Gonna try to sell a few coins to dealers at ANA. What should I expect from big dealers?

ms70

I'm bringing a few coins to the ANA that I want to dump & put the money towards other coins while I'm there. I've never sold coins in this
fashion before. I've only sold on eBay & traded up toward other coins with local dealers. I plan on trying the bigger dealers like Heritage,
Superior, etc. hoping that I can sell them fast at a fair price. My thought is that they'll buy whatever I'm offering since they have such big
inventory turnover. I just decided to sell these few pieces today so there's no other way to get rid of them in time to have cash for ANA.

My questions to those who are experienced with this are:

-How do you think they'll deal with me? The dreaded dealer to collector haggling banter or a fair price right up front around greysheet?

-Will they give me cash so I can spend $$ at the ANA or will they only cut a check?

Thanks for any insight.

kranky

Even if they give you a check, you might be able to sign it over to another dealer to purchase something. That's assuming you are getting checks from a well-known dealer.

MadMarty

Don't forget to grab your ankles when you get bent over!!!

RYK

I would leave the gun at home. You might frighten them.

ms70

<< <i>Even if they give you a check, you might be able to sign it over to another dealer to purchase something. That's assuming you are getting checks from a well-known dealer. >>



Kranky- Does that happen often?

LincolnCentMan

Gonna try to sell a few coins to dealers at ANA. What should I expect from big dealers?

Polite turn-downs.

David

KollectorKing

Can't give you any insights in selling to the dealers you mentioned. But I've sold to JJ Teaparty and GSA Guy in Long Beach. I was very happy with both dealers' offers with minimal "haggling". They gave me checks. What you can do is have the checks made paid out to cash. Then you can use the checks as currency to buy. All dealers will accept checks from known or large dealers. But make sure you take care of them since they are spendable as cash.

Steve at PQDollars will chew me out if I didn't mention his company. Steve is a strong buyer of PCGS PQ Morgan keys. I was very happy with his "offer" with minimal arm twisting

ms70

I wouldn't mind selling to the smaller dealers at all. It's just the idea of selling fast without killing a lot of time going unknown dealer to
unknown dealer. I also figured the bigger ones might have more cash on hand.

coinbuf

I've tried this at both large and small shows. Expect to receive less than what you paid unless you've owned those coins for some time.

Chris

KollectorKing

As a general rule, dealers will pay grey sheet prices on coins they can turn quickly, ie keys, semi-keys, coins that are in heavy demand or popular ie CC Morgans. You won't get as much on generic "craps" and low pop high grade moderns.

MICHAELDIXON

What are you going to sell? If you'd give us a description, we could give you an idea of what to expect.

BigE

I wouldn't bother bringing any junk/bulk stuff, too much to haul around and not worth the effort. Maybe just take a few better pieces and be sure to shop them around unless you get what you want right off the bat. Some times worrying too much about selling too many things can be too intense and you miss some good conversation and buying opportunities. Lets face it, you can always give your coins away on E-Bay------------------BigE

numobri

How about if your selling,proof 64RB pcgs Indian head cents?

ms70

<< <i>What are you going to sell? If you'd give us a description, we could give you an idea of what to expect. >>



I'm afraid I'll get yelled at for not being in the BST Forum!

michael

well before i can give you any advice at all for selling i need to know

what you got for sale
and what it looks like and specifics
and what is your bottom line for it

then i can tell you if you can sell it and to whom for a quick no hassel easy sale

even crap and junque will sell good it all depends on the price

you do not need to give it away

but you do need to sell to someone who wants to buy it at a price where they can make reasonable money

