Selling coins -- what to expect

[braumeister]

My father left a large number of coins that he had saved over the years. Nothing actually valuable, just your basic hoard. I've let them sit in a drawer ever since he died, quite a long time ago, and finally decided I should get rid of them.

Having no experience, I wanted to try a test sale, so I took a bag of 100 silver quarters (1964 or earlier) to a local coin dealer. Looking online, the melt value varies daily but is generally a little over $4 per coin. I thought about how much profit they would want, and decided that anything over $3 would probably be reasonable, and if I could get $3.50 I would be happy.

Brought them in this morning and got $3.74 apiece for them. Pleasant store, easy to do business with, and I got the impression they were honest.

Does this seem reasonable, so I should keep doing business with them, or am I missing something? Note, these are all old, well circulated coins, nothing special.

 

[COcheesehead]

My Dad left a collection as well. It took time, but we sold them all on eBay. Some sold for well over market, as best we could tell. I always thought that was interesting.
My take on it was the buyer pool is so large no one ever lets a deal go by and will bid or over bid on anything that looks like a deal. We made over $11,000 on a relatively small collection.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, but I have enough experience selling things on eBay that I'm not going there. Too much work and too many fees.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I sold some of Dads silver dimes recently. I got 81% of the spot price for silver. I thought that was a good deal. A local coin/ bullion store.

 

[Car-Guy]

Nothing actually valuable, just your basic hoard.


Note, these are all old, well circulated coins, nothing special.

Are you sure? Have they been searched for rare dates and mint marks? Ex. Since you mentioned quarters, even a well worn 32D or 32S Washington quarter have some real good value.

 

[Jerry1]

I would keep working with the store. Unless you’re prepared to do a lot of research, depending on the size of the stash that remains, you’ll have to trust someone. Go to the store empty handed and ask them how best to proceed and what protection you have if they find a special coin(s).

 

[braumeister]

I would keep working with the store. Unless you’re prepared to do a lot of research, depending on the size of the stash that remains, you’ll have to trust someone.

That's how I look at it. I've sorted through the lot and identified any I think might possibly be of interest to collectors, the rest are just what my dad got in his pocket change, and well worn.

If I brought them everything at once, including the coins of numismatic interest, I might go home with a few thousand, so we're not talking treasure. And the prospect of using eBay for all this is just too daunting for me.

 

[kingkarmann]

We are sitting on a bunch of old coins.
A few are gold Panda Chinese currency.
I don’t believe any of it has any life changing value so I guess they will end up as part at the estate when we die.

 

[Scrapr]

My foiks always gave us kids silver dollars for Christmas in our stockings. Date matching the year given. Mine are sitting in a safe deposit box. Ive been thinking about taking to a dealer so it's on my radar. Can you give me an idea on how the shop was marketed? Lots of online/radio ads? People on the corner spinning cardboard signs? Or just a shop on the street. Upscale with champagne & coffee? Or a counter & a guy with a jewelers loupe. How did you decide 75% of melt? 6.5% margin sounds very small

 

[braumeister]

My foiks always gave us kids silver dollars for Christmas in our stockings. Date matching the year given. Mine are sitting in a safe deposit box. Ive been thinking about taking to a dealer so it's on my radar. Can you give me an idea on how the shop was marketed? Lots of online/radio ads? People on the corner spinning cardboard signs? Or just a shop on the street. Upscale with champagne & coffee? Or a counter & a guy with a jewelers loupe. How did you decide 75% of melt? 6.5% margin sounds very small

All good questions.

I just googled coin shops in my area and this one not only has several offices around town but gets very good reviews online. I don't normally pay attention to ads, so I'm not sure how much they do. The one I went to is a fairly large shop in a strip mall, across the street from Costco. The guy glanced at my coins, weighed them on a gram scale and calculated value from that. If they had been brand new, they would have weighed 625 grams, and the scale showed 620 so that's about what I would expect for normal wear.

They paid me 88% of today's melt value, so I'm very satisfied with that. I have more of this beat up pocket change that I'll be bringing in to them next week, and I plan to talk with them about other coins I have that would be worth more than simple melt value. My guess is that they will offer decent prices for those as well.

 

[prudent_one]

^ I won't be surprised if you get more 88% of melt offers. In my experience, when a store has multiple locations in town, there are one or two "coin people" behind the scenes, and the rest of the employees look at a price sheet - "Dime 1964 or older - $2.00".

I overheard one of the owners talking to a guy who had a similar operation in another state - multiple stores in one area buying coins/jewelry from the public. The guy I overheard was explaining why he doesn't want real coin people working in his stores - he wants everything that comes in to be funneled to the HQ store where their own coin people can go through it. If the people at the satellite locations knew coins, they might skim off valuable pieces.

If you have items with numismatic value, have an idea of what they are worth before going in.

 

[braumeister]

If you have items with numismatic value, have an idea of what they are worth before going in.

Definitely. I have a copy of the grading guide around here somewhere so I should be able to figure out at least a very rough estimate of their condition.

