I was contacted to buy a large coin collection...

Geoman · January 29, 2007 7:14AM

Once in a while I place ads in the newspaper, online, etc that I buy coins and coin collections. Recently, a person contacted me back, and told me he has collected coins since the 1950's and it is time now to sell it. A portion of his email is below...

I have many, many coins...
Mostly Silver but also some Gold.
Plus a lot of wheat pennies also.
approx 500 silver dollars (some near mint)
approx 1000 silver half dollars (some near mint)
approx 500 silver quarters (some near mint)
approx 500 silver dimes (some near mint)

He also stated that most of his silver coins were pulled from circulation. So, I am assuming that most of his silver coins are common-date, circulated stuff, that most would pay only melt prices for. My question is, would you just pay the going rate for "junk silver" for the quarters, halves and dimes? I don't want to take the time to search that many common-date circulated coins, and price them individually. Obviously, the gold and morgans I would have to look through. I just don't want to look through 500 silver Washington quarters to offer him melt pricing. I should also say I am buying this mostly for resale. I probably will keep some coins I need for my collection out of it; but would need to sell most of it off right away to recoup my money I spent.

Would you just offer him melt value? Or would you take the time to individually look prices up?

flaminio · January 29, 2007 7:17AM

<< Would you just offer him melt value? Or would you take the time to individually look prices up? >>

Consider the "golden rule". Roles reversed, what would you prefer you to do? Then do that. Or don't do the deal.

Doo bee doo bee doo --Sinatra

JJM · January 29, 2007 7:17AM

give it a quick once over and you will know if its all melt or you need to do some looking up of values

if he has some nicer MS'ish pieces, a liberal melt rate might be in order...JMO

have fun.........

mirabela · January 29, 2007 7:18AM

I would offer him melt on stuff that is loose. If I were later to discover, say, a 32-D or something, I would send him a differential check.

cincycoin · January 29, 2007 7:21AM

consider yourself an honest dealer that would need to make a small profit for your time invloved. Make him an offer and see what happens.

JrGMan2004 · January 29, 2007 7:21AM

If I was working a shop, and someone walked in with that kind of stuff...

I would buy all of the junk silver as silver melt (Somewhere around 8.5x-9x face)... the Washington Quarters, Franklin/Kennedy Halves, and Roosie dimes aren't worth searching (Unless you really wanna look for a 32-S and 32-D). Halves, if there are a lot of Walkers in there, then it's probally worth searching for key dates and VF+ coins, and also pulling out Barbers that you may find. Wheat pennies... I'd hardly want to buy, but would probally go at like 1.2 cents per. Common date circ/slider Morgans, pre-21, about $11-$12 per. Less for mutilated, culls, 21 Morgans, and Peace Dollars. Better date Morgans, Unc Morgans, Gold... depends on what they got

291fifth · January 29, 2007 7:24AM

Beware of any raw gold.

Don't tie up your valuable capital in bullion junk or wheat cents.

Barndog · January 29, 2007 7:31AM

if you sell it as junk without searching it yourself after the guy leaves, buy it that way. If not, pay for what you find.

flaminio · January 29, 2007 7:35AM

<< if you sell it as junk without searching it yourself after the guy leaves, buy it that way. If not, pay for what you find. >>

Good point. Paying melt for a bag of junk silver is OK if you then sell it as junk silver. But paying melt and then going through the lot coin by coin looking for the cherries would be a bit unethical, IMHO.

291fifth · January 29, 2007 7:41AM

<< 

<< if you sell it as junk without searching it yourself after the guy leaves, buy it that way. If not, pay for what you find. >>

Good point. Paying melt for a bag of junk silver is OK if you then sell it as junk silver. But paying melt and then going through the lot coin by coin looking for the cherries would be a bit unethical, IMHO. >>

Why would it be unethical? You did all the work. Your time is worth money.

13PacesEast · January 29, 2007 7:49AM

<< 

<< 

<< if you sell it as junk without searching it yourself after the guy leaves, buy it that way. If not, pay for what you find. >>

Good point. Paying melt for a bag of junk silver is OK if you then sell it as junk silver. But paying melt and then going through the lot coin by coin looking for the cherries would be a bit unethical, IMHO. >>

Why would it be unethical? You did all the work. Your time is worth money. >>

this is why i hate coin dealers.

lookin for the rip.

rays · January 29, 2007 8:33AM

<< 

<< 

<< 

<< if you sell it as junk without searching it yourself after the guy leaves, buy it that way. If not, pay for what you find. >>

Good point. Paying melt for a bag of junk silver is OK if you then sell it as junk silver. But paying melt and then going through the lot coin by coin looking for the cherries would be a bit unethical, IMHO. >>

Why would it be unethical? You did all the work. Your time is worth money. >>

this is why i hate coin dealers.

lookin for the rip. >>

In this case, I would disagree. There is nothing stopping the seller from examining just what he is selling.

jonathanb · January 29, 2007 9:28AM

Unethical: Dealer looks in the top of the bag, sees three quarters dated 1932, flips them over and sees mintmarks on two of them, then quickly closes the bag and offers spot.