match the specific buyers to the specific items you got to sell


michael

KollectorKing

Michael -
I'm going to take you up on your offer. PM sent

roadrunner

I had excellent luck last summer ANA in selling type coins in the $500-$3000 range to Heritage (Jim Halperin), US Coins (Kenny Duncan), Numismatic Professionals (Mike Storeim), Lee Belisario of JDRC, and Dave Carr of Delaware Valley Rare Coin. All 5 were up front, pass or play. None of them haggled unless the coin was decidedly lower end and they could use it. Anything that was decent sold w/o haggle in the CDN bid range. Nice coins for the grade brought more. I wasted a lot of time checking with other dealers with "known" names who really had no interest in these coins...except at under market prices. They either wanted to rip 'em. or buy the finest known of something (I didn't have any of those to sell!!). If you have some decent coins these guys will buy them. If they don't, you'll at least target your price range much quicker and end up at their true value in short order. These guys, at least to me, are a breath of fresh air from the usual cherry picking displayed by many other dealers. They'll look at every coin you have and pick the best 2, then beat you to ribbons on the price, citing numerous examples why your coins don't measure up. In the end, you'll walk away in disgust anyways, so don't waste your time once you see this coming.

roadrunner

jbsteven

I highly suggest US Coins as they will give you a fair price with no BS.

stman

Might want to try "Doops" if he is going to be there.

darktone

<< <i><< Even if they give you a check, you might be able to sign it over to another dealer to purchase something. That's assuming you are getting checks from a well-known dealer. >> >>

Yes, this is very common. I agree most won't even make an offer unless you have some very nice stuff. mike

Louis

<< <i>I highly suggest US Coins as they will give you a fair price with no BS. >>




I concur with Jason, I sold several coins to them at a recent show in the Houston area. Very professional and honest. He even told me who to sell the stuff to that he wasn't interested in.

Barry

The first time I brought coins to sell to a show (the 3 key date Barber Qs) was Baltimore last Spring. I sold one of the three. The one that was clearly undergraded, and it could be appreciated better in person than in a pic. The dealer agreed and deal was made. The other two I couldn't get what I thought was a fair price, so I took them home and sold them on Ebay for what I thought they should get.

For collectors, Ebay is the way to go. It's like selling a house yourself. Skip paying a commission to a middle-man when you can do the job easily yourself.

orie

Heritage, my story. About six months ago I had a Hawaiian PCGS MS63 green label that I purchased at the 91 ANA show in Chicago. Decided to sell at auction and called Heritage. They said send the coin for their inspection, it might upgrade(green label) .
Heritage called after they got the coin to say they weren't interested for any of their auctions but offered $1,400. Heritage returned the coin and I sold it on ebay for $1,900.

zenny

<< <i>I had excellent luck last summer ANA in selling type coins in the $500-$3000 range to Heritage (Jim Halperin), US Coins (Kenny Duncan), Numismatic Professionals (Mike Storeim), Lee Belisario of JDRC, and Dave Carr of Delaware Valley Rare Coin. All 5 were up front, pass or play. None of them haggled unless the coin was decidedly lower end and they could use it. Anything that was decent sold w/o haggle in the CDN bid range. Nice coins for the grade brought more. I wasted a lot of time checking with other dealers with "known" names who really had no interest in these coins...except at under market prices. They either wanted to rip 'em. or buy the finest known of something (I didn't have any of those to sell!!). If you have some decent coins these guys will buy them. If they don't, you'll at least target your price range much quicker and end up at their true value in short order. >>



i would add a fellow named Mark Feld, if you have particularly nice coins.... (then again, you did say you were "dumping" coins, in that case don't bother with Mark) and Larry Whitlow and Julian Leidman have always been quite fair with me.



<< <i>These guys, at least to me, are a breath of fresh air from the usual cherry picking displayed by many other dealers. They'll look at every coin you have and pick the best 2, then beat you to ribbons on the price, citing numerous examples why your coins don't measure up. In the end, you'll walk away in disgust anyways, so don't waste your time once you see this coming.

roadrunner >>



a great nutshell description of how not to spend time at a show....

ms70

"Dumping" was not meant to indicate junk. I simply meant to quickly sell what I no longer wish to collect.

