How to Sell Coins at Auction
Andrew Brunhart
Consigning Coins to Auction
Eric P. Newman, a 102-year-old retired lawyer from St. Louis, recently auctioned off his unparalleled 1,800-piece coin collection in New York City. Newman began the collection in the 1930s and, all told, spent about $7,500 on it. The sale, hosted by Heritage Auctions, took two days, and in the end earned Newman a grand total of $23 million.
Consigning Coins to Auction
That’s all well and good for a rock star collector like Eric Newman, but what about the rest of us? Many collectors have only been amassing their collections for five to ten years, and many need to sell their coins in a pinch.
Consigning Coins to Auction
Consigning coins to auction can be a very complex process with numerous factors to consider:
1. Have you had trouble selling
these particular coins through
other channels?If so, there’s a very good
chance they’ll have trouble at auction too. Avoid selling your best pieces elsewhere
and saving your least popular for the auction
block. Instead, sell the low quality coins as soon as
possible, at a discount, and save your best ones for
auction. It seems intuitive, but a lot of people make
this mistake.
2. Is your collection too
large/expensive to be sold together
as one unit?If so, many potential buyers won’t be able to afford your collection, or they might be uninterested because they’ll
already have some of the pieces. Generally speaking,
it’s usually better to break up your collection into individual
coins to yield yourself the most profit. Of course there are exceptions, for example in cases where buyers would prefer an original, matched
set.
3. To place reserves or not to place reserves?
While not placing a reserve can be frightening, coins consigned
without reserve are usually given the best commission rates, and
bidders are often more excited by unreserved coins. At the same time, if your piece is part of a specialty field or an otherwise thinly traded market with a low number of buyers, you would do
well to place a reasonable reserve to prevent the first bidder from
snatching it up for an unreasonably low price. Of all the factors on this list, reserves are
probably the most complicated, so I recommend seeking help from a specialist who knows your case.
4. What type of sale should you
choose?If your collection is small, you
could get easily lost or outperformed in a huge
convention auction. At the same time, if your collection is
very valuable, commission rates can be higher at these types of auctions. Internet auctions are
also a possibility, but these don’t always have the
excitement of an old fashioned floor auction. When it comes
right down to it, the most important thing is to find an
auction that fits your collection.
ConclusionCoin collections are very precious things. Oftentimes, you’ve spent a great deal of time, money, and energy amassing one, and you don’t want it to be all for naught. Always know all your options and always get advice from an expert before making any big decisions.
