Buying raw sets, or partial raw sets, on Ebay

Barberman55

Has any board member ever won an auction on Ebay, for a raw set, or a partial raw set of coins? If you have.....what was your experience like with that auction?

I specialize in Barber quarters and halves, and I have yet to see a raw set, or partial raw set, that looked like it would be worth anything close to the opening bid price, or, the "Buy it Now" price. Putting price aside, I have yet to see a Barber quarter, or half set, that was even close to being a nice, evenly matched set, (even in the lower good grades). Forget about originality, I don't remember seeing any Barber sets offered on Ebay, where at least 50% of the coins were original. Maybe collectors of other series, have had better experiences looking at raw sets than myself.

Is this a way for sellers to unload their "extra" inventory of low grade, circulated junk, by shoving them in old coin folders and then selling them as full or partial sets?

questor54

If it walks like a duck...

Seriously, I have no experience in this but it certainly sounds as if your deductions are accurate.

cullenbryant

I received a short set of barber halves in vg+ and sold it all as a lot.
the two keys 1914 + 1915 i pulled out and sold seperately.
that is how most people sell them i think, pull out the keys and sell the rest still
in the whitman.
started them cheap and buyer got a good deal. that is the story of my life.

WaterSport

Well, let’s look at this way, if you had a decent set, would you really want to sell it on EBay? I collect Lincolns have recently noticed that nice sets are being sold one coin at a time, and no longer a set in the folder. The reality is that a set will make more money if each coin is sold individually. Increase the quality of the coin, and the sales price per coin goes up.

But like you, I keep looking for that one set that some unknowing person puts up for sale. My best score so far has been a Capital Plastic board from 1941- 1974. Bad photos and a description of all coins being Unc and Proofs proved correct. In fact, the proofs were worth well of $325, But I got the board for $75 and it upgraded 90% of the Cents I had for those dates.

WS

Dave99B

Dan –

Over the years I’ve seen a few sets of quarters and halves on eBay that went for decent money. But they were not quite “complete”, and were in the G-VG grade range. The material looked original, and they brought fairly strong money.

But quite frankly, I’ve never understood why someone would want to do that with decent Barber material. Selling an original set of Fine-to-AU Barbers would bring much less money than selling them individually. Selling a complete set eliminates 95% of your potential buyers – never a good thing!

Sure, selling individually is a lot more work, but you would reaps serious rewards doing so. Barbers are just too damn hot.

Dave