Getting good value from Selling !

[Coindome]

Hi

I'd be interested to know what people regard as the best way to sell.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent. Go to a dealer and you know they want to make 100% profit therefore they offer reduced value (obviously).

Try eBay, they charge to load images, set reserves, promote listings, final value fees, and worst of all demand Paypal and the associated costs.

What about London auction houses? The best I've done is to negotiate the sellers fee down to 8% but I was outraged by the poor description and not given an opportunity to provide my knowledge.

Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated.....

Cheers

[Peckris]

Hi

I'd be interested to know what people regard as the best way to sell.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent. Go to a dealer and you know they want to make 100% profit therefore they offer reduced value (obviously).

Try eBay, they charge to load images, set reserves, promote listings, final value fees, and worst of all demand Paypal and the associated costs.

What about London auction houses? The best I've done is to negotiate the sellers fee down to 8% but I was outraged by the poor description and not given an opportunity to provide my knowledge.

Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated.....

Cheers

Two ways I've used in the past :

1. Issue your own postal list and advertise it in the Coin News classifieds (not expensive). Be aware though, it takes time to build up a customer base, but once you have a clientele it can really deliver.

2. Find an antiques centre without a coins outlet. Offer to be their coins expert and rent a cabinet or display from them. Again though, it takes time to become 'known', but the advantage is that you get people wanting to sell to you also, and you can pick up some real bargains.

I've given up using auctions after I sold two lots at one provincial auction for £30 which I thought was a reasonably fair price for them. The cheque I received? £17. You can complain all you like about FleaBay, but their fees are SantaClaus-esque by comparison.

[scott]

i pick up bargains at my dealer all the time.

might be best to try #2 as you then have more control over the prices. or try a car boot, larger ones you will find dealers turning up.

or make a website

Edited September 21, 2010 by scott

[Red Riley]

Hi

I'd be interested to know what people regard as the best way to sell.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent. Go to a dealer and you know they want to make 100% profit therefore they offer reduced value (obviously).

Try eBay, they charge to load images, set reserves, promote listings, final value fees, and worst of all demand Paypal and the associated costs.

What about London auction houses? The best I've done is to negotiate the sellers fee down to 8% but I was outraged by the poor description and not given an opportunity to provide my knowledge.

Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated.....

Cheers

Normally dealers work on the basis of buying a coin for around 60% of its market value; less for common coins which will sit in stock for years (and they do), more for rarer or more desirable coins which they would hope to turn over quickly. E-bay is by far the cheapest way to sell but I would be a bit hesitant to put my best coins on there and buyers seem reluctant to buy more expensive coins that way.

At the end of the day, you are faced with the choice of selling to somebody who will aim to make a profit or getting yourself involved in a great deal of hassle to seel your coins direct to the end customer. You pays your money...

[TomGoodheart]

Not sure I can help much. I'm essentially a collector. Now obviously I have sold things to raise funds for more purchases. Ebay in my experience has been hit and miss. Occasional coins will do very well (or at least make a profit) but many barely make what I buy for; even though in some cases I've had the things for many years. But then perhaps that's not surprising since when I buy cost is not the major consideration!

What I have found acceptable is part-exchange; where a dealer has a coin I want and is happy to accept mine against theirs. In terms of pure sales, selling privately to another collector (who will appreciate what I'm selling!) is probably best. But that requires you to be in touch with others with similar collecting tastes.

So it depends on what you're selling Coindome. Occasional items, I'd recommend private sales. But for a large number of coins, or a collection, I just don't know. I do know a few people sell on commission. The dealer lists and features your coins and then passes on part of the sale price. That saves you the business of listing and so on, but there's no guarantee of when (or even if) your coin will sell. And of course, you don't get the full price.

An eBay shop might also work if you have time to wait for things to sell. You have more control that way, but the number of people who have a cheque book (and so can save you PayPal fees) is shrinking.

Finally, listing them somewhere like here might work. There's a chance someone might want what you've got?

Oh, and good luck!

