How do I sell my coin collection?

So you feel it’s time to sell your long-standing coin collection, or you’ve inherited a collection and don’t know anything about coins and want to sell them. As with selling anything, you need to make sure you’re getting a fair price. Sounds pretty simple, right? In the area of ​​numismatics, when it comes to selling, the offers for your collection can vary a lot. The following tips will help you get a fair and reasonable offer. I’ll talk more about the term “reasonable” a bit later. Coin dealers, like any other profession, number in the thousands. From one person part-time businesses to large companies that buy and sell millions of dollars worth of coins a year. And just like other professions and industries, we have some thieves. By following the general advice in this article, you should be in a better position to realize the value of your collections. So here we go!

First, you need to know what you have. Because? If you don’t know what you have, how do you know you’re getting fair value? If you have thousands and thousands of pennies of wheat, I’m not saying you need to inventory them all. In fact, it may not be worth your time. The chances of finding a key coin are slim at best. But you must know how many cents you have. As? Just weigh them. Wheat cents come in at about 148 cents per pound. The same rule can be applied to other common coins, such as pre-1965 Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters, since you may only have a bullion price on these. For the rest of your collection, you may want to count the number of each piece. Make sure you have a complete list of your collection.

Ok, is it time to contact a dealer? No not yet. How do you know you’re getting an honest one? Before contacting a dealer, you need to do some homework. Does the dealer belong to any organization and club like ANA or BBB? How long have you been in business? What is your reputation? Check out a couple of dealers before you make that call. Also, just because they advertise in a major coin collecting publication does not make them honest. I know a dealer who advertises in a major publication and sells clean coins as BU/Unc originals. Most novice collectors wouldn’t know the difference.

Now that you’ve done some research, it’s time to contact the dealer. This can be done in many ways. You can call them, or if you’re the shy type, just send them an email. In your email, identify yourself and that you have a collection for sale. Include in the email the inventory you completed. This may surprise many, but some dealers will NOT want your collection. Many dealers specialize in certain types or series, or may simply have too many coins in their inventory. If your collection is an average collection of common coins, you may be disappointed to learn that many, if not all, of the big dealers simply don’t want to bother with you. Common collections take too long to sort and the margins are too small. Do not freight, all is not lost. Many smaller dealers will appreciate the opportunity to get their collection. Many of these dealers are mail order only and may only have an email or PO box as their contact information. While they may seem shady, these people are usually quite reputable. As before, contact the dealer and ask if they are interested. If they are not, just move on to the next dealer. If so, ask them for their “purchase price” list. Many merchants will post a list of what they are willing to pay for certain coins.

After some hard work, you have a couple of offers on the table. The offers are nowhere near what you expected. Remember what I said earlier about a “reasonable” offer? Here is the painful truth. Coin dealers are in business to make money. Sure, many of us choose this profession because we love it, but like everyone else, we still have mortgages, car payments, and kids’ college, etc. Many people will look at the latest Coin Prices magazine to get an idea of ​​what the collection is worth. Magazines like Coin Prices are really a price list of what you can expect to pay a merchant for a specific coin, not what you can expect to be paid. Margins can range from 20 to 50% or more for lower denomination coins such as wheat pennies. As I mentioned earlier, some dealers may not want what you have. Additionally, many if not all dealers reserve the right to revise the offer upon inspection of the collection. If you think all your Morgan dollars are BU, but they are actually AU, this would make a big difference in price. The rating is very subjective. Additionally, for larger and more diverse collections, a dealer may spend a considerable amount of time reviewing the collection to ensure a fair price.

So what is to be done? Take the best offer and run? Maybe, maybe not. If it’s an inheritance and you don’t have an emotional attachment, you can sell and never look back. If this is your 50-year collection, well, this can be painful. You can continue to contact different dealers and hope for a better offer. If you think your collection is really worth more, you can always send it up for auction. With some of the fees that major auction companies charge, it may not be worth it. You can also try your luck on eBay, but unless you have a strong feedback profile, many buyers won’t bid on your items. You can also locate eBay members who will auction off your collection for you for a percentage of the profit. Sometimes this works fine and sometimes it doesn’t.

For now, let’s assume you have a reasonable offer and decide to sell. By the way, this must be a written offer sent by mail or by email. Many times, the buyer may be located in another city/state. No buyer will send him a check until he has seen the collection. If the collection is large enough (many, many thousands of dollars), some buyers will come to you. If not, your very viable option is to mail the collection to the buyer. Yes, that’s right, through the mail. Wait, you say, that sounds risky. It may be, but if you take precautions, you will not have problems. First, pack the collection very well. Make sure there are NO LOOSE coins jingling. The sound of clinking coins is music to a thief’s ear. So make sure you wrap them nice and tight. When mailing, the USPS is pretty secure. Typically you’ll want to use USPS Priority Mail. Contact your local post office as you can usually get free boxes. Generally, you’ll want to use the flat rate options, as you can send up to 70 pounds for less than $10.00 (not including insurance), but check with your local postal worker about options. For your protection, you MUST insure your package and pay for delivery confirmation. Include a detailed list in your package. Most distributors will appreciate this as they will audit the submission to the list. If all is well, you can expect a check in the mail in no time.

In short, these are the tips.

1. Know what you have, prepare a complete inventory

2. Research a few dealers before contacting one.

3. Talk to dealers before sending coins to pledge interest

4. Send your coins. Pack them well and insure them

5. Review the offer

6. Collect the cash!

As always, happy collecting!