Question for Dealers

Coin Finder

Dealers, I have a question. What is your approach when pricing a coin, a slabbed coin by PCGs or Ngc for the first time?

Assume you know how much it cost you, but for example you buy a large collection and discover later that a coin came back at a higher grade than you thought...much higher

Tbig

Julian

I would price the coin, at retail, 25% higher than it would cost me to replace the same coin.

Cost has no bearing on the selling price.

JadeRareCoin

Assume you know how much it cost you, but for example you buy a large collection and discover later that a coin came back at a higher grade than you thought...much higher

In a typical large collection that we purchase, we may have some coins that we over-estimated the price, so we will lose money on those coins. That happened recently to us when we purchased a very large estate. We were bidding against 4 other coin dealers and we were probably subconsciously more aggressive than usual. Plus we were moving quickly since this estate was huge and we had a lot of coins to grade/price. Several of the raw gold pieces turned out to be counterfeit. We lost money on those coins. However, a few of the coins that we submitted came back at a higher grade than we expected, which resulted in a larger profit than anticipated on those particular pieces. In the end, everything balanced out and we made a decent profit. BTW, we beat the next highest bid by $40,000.

coinguy1

If the coin came back graded "much higher" than I'd expected, the first thing I would do would be to take a good look at it and try to figure out how I was off on my assessment/estimate by so much.

If upon re-examination I couldn't fathom how the coin received such a grade, I'd then show it to a knowledgeable dealer friend to get his take on it. My point is that I'd try to make it a learning experience.

If, for whatever reason, I would not feel comfortable offering the coin to a client, I would sell it wholesale, instead, at a fair wholesale price for the assigned grade. I would try to ignore my cost in pricing it, though realistically, almost everyone I know lets cost affect their pricing, to one degree or another.

Edited to add: If I did not want to place the coin with a client, one other option would be to consign it to a public auction.

Veep

Recently, I bought, as a part of a collection, a 1921 Peace Dollar that was very messy. It was dirty and stained and I didn't know how it would turn out. I net graded it and paid AU money for it. It "conserved" better than I expected and it now looked MS63 . PCGS confirmed it. I sold it for 63 money and wrote an additional check to the couple from which it was purchased. While I deserve a fair profit, that coin's value belonged to the couple; not me. I started this part-time business to try and help people like that.

JadeRareCoin

Veep: Way to go! That's how it is done. Good Karma. We did the same on the big collection that we purchased (referenced above). Did better than expected overall.

BillJones

If I don't like the grade that is on a coin, I wholesale it to other dealers. A retail customer could buy it from me, but I'll tell them up front that I don't agree with the grade, and they will get what might seem to be a bargain price.

Before you come rushing to buy from however, please remember that I very seldem buy coins that I don't like. Therefore I don't go out of my to stock bargain basement stuff to other dealers. Usually it's the stuff I "had to buy" to get the coins I wanted.

MrEureka

What St Feldolini said.

Russ

<< <i>Cost has no bearing on the selling price. >>



I completely agree. Therefore, could you please ask the dealer fraternity to stop telling me, "well, I have xx in the coin", whenever I make an offer at a show?

Russ, NCNE

MrEureka

could you please ask the dealer fraternity to stop telling me, "well, I have xx in the coin", whenever I make an offer at a show?

I'll continue to do so when it serves my interest.