[DaveG38]

Hi

I'd be interested to know what people regard as the best way to sell.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent. Go to a dealer and you know they want to make 100% profit therefore they offer reduced value (obviously).

Try eBay, they charge to load images, set reserves, promote listings, final value fees, and worst of all demand Paypal and the associated costs.

What about London auction houses? The best I've done is to negotiate the sellers fee down to 8% but I was outraged by the poor description and not given an opportunity to provide my knowledge.

Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated.....

Cheers

Two ways I've used in the past :

1. Issue your own postal list and advertise it in the Coin News classifieds (not expensive). Be aware though, it takes time to build up a customer base, but once you have a clientele it can really deliver.

2. Find an antiques centre without a coins outlet. Offer to be their coins expert and rent a cabinet or display from them. Again though, it takes time to become 'known', but the advantage is that you get people wanting to sell to you also, and you can pick up some real bargains.

I've given up using auctions after I sold two lots at one provincial auction for £30 which I thought was a reasonably fair price for them. The cheque I received? £17. You can complain all you like about FleaBay, but their fees are SantaClaus-esque by comparison.

If you want to use auctions, then eBay, despite the fees etc. still wins hands down on price. Consider this. The average auction house and coin auctioneer charges the seller somewhere around 10 - 12% on the hammer price, which is in line with eBay plus Paypal fees. Additionally, however, the buyer also has to pay his premium, which is typically 15-20% on the lot he has purchased, and buyers obviously factor this into the price they bid up to. Overall, the cost to the seller of these two factors is typically around 33%, so you would be getting about 66% of list price, assuming the sale goes through around this figure. Obviously it might be more or less, but that's auctions for you. Consider then that eBay typically charges about 15% with all its fees and you can see that eBay is well cheaper.

Yes, its got other problems, but in terms of coverage it is also probably one of the widest, certainly compared to a standard or even specialist coin auction.

Edited September 21, 2010 by DaveG38

[Hussulo]

I've been quite disappointed with the final sale price of some coins I have been selling on ebay lately.

I never over hype or over grade my coins, sometimes I just let the buyers decide on the grades and try and post good pictures. I guess thats where I am going wrong but I would rather call a coin AU the UNC BU ++++ etc... which seems to be the norm.

About paying for pictures, you can upload pictures somewhere else and post them on ebay using HTML for FREE! and put as many pictures as you want up for free.

If anyone wants the HTML code for pictures. I'm happy to post it here.

[argentumandcoins]

Hi

I'd be interested to know what people regard as the best way to sell.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent. Go to a dealer and you know they want to make 100% profit therefore they offer reduced value (obviously).

Try eBay, they charge to load images, set reserves, promote listings, final value fees, and worst of all demand Paypal and the associated costs.

What about London auction houses? The best I've done is to negotiate the sellers fee down to 8% but I was outraged by the poor description and not given an opportunity to provide my knowledge.

Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated.....

Cheers

Hello Coindome,

I don't know which dealers you have been to, but if I could make 40% profit on most of my purchases I would be happy!

Have you tried an ad in Coin News? If you are a subscriber it will be free for you.

Regards,

John.

[HistoryTreasures]

Hi

I'd be interested to know what people regard as the best way to sell.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent. Go to a dealer and you know they want to make 100% profit therefore they offer reduced value (obviously).

Try eBay, they charge to load images, set reserves, promote listings, final value fees, and worst of all demand Paypal and the associated costs.

What about London auction houses? The best I've done is to negotiate the sellers fee down to 8% but I was outraged by the poor description and not given an opportunity to provide my knowledge.

Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated.....

Cheers

Best way to sell is by selling them to me at good prices I'll know what to do with them!

[Sylvester]

Part exchange is a useful means of disposing of unwanted coins against coins you do want, but to be honest it rarely pays to do it that way, be prepared to make a loss on most. I've part exchanged many times and the only one I made a nice return on was a half guinea, I sold to a dealer for £375 having only bought it for £225 two years earlier. If only i'd sold it now, could have raked myself in a nice £800 profit, rather than £125!