roadrunner

The vast majority of dealers at a major show (like ANA) are very selective (price or grade selective). Even some of the names you listed above. That's just the type of business they handle. I basically cherrypick too when I buy. It's nothing shameful. But when it comes time to sell (or dump if you will) a dozen or two decent coins, it's no longer time to fool around. On the other hand, the dealers I listed above handle tons of product and appreciate a decent coin (and sometimes low end coins too) just as much as a great coin. Selling decent coins is tougher than you think. And unless you want to spend 3 days at the ANA selling 1 or 2 coins per dealer (or none), I would suggest those 5 as a starting point. Where do you think most of the coins end up with if they are not retailed in the first place? Correct, some of the above dealers.
And the few times I sold a piece or two to other dealers, it was only because they got to me first. My primary list of dealers would have paid the same price (or more) if I had the coin to show them.

For what it's worth I have yet to find a dealer source other than those names I listed above who would pay me more on the wholesale level for my coins. If that changes, I'll add some new names to my list. But it's not like I'm going to find someone consistently 5-10% higher than these guys. It is kinda discouraging to be walking around a FUN or Baltimore show floor with $50-100K in higher grade coins and have major dealers look at every one and pass. And in many cases not even ask for a price. Now when I show a similar type box to a US Coins, NPI or Heritage for example, I'll usually sell 5-15 coins at each stop. The first guy invariably buys the most. After the 4th or 5th stop things are pretty picked over and you have to realize that the remaining coins you either priced too high or they aren't decent enough for the grade, or the market demand is not there. Do you think I'm going to return to a major retailer who picks a single $100 coin out of a $100,000 box and asks how much after looking for 15 minutes? Is that ideal use of my time or theirs? By the way, I made $10 on that $100 MS64 Pilgrim selling it for $110. It had gorgeous color too.

At a 2003 Baltimore show I toted around a box of MS65/66 1880-s Morgans picked out from an original group of 6 rolls. The coins were fresh and blasty looking. ONLY US Coins would make an offer on the 40 coin lot even though they really didn't want them. I made $100 out of $3500. They probably did too. Point is they bought them when no one else would bother. Nothing wrong with visiting a dealer with a liberal checkbook and who works on as little as 2-3% in huge volume.

The coin market has enough hassles without wasting precious selling time. That's time you can go back and start buying. It's a hassle enough to sell without all the games and rejections. Too many dealers make you feel like a criminal when offering them coins:
"you want how much?" Then you see the same coin offered as the next coming of the messiah and sold within a week out of their stock for an easy 20% profit. Makes you wonder huh?


roadrunner

FrattLaw

Selling is very interesting. It's actually quite a sobering experience. At the last Long Beach show I sold perhaps $1000 worth of toned Peace $ I now longer wanted. Most dealers weren't interested even though I knew that they traded in toned Peace $. One dealer did buy the lot and I made some money, about $150-$200 off the 5 coins or so sold.

Recently I've seen 1 coin upgrade to a PCGS MS64 which has now been offered for sale on Teletrade for more than what I sold the entire lot for and another I is for sale on another dealer's website for 3x more than what was paid for the coin.

Based on this experience, my suggestion would be to sell via Ebay if the coin is not a high end coin. I've also sold some coins through Greattoning were I was able to make 30-40% profit.

Selling isn't easy. Good luck and I hope you do well.

Michael

RGL

Heck, a few months ago, I provided a link to one of my Registry sets, a nice run of 38-64 Jeff proofs with some top pops, and sought offers from all the big houses with the representation the coins were solid or high-end for grade. I received very few responses and those I did receive wanted to know how much I wanted as opposed to making an offer ... we little guys may well be better off on eBay.

roadrunner

Don't feel left out. As recently as 2000 I contacted Spectrum about buying a finest known $30,000 19th century coin. They declined and had no interest in the coin. That was the first time I ever contacted them and figured that the hype about "buying everything" and "king of cash" was just misc fluff. Often, you only get one chance in this game to show what you can do.

roadrunner

RYK

I sure learned a lot about selling by reading this thread.

jcping

You make $$$ when you buy (low). You don't make $ when you sell (reasonable). That's why dealers buy price is always very low.

