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I may sell off my collection, too


Kealia

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As I look at the coins everyday on the walls of my office I realize that they no longer bring me any joy. I got burned out on them a long time ago but have held onto them......just because.

 

However the thought of selling them individually is a bit staggering, either listing them all here or on eBay and trading emails/PMs 1:1 for each coin. I haven't counted them or inventoried them in a while but I am guessing that they are in the 400-600 coin range. I can say that it's been years since I've bought any coins so most of these date back to when there were coin clubs, groups and states releasing coins.

 

I, like others, would be keeping a few that hold some meaning (personal coins traded with friends, special coins found) but would be more or less cleaning house.

 

My question is - are there collectors out there with the means and interest to buy coins in large lots? I doubt that I'd find anybody willing to lay down $10/coin X 400 coins in a single purchase as that is a lot of money to come out of pocket for, but are people buying 100 coins lots? 50 coin lots?

Clearly it's hard to answer with any type of commitment when the actual coins aren't listed, but I'm looking for some general feedback here.

 

What I can say is that the easier it is for me to sell, the better the deal I'm willing to make. There will be some older, hard to find coins that could easily be kept by a buyer while reselling the rest and likely breaking even, or even turning a profit.

 

Sorry for the vague post, but trying to gauge interest. I'm not in a position where I need to sell these to pay for something else, no emergency situations that need to be addressed, etc. - I'm just thinking about selling them off to let somebody else enjoy them at this point.

 

Any and all input appreciated, thanks.

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Hey, get your own thread! :anitongue: (kidding Doc)

 

I'm not surprised, really. I think maybe some of us older/original collectors have just been holding onto them because the amount of work to liquidate them seems SO big.

Edited by Kealia
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Well, I'd be the first to have some interest in older coins, especially from before 2007, which was the year I got hooked.

 

But then, I haven't got so much money laying around to play poker so to speak and get the whole lot unseen.

 

If you want my opinion, just go to the trouble to take some pictures, create some summons about the coin and place them at eBay. You'd get the fairest deal there, and also much more then $10 on most of the rare coins.

 

But please make sure to send internationally, so I can put a bid down...

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Doc, just giving you a hard time - add in whatever questions you may have, too.

 

ElliPirelli - thanks for your thoughts. When the time comes, I wouldn't be selling them unseen. At some point here I will need to put together a comprehensive list of year, coin name, metal, etc.

 

While I'd love to throw the whole lot on eBay and be done in a single purchase, I just don't think it's ever going to happen.

Maybe a better question is what size lots are reasonable to ask a buyer to purchase?

 

I feel like a while ago coins were bought by people with disposable income but belts seem to be tighter lately.

Just thinking out loud here...

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Well, I bought a lot of about 40 coins not long time ago and paid a bit more than 10$ per coin. For me it depends: if there are very rare coins in a lot that I really want to have I would pay for other coins which are nice to have but not in my searchlist. To tell the truth, if you put some coins in lot which are on the top of my searchlist I start to get frihtened not getting these :rolleyes:

But a lot of let's say 30 or 40 really nice coins, which are not on the top of my searchlist don't make me wild if you know what I mean.

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Well, the lot is somewhere between 400-600 coins (non duplicates) I think. I have some homework to do to catalog these before I could even venture a guess. But if you start thinking about $10/coin (average) that's already $4,000 - $6,000. Interesting that somebody might be interested in a lot of that size, though. That's part of what I am looking to discover.

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You could also break it down to "Grab Bags" of random coins. That would allow people without deep pockets get some coins and for you not to have to mail out 400-600 coins individually. Say Grab Bags of 10 or 20 coins ($100 - $200)

Maybe that will have to be the way to go. 20 or so grab bags of 20 coins wouldn't be as much work, for sure.

 

So sorry---I misread your post--- I thought you meant dollar amount, not how many coins you had!!! But, I'd still love to have one of the D/T Challenge Coins---I'm getting the last few spots on my grid knocked off shortly.

No problem. These are LONG since gone, but I believe that you can still order one from Coins and Pins directly.

