Selling: is it what you live for, OR do you dread it?
lava
Posts: 3,286 ✭✭✭
Personally, I love looking and buying, and I do not care for selling. Selling to me is work -- descriptions, photos and/or scans, tracking sale, packaging and mailing ... none of that stuff interests me. I guess it is good to have more money to spend once the deal closes, but for me there is no comparison, it is all about the buying. The rest of you? (This may be designed more for collectors, since I think dealers prefer turnover and I don't think many dealers use a buy and hold philosophy (if so, why aren't there more dealer registry sets?))
I brake for ear bars.
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Comments
Jerry
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas Paine
But every now and then, you have to. Especially if you're raising money to buy other coins. I'm in that rut right now.
you just have to take what you get. When I'm trading I'm usually getting rid of
things I have multiple examples of for things which I mostly need. It lightens the
load in my safety deposit boxes and brings new things for my collection.
Also I try to get rid of coins which have appreciated.
Sometimes selling is almost as much fun as buying.
This makes my pockets dam heavy but what the heck!!
I truely don't like to sell coins, I'll leave that to my wife and/or children.
I much prefer to sell coins to collectors who buys the coin because he likes it and wants to keep it in his collection, not someone looking for upgrades or to turn a quick buck.
dragon
dragon
I'm getting the feeling that Dragon doesn't like dealers too much!!!
siliconvalleycoins.com
Of course I like buying more than selling, but selling affords me the pleasure of buying!
1. Its a coin I love and I have to sell it to raise cash fre something.
2. Its was a mistake purchase and Im afraid I will have to sell at a loss.
Camelot
Actually, I like that BST aspect a lot, I get to see and examine a bunch of coins!
If they're low dollar coins, I'd rather give them away then sell them.
Michael
<< <i> paid a very fair price for your coins, and then you see them listed on their website marked up 150% >>
That sure is a great feeling on the other end, and that's why selling is fun,,, shows your skill and expertise at picking your coins at a good price and rendering those coins to others at a price they think is fair also. If they don't think they are fair , they won't buy. ego trip
FOR SALE Items
Some coins are easy to sell to a dealer. Ordinary GSA CC's are a good example. "Hot" coins sell well and easily. As an example, I recently sold to 1901 S low grade slabbed quarters with ease, and got top dollar.
Whenever you sell, you take a haircut from retail prices. The name of the game is to mimimize the spread. I've tried Ebay, but find it too cumbersome and burdensome and have had mixed results.
This is an easy market for sellers, but when the market turns south selling becomes more difficult and spreads seem to widen.
<< <i> Cladking, you are going to have to tell the rest of us your secret about learning to love selling almost as much as buying. Right now, they are worlds apart for me. You need to give us a lecture. >>
The secret is easy actually! Don't fall in love with anything that can't love you back.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
I find that the bst forum is a GREAT place to sell. I generally sell the living crap out of stuff.
It is a bunch of fun and have met a ton of cool people.
John
siliconvalleycoins.com
I wholeheartedly disagree. I collect coins that (to my eye) have great eye appeal, I therefore hold them for a very long time.
Recently, I was forced to sell off a quantity of my favorites, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the buyers of my pieces had the same impression concerning the above average appeal of these pieces as they brought very strong prices (a couple even brought well above retail and some brought more than twice what I paid for them).
"Selling is much more difficult than buying."
That statement depends on (a); whether or not you have a sentimental connection to the particular piece, and/or (b); whether or not you collect above average (ie;premium quality for the grade) pieces. I find it much more difficult to search out premium quality pieces than to find a buyer that will purchase those same pieces for strong money.
Jim
<< <i>I beleive you should sell occasionally just to get a true "feel" for the market. Selling is much more difficult than buying. I find the best way to sell is to go with a major auction, but you have to negotiate a fair commission based on percentage of hammer price, which should be over 100% for items of substantive value.
Some coins are easy to sell to a dealer. Ordinary GSA CC's are a good example. "Hot" coins sell well and easily. As an example, I recently sold to 1901 S low grade slabbed quarters with ease, and got top dollar.
Whenever you sell, you take a haircut from retail prices. The name of the game is to mimimize the spread. I've tried Ebay, but find it too cumbersome and burdensome and have had mixed results.
This is an easy market for sellers, but when the market turns south selling becomes more difficult and spreads seem to widen. >>
That is actually very good advice. I agree that selling helps one reacquaint himself with what is actually going on in the market. [or herself, in case Lucy is reading this]
When we are Selling, we are disempowered and vulnerable to some extent. We want the buyer's cash more than we want the coin. A buyer's low offer to us for a coin we are selling becomes a confirmation that we have made a mistake in our original purchase. This is painful, so we tend to avoid it. By not selling, we do not have to deal with this. We can delay acknowledging our "paper loss" because the HOPE that the coin will bring the higher price in the future (thus become a gain) remains. So, unless we really need the cash, we hold onto the coin even as we cling to hope - because hope is better than pain.
Regardless of our financial need at the time we are selling, our hope disappears in a blink of an eye when we receive confirmation that we have, after all, overpaid for the coin in the first place. Then, hope turns into REGRET. This is painful. It confirms not only that we have made a mistake when we purchased the coin but also suggests that we are stupid and the guy who sold us the coin is smarter than us. This awareness can be even MORE painful than losing money!
Perhaps the MOST painful part of selling is when we have sold a coin for a loss (pain) only to watch the coin promptly rise in value, often dramatically (severe pain). Selling exposes all of these things and is the main reason most people loathe selling. Buying exposes none of this at the moment we are buying. matteproof
I get more charge out of the search for the coins that I need, or well, want.
Link to 1950 - 1964 Proof Registry Set
1938 - 1964 Proof Jeffersons w/ Varieties
<< <i>It is slowly sinking into my thick skull however... NEVER EVER sell nice coins to dealers. >>
The only sales I have made have been to my dealer...who also happens to be, in most cases, the person I bought the coins from. I realize that I'm getting a lower price than if I sold the coins myself, but self-selling is just too much of a hassle for me.
A by-product of this approach is that I've built up a nice buy/sell relationship with my dealer. He knows what coins I like and I'm gradually spending more on the nicer coins in his inventory. I'm a loyal customer and he recognizes that. He often discourages me from buying coins that are marginal.
He has to run a business, he has a store and an employee, so he has expenses to pay. So I accept his buy prices without any problems.
grossly overpaid for it. Frequently you are simply offering the coin to an un-
motivated buyer. There are dealers who specialize in almost anything and
they are usually going to make the strongest offers. Many of these dealers
will run buy ads in the coin papers. If your grading is in the ball park then
these prices will give you an excellent idea of what you should be paying. If
you also hold coins until they've appreciated then selling becomes much less
stressfull. While I have no intention of selling any collections in the near future
there are numerous coins that I'm not married to and would dispose of in a
heartbeat if a good offer were made.
It becomes largely a matter of keeping ones eyes open for a motivated buyer.
However, In the past 6 months, I started buying some lower dollar items <1k for re-sell and love it. I find my self looking foward to my next trip into a coin shop or show for something to buy. I love to look thru and find some goodies, only thing that sucks is having to buy at somewhat retail level and then try and turn a profit, so I have to be selective. Once I aquire a piece, I cant wait to sell it at an on-line auction or even more so on a face to face dealing with local folks.
I really and truly see my self wanting to be a dealer in the future with a small coin business, part time in the near future, but when I get retirement age, doing it full time??
jim d