Increasingly on social media, coin buyers display their recent purchases and ask, “How did I do?” If you ask this question, you probably should not be buying expensive coins. Then again, you can learn how you did by reading this article, which takes you step by step in the buying and bidding process.
For starters, if the coin is in a top-tier slab (PCGS, NGC, ANACS, CAC, ICG), you don’t need to ask that question. Just go to the cert of the holdering company, and you will see retail, wholesale and auction prices. See this article for details.
In the past, new collectors used to learn about coin value from brick-and-mortar shop owners who also belonged to the Professional Numismatist Guild. Now the number of coin shops have declined steadily due to high overhead (rent, security, insurance, inventory) and risk of robbery. Meanwhile coin magazine subscriptions plummeted. For instance, Coin World‘s readership declined from 33.4 million in 2015 to 21.5 million in 2019. Now the magazine measures its audience digitally, with some 65,000 collectors on its social media platforms and 40,000 on its marketplace page.
As a result, collectors prefer the convenience of buying online but often are misinformed by clickbait social media.
In the past, people had buyer’s remorse when they were hoodwinked. Now many collectors do not even realize they have been scammed.
Given these risks, how should they go about buying coins?
- Learn how to grade if buying raw or unholdered coins.
- Buy from reputable third-party graders, especially if you don’t know how to grade.
- Identify counterfeit coins masquerading in fake holders.
- Know common flaws that buyers often miss.
- Visit PCGS Photograde and compare your coin to grades listed there.
- Before you bid on or purchase a coin, visit PCGS CoinFacts to see both retail, wholesale and auction values.
- Only patronize online sellers who accept returns.
Let’s go through the above list with a coin being sold on eBay at this writing. Great Southern Coins is a reputable seller that also accepts returns:
This seller states that the coin is semi-prooflike and gem brilliant uncirculated. If you know how to grade, you might have a different opinion. It looks almost uncirculated or low mint state with flaws (scrapes, bag marks, rim dings and a pin scratch):
Now let’s go to Photograde and see what condition may match the raw coin above:
So we’re looking at an MS61 1879 Morgan. Now let’s consult PCGS CoinFacts for possible value:
Here we read about mintage and specifications:
Time to see retail and auction prices. An 1879 without flaws retails for $90 with 516 graded by PCGS at that level selling roughly at auction for about $70-100 with values seemingly rising over the years from about $50 in 2014.
But this 1879 from Great Southern Coins has flaws. What does one in a similar condition go for? CoinFacts again supplies the answer: $65.
Great Southern Coins ships inexpensively for $3.25 so I don’t have to worry about additional buyer’s fees and mailing. A good maximum bid for this coin would be $50.
If this coin were featured on HiBid or Live Auctioneers you would place a different maximum bid because sellers on those platforms often charge 15-25 percent buyer fees and $10-15 mailing. So if bidding here, your maximum would be $30 ($6 buyer fee at 20% and $14 mailing).
Here’s an example from a seller who already knows the value of the coin based on his starting $35 bid. But here you also pay $15 for shipping in addition to 15% buyer’s fee. So if you won the coin with a $35 bid, you would pay $5.25 plus $15 for a total: $55.25.
Now that you know the process, practice on eBay or HiBid/Live Auctioneers–not by bidding–but by following bidding and final sale and see if your estimate would have lost or won the coin. Do this repeatedly until you are confident in your purchasing skills.
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You can find more information about errors and varieties as well as buying and bidding on coins in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider purchasing the work for yourself or a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist website. Thank you.
