Ebay Sales Results on Franklin Halves - Interesting

FC57Coins

I just finished watching a seller sell off 42 Franklin Halves in PCGS MS64FBL, MS65, and MS65FBL. Since there aren't many reliable sources for FBL prices, other than the market itself, I usually take the CU prices and cut them by 50%. This seems to give a pretty reliable thumbnail of what a reasonable price should be for an FBL. Therefore, if a seller can get anywhere from 40% to 60% of the CU price, they are probably breaking even. More than 60% and they're probably making money, less than 40% and they're losing money on a coin. This latest sale went as follows:

0-10% of CU price - 0 Sales
10-20% - 2 sales
20-30% - 7 sales
30-40% - 8 sales
40-60% - 15 sales
60-70% - 6 sales
70-80% - 2 sales
80-90% - 1 sale
90-100% of CU price - 1 sale

I thought it was kind of interesting because unfortunately for the seller, the 30% and below sales came on high priced items. I also noticed that the seller had their sales bunched up and going off in about 20 second increments. It would seem to me that the more you space out the sales, the better opportunity you have to give some potential buyers more time to bid once they have knowledge of whether they've won a previous sale or not.

If anyone is interested I actually put together a spreadsheet on this particular sale along with dates and prices realized. Understand that this is only for Franklins. I guess the moral of the story is that on Ebay there are definitely some bargains to be had if you look for them. Otherwise, the market seems to be chugging along.

Regards,

Frank

LucyBop

Excellent post, I would be interested in that spread sheet, email it to me please Frankie!!! And thanks for taking the time to do this.

oldcameoproofsguy

Frank,

Have you been keeping track of how the pop tops are fairing on ebay compared to CU prices?



My Barbers

FC57Coins

Mike:

Unfortunately I haven't kept up with the pop tops. I started doing this with Franklins because of the difficulty that I saw at times trying to get a fix on what an appropriate price would be for FBL coins. It seems to me that when you're talking pop tops now the registry syndrome and the demand for top quality pieces throw the scale out of whack. To give you a couple of examples -

48P MS66FBL - 120 pieces roughly - non higher - CU Price is $800, Pieces have been trading in the $500 - $650 range

49P MS66FBL - 73 pieces - non higher - CU Price is $1200, Pieces have traded for anywhere from $350-$800 - but there seems to be more of an issue on toning with this piece

50P MS66FBL - 73 pieces - non higher - CU Price is $1300, Pieces have traded consistently over $1,000 - an overall better quality coin

So as you can see - where there is latitude, at MS64FBL and MS65FBL, and some of the less expensive 66FBL's (56-58) 50% of the CU seems to work relatively well. As you get to the higher end pieces then the market prices start inching closer to the CU index.

Regards,

Frank

kranky

Even though Franklins aren't my thing, this is a very interesting post. Nice research work, FC57coins!

CarlWohlforth

You said "a seller" so perhaps you didn't include my 4 FBL Franklins that finished yesterday? I had 1 in 65 FBL and 3 in 66 FBL. Two of them sold in the %40-%60 range, the other two didn't reach their reserve which was at about %60 of the CU price.

RLinn

Very interesting stats on the FBLs. Have you got any paticular research insights on the 53-s FBL?

FC57Coins

Carl:

No sorry I didn't include your sale. What I tend to do is look at large sales, particularly where there are low or neglible starting bids. To me this is a good way to gauge what the market would do if for instance one of us decided to put his/her collection on the market tomorrow. But I'm glad you posted your results, as it shows that again, somewhere between 40-60% of the CU value is where the two coins you sold went for.

On another note, I saw where putting the coins up for auction and having them go off in rapid succession I think worked in favor of the buyers. A good many of the coins that sold well below market were the higher priced MS65FBL's which, had some collectors seen them, they may have been willing to bid on - case in point: a 1949S MS64FBL sold for $286.17 (97% of CU). The same coin in MS65FBL-and not too shabby looking I might add - sold for $213.49! (32.8% of CU).

Like I said - when sales like this pop up, its more often than not that bargains CAN be had!

RLinn:

53S Franklins in FBL are hard to track because they come up so rarely. The few that I've seen recently have gone anywhere from $4000 to $5500 in MS64FBL. I think one sold for around $14000 in MS65FBL, but I'm not sure. Those prices are fairly close to CU prices, but then again, you're talking about 12 pieces in 64 and 18 in 65, so I guess the buyer's have the edge on that one.

Frank

For those of you who requested a copy of my spreadsheet I'll be sending it out shortly.

robertpr

I'd also like a copy of the spreadsheet!

robertpr99@aol.com

Thanks!

FC57Coins

On it's way Robert.

Frank

PQpeace

I think I bid on about 20 of those coins.
If I had not made all my bids..he would have really been in trouble.
Larry

DoctorZ

Would like a copy of your spreadsheet. I do a little of the same thing with a couple other series, and want to see how you are looking at the data. Thanks.

Ronyahski

Frank - The last 53S in 65FBL that I know of sold for $13,000.

wallstreetman

I need a really nice 55 Franklin to submit at Lohg Beach! Who has one?