we have doubts how many will pass?
Looking back, I never thought that our store + CAC dealings would be undone by a $4000 gold price
Comments
If they sell at "a small premium to spot", you should be able to list in the bullion category. Fees for a $6000 coin are $300.
That said, I've never sold bullion coins on ebay. The bid/ask spread has never been high enough to make it worth the transaction fees.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
But doesn't eBay charge stores 7.5% for a total sale amount of $1,500 or less, calculated per item.
5% for the portion of a total sale amount that is over $1,500 and up to $10,000?
Common date $10 and $20 gold coins have almost all of their value tied to bullion. Their numismatic value is almost all gone. If CAC is going to provide approval services for these coins, they need to mostly ignore the cost of bullion. If they don’t, CAC is pricing itself out of the grading market.
This also applies to the grading services. When $20 gold coins were selling for $400 to $500, the grading fees were manageable. At $4,000, they aren’t.
Why not try pivoting cautiously to other types of coins, gold or otherwise?
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Bullion, yes. Coins, no.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
CAC was looking at the coins and only charging for those that stickered.
... we can no longer send in coins to CAC since a $4000 gold price knocks out our economy submissions. Do we really want to pay for the tier up when we have doubts how many will pass?
As a Legacy member (?) is there no charge for those that don't sticker the next tier up?
Dealers are supposed to pay for every coin that CAC evaluates, regardless of if it stickers or not. Collector accounts are the accounts that CAC did not charge if a coin failed evaluation.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
We tried offering a few De's in the Bullion cat on E-Bay, since as you say , Generic DE's sell for bullion prices. The problem, for most of 2025 has been the volatility in the gold has been so great we had to change our price every few days.
I get the feeling that CAC would rather sacrifice the generic DE biz and pass that biz on to CAC grading if possible?
That's what I tried to do in my real biz (Trading). Every decade or so I had to somewhat reinvent what I did. I was more successful in the 90's up to 2014. The last 10 years I've failed to find that sweet spot. I blame myself.
Re: coins, I truly can't devote the time. What you are saying makes perfect sense and is spot on for many biz owners.
As I understand it, I would pay for every coin submitted in the next grade receiving a 25% credit if the coins didn't pass.
Define dealer?
We can only submit 20 coins/year to CAC. WE've never been to a coin show. We never met anyone in the coin biz.
This year we bought 15 coins. We sold 9 through E-Bay. Most years we've bought more coins than we sell. Most of the Coins that CAC we tend to keep.
For BV items (shows) my commission is 10 pct
There is no cheap grading service for PCGS and NGC any more. When I was active on the NGC registry, I used to be able to fill the modern coin slots with $10 to $20 coins (PR-69 pieces). Those coins don’t exist any more because there are no more bulk grading options. NGC used to have a cheap grading option for relatively inexpensive (a few hundred dollars) gold coins. That seems to be gone. If common date, high denomination gold get graded, the market for them will have to be considerably higher than their melt price.
For example, I can’t find a Washington crossing the Delaware quarter for under $70 to fill that space in my certified type set. I simply won’t spend the money for that. I’ll leave it blank.
Why wouldn't that same "problem" apply to the coin category.
As I've said, I've what's just wholesaled. The bid/ask spread has never been high enough to make it worth selling on eBay even at the 3 or 4% number.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
You are correct. the bottom line is.... if we can wholesale MS63 Saints for $4030 we need to sell the coin thru E-Bay @ $4250 to net the same. Not interested in making marginal sales, taking somewhat of a risk, for a few dollars.
Sold a few 10 lots of Saints early in the year, to someone at spot, and I was happy.
Whatever venue you use you need to markup up accordingly to get positive performance.
eBay you have fixed overhead costs and variable direct sales cost and then shipx cost. Consequently you need a markup factor that makes positive performance happen. It’s called Sales Mgt.