Ethical: Dealer looks in the top of the bag, sees quarters with nothing dated earlier than 1940, gives the bag a shake and sees nothing more interesting than a few heavily-worn SLQs, closes the bag and offers spot -x%.

Above and beyond: See "ethical", but additionally suggests that the seller buy a copy of the latest Redbook for $15 and shows them how to identify anything that would potentially be worth looking for, and suggests that they keep the bag until they've gone through it on their own.

(I bet that even in the "above and beyond" situation, most sellers would skip the book and just take the cash offer)

19Lyds · January 29, 2007 9:59AM

<< 

<< 

<< 

<< if you sell it as junk without searching it yourself after the guy leaves, buy it that way. If not, pay for what you find. >>

Good point. Paying melt for a bag of junk silver is OK if you then sell it as junk silver. But paying melt and then going through the lot coin by coin looking for the cherries would be a bit unethical, IMHO. >>

Why would it be unethical? You did all the work. Your time is worth money. >>

this is why i hate coin dealers.

lookin for the rip. >>

Now thats kind of an open ended stereotypical statement!

I dont think there is anybody on this board that doesn't look for a good rip every now and then. After all, isn't that what the "You Sucks" are all about?
How many come on here and brag about their Ebay snipes? A bunch of us do. It does a body good to be able to score something nice or at least say you got a good deal.

This seller sounds like he may have a good idea of what he has so if he accepts melt as an offer, then thats his business. After all, its not like he's bringing in 4 or 5 coins that can be checked out in 5 minutes, he's bringing in nearly 3000 coins that will at the least require a spot check.

I'm gonna hate myself after the flaming begins!

jdsinva · January 29, 2007 10:32AM

The way my local coin dealer operates:

If spot checks indicate the customers has just common date stuff, he'll offer spot minus percertage.

If spot checks indicate there may be some better date coins, he'll recommend the customer buy a redbook or the like and go through their coins to find the better ones. He does pay a premium for the better dates.

If many of the coins look to be high grade or better dates, he'll set up an appointment for an appraisal.

shirohniichan · January 29, 2007 10:40AM

When I've taken a collection into a stamp dealer before (yes, I know-- I was a childhood stamp collector [also known as a pedo-philatelist]), he said, "Show me the better stuff first, then I'll make an offer."

Why not have the customer separate the better stuff so you don't have to sort through tons of junk silver?

basestealer · January 29, 2007 10:49AM

Whatever you do, don't make anyone feel as though their collection is "worthless", even if it is. Instead of saying "this is all junk, I can't buy it", word it like "I can't really use these right now, as I just bought a huge collection of the same thing". Coin dealers and bullion dealers are known for buying large bags of cull coins, searching for key dates (even those, when heavily worn, aren't all that valuable) and then selling the rest at spot. I don't see that as unethical. Don't try to pull a fast one--if the guy has 500 silver dollars and 1000 halves, he likely knows something about what he has, I would think. If he collected these at face value, he might be pleasantly surprised to receive silver spot--9x face is a healthy profit. I don't know why you wouldn't wanna go through 1000 halves--that's the fun of it! At least it is for me.

BigRed · January 29, 2007 8:12PM

I don't see how coin dealers make any money selling lower value stuff. I am not a dealer but there doesn't seem to be much money in selling bulk silver.No wonder there aren't many brick and mortor shops anymore.

basestealer · January 29, 2007 8:48PM

I think bulk silver accounts for a large part of the man on the street sales. At my local coin shop, there are paper cartons of walkers, franklins, and barbers=junk grade, but dates still visible for $5, $4, and $8 each. They attract the kids and the shoppers who walk in not knowing what they're looking for, who just want to buy something. If you go in the shop not knowing what you want, the stuff available for you to look at is scarce, and to feel is even scarcer. Try asking the owner for "a morgan" and he says, frustrated "What year, what grade, what specifically do you WANT!!" I like junk silver.

I was contacted to buy a large coin collection...

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