 

[ivinsfan]

So not to confuse newbies to silver. we've talked about melt value, spot price and numismatic value...you all be careful out there.

 

[joesxm3]

If memory serves me, for dimes to half dollars, $1 face value = spot price of one ounce silver times 0.715, which is the agreed upon number to average out weight loss due to wear.

I guess that gives you the spot price for $1 of junk silver.

 

[braumeister]

If memory serves me, for dimes to half dollars, $1 face value = spot price of one ounce silver times 0.715, which is the agreed upon number to average out weight loss due to wear.

The link I posted above gives an accurate melt value for common coins, updated daily.

 

[Act2]

The CoinSnap app can help you estimate value of a particular coin. App is not free but has a 7-day free trial.

Had a friend who bought and sold coins. He usually was able to buy at 50 percent of market value and sold at 75 percent of market value. The point was to do a fast turnaround volume business; both his suppliers and customers felt they got a good deal.

 

[dmpi]

^ I won't be surprised if you get more 88% of melt offers. In my experience, when a store has multiple locations in town, there are one or two "coin people" behind the scenes, and the rest of the employees look at a price sheet - "Dime 1964 or older - $2.00".

I overheard one of the owners talking to a guy who had a similar operation in another state - multiple stores in one area buying coins/jewelry from the public. The guy I overheard was explaining why he doesn't want real coin people working in his stores - he wants everything that comes in to be funneled to the HQ store where their own coin people can go through it. If the people at the satellite locations knew coins, they might skim off valuable pieces.

If you have items with numismatic value, have an idea of what they are worth before going in.

I bough a coin collection from my coworker for around $400. He took it to a coin shop and apparently the people there were more interested in silver and gold than in old US coins. He left in disgust and ended up just selling the collection to me.

 

[eytonxav]

I know we have several silver coins, but never really thought there would be much value in them. However, we have a large set of my grandmothers silverware that might have significant value. It just sits in my safe and is never used, so maybe should look into selling.

 

[CRLLS]

When DMIL passed 2 years ago, we took her silver coins and sterling silver to the local gold and silver shop. I can't recall the rate he paid but it was higher than we expected. I think we expected about 90% of the spot price. One thing that surprised us is he went thru and sorted the Sterling from the plated items. He also paid us for the plated stuff. He said a major part of plated items was copper. His price was based on the copper prices on that day. Although much, much lower than silver at least it was better than scrapping them.

 

[UpQuark]

...gets very good reviews online. ...

Reviews were what I based my selection of coin shop last year when I was cleaning out old boxes of my parents/grandparents/great-grandparents things.

I didn't try selling anything on ebay because packaging and mailing items would have just added to the hassles of emptying the house.

My favorite find among the old coins was a tiny 1908 gold two and a half dollar piece. I thought it was a penny so I didn't pay attention to the names or date on the envelope+card (just gave it a quick glance and it said something about 'here is a treasure for your new baby'). Seemed bizarre that the coin was left in the envelope for the entire lifetimes of the receiver and their child.

 

[Koolau]

If memory serves me, for dimes to half dollars, $1 face value = spot price of one ounce silver times 0.715, which is the agreed upon number to average out weight loss due to wear.

I guess that gives you the spot price for $1 of junk silver.

Other way to look at it is $1.40 face value of dimes/quarters/halves is about 1 troy oz of silver (average wear factored in.) YMMV

 

[Koolau]

I know we have several silver coins, but never really thought there would be much value in them. However, we have a large set of my grandmothers silverware that might have significant value. It just sits in my safe and is never used, so maybe should look into selling.

You certainly can sell your silver ware (Sterling - 92.5%) for scrap. IIRC metal companies don't like it because it's harder to refine and the 7.5% base metals are not always the same constituents. SO, be prepared to take less than melt price on, say, silver coins. They're only 90% silver - but the other 10 % is copper which is valuable and easily separated from the silver (again, IIRC.) YMMV

 

[prudent_one]

Just a note about silverware. It's common that table knives have handles that are weighted (often with cement) so factor that in - the buyers will.

 

[ncbill]

Just a note about silverware. It's common that table knives have handles that are weighted (often with cement) so factor that in - the buyers will.

IIRC tables knives usually are silver foil covering the base metal handle (blade is usually stainless steel) so essentially no silver value to knives.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Does this seem reasonable, so I should keep doing business with them, or am I missing something? Note, these are all old, well circulated coins, nothing special.

I would most definitely continue to do business with them.
The government/IRS has basically destroyed the ability of an individual to sell a collection like this on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/resources/2022-changes-to-ebay-and-your-1099-k

The previous limit (2022) was $20,000 in sales per year. I never disagreed with lowering that amount, but to drop it all the way down to $600 is ridiculous in my opinion.

That seems like the average garage sale $ amount.

FYI: Here's the results of an eBay auction for 27 assorted well used (silver) Washington Quarters that ended today.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1346923994...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557