Sold some collector coins

[blindguy]

I decided to sell some collector coins. All the coins were bought over 5 years ago and were bought at or near gray sheet prices. All were NGC or PCGS graded coins. The coins ranged from $15 to $700 when I bought them. The coins had a total value of $6000.00   I sent them off to a major auction house here in the states.  They just sold for a total of $4500.00   I talk to a dealer friend of mine and he said collector coins are really soft right now and said to buy coins 20% back of gray sheet as he dose  not see any up side in collector coins for the next five or so years. So at my age my wife and I are going to stop buying collector coins and stick to buying silver and gold bullion.  We will still keep the bust coins we have but will start selling other collector coins we have on Ebay and take the money and turn it into bullion.  I know a lot of you like collector coins (as did I)  but I think every year there are less and less coin collectors out there.  And I noticed at the coin shows that at age 60 I am one of the youngest person there. And most of the coin dealers there are older than I am. But that the younger people there are mostly stackers.    Jim

[Xander]

4 minutes ago, blindguy said:

start selling other collector coins we have on Ebay and take the money and turn it into bullion

Sounds like a good idea.

[sixgun]

This video is a couple of years old now - here Numistacker favours the more expensive coins. That plain bullion is not going to do as well. i think the US market is different to the UK.  

 

[dicker]

20 hours ago, blindguy said:

I decided to sell some collector coins. All the coins were bought over 5 years ago and were bought at or near gray sheet prices. All were NGC or PCGS graded coins. The coins ranged from $15 to $700 when I bought them. The coins had a total value of $6000.00   I sent them off to a major auction house here in the states.  They just sold for a total of $4500.00   I talk to a dealer friend of mine and he said collector coins are really soft right now and said to buy coins 20% back of gray sheet as he dose  not see any up side in collector coins for the next five or so years. So at my age my wife and I are going to stop buying collector coins and stick to buying silver and gold bullion.  We will still keep the bust coins we have but will start selling other collector coins we have on Ebay and take the money and turn it into bullion.  I know a lot of you like collector coins (as did I)  but I think every year there are less and less coin collectors out there.  And I noticed at the coin shows that at age 60 I am one of the youngest person there. And most of the coin dealers there are older than I am. But that the younger people there are mostly stackers.    Jim

Hi Jim

I heard the same when I was last in the US from one of the two dealers I visited.  I had spoken to them previously as I wanted a couple of pre 33 coins in a reasonable MS grade.  

The gent I dealt with said exactly the same as yourself - fewer collectors of numismatic coins but there are still stackers buying. He was still keeping his prices high but offered good deals in a number of numismatic coins - just not my thing unfortunately   

Best

Dicker

 

 

 

[FunkyChicken]

In my thirties here, and I do both collectibles and stacking. And to me, it makes sense if it's true that younger people predominantly tend to stick to stacking. 

At least here in the Netherlands, Millennials are faced with for example relatively significantly higher costs of housing and healthcare compared to baby boomers when they were in their twenties and thirties. And unlike several decades ago, having a savings account at a bank is nowadays more of a punishment than a reward.

It was even released some time ago that the Dutch spending power for families has roughly remained the same in the past 40 years, even though families have gotten quite a bit smaller, so per capita you can probably even say the spending power has gone down. The economy has grown like a motherf*peep*, but close to nothing of that growth has actually reached Dutch consumers.

So yeah, when all the financial odds are against you, you'll sure as hell make sure that whenever you do have some dough to invest, you better do it on something that's more likely to give you a good return in the end. And then a tube of Maple Leaves or Philharmonikers is simply a safer bet than some special edition of an exotic coin with a mintage of a few hundred of which nobody can tell how that will play out.

[GoodAsGold]

I started out with a few silver and gold bullion coins (nothing qualifying as a stack) but then got the numismatic bug. I’d love to shake the bug off and buy some gold bullion coins again but some other must-have proof then comes along and demands my cash instead. 

It makes sense to me as a collector to have a mixture of both. I aim to have a modest amount of high quality numismatic coins and a larger amount of various bullion coins, preferably different semi numismatic ones, and bullion coins from around the world as I’d probably find a stack of the same coin quite boring.

Collecting is fun and investing is wise, so it’s both worlds for me.

[Mkman123]

Honestly OP, my collection might lose a lot of value when I sell one day but I'm having fun and enjoying my collecting.

[Toshunya86]

I guess it all depends to your needs.

If you need to flip your coins as some point , it s best to have a bit of both.

