Advice on a dealer to help in liquidation
Yorkshireman
Posts: 4,585 ✭✭✭✭✭
Anybody have an opinion on Richard Nachbar? He advertises himself as the "go to guy" for maximizing collection liquidation value. I realize any dealer can claim that, but that does seem to be his business model.
I have an inherited a collection of raw stuff that has finally overwhelmed me and is taking too much time away from my career and family to process. I have no plan to get out of coins, but am tired of working on the "sells" and want to focus on the "buys", having as much money to do that as possible. I want somebody who will work with me and not have their nose in a Greysheet the whole time as the make an offer. (If that makes sense!) Yes, I realize who ever buys this stuff will sell it for a profit. I have no problem with that. Just work with me as a professional with no gouging involved.
I want to take this "stuff", most of it raw but some of it very nice stuff, and convert it to a select group of graded pieces.
The dealers from whom I have purchased before just don't seem to want to help or have lowballed me.
Please reply or PM me with thoughts, comments, or other dealer suggestions.
Frankness may require PM's. No problem there!
I have an inherited a collection of raw stuff that has finally overwhelmed me and is taking too much time away from my career and family to process. I have no plan to get out of coins, but am tired of working on the "sells" and want to focus on the "buys", having as much money to do that as possible. I want somebody who will work with me and not have their nose in a Greysheet the whole time as the make an offer. (If that makes sense!) Yes, I realize who ever buys this stuff will sell it for a profit. I have no problem with that. Just work with me as a professional with no gouging involved.
I want to take this "stuff", most of it raw but some of it very nice stuff, and convert it to a select group of graded pieces.
The dealers from whom I have purchased before just don't seem to want to help or have lowballed me.
Please reply or PM me with thoughts, comments, or other dealer suggestions.
Frankness may require PM's. No problem there!
Yorkshireman,Obsessed collector of round, metallic pieces of history.Hunting for Latin American colonial portraits plus cool US & British coins.
0
Comments
really depends on what type of coins they are
this
If you don't put in the time, you won't maximize the value of the collection regardless of who you sell it to.
If you're fine with that, your best bet is to sell to other collectors and cut out the middleman (dealer) to get more out of what you have. Take good pictures, group coins in lots, and have reasonable prices. The rest will follow.
really depends on what type of coins they are
This. All day every day.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Forget about advertising pitches from dealers you have no knowledge of.
Its easier to buy coins than sell them. You need to get your feet wet selling and managing it yourself. You might even enjoy it and want to take tables at shows.
I see my coins and currency as a portfolio which I am constantly churning whether online or at shows. Selling opens up new opportunities in buying and acquaints one as to current market conditions.
Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in decision-making used for the selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It uses the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) the idea that by doing 20% of the work you can generate 80% of the benefit of doing the entire job.
Cut loose the bottom 50%. The high volume, low ROI (Return on Investment) coins to a broker. For example, without knowing the coins, 5 (5,000 coin) bags of wheat cents: Adios to the broker. $20 St. G, maybe MS64 MS 65 or MS66: Worth some of YOUR time. The low value bulk, use to generate positive cash.
The general principles of focus on the critical few, and slough off the common, has the best ROI, worked for me in business, worked for me in liquidating various family member's estates, etc.
Weird Example:
Ever heard of Magic Cards? My sister was BIG into them. I knew NOTHING about them. She had a gaming store, and was part of the beta testing for them. There are literally 10,000 + different cards. 95% of the cards are 1 cent. Some of the cards SELL for over $10,000 each, for what I call a baseball card. My sister and her husband died unexpectedly. No wills, no children. One of my jobs was to liquidate the Magic Cards. I knew nothing about them. The store employees pointed out the junk (100.000 plus cards in neat files) and what was significant. I sold off the junk to a broker. I took the rest back home, and spent some time educating myself on line. Real soon, 80% of what I brought back I sold quickly, as it was really not worth my time. The last 5% was worth the time, and I let it go, all things considered, cheaply, since 1) I had not tie to them 2) Did not want to keep them I sold some more of them this year, and the total is solid 6 figures. I did a couple 80/20 iterations, and brought it down to a level I could deal with, and worth my time.
