If you were going to auction/sell your collection...

flog31

If you were going to auction/sell your collection, how would you go about doing it?

Would you go to an auction company? If so which one?

Auction on ebay?

Sell to a dealer?

Or?

For those people that have auctioned/sold your collection or part of a collection. How did you do it and did it work out?

Any input from people that have used an auction company?

INthanksADVANCE

Gene

MrEureka

It completely depends on what's in your collection. At the extremes, a collection of junk silver coin should go to the local coin shop. The world's finest collection of Buffalo nickels should go to auction. Etc. Tell us more about your collection.

ConstellatioCollector

Any Colonials in your collection????

SarasotaFrank

I'm getting ready to sell a large portino of my Morgan collection. I'm going to start in b/s/t, as it's a place where there are a lot of buyers.

a2labmom

piece by piece on eBay...so far so good...

Colorfulcoins

I've sold three collections in the 5 figure range per collection .....each has been a private sale to another collector. Helps to know the other similar collectors when it comes time to sell..... For "pieces", I'd recommend auction house for coins in the couple of hundred dollar range to ten thousand dollar range. In the sub $100 range, the BST Board is good as is ebay.

jdimmick

Since my collection consists of PCGS key-dates, I think I would choose E-bay for a majority of them, since they do well there. However, for the rarer "PQ" pieces that infrequently come around, I would choose a reputable auction house where the national advertising and being in conjuntion with a major convention would be most beneficial in bringing a stronger price realized that would more than make up for the 20% loss to the firm. (15% Buyer premium and 5% sellers )



I have even thought about this avenue, if I decided to part with them all. Going to a super national convention my-self such as FUN, Baltimore ANA, Long beach, etc, and renting one of the premium tables for 1100.00 and selling them there. I think they would do quite well, and more than make up the cost of the table fee.

flog31

I am not actually planning to sell my collection, at least not this second. But, to answer the question, my collection is primarily PCGS graded Lincolns - MS wheats (complete - no varities) - PR 59 to date (complete - no varities), some silver eagles, some gold eagles, some proofs sets, etc...

I have bought from many avenues and have my opinions from the buyers side and I have sold on ebay, but would like to know what sellers think when it comes to a complete collection, rather than a few coins...

Thanks again
Gene

Dog97

For cheap stuff I'd eBay it myself and the better stuff I'd send to Heritage and let them auction it at LB of FUN where the big $$ collectors are.
I wouldn't see anything to a dealer unless it was some kind of high priced rare coin who specialized in that kind of material that knows all the collectors interested in that kind of material.

Wondo

MICHAELDIXON has given me fair prices on normal collections. My 1894s dime will go to auction. Everything else in between will be offered piecemeal.

oldcameoproofsguy

Heritage is a good bet for more expensive items. Anything over $800 or so with good eye appeal will usually do pretty well. Anything less than $800 will be auctioned on the internet only sales and will usually be pretty disappointing for the seller.

nwcs

It really depends on what you are wanting to get out of the sale. If you want maximum value, be prepared to be patient and sell directly to other collectors. If you want fast money, selling to a dealer is your best bet. Obviously, a mixture of the two is an option. I chose a mixture with selling mostly to dealers and some to collectors. I'm not patient enough. But now that I'm rebuilding, I'm rebuilding with the idea of keeping everything.

flog31

Does anyone have actual experience auctioning/selling through one of the action houses that they would be willing to share?


Thanks
Gene

BAJJERFAN

I believe that I would take advantage of EVERY free message board on the internet and list there first. I would also try local coin shows and auctions too. Then again it depends on what yer selling!

lordmarcovan

I would probably go the eBay route, as I have done before, if only to prevent lining the pockets of some middleman. (Though I would still be lining eBay and PayPal's pockets, somewhat.)

BST is good, too. Often I will list on eBay and link to the auction from the BST board, to maximize the exposure. But BST alone can be good (and the price is right- beats having to absorb a bunch of fees!)

BAJJERFAN

Sell em here and line yer own pockets.

Pistareen

ttt

Peaceman

I don't know about Heritage... If I sold $ 10,000 worth of coins (say a lot of 10)... I could just see their description now......

"10 Peace $. Nice eye appeal."

Their descriptions suck.. I've never sold anything with them so I don't know if you can put your own description in or not... I've bought beautiful coins from them with no descriptions and a losy coin with a long "absolutly brilliant" description....

flaminio

I would do it one coin at a time, on eBay. But not anytime soon...

flog31

It appears that those people that actually use the auction houses don't frequent these boards.
I am surprised that a lot of people would choose to use ebay...

BAJJERFAN

I see one current eBayer who buys a lot of stuff from Heritage (like Morgans from the recent FUN and LB auctions) and puts em up on eBay using the Heritage pix. Did pretty good on one coin, didn't get his reserve on a lot of others.