Churning Coins on Ebay #7 - Pricing

Pricing

Pricing will get easier as you sell more. Eventually you will have a good feel for whether a coin is going to be listed for your standard minimum bid or whether the coin merits a little more research.

Standard Minimum Bid

This is your minimum bid for common coins that probably won’t encounter much demand. I think that the current EBay market price for these common coins, on a single coin auction basis, is anywhere from $1.25 to $1.50 per coin, this price includes shipping. Excluding shipping, from .25c to .50c per coin.

If it sounds like a lot of work to make .35c, it is, though the sales do add up. I have developed a pretty good system of scanning and listing large numbers of coins where the investment of time is reasonably justified by the return. Personally, I’ve moved away from buying the 5 to 10 pound lots of coins because I don’t feel like trying to sell so many coins, and there are better opportunities out there. I will discuss those later in my selling posts.

Better Coins

As I said before, you will get a feel for the coins that typically sell for more, but there are plenty of coins out there you won’t come across often, or simply can’t remember. I use the digital copy of the Krause Standard World Coin Catalog and cross reference every coin that comes into my hands. To make it efficient I divide them by country and quickly look for varieties, low mintages, or, for whatever reason, coins that have a high catalog value. I set those aside. I also have lots of specialized country catalogs and look for varieties. I list all of these coins at a premium, and usually get it. I also find the “treasure hunt” aspect of this exercise to be quite rewarding personally.

You can get the Krause on Amazon: 2014 Standard Catalog of World Coins – 1901-2000 You can find them on EBay too. You don’t really need a new copy. Krause World Coin Catalog

Varieties

I use the term variety loosely, it can include intentional varieties and errors. An intentional variety would be the two privy marks on the 1969 coins from the Netherlands or an FAO issue. Most people who sell coins singly on EBay don’t know, or don’t care, about identifying varieties, that means for sellers that do, there is usually not a lot of competition. There are also a lot of collectors out there who are looking for these coins and they will pay a premium. Low Mintages Low mintage is a relative term, if a certain type of coin is minted in the hundreds of millions in a typical year, a year where only tens of millions of coins are minted would count as low mintage in my book. If the typical mintage is 20 million then I would probably look for single digit mintages. Usually these low mintage coins are still fairly common and, in the catalog, only demand a premium in the highest grades. I still try and get a premium for them on EBay.

Here is an auction for a Dutch 10 cent piece from 1960 that has a low mintage relative to other 10 cent pieces. It sold for $1.99 with shipping. Netherlands 10 cents 1960

Hi-grade Coins

When coins are proof, or particularly good shape, I usually seek a premium.

Old Coins

I consider coins older than the 1940s to be old. They at least merit further research on EBay market prices. I usually sell these at a premium as well.

Topical Coins

There are exceptions here, the Australian 5c piece featuring the Echidna is not going to demand a premium. But unusual animals or plants from smaller nations usually command a premium. Coins minted during World War II are also popular, regardless of what country they are from.

Here is an auction for a fairly common 5 Aurar coin from Iceland minted during WWII, it sold for $2.85 with shipping. Iceland 5 Aurar 1942

Coins Everybody Loves

There are some coins that everybody seems to love and usually go for steep premiums. These include the Singapore coin featuring a seahorse, the Italian coin featuring Pegasus, the Greek coin featuring the Owl, coins that have swastikas and many others. I think there are a lot of non-coin collectors that desire these coins which really impacts the price.

Here is a coin with a Swastika that closed recently. The coin is not rare and it is pretty beaten up, it went for $8.50 with shipping. Third Reich Coin

Here is a run of the mill, circulated, example of the Singaporean Seahorse coin, it went for $1.72 with shipping. Singapore Seahorse Coin

EBay – the ultimate research tool

Since you are selling on EBay the most relevant tool to determine market value is EBay itself. Every coin I sell gets at least a cursory EBay search. I use the advanced search feature to see how many auctions have closed, and at what price, for the particular coin I am trying to sell. You may be surprised by what you find. Often you may find nothing at all. You can try and list coins that otherwise aren’t being sold on EBay at a premium. If you have a variety or low mintage coin that has several unsold listings at a low price you may want to forget about a premium. Often you will see the same coin selling at a really wide price range. Most of the coins I described above that I sell at a premium often sell for much less. Usually this has to do with a coin that is not properly described, lacks key call-outs or there is just something not right about the listing. If there are healthy sales at a premium, go for the premium.

I hope this helps, ultimately experience itself will help you fine tune your pricing system.