Estate Sales

[SteveAZ]

Hello,

I have a question for everyone.

I am looking at the possibilty of a way to fund my coin collecting habit/obsession by purchasing groups of coins and selling off a portion of them and keeping some for myself. What I am curious about is this. From you own experience, would it be wiser to purchase a lot of say 500-1000 coins or go for one of the estate type sales from the larger sellers?

 

Thanks,

Steve

[Allmancoins-migration]

To be honest with you, lets say you see an estate sale on an online auction and in the lots they have coins graded by companies other than the top two grading comapines, but quote the Coin Universe price guide, chances are the value they state the collection is not accurate. Many of the other grading companies have very loose grading standards. Some sellers are buying the holders that look like certified holders and placing their own label on them to make them look like certified coins. You can tell by looking for that little logo in the bottom corner of the slab.

 

There is a lot to consider when evaulating an estate for purchase. Some examples are how many good quality coins are there ? How were they stored ? How many raw coins can be certified and bring a premium ? The last question is tough, sending coins in for certification can be expensive, so you have to be confident that it will add significant value to certify a coin.

 

Back to storage, if you are buying a collection which have been stored in flips which contain PVC, it is a mess. Coins will have a green tint to them and they have to be cleaned with Koinsolv. For those who are not aware of Koinsolv, it will only remove PVC from a coin and will not clean the coin in any other way. Some coins have to be cleaned several times using Koinsolv in order to remove all of the PVC.

 

One final thought, we collect coins, and it takes many years to build a collection to be proud of and in most cases we will either sell the collection when we retire or pass the collection down to the next generation. When buying, only purchase coins which are attractive lets say you can buy a ef nickle for 30.00 and the ms 65 version is selling for 60.00, purchase the ms 65 version since the higher grade coins always appreciate more.

 

I can keep going about this topic, but if you have any other questions feel free to email me at matt@allmancoins.com and I will be happy to anwer them.

 

[tgilliams]

Most Estate Sales, especially on Ebay is a terrible Idea. See last post for reasons. Stay Away from Estate Sales!!!!

[SteveAZ]

Matt,

 

As far as grading companies, I would prefer to stick with PCGS or NGC. When I see alot of these auctions filled with companies like Trugrade and AGC I turn away from them. Some of the coins might be able to be broken open and sent elsewhere but I generally don't see anything that really catches my eye.

 

I would generally try to stick with good high grade silver and gold pieces but I will usually be willing to go down a little on grade for keys and some semi key dates. Almost all the time, a majority of them seem to be made up of 10-20 nice coins and about 5000 coins that are nothing higher than F-12.

 

As far as choosing coins to send off for grading, this wasn't something I was considering. It seems to me that most raw coins you would get in these sales wouldn't make a high enough grade to make it worth your while. The cost, as you mentioned, might very well outweigh the benifits.

 

Koinsolv? I might have to pick some up and try it on a few of my cheaper coins first. I sounds interesting though.

 

Thank you very much for your comments, they are much appreciated.

 

[SteveAZ]

Most Estate Sales, especially on Ebay is a terrible Idea. See last post for reasons. Stay Away from Estate Sales!!!!

Can you recommend a place where I might find better quality estate type sales?

[TomB]

Quote:

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Most Estate Sales, especially on Ebay is a terrible Idea. See last post for reasons. Stay Away from Estate Sales!!!!

 

 

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Can you recommend a place where I might find better quality estate type sales?

 

You won't. I don't know your experience in coins, however, the only "estate" sales that have original, high end coins are "estate" sales such as the just concluded Stack's Ford sale that brought in multi-millions. You might find something interesting locally if you are willing to scan every avenue of advertisement, but making money selling lots of coins is real tough unless you know more than anyone else about what is in the lot.

[spy88]

I agree with all of the above posts but would like to add that looking in your own newspaper want-ads CAN be a source (or placing one of your own) as well as your local dealer. The dealer may have contacts he is willing to share with you, particularly if he doesn't have the resources to buy himself.

 

This leads to a question you have not alluded to---how much money are you willing to spend for an "estate" coin sale? The asking price will vary with size and quality and may be offset a little with quantity, but you would still need to know, to the coin, exactly what you are buying, what is its grade thus value (an itemized list), how much it is worth vs how much it is selling for, factoring in how much profit there MIGHT be, etc. And you have to SEE each and every coin to make an accurate judgement regarding the above decisions and you need to be relatively adept at grading for ANY raw coinage.

 

All in all, too much work for too little profit, given there is any there to begin with.

 

IMO

 

I see you live in Arizona. Spend $1000 on a real good metal/gold detector! Your time will be better spent and probably a lot more rewarding!

[SteveAZ]

All the previous posts essentially say that it would not be worth my while to do this. You have all given me several different things to think about. What I might try to do is look at something like a small lot of coins and start there. That way I dont end up risking too much. I might be able to learn more about the selling aspect along the way as well. I have only sold a few coins here and there and the experience would probably be good if nothing else.