If you have average stuffs, sell them on ebay. If you have top quality coins, consider auction houses.

Do you ever think about why dealers always said "un-believe-able auction price?" It is because they won't pay any price nearly that when the coins are offered to them

roadrunner

That "unbelievble" auction price is often not so unbelievable once you deduct the 15% buyer's fee and your 5-10% seller's commission.
The consignor can end up with 13-22% less than what the coin is really worth.

If your coin has a fairly defined value and is routinely traded in the market, it is usually best to sell outright. If you cannot define the true value of your coin to within +- 10%, then get some 2nd opinions or sell at auction. But 98% of the coins out there have no need to go to auction. Coins of exceptional quality/demand or ill-defined value (no CDN or Coin Values prices listed for example) are destined for auction. Though I do have to admit that this market is slowly approaching the point where big buyers (dealer too) only want to step up and pay the price for large collections or at big auctions. There is one major investor/collector I am aware of that
that will not buy directly from dealers. He wants his coins from auction under competition knowing there is a legitimate underbidder. In many cases he will pay more for a coin, he gets the satisfaction knowing he wasn't abused by someone asking 2x what a coin was worth.

roadrunner

RYK

RR,

I am glad that you are still following this thread. I had a question for you regarding your selling experience. I was under the impression that it is better to sell specialized material (in your case, (perhaps) high grade rare date seated quarters) to a dealer who specializes in the same (wholesale and/or retail). Is this not the case? Or is there no dealer who specializes in what you specialize in?

roadrunner

I'd have to say there has been no dealer who specializes in what I really want...and hasn't been for the past 23 years. Now that said, enough dealers run across one or two coins now and then that would interest me. Legend came across an entire collection 2 years ago. That happens only once a decade and you'd be lucky to have a shot. Frankly, most of my better coins have come from auctions over the past 25 years. I did start branching out into type coins in the mid-1980's so there are plenty of those to choose from.

You'd be basically right to say no one dealer specializes in rare date high grade seated quarters. You'd be like the Maytag repairman.
Eliasberg was the last "dealer" to specialize in these Many of the dealers that do end up with one of these pieces can only guess as to how to price it. I guess you could always take the BV way and pick out $10 MILL for starters. Best to start high.

Don't underestimate the illiquidity in these coins too. There is usually only a brief window in a frenzied market to sell off a specimen or two. If you have a whole collection like Eliasberg then you could sell them anytime for strong money. If the market contracts just the least bit, these get awful tough to sell for fair money. The demand has not been there. How many people are assembling full sets of choice/gem seated quarters? I doubt there is one. But there are people putting together compilations of finest known seated material from half dimes to halves.

I watched type coins kick the heck out of dated seated in the late 1970's and then again in the late 1980's. The coins were just too rare to find and promote. But it appears they are finally getting there just due in ALL grades today. You could hardly give away a MS62 1858-0 25c in 1989 (I did, for $550) because no one hardly cared....and I never saw "today" coming...it's the Registry stupid. Today that same coin might be a $2500 coin. I bought the only gem 1858-0 known to me or the grading services out of a Superior sale in 1983 (thanks to Brad Bohnert) for a measly $4200 at the time.
I say measly because another major retailer had a "gem 65" for sale at only $3000. Unfortunately the Superior coin was amazing and the other coin was a cleaned AU worth all of $300! Times have changed indeed. And I'll also toss in that today's MS61 or 62 seated rarity is in most cases not even UNC. But no news there.

I did sell off two of my MS65 New Orleans quarters (56-0 and 58-0) to Stewart Levine/Andy Lustig in 1990. Andy has been doing seated
since the 1970's so you could say they were specialists. There are a number of dealers out there who know this market (Bill Nagle, Rick Sear, Jim O'Donnell, Greg Holloway, Andy, Jay Miller (not active anymore), Martin Paul, etc.). But if I did it over again I'd probably sell those coins at auction. Back then it was mostly sharp dealers buying those coins. Today it's much more spread out with collectors, investors, and dealers. Plus, more dealers today know seated better than they did in 1989. The price guides have been updated a lot too which helps. There is less mystery about it. Though many dates are unpriced in higher grades. I recently auctioned off one of my best coins. I had reason to believe it was getting to the valuation I had picked out years earlier....plus I could not figure out what it was worth to within 30-50%. And inputs I was getting were all over the map. After the sale, it appears that I could not have done better selling it outright to a dealer or collector. I would have certainly sold myself short.