If you have a lot of money you can collect as much as you want. If you budget is tight , best to stick to bullion.

If you feel like you know what you are doing , it s best to mix things up a bit , as pure investors only rely on the gold rate and pure collectors do not profit from the rates.

[RacerCool]

My philosophy has always been to just stack the bullion. However, my main collector spending (meaning: way too much premium) is in Mexican Onzas and Libertads. I have to have one of every year. All of them cost a significant amount over spot, and some of them are painfully expensive for what's really just an ounce of silver.

[FunkyChicken]

On 11/11/2019 at 00:27, RacerCool said:

My philosophy has always been to just stack the bullion. However, my main collector spending (meaning: way too much premium) is in Mexican Onzas and Libertads. I have to have one of every year. All of them cost a significant amount over spot, and some of them are painfully expensive for what's really just an ounce of silver.

Silly question perhaps, but may I ask you what do you generally consider to be too much premium? 10% above spot? 15%? 20%?

[RacerCool]

5 hours ago, FunkyChicken said:

Silly question perhaps, but may I ask you what do you generally consider to be too much premium? 10% above spot? 15%? 20%?

It's a good question, no worries. The whole point of what I do with silver and gold is to accumulate them. With the Libertads, they're really just a one ounce slab of silver, with a mass-produced design. Anything over 10% is too much. However since I have to fill holes in the collection, I've had to pay huge premiums, like more than 100% at times. Ouch!

On the other hand, I believe sellers should be able to make a profit, which is why they're running a business. It's their source of income. Hence I'm willing to pay a premium. And when it becomes collecting, since I have to have one of each year, then higher premiums are inevitable. Which is why I won't collect very many things. Mostly I keep my focus on stacking with low premiums. For non-collecting, 5% or less is ideal. (Pro tip: use eBay bucks to significantly reduce paid premiums)

I have no plans to sell anytime in the foreseeable future, so any collecting is just a way to make the stacking more interesting. 

[FunkyChicken]

1 hour ago, RacerCool said:

It's a good question, no worries. The whole point of what I do with silver and gold is to accumulate them. With the Libertads, they're really just a one ounce slab of silver, with a mass-produced design. Anything over 10% is too much. However since I have to fill holes in the collection, I've had to pay huge premiums, like more than 100% at times. Ouch!

On the other hand, I believe sellers should be able to make a profit, which is why they're running a business. It's their source of income. Hence I'm willing to pay a premium. And when it becomes collecting, since I have to have one of each year, then higher premiums are inevitable. Which is why I won't collect very many things. Mostly I keep my focus on stacking with low premiums. For non-collecting, 5% or less is ideal. (Pro tip: use eBay bucks to significantly reduce paid premiums)

I have no plans to sell anytime in the foreseeable future, so any collecting is just a way to make the stacking more interesting. 

Thanks for your elaborate explanation. 😊 Although now I'm curious where you're buying your bullion at 5% or less premium. 😂 🤔

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't think I've ever gone below 10% whatsoever, and if I already did, then surely the cost of shipping bites me in the arse to stay below that percentage. 

Beside, how do eBay bucks reduce your premiums? It may tackle the potential cost of currency conversion, but it won't make the coins and shipping any cheaper, would it? 

[RacerCool]

40 minutes ago, FunkyChicken said:

Thanks for your elaborate explanation. 😊 Although now I'm curious where you're buying your bullion at 5% or less premium. 😂 🤔

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't think I've ever gone below 10% whatsoever, and if I already did, then surely the cost of shipping bites me in the arse to stay below that percentage. 

Beside, how do eBay bucks reduce your premiums? It may tackle the potential cost of currency conversion, but it won't make the coins and shipping any cheaper, would it? 

I watch auctions on ebay.  The last gold coin I bought about two weeks ago was a Mexican 5 peso gold coin.  The price of gold that day put it at $180, and I paid $183.40, including shipping.  That's about a 2% premium, total.  I don't remember if there was an ebay bucks special that day, but it might have been an 8% special, where I'd get 8% of the purchase price in ebay bucks.

That means that I'd have $14.67 in ebay bucks from that purchase, which is $14.67 toward the price of a future purchase.  The key is to wait to purchase when they're doing an ebay bucks special, which usually only last about 48 hours.  Many times they'll give you 10% of your purchase.  Those are redeemable every three months or so, so you can build up quite a lot of bucks toward any purchase.  Think of ebay bucks as a rebate, because that's exactly what they are. And that rebate reduces prices of future purposes.

