How best to sell a set of Morgan dollars?

Theop

Hi all.

First the disclaimer... I don't have any coins to sell, but I may in the future. Here is the situation...

A friend of my parents, who live 600 miles away from me, contacted her because they know I am a collecter. This is a gentleman in his 70's who told me on the phone that he bought a nearly complete (he said only one is missing - I dont know if this means just the 1895, or that one and one more). He bought in in the 1970's for about $5000. He says the 93-S is in Fine condition, but I don't know the condition of the other semi-keys such as 1894, 1889-CC, but they are similar (VG-EF) grades. I haven't seen the coins yet but they are all raw and he says they've not been cleaned.

Basically he wants me to either buy the collection from him (don't know at what price yet), or sell it for him for a commission.

First question: What would be the best way to balance maximizing the sale and not having to spend too much time on the sale? For example, should I take the set to a regional show and get offers, or get the keys slabbed at PCGS then sell them, or just sell each coin individually (most time investment)?

Second question: What type of fair commission should I charge this man? I was thinking about 20%, either in actual cash, or in me keeping coin(s) of that equivalent value. I don't know this man, but my parents do, and he initiated the contact and told me he would pay me to sell them for him. It may depend on the amount of time/investment it would take me to sell them.

Final question: I would imagine that taking them to dealers (a coin store or at a good sized show), I would be getting wholesale offers, and probably not even greysheet bid. Is this likely to be correct? Would I get more for at set rather than individually, do you think?

Thanks in advance. I have been buying only and this may be my first experience selling some coins with significant value.

DNADave

For some reason, dealers at shows get offended if you shop them for offers. They all (or almost all) want to ask you 'what do you want for it'. I think that most are trolling for rips and want to avoid having to pay a fair price. Just keep that in the back of your mind if you try that way.

ychange

Thanks in advance. I have been buying only and this may be my first experience selling some coins with significant value.

wow! interesting proposition, a learning experience & a payday.

first, i'd say seeing all the coins in hand would need to be done. a good set of pictures would go a long way in helping to sell them, if you decide to sell online. of course, you'd need to asses their value as best you could, *before* going into any dealers shop, or show, to sell them. if you feel they are worth enough, then thoughts of having some of them slabbed might come into it, to maximize profits.

once you have a general value, finding buyers should not be a problem. heck, if you can snap some decent pictures for the people here to see, some of the pieces might sell themselves. pics bring out the advice, i've found.

sounds like a fun challenge, as long as you do the old man right.

mr1931S

You should get offers at least greysheet bid level for properly graded keys. You should find out what the sheet amount is prior to offering, though. Many dealers are reluctant to let you see these prices acting as if it's a classified document for their eyes only. The offer for the commons will most likely be well back of bid. Make sure you get the grade right for the scarcer semi-keys, especially if these are VF or better. These should bring at least bid as well.

coinguy1

<< <i>What type of fair commission should I charge this man? I was thinking about 20%, either in actual cash, or in me keeping coin(s) of that equivalent value >>

20% is more than major auction houses typically make - that sounds like quite a bit too much to me. Also, if you keep any coins as payment, you are creating a conflict of interest - that should be avoided.

BAJJERFAN

I helped a friend sell his late father's collection. I took 10% after expenses which were largely some grading fees, postage, eBay fees and shipping supplies. The bulk of his stuff was sold here so costs were negligible. The bulk of the $$$ was made on Morgans and Peace dollars; the rest was/is common low grade stuff. There looks to be many here who would be interested in lower circ Morgans {xf and lower} for grading sets and other purposes. The 85-cc and 03-o in vf/xf shud be winners. First you need to look at them.

DorkGirl

If they were mine to sell, I'd pull the key dates and sell them separately, then sell the common dates in the books. Selling each individually you would make more money but listing 95 coins takes a while. Ebay or B,S & T are the perfect places to do this, Nice scans or pics and they will sell themselves.

In my experience, you and he will get more for the coins on Ebay then selling to a dealer.

And even if he didn't clean them, it doesn't mean that they aren't cleaned. Some of the sellers of these sets clean the coins themselves. Most novice collectors or investors like bright and shiny. That may put them in a whole new catagory. Look at them first before making any assumptions. My dealer just bought a similar set from a guy that paid $15,000. All were cleaned.

solid

Selling everything on ebay, as long as you take good photos and have good descriptions,
provides documentation and should eliminate any issues that could arise. You said he paid
$5,000 for the set, but have no idea if that was a good deal at the time without seeing the
coins. You may not know what he thinks they are worth now.

If there are keys worth slabbing, send those in and then sell the entire set in one series of
auctions on ebay, explaining how you came into the set, etc. In order to cut down on some
of the work, sell the more valuable coins individually, but group some of the common dates
together by grade (6 AU, 9 XF, 17 VF, etc).

I have found, through limited experience, that selling sets or good date runs in a series of
auctions, with each one ending 3 minutes or so after the last yields good results. You are likely
to attract a number of bidders that are interested in more than one coin and they will make sure
they are at their computers towards the end of the bidding to get "their coins".

Just some ideas...

Ken

Theop

Thanks for all of the replies so far...

I guess everything is up in the air until I can see the coins. We talked about him shipping them to me or I will take a weekend trip to visit my parents and see the coins along the way.

Based on the advice that's been given, I'll try and take my camera/stand along with me and snap some photos of anything that is likely worth more than $100 and post some pics here. I realize that he could have all problem coins, even if he himself didn't do anything wrong.

Coinguy1, thanks for pointing that out. I want to be fair with him, regardless of the route we take.

CoinGuy42

Dave, since you said buying the set from him was an option, I'd consider that. Since he is willing to offer a commission if you were to seel his coins, perhaps you could apply that commission (based on an agreed value) as a discount for the entire set. If he has several keys, this might prove to be a wise investment. So, if his coins are, for example, worth 10K, and your commission was to be 20%, you offer him 8K for the set. Of course, you both would have to be comfortable with their value, just an idea. Pat

idocoins

Does anyone realize what $5000 was in 1970? I bought a house in 1970 for $23,500! If this man paid that kind of money back then I'm sure he has some very nice coins in that set!