Over on the beginner's guide thread, a newbie to pandas asked what a few coins were worth and then how to sell them. Here are my thoughts (and please feel free to add you own!): 1, dealers don't buy at decent prices. You're looking at a minimum 20% discount. 2, ebay is the biggest marketplace for low-mid price numismatics (international auctions being the place for high price numis) 3, I personally will not sell ungraded coins any more. The buyers always complain that the coins aren't as good as the pictures led them to believe. Then you also have to worry about getting faked out with returns and such. Just too much hassle. 4, forums like SS and CCF are a great place to sell coins, but the number of buyers is obviously limited. So all in all, even with the fees and everything, eBay is still generally the way to go. There's insurance protecting both sides and it's the biggest market. If you are going to sell raw coins, good luck with that. If you want to do a sort of consignment thing on eBay and get your coins graded, drop me a PM.
Thanks for the post. Food for thought. I don't personally like the idea of being beholden to dispense of on ebay when I feel the time warrants. If you believe 'this time is different' or we're going to barter town then I guess your view will differ just a tad! Having to have coins graded and sell in low dribs and drabs volumes as silver prices rise doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence on being able to liquidate when I feel the time is right. Planning and releasing for months on end before the top is not something that appeals either; kind of defeats the purpose and would be costly in lost potential spot gains. I am yet again doubting my coin investment strategy and think it maybe wiser to buy those limited mintage coins with virtually no spot premium. I can get Cougars at present for $2.00 above a normal Maple that track spot and lose very little if I feel the market conditions suited weighing in at a proper silver smelter or dealer quick.
Due to the numismatic premiums associated with Pandas, if you put in the data analysis you can identify "undervalued" coins. For example there are some silver coins going for $100 with a 20,000 mintage, whereas other standard year coins with a 20,000 mintage are going for $180 (these numbers have been made up). Put in the research and you make a theoretical profit when you buy. I also like them as an alternative to standard bullion coins, as it keeps me in precious metals however protects me from spot fluctuations. A $10 change in spot will most likely not make any difference to a $200 coin. Having said that, I also have other silver such as Lunars & Grizzlies. There are opportunities throughout the silver market, for example the 1oz silver Dragons were a no-brainer if you bought them before they sold out. Pandas is just an additional market to play with.
If your coin does become the next awesome rare thing, you can try and give it to the auction houses to sell because they would get the best price even though their fees are higher than eBay. Such as HK Champion, Stacks etc etc. Another thing to consider, although I doubt my coins are at that level (or ever will be!).
Numismatic coins and bullion coins are totally different markets. If you are trying to liquidate a numismatic collection (panda or not) you're going to wind up taking a significant discount no matter what you do. For bullion coins, there are worldwide benchmarks in spot prices to use, so they are much easier to buy and sell. As an example, the spot price of silver has nothing to do with the price of a 2008 1 oz silver panda in MS70 grade.
Here's my simplified response. In my experience dealing in bullion and semi-numis for the last 7 years, you will likely end up with the same dollar outcome (or very close to) on generic and standard gov't bullion (Maple, ASE, etc.) whether you sell to a local dealer or sell on eBay. In general if spot is $40 my local dealer will buy eagles at $38. If it was sold on eBay for $45, after fees it's about $38.70. So for these items, it's usually less hassle to run to a local dealer and get cash in hand rather than dealing with eBay auctions, PayPal, transferring money and shipping and blah blah blah. Semi-numis: on eBay you'll likely do OK with achieving a nice sale price, but the fees between eBay and PayPal are significant. I would much rather sell on a forum like this where I only pay the PayPal fee on a sale. In fact, the only time I sell on eBay now is if I get no interest for the items here. Numis: forum, private sale to another collector, or auction house for high-value items are your best bets.
Oh, I received a message yesterday in which the person said something to the effect of "I have to sell graded coins." If that's the message that people took away, it wasn't my intention. You can sell OMP, raw, graded, whatever. I have just found personally that raw/OMP is a total pain to deal with.
I think that was me that sent that message its not that you have to sell graded coins but trying to sell ungraded panda's in my experience has been almost impossible maybe I'm just asking too much please let me know if these prices are high or about the going rate as I'm fairly new to this I offered 30th anniversary 09 pandas for $85 2007 silver 1oz bullion panda for $70 which I thought was quite cheap and a 2010 PCGS MS 69 Panda for $80 or wanted to swap it plus 3 1966 50's for a 2010 NGC MS 69 I got no interest in any of these no offers or anything was I asking too much or is everyone just holding onto their fiat right now
Hey PeeZapp, I think your prices are fine. I think many people are a bit fiat strapped before Christmas. Plus, the 2007 and 2010s were recently sold in a group buy, so that maybe fulfilled those who wanted those years. Plus, yeah, when spot silver moves downwards, I generally see less buying overall. Hope this helps.
Those prices aren't bad at all, surprised you didn't get any offers/bites. Market must be slow because it's near Christmas, I've only sold OMPs to date and have never had any issues selling my coins, in fact I kept running out of stock so I've stopped a bit to replenish my pandas. Edit: Just checked your listing, the 2007 F12 thingy might have confused some people as it's not 'actual OMP' but comes from part of that F12 set that's why you had no bites?
