Advice Needed: Selling Sets
patrickahearnesq
Posts: 42 ✭
Hello Everyone,
New to the Forum. Have been collecting since I was a child but in the past few years I set goals to complete some Morgan and Peace sets. I have experience with buying/selling/trading at coin shows all over, on Ebay, and on various Facebook groups, however those have always been individual coins to fill out my collection and trade, etc.
I am at a point in my life where my wife and I are going to be buying our "forever" house and I will be parting with my 95 coin date/mint Morgan set and MS60+ Peace Dollar set by the end of the year with the expectation of buying a house next year.
What would you guys suggest as the best way to sell the set as a whole. The set is a mix of raw and graded coins, all the keys are slabbed, the raw in my Dansco. I have no qualms about traveling to make the sale in person. I know the fees surrounding Ebay, AH's, etc.
Would you recommend piecing this out individually? Selling the collection as a whole? Would you recommend I consign it earlier than later? I'm fairly well organized and have spreadsheets of my cost basis, expected grade on the raw coins, and grades of my slabbed coins. I have good relationships with all of my local shops from the years of attending shows together but I realize they need to make a profit too and agreed it would be best to seek other avenues as to not feel I didn't get the best bang for my buck.
Again, I am not looking to sell here at this time, later this year when I am vaccinated and feel more comfortable traveling I do, but I am just looking for some advice. I DO have experience trading and selling individual coins on Ebay and Facebook. Also, I don't mind feedback on setting my expectations for the set. I know what I paid which is close to sheet across the board, some higher, some lower. I know what retail looks like as well. Should I aim for the middle? Should I just aim to get my cost back post fees?
In sum.....
Sell individually? As a set?
Put in the work myself?
Ebay/AH/Facebook/another avenue?
Reasonable expectations as to value?
What say you?
Thanks in advance,
Pat
Comments
"Sell individually? As a set?"
You'll most likely get more by selling individually.
"Put in the work myself?"
You'll most likely get more by doing more work yourself.
Complete agreement. I've done both.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Sell individually but only if it makes economic sense to do so. The "market" wants the key and semi-key coins but doesn't much care about the common dates unless they are in exceptional condition and are slabbed/stickered as such.
I have seen lately on ebay, sellers offering a key coin with a semi key or even common as a pair or even three at a price that gives them a profit on the common or semi-key coins. Maybe not a bad idea.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
That has always been my thought process. It will be easy to move the keys and semi keys but stuck holding common dates moving them for below or at my cost.
My guess is.... there aren't many people out there looking to buy a full complete set which is why I am leaning towards individually, its just less of a headache for 1 cash sale and wave goodbye. However, 99% of the fun I had was chasing down each coin individually over the years.
I have seen lately on ebay, sellers offering a key coin with a semi key or even common as a pair or even three at a price that gives them a profit on the common or semi-key coins. Maybe not a bad idea.
@jesbroken I have seen people doing this with the 21 Peace Dollar/21 Morgan Dollar. 21 Peace Dollars at MS62 with a 21 MS62 or 63 Common Morgan have been selling at $600-$700 which is absolutely crazy talk. Or is it? Being 2021, the price of that coin is spiking.
I would say if you had really nice keys, I would try this and place a common date with them, especially high grade keys and get my money out of both. Can't hurt to try.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
A difficulty with grouping coins is that people don't typically want to spend money on coins they don't need for their collections. Key dates will sell on their own and combining them with common dates is not likely to make them more attractive to buyers than if they were sold by themselves.
As opposed to selling the coins individually or as a set, maybe something in between if it makes sense.
That's what I have done in the past when I could. I have sold mostly on eBay, but twice with Great Collections and on numerous occasions directly to two collectors I know.
I really dislike the administrative aspects of eBay selling. I would list as group lots with a minimum value. For Morgan dollars, selling the common CC dates (82-85) as a group might work.
For the cheaper most common dates, I would consider offering it to a local dealer if it's one you know. The difference should not be much.
If you have really nice common date coins that will grade high, I would ship it all off to Great Collections. They will get the common coins graded and up for auction. If your better dates need to go to CAC they will take care of that too for less than it would cost you to get all the coins looked at. Then they will auction them off with good pictures and they have a huge audience and can sell just about anything for a very good price.