But here's another important thing: when you buy any PMs off ebay, be sure it's not in the "bullion" category.  Those do not earn you ebay bucks and you can't use bucks to buy them.  Though honestly sometimes I'll buy from that category when there's a really good deal to be had.

Another example: about a month or so ago I bought a 1/4 ounce 24k gold coin, for which the seller accepted a $440 offer, including shipping.  The price of gold was IIRC about $380 or so, and I had a $46 ebay bucks credit.  So I actually paid $396 for it, including shipping, not $440.

[FunkyChicken]

30 minutes ago, RacerCool said:

I watch auctions on ebay.  The last gold coin I bought about two weeks ago was a Mexican 5 peso gold coin.  The price of gold that day put it at $180, and I paid $183.40, including shipping.  That's about a 2% premium, total.  I don't remember if there was an ebay bucks special that day, but it might have been an 8% special, where I'd get 8% of the purchase price in ebay bucks.

That means that I'd have $14.67 in ebay bucks from that purchase, which is $14.67 toward the price of a future purchase.  The key is to wait to purchase when they're doing an ebay bucks special, which usually only last about 48 hours.  Many times they'll give you 10% of your purchase.  Those are redeemable every three months or so, so you can build up quite a lot of bucks toward any purchase.  Think of ebay bucks as a rebate, because that's exactly what they are. And that rebate reduces prices of future purposes.

But here's another important thing: when you buy any PMs off ebay, be sure it's not in the "bullion" category.  Those do not earn you ebay bucks and you can't use bucks to buy them.  Though honestly sometimes I'll buy from that category when there's a really good deal to be had.

Another example: about a month or so ago I bought a 1/4 ounce 24k gold coin, for which the seller accepted a $440 offer, including shipping.  The price of gold was IIRC about $380 or so, and I had a $46 ebay bucks credit.  So I actually paid $396 for it, including shipping, not $440.

I've never even heard of eBay bucks before. 😂 Don't think they do so on the Dutch eBay. But then again, you don't even have a shopping cart on Dutch eBay. Just purchasing directly, auctions, and in some non-auction cases you can make an offer... so maybe I'll have to use English eBay for that then. 

And speaking of eBay auctions: I have bought some of my collectible coins like that over there, but I never got anywhere close to spot. And on the handful of times I stumbled upon bullion (so far in my case only silver) on eBay, it got closer to spot than with the collectibles, but still nowhere near 10% or under.

Maybe the premiums on gold are just lower than on silver, but otherwise I'm clearly doing something wrong... 🤔 Either way, good for you that this does seem to work more than well for you. 😊

[RacerCool]

9 minutes ago, FunkyChicken said:

I've never even heard of eBay bucks before. 😂 Don't think they do so on the Dutch eBay. But then again, you don't even have a shopping cart on Dutch eBay. Just purchasing directly, auctions, and in some non-auction cases you can make an offer... so maybe I'll have to use English eBay for that then. 

And speaking of eBay auctions: I have bought some of my collectible coins like that over there, but I never got anywhere close to spot. And on the handful of times I stumbled upon bullion (so far in my case only silver) on eBay, it got closer to spot than with the collectibles, but still nowhere near 10% or under.

Maybe the premiums on gold are just lower than on silver, but otherwise I'm clearly doing something wrong... 🤔 Either way, good for you that this does seem to work more than well for you. 😊

I know we tend to have it overall much better here in the US, when it comes to buying and selling PMs.  The ebay bucks is one example.  I hope you can find a way toward better deals, my friend.

[Prospector]

I always remind myself that I read a topic where bullion dealer said that all those fancy shmancy numismatic coins will end up as scrap some day anyway, I would not like it to be me who buys them for a premium and ends up selling them for scrap. But that is just me, we all are different.

[blindguy]

45 minutes ago, Prospector said:

I always remind myself that I read a topic where bullion dealer said that all those fancy shmancy numismatic coins will end up as scrap some day anyway, I would not like it to be me who buys them for a premium and ends up selling them for scrap. But that is just me, we all are different.

The dealers I talk to are coin collectors themself. They make their living by selling collector coins. I still like rare coins but I think the rare coins will drop even lower then they are now. And with the world the way it is (screwed up) bullion will go up for awile  and collector coins will stay flat to lower in price.  Buy $20 gold lib's in ms62 as of right now they trade at melt on the auctions here in the states. THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!!!   Jim