Coin Divesting

[LateDateMorganGuy]

Thought I would share. I will try to refrain from commentary and leave it up to you to make of it what you want.

As some of you know, I started to divest most of my collection in January. I went three avenues as follows:

1. Offered and sold coins here on VW via the BSTA page. Satisfied.
2. Had a local B&M come in and look things over. This is where I sold almost all of my non-Morgan & Peace stuff, as well as silver dollars with no VAM premium. The owner and son came every Tuesday for 6 weeks and spent a few hours going thru stuff. They were not VAMmers. Satisfied.
3. The "good" stuff I kept off to the side and sent to GC and HA. As it turned out, I sent basically 50 coins to each. Not on purpose, just the way it worked out.

Before I sent to GC & HA, I had to come up with an insurance value for mailing purposes. This is what I would call "Retail" value. I used several resources to do this: PCGS retail prices when applicable; SSDC VAM Value Guide; what I paid for them if I recalled; and my "gut". Not exactly rocket science, but that is what I did.

The results per auction house are as follows:

Great Collections: 61% of retail guesstimate.
Heritage: 88% of retail guesstimate.

In all fairness, I sent my better stuff to HA and the less than better stuff to GC.

As you might expect, some coins sold for more than my retail guesstimate, and some less. That is why I only focus on the totals. I could go thru a blow by blow account, but doesn't seem pertinent.

Again, tried to keep my commentary to a minimum and just present this for your consideration.

[LateDateMorganGuy]

By the way, I should add that GC does not accept or honor VSS attributions or stickers. HA does.

[PacificWR]

Hi Alan,

Sorry to see you selling most of your collection, but we all must cross that bridge at some point in time. Question for you, when you contacted HA, did they offer to come at to your house at look at your collection? I helped a friend's widow bout a year ago liquidate his collection and HA came out to her house and explained to her the whole process and took the collection with him.

[LateDateMorganGuy]

Wayne, I am a HA Legacy Client. I have sold stuff on HA before. I knew the drill. I sent them an Excel spreadsheet with what I wanted to divest.

That being said, the sellers commissions were as follows:

GC: $5 per coin listing fee, and 5% sellers commission per coin.
HA: Flat 5% sellers commission, since I am a Legacy Client. All that means is that I spent way too much $ at HA over the years

[PacificWR]

Hi Alan,

Understand. He was a HA Legacy client and so am I. Just trying to figure out if they offered to come out to your house and if so, is that extra?

[LateDateMorganGuy]

To answer your question directly, there was no offer to come to my house and I didn't ask. Hope that helps.

[morganman]

IMHO = HERITAGE owns the coin sales category with the most professional websites
through gazillions of buyers/sellers
Pcgs/NGC coins do well with Anacs really taking a hit on price sold
Heritage acknowledging VSS vam attrib really is a testiment to their dedication
and resolve.

I have sold a ton on heritage as consignments are NOT charged a seller commission
I now refrain from selling Anacs with them as the results are DISMAL for most part
Pcgs results have been very strong/good
Their whole organization from start to finish is simply amazing, saving sellers
time and frustration of creating/maintaining/shipping/handling/cost of other
sales venues like FLEABAY , which is to much a pain in ass IMHO

The Huge number of Heritage followers/clients, both buyers/sellers is amazingly
strong setting them apart from competion by far
I also love selling to them direct on say ms64 and up PCGS/NGC more common
Morgans that the vam carries little to no premium.

To many vam numbers withot premiums has IMHO opinion, actually hurt values
in my experiences, so i avoid paying for attributions on those Morgans
Allowing the buyers to pick those coins is actually a sellers benefit

Getting shed of all these coins is a real relief, from storage to loss liability
Knowing that cash is KING & Your collecting passion is over is bitter sweet but
makes total sense as leaving this stuff to heirs that could care less seems
idiotic.

[Longstrider]

Good info. I couldn't agree more with the heirs that couldn't care less. Sucks big but that's the way it is. I live to far away and in the middle of the desert so no trying to teach anyone and get them hooked. That's just how it is.

[keilg1]

Great post - thanks for sharing all the information. Buying is one thing we all think about... but most don't think about the natural second part: selling!

Like the death that naturally follows life, we often live beliving we're blissfully unaware or immune to the end, unprepared for the eventual to our own demise.

I'll keep this post in mind because I'm not ready to part with my coins yet - but the fates might have a different future for me (and my family who'll be left with a bunch of silver rounds to deal with).

Fates_tapestry_-460755563.jpg (65.57 KiB) Viewed 3218 times

(Image: The three fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who spin, draw out and cut the thread of life. (Flemish tapestry, Victoria and Albert Museum, London))

[tbconcrete]

Thanks for sharing. I have thought about doing this myself. I look at 78S coins every day. I am still buying interesting stuff and am almost always disappointed. Common coins seem to be selling very well in mid grades, at least 78S ones. Was the overall cost less at GC or about the same?
tiny

[LateDateMorganGuy]

I would say HA was less expensive since I only paid a flat 5% sellers commission. GC's seller's charges are more complicated starting at a $5 listing fee per coin, then a % of hammer price on sale (graduated from 5% then down depending on hammer price).

If you have good stuff, problem free, I would recommend HA for my money. But it is hard to gauge the demand side of the equation. From my experience, rarity coins came up way short if nobody is interested (low or zero demand). Somehow I would expect a lot of interest in problem free harder to get 78-S'.

[messydesk]

By the way, I should add that GC does not accept or honor VSS attributions or stickers. HA does.

That has just changed. GC will now accept my stickers.

[ljs123]

F0E48191-4C42-4DA5-A383-D429FAF68461.gif (499.51 KiB) Viewed 2907 times

[Longstrider]

@messydesk That is great news. Well done.

[messydesk]

@messydesk That is great news. Well done.

Thanks to people who persistently asked about it. Ian contacted me by e-mail Monday and I called him back to answer a few questions and now they'll start running them.

Apologies for hijacking the thread.

[DHalladay]

Hoo-freaking-ray!!!

I emailed Ian a few months back, giving him examples of coins currently in GC auctions that were attributed wrong by NGC and PCGS – and stressing that the consistent accuracy by VSS is better than both of those companies. I'm pleased that my nudge may have helped.

[alefzero]

There is an issue too with the absorption capacity of the market. I don't know the numbers you put out there in auction, but the retail crowd will only buy so much over a short period of time. That especially applies to specialties like die varieties. And if you have more than one example of even a coverted coin in a single auction, the odds are not in your favor of a fully satisfying outcome.

I started selling off an enormous hoard in 2004. (It didn't help that I didn't stop buying.) The really top stuff tended to sell fast and profitably. After that, the overhead of travel/setup for shows, auction fees, etc just can wipe out any meager margin you might theoretically have. As they say, "The sure way to make a small fortune in coins is ..... start with a large fortune buying coins." It takes discipline that the collector instinct tends to demolish. And we all might have a lot of common traits that make us great collectors. But relatively few of us are natural [gender-neutral] salesmen.

[chriskfla]

Hello, this thread is a number of months old but I thought I’d reply as I’m in contact with HA to sell a collection as well. Did you put a reserve price on your items? If so did the sellers commission rate change? They are quoting me no reserve consignment commission rates of 7 1/2% on high-value items and 10% on lower value items. Your comment below about rarities not selling for high prices has me Thinking I should set a reserve price. Thank you.

[LateDateMorganGuy]

I did not put a reserve an any of the coins and the subject didn't come up. I suspect HA is afraid they have to handle and deal with coins multiple times with reserve auctions, hence the higher commission.

[chriskfla]

Thanks for your reply.