"Alan & Erin Williams" wrote in message
...
James McCown wrote:

You made an excellent decision to buy the coins off of ebay rather
than buying them from one of the ripoff dealers who advertise coins as
"investments".

But it remains to be seen whether or not you can really sell your
coins for the values stated on these price lists that you refer to.

Why don't you try listing one or two of your coins on ebay, with an
appropriate reserve or minimum, to see if you can really get what you
think they are worth?

Without knowing more about the specific coins you bought, and the
prices you paid for them, I don't know know whether got a good deal or
not. It is possible that you have made some money.

It is also possible that, after trying to sell a few of your coins,
you will wish that you had never bought these "investments".

Amen to that, James. People tend to forget that on each purchase made
from EbaY, they were the high bidder. In Other Words, no one at that
time was willing to pay *more* for that coin than they were, making
them, by definition, the high water mark for that coin that day.

Their are many purchases, but not many investments, that depreciate the
instant you acquire them, and coins bought at auction certainly qualify.
At a minumim, the loss is the step increment between your winning bid
and the highest underbidder.


That's an important point. The given day you purchased a coin on Ebay, you
created the market for that coin by paying more than anyone else "in the
world" was willing to pay for it. Now if you were fortunate to have
purchased a gold coin or "CC" dollar a couple years ago, you should benefit
from the rise in the gold prices since then and the increased demand for
nice "CC" dollars. It's so tempting for those of us with a little coin
knowledge but minimal experience in the "coin industry" to take the price
guide figures as indications of a coins worth. When caught up in bidding on
coins on Ebay, it's easy to forgive a few marks, dings, blemishes, etc. when
you see the chance to get a MS63 SG $20 for $550 when the guides say $700.
But when you go to sell it with visions of $700 in mind, you must realize
that the buyer will be looking critically at all the same things you
forgave. He realizes what collectors are paying for coins like the one you
bought for $550 and will adjust his offer for it downward so he can make a
profit reselling it.

As has been mentioned, try exposing a couple of your purchases on Ebay to
give you a good indication as to how collectors value them today. If they
don't bring what you expect, you'll have to accept that as reality. Short
term investments in coins seldom reap generous profits, especially for a low
budget novice. Many of us would like to have the resources and contacts of
the big dealers who are able to place big ads after major shows offering to
sell choice purchases they just made at a price higher than they just paid.

Bruce