Pictures of Rare Coins of the World

Tips for Buying and Selling Rare Coins

CC0/A_Different_Perspective/Pixabay

If you're new to buying and selling rare coins—or if you just want to find a buyer for an old collection you found in the attic—the trade may seem overwhelming at first. Even if you just want to find rare coins to collect, it can be hard to know where to look. But don't let that put you off. The value of rare coins worth money, as well as the thrill of finding and selling them itself, can be well worth the effort you put into to learning the ropes of the trade. To help get you started, here are five top tips for buying and selling rare coins.

Where to Buy Online

There are numerous websites for buying old and rare coins online. Finding the best sites, if by a process of trial and error, is a large part of the coin trade's learning curve. One of the best sites, however, is also among the most trusted: The United States Mint.

At the United States Mint website, not only can you shop for coins to sell or keep, but you can also look up rare coins as part of your research. Speaking of which, there's also plenty of historical information available—which you may be interested in if you're in the trade for more than just extra money. And there's also a news section with details of new releases, upcoming events and so on.

Where to Sell Online

Another great site for buying coins online is Heritage Auctions, reputed to be the world's largest auctioneer of coins and medals. Based in Dallas, they have offices right across the globe. And that, of course, makes them a great choice for selling coins too. They do, however, charge a fairly substantial seller's fee of 15% commission on the sale. Although negotiable, it makes the site more suitable for the sale of extremely rare coins that you can afford to lose a share of.

Another recommended site for selling coins online is Great Collections. Founded in 2010, it's still relatively new compared to the others out there, but the site's founder has years of experience in the trade. Best of all, they don't charge a seller's fee. And the buyer's fee is among the lowest of any site of this type at just 10%.

When to Sell Your Coins

Coin traders who can still remember a time before the internet will also remember that the traditional coin seasons were in January and July or August. These months corresponded with the FUN show and summer ANA respectively—two key trade events. Nowadays, of course, the internet allows traders to buy and sell coins all year round. As such, the traditional coin seasons may now actually be the worst times of year to sell—corresponding as they do with post-Christmas frugality and summer vacation time.

Another factor to take into consideration when deciding on the best time to sell your coins is how much your coins are being sold for by others. If you see similar coins to yours selling for more than expected, for example, you might want to strike while the iron is hot as it were. You might be able to catch the interest of the bidder who came runner-up on that record-breaking price.

When Not to Sell Coins

A good rule of thumb is not to sell coins in a hurry. If you do, you may find yourself losing out on the sale. The ideal duration of a sale, according to experienced traders, is between 45 and 60 days. This gives you plenty of time to clean and otherwise prepare coins for sale, market it properly and find the right buyer—as well as give them time to pay up.

If you're too desperate to sell a coin in a hurry and your buyer knows it, you could lose up to 20-30% on the sale. And that's assuming there's nothing else wrong with them. Highly motivated sellers might also skimp on cleaning rare coins properly, and this can mean losing out on even more of the price those same coins might otherwise have fetched.

Where to Research Rare Coins Online

A reliable rare coin price guide or rare coin value chart can be hard to come by. But there are several websites to check. PCGS CoinFacts is one of the most comprehensive, listing almost every US coin ever minted. In addition to a rare coins price guide, it also offers information on how many of a coin there actually are and, very helpfully, how much they have recently been sold for in auctions.

Another site is Newman Numismatic Portal, founded by the great coin collector Eric P. Newman. Like PCGS CoinFacts, the Newman Numismatic Portal provides recent auction results to help buyers and sellers alike make informed decisions with transactions.

More From QuestionsAnswered.net

Pictures of Rare Coins of the World

Source: https://www.questionsanswered.net/article/tips-for-buying-and-selling-rare-coins?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740012%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex

Share this post