Last week I asked about buying a cleaned set...

ormandh

and this weekend Ihave a better idea of what the guy actually has. One of the cleaned coins was a French Indo-China 1896 AU 20 cent (KM# 3a). It has many hairlines where it was harshly cleaned, but it looks to be a low mintage coin.There are a few more coins with high values in the collection. I have offered the guy $250 for the collection and he wants $300. Would you still steer clear of this collection? Thanks for the responses last time. -Dan

ormandh

Another coin in the collection is a Malasia 50 cent piece in AU condition (KM# 13). It is not as harshly cleaned.- Dan

ormandh

Another coin is an 1886 Venezuela 1 Bolivar AU (KM#22). Dan

newbiecollector

I am very far from being an expert but I, personally, do not like cleaned coins. The set your thinking of buying might have re-sale value, once again I'm not qualified to say.

This didn't help with your questions but I just wanted to reply with my thoughts.

ormandh

Thanks Newbiecollector. I am going to sell the more desirable coins if someone wants them, but I will probably use a majority as fillers. -Dan

newbiecollector

Just my personal feelings about coins to collect. It does not mean it is right for anyone that wants to re-sell.

We have a amazing expersts on here and they can give proper advice, I just offered a comment

wybrit

I'm not big into buying lots of coins, so others can address that. Is it a searched lot? That makes a big difference in what you should pay. Also, are you interested in reselling or just collecting different countries?

It appears you have seen quite a few of the coins in the lot. If it were me and I saw a lot of cleaned coins as a representative sample, I would politely decline to buy. If reselling is your goal, you are probably going to be throwing your time and money away on this deal.

SYRACUSIAN

The questions you're asking now, will be multiplied by ten by interested parties at resale time. A friendly advice that was given to me a long time ago.

ormandh

When you say searched lot, what do you mean? I have an ad to buy collections in the paper. People call me and I go to their homes and look at the collections. This particular collection is from an old man who got them from his father who was in the US Navy in the 1880-1890's and picked coins up from the different countries he visited. Alot of the coins are in excellent shape except for the fact that he felt like they needed to look brighter. The man who is selling doesn't know much about coins and wants to sell. I know that the values are dramatically decreased because of cleaning, but there are some really low mintage coins in the lot.

I would probably sell some of the more desirable coins to people who could or would use them in their collections. I collect everything, so would keep the majority to supplement my collection, but I would like to make aprofit over and above the price paid so I would have the money buy more collections and keep adding to my personal collection without using my limited expendable cash. I am in no way trying to make a killing and by no means trying to dupe future buyers of the coins that I buy( I would fully disclose the fact that I know that they are cleaned). -Dan

theboz11

If you don't understand what you are buying ,,Don't buy it?

Books and opinions abound, but if you are out of your area of expertice,,you will lose money.

ormandh

No one has quite answered my question as phrased in the first post. Would you steer clear of a collection that had low mintage coins or would you purchase it for said price if you were paying 1.50 per coin? I am not a newbie and have been collecting for many years, and own my own business so I am not asking for advice. I am curious if one would buy a $500 coin for $1.50 cleaned or not.

JamminJ

<< <i> Would you steer clear of a collection that had low mintage coins or would you purchase it for said price if you were paying 1.50 per coin? >>



Here's your direct answer:
I would steer clear of this lot because the coins have been shined up.

-JamminJ

DorkGirl

Scrubbed and polished---no. Lightly wiped, yes. A key date coin is always that, and a light wipe is seen on a lot of these coins. A lot of us own coins like this.

So yes, I would buy a $500 coin for $1.50 any day of the week.

newsman

All coins have value, even cleaned ones. The problem is that most collectors heavily discount cleaned coins relative to uncleaned ones. The answer to your question is in the numbers: Can you buy this set cheaply enough to make selling the coins worth your time?

Just as an example, if you had an uncirculated 1903 Philippines peso, which is normally worth hundreds of dollars, that is lightly cleaned and you can get it for $1.50, you have already scored, because it contains more than $3 worth of silver. You could also send the coin to ANACS and have it net graded as AU cleaned and sell it on eBay, where I have seen similar examples fetch $50 or so, and still make a pretty good profit.

On the other hand, as you may have noticed, lots of darksiders don't want to deal with cleaned coins. I don't buy them if I can avoid them. And selling them is problematic if you're honest, because the market is a lot smaller than it is for uncleaned, original coins.

shirohniichan

I am curious if one would buy a $500 coin for $1.50 cleaned or not.

Yes, I would.

In fact, I recently bought a coin that would sell for about $2,000 without the cleaning or plug it had, and I paid over $125 for it. On the other hand, I would not pay $150 for a harshly cleaned coin with a catalog value of $500 unless I'd spent much of my life looking for one in any condition and finally came across one right before my wife shot me to death for spending too much.

There are certain coins that are rare in the true sense of the word-- ones that you can search an entire lifetime for and never see in person. As a collector I will spend a lot for one if I really want it, cleaned or not.

There are other coins that are scarce, though not rare. If I can find a nice problem-free example, I won't buy a harshly cleaned one unless it's really a bargain.

ormandh

Thanks Newsman, that is what I wanted to hear. I am going to buy this collection for two reasons: 1) the catalogue value of the coins lie somewhere in the range $2500 and $3000 in uncleaned form. I am basically paying 10% of catalogue value for specimens I normally would not have the money for. 2)most will go into my collection (I collect everything), but will supplement the expense of the purchase with the sale of certain pieces. I, in no way will sell a piece as uncleaned, because I would not do to someone else that I would not want done to myself (used in every aspect of my life).

As far as the purchasing of the coins being a waste of time, I am not a coin dealer by trade, but I am a collector and love to do it. This is my first cleaned collection, so I did not realize that it was such a taboo issue with some these board members. I would have appreciated more of an opinion than I received them. -Dan

newsman

<< <i>As far as the purchasing of the coins being a waste of time, I am not a coin dealer by trade, but I am a collector and love to do it. This is my first cleaned collection, so I did not realize that it was such a taboo issue with some these board members. I would have appreciated more of an opinion than I received them. -Dan >>



It's not really taboo, it's just a matter of choice. I collect coins from a country (Brazil) where dealers and collectors have no problem with cleaning their coins. It's a challenge to find original, uncleaned examples of even the more common issues, and that makes collecting more interesting.

wybrit

As far as the purchasing of the coins being a waste of time, I am not a coin dealer by trade, but I am a collector and love to do it. This is my first cleaned collection, so I did not realize that it was such a taboo issue with some these board members. I would have appreciated more of an opinion than I received them. -Dan

All the data I had when you first asked was on two coins with dates and a third undated (with no values given). Cleaning was prominently discussed and yes, that is a hot button of mine, I admit. Many ebay sellers I have encountered, especially recently, fail to mention or sometimes blatantly lie about whether a coin has been cleaned. Cleaned coins can be and are usually tough to sell - at least for me. I get about 10-20% at best for them. What other conclusion could I draw? Much later, you mention your estimate of the value of all the coins.

Your later posts indicate that you have done your homework on the collection. More importantly, I do hope you enjoy them!!!