Is there at least one dealer with a load of gem rare date seated quarters in his case today? NO. But there are some collectors that could put out a damn nice display if they were so inclined.

roadrunner

Shamika

<< <i>They declined and had no interest in the coin. That was the first time I ever contacted them and figured that the hype about "buying everything" and "king of cash" was just misc fluff. Often, you only get one chance in this game to show what you can do. >>



AMEN! I've seen "we by everything" stated by many dealers only to find out that it's flat out not true.

I won't do any future business with these individuals. Not offering to buy is worse than low balling!

SethChandler

Great thread on selling, I learned. It aint easy for a collector to sell

coynclecter

I've sold coins at almost half the Long Beach shows for the last 10 years. This is one of the better markets. Last Long Beach I sold ALL that I took. Most were type or generic s in the MS64 range with prices under $1000.

Set your price and hold it for a while, don't get discouraged as you get turned down. Some dealers are looking for the coins you have and will pay what you want. Others who don't need them will only take them if its a rip. I will usually show the coins to 25 Dealers and sell to one in 5 of them. Just don't waste time haggling. Set a price and be ready to drop 5%. Don't waste time with anything less. I can't speak for the price to ask usually I range from bid-5% to ASK +15% depends on a lot. With the sheet so far off I will start high this time and see what sells, maybe drop a little after 10-15 dealers.

Here's one trick that saves time. I carry a PCGS box with "COINS for SALE" in big letters. The dealers looking to buy WILL ASK YOU to see them. That way you don't have to walk around table to table feeling like a beggar. Also I have sold to others when I saw them looking at a dealers coin, but wait till they leave the table.

Good luck and if you see my blue box with COINS for SALE say Hi.



The "we buy everything" is the rich guys version of the little coin shop ripoff. They want to be the one-stop-shop for the little rich lady to sell ALL of her husbands old junk. When they see a sophistcated collector who knows his piece they know theres no rip to be had.

Bear

Most of the big dealers, as well as many smaller dealers that are regular contributors to the Forum

are Really good people to deal with. They will go out of their way to insure that you are satisfied.

dragon

Here's been some of my experiences:

"We Buy Everything".......no they don't

"No One Pays More For Your Coins".....except the collectors we sell them to

"Highest Cash Prices Paid".......no they're not

"Instant Cash Offers".......at fire sale prices

"We Need Your Coins".......at 80% of Blue Sheet bid

"We are the Leaders".......at ripping your coins

"We Specialize in Both Large & Small Deals".......that's how I bought my 3 homes

"We Pay Crazy Money For Your Coins".......crazy low

"We Are the Marketmakers".......at marking up coins

"We'll Come to You on Large Deals".....and we'll fly home in 1st Class

"Insane Prices Paid for the Right Coins".......you don't have the right coins

"We Need PQ Coins".......except they're only PQ after we buy them

"We Work on the Closest Spreads in the Industry".......and I drive a 2005 Mercedes CL600 to prove it


.....edited to add a couple

stman

So Dragon, how do you feel about selling to dealers? LMAO

coynclecter

Yeah Dragon, tell us how you REALLY feel!!


Good post, got a good laugh.............maybe because I see so much truth in it.

dragon

ms70,

No, but seriously, have you seen "Open Water" yet?

Johnscoin

I've also heard that Dale at Spectrum is a pretty nice guy. I tried to sell him 1998 Lincoln Cent in about XF condition, and he bought it for a cent. ...He's even bought me lunch before...what a nice guy.

coynclecter

It was probably an AU