I just shipped off my graded type set and am waiting for them to get to it to auction it off and since they take all the worry and work out of it, it is well worth what they make on the sale.
What is the total value of the set or the average value per coin? That is important to help decide the best path.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
Agree with @Klif50 re: Great Collections — a terrific outfit run by good folks [ @ianrussell ], and they are doing very brisk business right now.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
I had the same issue a couple of years ago. 2 Dansco albums/slipcases with the key dates in third party holders. I sold each album on eBay separately with the corresponding slabbed coins. I took pictures of the slabbed coins and the album-used up all 12 allowed photos. Album photos are hard- I took the front slides out to cut down on the glare. I added a chart to the notes section with each date and whether slabbed or raw and how I graded it. I was honest with my grades and whether the coin had any issues. I added up my costs for each coin, plus the eBay/paypal fees, plus the cost of shipping and insurance. That became my auction start price. Book one sold the first week and I broke even. Book 2 I had to drop the price 2 or 3 times before it sold and ended up taking a loss. That was okay because I had the coins for a long time. I would do this again in a heartbeat to avoid having to parcel out the common dates. I would say be patient, stick to your initial price for a couple of weeks and then if you have to slowly drop the price by one or 2 hundred. Be prepared to go the long haul-someone will be eventually buy them if the price is reasonable. Good luck!
@savitale It sheets around 14k - the 95 coin Morgan set, which is basically what I have into it.
@uscoinguy Thanks for the information. I was considering doing that first. However, since I have time to get this done, I have a pretty good reputation in various Facebook coin groups enough to sell likely a large portion without any fees. The higher end slabbed coins might be worth considering sending to GC as their fee is basically half of what Ebay charges at the current moment. I've followed quite a few coins there recently and they are going extremely high right now.
The nicer the coins, the more you'll benefit from selling individually because you can highlight each one. I sell a fair number of partial and complete Danscos (all consigned), and there's no way to reasonably photograph all those coins for one lot, so you take pictures of each page, they're decent at best, and the buyers bid based on general condition. When the coins aren't worth much more than silver (ie, circulated or lower unc), that's fine. If you have some gems in there, you won't pull that premium. Of course, it's much easier to sell one album instead of lots of individual coins, so it depends on what your time is worth.
If you have some slabbed coins, I'd sell those individually because they'll do the best. For albums, even a partial album (everything but keys, for instance) can be fine. Not having the keys may even make it more sellable because many more can afford it; add the keys and someone who wants a lot of coins but can't afford the expensive ones can't bid.
Of course, if you're selling fixed price instead of auction, there's no harm in doing what's easiest for you (probably selling mostly as sets, perhaps with keys removed), and if that works, great, and if not, look for a new way to do it.
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it.
You have a minimum of 10% in Buyer's fees at GC to which any seller fees would be added. For coins under $1000, GC fees are 15-18%. eBay fees with a starter store costs 8.45% total. eBay fees are LOWER than GC fees.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
@jmlanzaf Where are you seeing 15-18%? Their consignment form says....
It also states there is a small $3-$10 listing fee.
You have to include the GC 10-13% buyer's premium in the total cost of selling there. If I sell a coin on eBay for $100, I keep $92. If the same buyer bought the same coin at GC, I would only get around $82 as the buyer is not going to bid more than $91 because it will cost them $100 if they bid $91. So you then pay the 5% fee from the $91 and the $3-5 listing fee so you net around $82-$84.
This is not an argument against GC, necessarily. The unknown is whether the identical coin on both venues would realize a higher or lower hammer price. However, you need to consider all costs (buyer and seller) of the purchase and then try to determine the affect of the venue. People focus too much on just one piece of the puzzle, like the seller's fees or even the buyer and seller fees.
If you send a coin to Heritage or Stack's, the net fees are going to be 15 to 30% (closer to 30% for the $100 coin). However, if you get better promotion and visibility and achieve a 20% higher hammer price it is worth it.
Not every coin belongs in every venue to maximize return.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Pay CLOSE attention to @Klif50
Shipping them to GC will be hassle free and will be putting BOTH keys and non-keys for sale at same time.
HUGE advantage in my opinion.
Concentrate on your "forever" house.