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there are a few coins i am specifically looking for that i would pay quite a bit for.....if you happen to have any of the water otter geocoins, evil micros, or geojellies. or anything with an owl. I will buy them up. (not asking to search for them; just if you already know you have them....might as well make a sale)

 

unfortunately i do not have the money to bulk order alot of coin nor do i collect alot that i would need tons of random ones for trading. I would buy a grab-bag for 5-10 a coin with the purposes of using them for giving to people. (would rather buy cheap coins so i can give free coins to more people)

Edited by Intrepid Dyad
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the grab bags seem to do well for another coin person here and on facebook.

 

lots of 50 might be doable for some, maybe with a reduced price/coin if the buyer purchases lots of 100, 200, 250, 500.

 

lots of 50 unknown coins @$10 per coin would be $500! that's a lot of money to invest on coins you may not like any. i don't buy any grab bags for just that reason. my likes are so narrow and i can't afford to leave coins in caches any longer - beside i can't cache right now - grab bags could be just throwing money to the wind.

 

i would sell here and on ebay. put up 20 at a time. spread the sales out. bite the bullet - you will be happier in the long run i think.

 

my ¢2

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Thanks for the continued input. If I go the lot of grab bags/lots I wouldn't do them as 'blind' even though it's likely how grab bags are defined. Because most of the coins are older a lot of people wouldn't know what some are so I wouldn't want anybody to be disappointed.

 

I do appreciate all the thoughts.

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Personally I will not buy something that I do not know what it is. So grab bags make me loose interest. Breaking it into smaller lots would be more economical and bring more into play. You can break them into themes then post them in 10-20 coin lots. Some that are more valuable you might want to try alone.

Edited by BlueRajah
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I'd list individually on fb groups or ebay, more money in the long run for you, but also a ton more work!

 

Yup this is probably your best bet, or start advertising your rarer/nicer coins you're asking the most for to gauge interest and get them out of the way, then once you see the interest/work load, maybe sell some more, you could do grab bags or groups by theme/year!

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Ugh, this is going to be a lot of work.

I spent almost 2 hours this morning just taking inventory on one glass case (47 coins). It took that long to determine:

Year, Name, Finish/Metal, Trackable, Activated, Quantity Minted, Picture

 

I'm now beat. I think I may have to look at selling the desirable ones individually (the ones worth more) and then do batches of 10-20 for the rest.

 

I'll see how interest in the first batch goes and gauge workload from there. I do appreciate everybody's input so far.

 

It's been interesting to handle the coins again and think about each one for a minute, too. Most, if not all of the coins I handled today were 2003 - 2005 so they haven't been touched in a long while!

 

Wait, does that make them antiques? :anitongue:

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Ugh, this is going to be a lot of work.

I spent almost 2 hours this morning just taking inventory on one glass case (47 coins). It took that long to determine:

Year, Name, Finish/Metal, Trackable, Activated, Quantity Minted, Picture

 

I'm now beat. I think I may have to look at selling the desirable ones individually (the ones worth more) and then do batches of 10-20 for the rest.

 

I'll see how interest in the first batch goes and gauge workload from there. I do appreciate everybody's input so far.

 

It's been interesting to handle the coins again and think about each one for a minute, too. Most, if not all of the coins I handled today were 2003 - 2005 so they haven't been touched in a long while!

 

Wait, does that make them antiques? :anitongue:

 

This does not need to be so much work on your part. Most folks just post a list with the name of the coin and if it's activated or not. You don't see a lot of lists that also mention year, finish, quanity minted and picture. You would sell a lot with just a simple list, deal with the rest later.

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That's a good thought. My thinking is that a LOT of my coins date back 8 years or so and since I don't recognize a lot of names here I'm thinking that a lot of people may not know what these are. Of course, I suppose a buyer could just as easily Google the coin like I did but I'm of the mindset that as the seller I should provide as much info as possible.

 

Maybe I am making this harder than I needs to be. I am guilty of that sometimes.

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Ugh, this is going to be a lot of work.