There are some members here that do well and have a good following on ebay that charge minimal fees and have great photos, great descriptions, etc. that maximizes final dollar amounts. If you want to go with a more dedicated coin oriented sale/auction site, I would suggest Great Collections.
Of course, as others in front of me has said, it all depends on what material you have to sell whether or not it's worth messing with.
Too many positive BST transactions with too many members to list.
You wont get a dealer to work on a margin where his risk and cost are not respected.
Some think a 10% margin is good , its delusional.
If you look at PCGS prices and say gee take 10% off that you wont find anyone who will even talk to you. The market is in a state of flux and many areas are in decline and over saturation.
The lower end /non bullion material take as a group for offers and take the best one and it will be at least 30% below retail and lower if the items are not popular.
If you sell on the BST at a rational price it will move , if you want high retail you will get no takers. Ebay and heritage results vary and the PCGS prices are a guide and are not in anyway reliable for all series. Price has to make sense if you want the last cent you will be holding coins a long time.
The rest of the better material over $500.00 get it in PCGS slabs and send it too great collections. GC has a very good recent track record. GC is emerging rapidly as a market leader there platform is the best overall.
Lastly be prepared to pay for an in depth appraisal on better coins and expect the offer to be a wholesale number. Ask 3 or 4 dealers that post here if they will refer a dealer in your area for an appraisal and if you don't sell to the dealer expect to pay for his services.
It greatly depends on the collection. The size and makeup make a big difference in how to handle selling it.
There's rarely one stop shopping for the best price. Selling coins for the best price is hard work unless your name is Pogue, Gardner, Newman, Norweb, Pittman, Eliasberg, etc. I recall my first attempt via Coin World ads to find the "highest buyer" for some of my coins...this was 1984. I picked out 3-4 dealers and sent the coins around the country. The offers ranged from around 80% to 40%. All were well known names. In fact the middle dealer at approx 50% is one of the most well known names/dealer in the entire nation....no doubt in the top 3 of influential coin dealers....and known to every forum member here. They never got my business because of that first strike way back then. Renrob on the other hand was the 80% dealer and continued to get my business for years. Don't believe the hype in the buying ads. Do your due diligence and expect only what you can "inspect." There's no shortcut and it's never easy. When I was selling better numismatic coins my list of dealers to show to usually included USCoins, Heritage, Lone Star, RCNH, and 3-4 others like Dave Carr, Lee Bellisario, Bruce Kutcher, Charlie Brown, etc. All PNG.... not that I search out PNG dealers, though it is at least something that they have a workable complaint process against member dealers...the only recourse in the entire coin industry that I'm aware of.
I tended to visit those guys who could grade, pass or play, not insult me with stupid counter offers, and hand over a quick check that was always good. There was no one guy as they all have different needs. Any one person getting such a collection is going to flip some or most of that material to other dealers, cutting down on your revenues. I can recall one show when a gave a dealer friend a mercy shot for old times. And he proceeded to walk those coins ($5K worth) a few tables down to his buddy to flip them as he didn't know enough about them....lol. Like I couldn't do that myself by visiting more tables. He never got another shot again. One time I had a pop 1 $50K coin I wanted to move. The dealer I entrusted that to actually handed it over to another dealer and the asking price went even higher. Because of those shenanigans the coin never sold, and I missed a key market top in the process.
I recall when gold was booming in the 2004-2009 period Nachbar had an option where he could pay you in gold bullion coins....like that was an option no other dealer was offering, or could offer. Since bullion is treated like cash by the IRS, you still owe taxes on any gains when you trade rare coins and get bullion in return.
If you are in the Northeast, I have one dealer I'd recommend, probably the only guy I inherently trust over the past 15 years. He might work on 5-15% depending on the size and quality. If I were still doing it I'd do it for no more than 10%. Some money is better than no money imo. A lot of dealers out there not making money. And you never know what a new contact can bring you in future business. Too many dealers try to gouge on the first transaction....as if that's the way to cement a future relationship.
Jeremy (airplanenut) is great to consign with, but no one does this for free (nor should they)
www.brunkauctions.com