Good deal on foreign silver coins.. but how good I wonder.

[insontis]

This ebay forum is a little emptier than I remember and is, in my opinion, lacking in finds. Not sure if people are just not posting them or if no one is looking for deals on eBay with garage season underway, but regardless deals on eBay are always a plenty.

So that being said I'd like to kick things off with something I just bought. Somewhat of a gamble, but more so on the "how well did I do" level versus "did I do well?". Seller mentioned in title this was listed below melt, but then also accepted best offers. There was a hefty $9 shipping attached as well. Reason I don't know how well I did? I had nothing to go on but the sellers word that the original price was under melt. That's right ladies and gentlemen, no weight posted. So after haggling back and forth we landed on the price of $105+$9 shipping. And here's what we got:



I'm fairly positive that the pile of smaller coins at the bottom is all gravy, but not certain. All I knew at the time of purchase was that the 1875 5 mark brought me down to $100 even and that there were around 60+ coins total.

Honestly I think the thing that caught my eye the most was the barber, lol. I love buying lots like this even for around spot because it does two things - adds a lot of new and interesting coins to my collection and is a potential treasure hunt. Any duplicates I get (in the lot and overall in my collection) I lean towards selling off to buy other coins. I don't normally let go of non-duplicates unless they fetch a high premium and are unappealing to me or if I'm looking to buy new coins.

Anyway so what do you guys think? I'm thinking spot-wise I probably paid about $50 under or so. I don't think any coins in particular are worth much over spot off the top of my head in these conditions, but I love adding 1800s silvers to my collection regardless!

 

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[DeepseekerADS]

I did quite a few silver purchases on eBay, what I considered as "wanted", and positive value on current spot price. Silver crashed after that and I'm still awaiting the future.

I probably did well then considering the spot then, but really did nothing better than spot.

In my as many as 50 separate purchases there, I came to realize that the posters were pretty savvy in how they priced their postings. I had quite a number of posts pulled just prior to the finale.

What you listed was maybe "book" value? I do agree that as a collector, the extraneous receipts would be a bonus.

 

[kingskid1611]

I like what you picked up. Can't give much of an opinion on a good deal or not. Yes maybe under spot but I am not up on foreign coins value. I am trying to learn about foreign coins as I have a huge lockbox full of them given to me.......

 

[insontis]

Usually for foreign country spot values I just Google the year/coin and check the ngc site for said coin. They almost always have the coin with it's current spot value.

Deepseekerads not sure which part you thought was book value, but the clarify the 1875 mark is about $14 spot, and given that there were about 60 other coins, even at $2/piece average I figure I'm up $20 in terms of spot. Yes there are a lot of Canadian dimes etc which are only about $1 spot, but there's a good amount of quarters and larger that help to make up for that. Also when I said it brought me down to $100, I meant that $114 spent - the $14 from that coin is $100 to make up for still.

 

[insontis]

As far as getting good deals, I rarely find auctions that end below value ballpark. Most of the coin buys I've gotten good deals on were buy it now and newly listed or accepted best offer.

 

[insontis]

Here's a few recent examples of some deals I found on eBay in the way of coins:
(These are their listing photos)
$95 shipped 1/10oz eagle


7 walking liberties and 7 franklins including a 1916 P for $85


Five one ounce silver rounds for $80.75


My favorites in the past year are probably 6 different year/early 2000s proof ASE and one burnished all in boxes for $20 each

 

[insontis]

So in my infinite boredom and curiosity, I decided to investigate further into my purchase. I researched a few current spot prices of some of the coins I easily recognize. I then estimated other coins similar in size to be of the same spot price.



As you can see, my paint skills are legendary. My curiosity about ran out when I reached the bottom half as you might have noticed, but I was satisfied with what I simplified it down to. Basically I purchased the top half for spot and then paid $11.58 (minus the spot value of the two ? coins in the top half) approximately for the bottom half. I think there are 31 coins in the bottom half, give or take. The Canadian dimes are about $1 each which make the majority of them, but even at $1 a piece I come out to around $20 under spot overall. Pretty excited to see what all I got!

 

[diggummup]

Nice. I've got a few good deals recently. Nothing major but the last one was a 1 oz. silver bar and a pair of sterling hand engraved collar tips for $30. The tips are worth that much on the low end, so the silver bar was free the way I see it.

 

[insontis]

Okay! Finally got my silver coins in the mail today.. so here's the total count (photos to come).

27 Canadian 80% silver quarters.. $70.81 spot A little disappointed in the quarters as three of the older dates are unreadable
1 Canadian 92.5% silver dime... $1.21 spot (this baby goes in the collection though for sure, 1909 date)
27 Canadian 80% silver dimes.. $28 spot.. a few keepers for the book
1 Canadian 80% half... $5.25 spot.. 1950
1 Canadian 80% dollar.. $10.50.. 1965 year

1 Denmark 1950 10 Ore... Not silver

2 Italy L500... $10.38 spot.. 1958,1959

1 German 5 Mark 1963... $3.95
1 German 5 Mark 1935.. $7.05
1 German 10 Mark 1972... $5.47
1 German States Prussia 5 Mark 1875.. $14.11

3 USA dimes.. $3.80 (1895-P Barber, 1916-P Mercury, 1926?-P Mercury) Going to keep all these even though the 1916 is a cullish coin and a duplicate.



Looks like a grand total of $160.53 spot for a price tag of $114, or 71% of spot. Not amazing I know, but I'm pretty happy finding a bunch more for my book. Love the treasure hunt aspect as well!

 

[insontis]

On an additional note..

Am I reading the correct book value for a 1895 Barber Dime?!?!

I may just have to do a little dance, lol. I knew I liked seeing the barber in the lot, but was face down and had no idea it'd be worth more than a buck or two over spot.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Looks like a grand total of $160.53 spot for a price tag of $114, or 71% of spot. Not amazing I know, but I'm pretty happy finding a bunch more for my book. Love the treasure hunt aspect as well!

Good, looks like you did well after all, and in addition you picked up some keepers too. I too went big on Canadian silver, some Mexican, and a bunch of silver dollars - both Canadian & US. My goal was to "accumulate" Like you I was careful at what I bid on. I'd might have taken a shot at that deal too, as I did pick up some groups like that. But then my tank hit the full mark - felt I'd achieved my goal and any more was just compulsive spending.

 

[insontis]

Good, looks like you did well after all, and in addition you picked up some keepers too. I too went big on Canadian silver, some Mexican, and a bunch of silver dollars - both Canadian & US. My goal was to "accumulate" Like you I was careful at what I bid on. I'd might have taken a shot at that deal too, as I did pick up some groups like that. But then my tank hit the full mark - felt I'd achieved my goal and any more was just compulsive spending.

Is there really a full mark when it comes to silver though?

I've bought a handful of lots like this, only a few this size, but I generally am filling up my collection at a price of about spot or less. I try to stay away from dealer lots unless the coins are in great condition. Sure, I won't find a diamond in the rough, but even at spot getting a collection of nice looking silver coins from around the world is pretty cool!

 

[insontis]

Seriously though - this 1895 dime, probably can't make out the detail too great in the picture (bottom rightish), but it is better condition than the 7 listings I see on eBay right now for "1895 P barber dime". Going to attempt to grade it so someone on here can put me to shame once I post the picture, but I'm giving it a shot anyway.

Only negative thing about it is some kind of yellow spot/gunk on the reverse, which I dare not touch. Already put it in a flip anyway.

Edit: I'm guessing G4+.. face looks G4 and reverse looks VG8+ to me

 

[insontis]

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