Where do the big eBay sellers get their coins?

JoeC23

Just a general question:

Where do the large coin sellers on eBay get their inventories? Do they own brick and mortar coin shops, pawn shops, cash-for-gold operations, estate sale companies, or are they just vest pocket coin dealers that buy accumulations from further down the food chain. The ones that use auction listings with low reserves seem to just want to blow stuff out and don’t seem to care about getting top $$$$, are they wholesalers? There are many eBay sellers using this business model with tens of thousands of feedback and have been around for a long time. They seem to sell a lot of problem, low grade, and off quality coins that a experienced collector may not want.

Please share your thoughts,

JoeC23

EagleEye

They have armies of buyers at every show and auction venue.

BStrauss3

They buy collections over the counter (many have retail stores).
They buy at coin shows.
They travel to buy from collectors and heirs.
They have scouts who buy for them outside their local geography.

One of my friends was buying proof sets, cherrypicking the good coins and sending them in for bulk slabbing then selling at shows and to dealers. In the course of a year & a half or so, he had gone through the entire inventory of all the local dealers. Any set with a couple nice coins or one extraordinary coin was a candidate. Now that he's cleaned out the entire area, he's moved on to something else.

nk1nk

Many of the higher end sellers just sell coins on consignment from other collectors

Type2

All of the above.

TopographicOceans

From me.
All my 99c auctions sell for around $1.89 and then the winning flipper lists it with a high BIN price.

But there are dealers that will wholesale out lots of coins to other dealers

logger7

An instate auction guy hunts around at shows for sliders that he sells as "gem BU" in his auctions, I see him at all the weekend shows. Somehow even honest assessments by those who sell to him gets lost in the sauce.

ricko

If they are buying and selling, then they are an active part of the numismatic market and providing a service to those buyers at certain levels....keeps the hobby active and allows new collectors to grow.... and learn. Cheers, RickO

jdimmick

Most of the stuff I sell comes in over the counter, ocassionally I pick up stuff from other dealers when there is room left.

TwoSides2aCoin

I know one with almost a half million feedback who travels to shows. He's purchased a few hundred coins from me. (Wholesale).

oih82w8

There are dealers who buy collections at a reduced rate and parts them out individually for market value. I encountered a couple of them last year in Dallas at the ANA...it was very tempting.