I spent almost 2 hours this morning just taking inventory on one glass case (47 coins). It took that long to determine:

Year, Name, Finish/Metal, Trackable, Activated, Quantity Minted, Picture

 

I'm now beat. I think I may have to look at selling the desirable ones individually (the ones worth more) and then do batches of 10-20 for the rest.

 

I'll see how interest in the first batch goes and gauge workload from there. I do appreciate everybody's input so far.

 

It's been interesting to handle the coins again and think about each one for a minute, too. Most, if not all of the coins I handled today were 2003 - 2005 so they haven't been touched in a long while!

 

Wait, does that make them antiques? :anitongue:

 

Put Kara to work on them. :laughing:

 

As you know, I've been going through my coins recently. Not inventorying to sell, but to display. The work was a b%h! So far, we've gone through about 900, and there's just shy of a hundred left to find.

 

I've never really thought about selling off my collection, or even part of it. Between the old-school coins and the trackables, that would be close to 1200 to sift through. Since the old-school coins wouldn't be sell-able, both because of the forum policy here, and the fact that the icon-ho's wouldn't be interested, that total cuts to 1000 or so. Since they are all activated, even fewer would be bought.

 

Add to all that the effort it took to track down and make the trades, plus the ones that I found in caches (like yours)I have a lot of personal investment in these things.

 

So, they're gonna live in my bar.

 

Hope you have good luck with your sales.

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Add to all that the effort it took to track down and make the trades, plus the ones that I found in caches (like yours)I have a lot of personal investment in these things.

 

Thanks Mark. There are certainly coins that I will not part with, but the vast majority just hold no sentimental value for me anymore. I will keep 1-2 of my wall cases for those that do.

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...

 

I've never really thought about selling off my collection, or even part of it. Between the old-school coins and the trackables, that would be close to 1200 to sift through. Since the old-school coins wouldn't be sell-able, both because of the forum policy here...

 

i forget, are only trackables allowed to be sold here?

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Something VERY interesting has happened as I've been working through my coin inventory and checking to see what is activated, what isn't, etc.:

I came across two trackables that show activated and list somebody else as the owner! :huh:

 

I've never taken and kept a coin from a cache (unless I had explicit permission like the first Oregon coin I found back in 2003), so this was a bit shocking. One coin has no mileage associated with it so it may have been one that the owner kept under his ownership when we traded, but the other has some mileage and the owner marked it as missing a long time ago. I must have gotten this one in a trade at some point and not bothered to check the tracking code because there was a point (2006, IIRC) that I stopped activating coins.

 

I'll be reaching out to those two people tonight to find out if these two coins were legitimately traded to me, or if I need to get them back to them.

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Something VERY interesting has happened as I've been working through my coin inventory and checking to see what is activated, what isn't, etc.:

I came across two trackables that show activated and list somebody else as the owner! :huh:

 

I've never taken and kept a coin from a cache (unless I had explicit permission like the first Oregon coin I found back in 2003), so this was a bit shocking. One coin has no mileage associated with it so it may have been one that the owner kept under his ownership when we traded, but the other has some mileage and the owner marked it as missing a long time ago. I must have gotten this one in a trade at some point and not bothered to check the tracking code because there was a point (2006, IIRC) that I stopped activating coins.

 

I'll be reaching out to those two people tonight to find out if these two coins were legitimately traded to me, or if I need to get them back to them.

 

Was the active coin the same as the coin you have? I have 3 or 4 coins that have the same number as another coin that is active. Just something to check.

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Something VERY interesting has happened as I've been working through my coin inventory and checking to see what is activated, what isn't, etc.:

I came across two trackables that show activated and list somebody else as the owner! :huh:

 

I've never taken and kept a coin from a cache (unless I had explicit permission like the first Oregon coin I found back in 2003), so this was a bit shocking. One coin has no mileage associated with it so it may have been one that the owner kept under his ownership when we traded, but the other has some mileage and the owner marked it as missing a long time ago. I must have gotten this one in a trade at some point and not bothered to check the tracking code because there was a point (2006, IIRC) that I stopped activating coins.

