USING GREAT COLLECTIONS TO SELL WORLD COINS - EXPERIENCE
johnjohn10
Posts: 58 ✭✭✭
I need to start reducing some of my collection. I was planning to give ~80 slabs to GC to see how they sell. Have any of you had experience selling World coins with them and did you feel you got fair results? I have only bought three (3) coins from them and I did pay money for those three (3) close to what Heritage would have gotten. They look like they do really well with US coins. Any insight or advice would be appreciated.
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I sold some there …. Some sold well some did not .
In the past I was a better buyer at GC.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Here’s my take:
The goal of sending coins to auction is to get as many eyeballs on them as possible, and hopefully some of those eyeballs will turn into bids and raise your price realized.
Nobody from Mexico is looking at (let alone bidding with GC). Probably the same for France, Germany, the UK, Spain, India, and everywhere else except the USA.
If your coins need international bids (either because of lack of sufficient interest in the USA, or because they are details coins, or many other possible reasons), GC isn’t going to get you those bids.
The problem with HA is that they now have so many auctions, that many of the lots are dreck, hence people stop looking as much as they used to (at least I do).
Also with HA, their reminder texts are so screwed up and “ungranular” that I personally have disabled them, so I can’t keep track when the various lots close in order to put in a proxy bid.
I personally prefer SB because the folks there are very nice to deal with. And they haven’t gone too overboard with the dreck, so people actually take the time to view the auctions and bid.
I’m not so fond of the SB platform, and their proxy bidding is screwed up, but I think the eyeballs make up for those challenges.
I tried sending a coin to Spain to auction, but it was a painful experience. I’m still thinking of trying Kuenker in Germany, but haven’t yet done so.
My vote would be to skip GC except for bullion perhaps.
I second this. And fear that GC might not be the venue for many foreign coins. I have some decent coins that may have to go to London and would not sell them at GC. I have some other coins that might go well in one of the HA featured auctions. SB I have bought from but sometimes their lots are not well followed. A couple of coins in the 3-5k USD range I got for 1,000 USD cheaper at SB then at HA.
I sold a couple of big ticket coins at SB and was not overjoyed at their performance and think one of the elite HA sales or a London firm such as Baldwin's or Noonan's or even Spink or St James would have been better.
Well, just Love coins, period.
If you’re selling very very popular US coins or “rare tpg” holders GC is pretty good, maybe Canadian, I’d look at Stacks for Latin America.
I don’t find that world coins do well at GC, sometimes they do ok, but it’s pretty hit or miss.
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
bidask
pruebas
7Jaguars
SimonW
I really appreciate your excellent feedback/observations. Thank you all VERY much!
I am going to modify what I do with them, if anything involving World coins.
I totally agree with pruebas comments regarding the HA weekly Thursday auctions. I stopped looking at them 3-4 years ago as well. Just "stuff" now, not what they used to be in the past.
Like looking at double row boxes at shows at some tables. With in 3-5 mins you can tell that none of the boxes have the quality you are looking for.
I've sold with GC once, back in 2016. Bolivia decimal (up to 1909) did good enough, about as good as anywhere else, I think. Sold a few Mexican pillars and one did surprisingly well.
South Africa Union did poorly across the board, but I wasn't going to spend the time myself to list on eBay and not sure it would have done any better. I should have just kept the ones I didn't want to go cheap.
I've sold British coinage through GC with good experience. Namely under $500 range. I've also bought a handful from there for strong prices. The 1816 I have in my collection I bought from GC is likely an all-time high price paid for the date.
https://numismaticmuse.com/ My Web Gallery
The best collecting goals lie right on the border between the possible and the impossible. - Andy Lustig, "MrEureka"
Great Collections has great customer service and compared to Heritage, much quick settlements. I find US coins and Great Britain do ok, Canadian coins are hit and miss.......GC does prefer coins are either PCGS or NGC.
So I have pulled about 1/2 of what I was going to give them with regards to World coins based on your much appreciated remarks. I plan to give the coins to them at the ANA show this week. I will provide feedback when I get the results someday from them!! Hopefully, this will be one of a few avenues to unwind some of my duplicates, early purchases (just shake my head at a few) and areas I have lost interest in.
I've seen some Soviet Russian gold and platinum in 70 grade (proof and ms) do better than HA. I've personally bid on many lots and didn't feel like I got a steal. I paid fairly, right around eBay comps. A few times I stopped bidding because I could pick up a similar coin cheaper on eBay.
I think it may come down to what people are searching for. GC may not be the best venue for unique coins but I check weekly for what I need...