 

I'll be reaching out to those two people tonight to find out if these two coins were legitimately traded to me, or if I need to get them back to them.

 

Was the active coin the same as the coin you have? I have 3 or 4 coins that have the same number as another coin that is active. Just something to check.

I've had a few like that & one was activated but not the coin I had in hand, good part is Groundspeak was very helpful in clearing up the issue B)

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Zoinks! No.

 

I just checked my SPAM folder and I have about a dozen people who have sent me messages. I will check them all shortly and reply to them. I've hopefully changed my settings so that won't happen again so if you've sent me an email and don't hear back from me tonight please try again tomorrow.

 

I'm not intentionally ignoring anybody.

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I've been having pretty good luck on FaceBook with individual sales, thanks for the direction gang.

 

Sometime this weekend I will probably start to list a handful at a time here that I think are interesting before either making up lots or going to eBay.

 

All coins listed here will be trackable and UNACTIVATED.

 

For example: Alaska 2005 - 2008, many state/group coins and some duplicate Compass Rose coins that I have.

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Something VERY interesting has happened as I've been working through my coin inventory and checking to see what is activated, what isn't, etc.:

I came across two trackables that show activated and list somebody else as the owner! :huh:

 

I've never taken and kept a coin from a cache (unless I had explicit permission like the first Oregon coin I found back in 2003), so this was a bit shocking. One coin has no mileage associated with it so it may have been one that the owner kept under his ownership when we traded, but the other has some mileage and the owner marked it as missing a long time ago. I must have gotten this one in a trade at some point and not bothered to check the tracking code because there was a point (2006, IIRC) that I stopped activating coins.

 

I'll be reaching out to those two people tonight to find out if these two coins were legitimately traded to me, or if I need to get them back to them.

 

Well, I have one coin in my collection I bought back in 2008. I knew it was activated and I've asked at least 10 times over the years by now to have the adoption started. But I'm being ignored.

So now I grabbed the coin out of the possession of that cacher into my coin administrators inventory.

I kind of live with it, I know, I paid for it, I have the mails of that sale still. But sadly the adoption never took place.

Takes one to know one.

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So, who is this Moun10Bike guy anyway? :anibad:

 

To avoid any confusion (because I've seen a number of emails come through asking....):

No, I am not selling any Moun10Bike coins. I didn't mean to imply that I was.....I was trying to be funny - sorry.

 

Ah HA ... !!! ... I suspect you will be hearing from the legal reps of the folks now suffering PTSD over the M10B misrepresentation ... :anitongue:

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I've been having pretty good luck on FaceBook with individual sales, thanks for the direction gang.

 

Sometime this weekend I will probably start to list a handful at a time here that I think are interesting before either making up lots or going to eBay.

 

All coins listed here will be trackable and UNACTIVATED.

 

For example: Alaska 2005 - 2008, many state/group coins and some duplicate Compass Rose coins that I have.

 

you have a facebook page?

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you have a facebook page?

 

No, I was able to join a few groups on Facebook that are buying/selling/trading coins, though.

 

Hope you are feeling better.

 

Hey Ron, did you get my email reply to your international shipping question?

 

BTW, I've sold a lot of the bulk of my geocoin collection. I had boxes and containers of geocoins just collecting dust. So I started selling some of it a couple of years ago to fund my new(est) collection. =)

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Something VERY interesting has happened as I've been working through my coin inventory and checking to see what is activated, what isn't, etc.:

I came across two trackables that show activated and list somebody else as the owner! :huh:

 

I've had a lot of problems with duplicate tracking numbers on a a fair number of coins from 2005-2008. The coins were either purchased by me directly from the vendor or a handful of others who I know did the same, yet the coins were activated somehow and owned by someone else. After research, in a small number of cases, the person activated the wrong coin tracking number, but most were direct duplicates of coins not sold in sets or error sets that were supposed to have shared tacking codes. It was more common in coins coming from two vendors, but that may have been coincidence based on the coins I had at the time since the problem existed across several US vendors, some no longer in business.

Edited by AtlantaGal
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