Thinning the Herd

[fish on!]

Well, today I decided it was time to sell some 40% halves. My pile of 40% had reached 400 again and I decided to move them. I put an ad on craigslist advertising them at $3 a piece and was surprised that I got 10 responses in the first day. That put them right around spot price and I thought they would sell, but I didn't expect that much of a response. I guess I probably could have gotten a little more, but that seemed like a fair price to me.

Anyway, this September will mark a year and a half since I started coin roll hunting. The first four months I started slow and was mainly looking for teller tray scores and ordering a couple boxes of halves per week. Now I am up to a respectable 28 boxes per week and that is not the highest volume I have had in weekly orders, but also not the lowest. I did a rough count of all of my finds and I'm really happy with what I have found in such a short period of time. I must be lucky. I have found over 1500 40% halves in that time and over 400 90% halves. In addition to that I've found two rolls of silver dimes and over half a roll of quarters. I haven't been keeping my log up to date because it took a lot of time and that part of the forum seems to be frequented by lurkers more than members so I decided it really wasn't worth it.

I guess I figured I'd just give you all an update on how it's been going with my hunting since I like to assess the progress of my stack every now and then.

Well, good luck everyone. I hope you are all having as much luck and fun hunting as I am. I still get just excited tearing into a fresh box of halves now as I did when I first started.

 

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[Avago]

eBay is a great place to see what people are actually paying for silver. 90% junk was selling for about a 25-30% premium last I checked.

The volume you clear is pretty amazing. I'm just starting out here myself and I'm doing the two boxes per week, looking to expand. Your results from a year and a half are pretty amazing! Finding a few hundred ounces of silver for a pretty nominal investment seems like a great hobby to me!

 

[Infowarrior]

Yeah CL is easy to unload silver at spot price... I havent done it in a while though, as one of the guys I met, will buy any and all silver I want to sell... and within 1-2 days notice... Ive mostly only ever sold him 40%ers, but did sell 4 rolls of kennedys when I started my business to help cover some costs... I still regret selling them, but ah well my business is starting to really take off

Ive been saving my silver lately though, and am upto 15 rolls of 40%, so if I ever wanna buy a new gun, or invest in the business, easy 900+. Honestly though I wanna try to stop selling it and just keep stacking stacking...

HH!!

 

[BuffaloBoy]

That's great!!! Keep it up, you are doing exceptionally well, hopefully the streak continues
Thanks for sharing

 

[fish on!]

eBay is a great place to see what people are actually paying for silver. 90% junk was selling for about a 25-30% premium last I checked.

The volume you clear is pretty amazing. I'm just starting out here myself and I'm doing the two boxes per week, looking to expand. Your results from a year and a half are pretty amazing! Finding a few hundred ounces of silver for a pretty nominal investment seems like a great hobby to me!

I think ebay is a great place to sell relatively rare/low mintage stuff that isn't in great condition. A great example would be silver proofs that are found in circulation. You can probably get well above spot from ebay even after fees whereas you would have a hard time getting that from a private dealer or coin shop since they aren't in the condition they were in in the mint cello. As for regular junk silver, ebay is usually not the best option. Once you consider the ebay fees, paypal fees, actual prices for shipping, confirmation, insurance and the hassle of having to mail it you are no longer clearing that 25-35% premium. With the craigslist option, the deal is done face to face and over within a day or so of deciding to sell and I got pretty close to spot price for silver that is looked at as less desirable by most collectors. If I didn't do craigslist I probably would have gone the provident route since they pay pretty well also.

Thanks for the kind words about my finds. It really amazes me looking back all of the amazing things I have found. A lot of the time the bulk of the value comes concentrated over a short period of a few weeks when a major collection dump happens. This hobby requires a lot of patience and persistence even when you are getting piles of skunks week after week. Good luck with your hunting.

 

[fish on!]

Yeah CL is easy to unload silver at spot price... I havent done it in a while though, as one of the guys I met, will buy any and all silver I want to sell... and within 1-2 days notice... Ive mostly only ever sold him 40%ers, but did sell 4 rolls of kennedys when I started my business to help cover some costs... I still regret selling them, but ah well my business is starting to really take off

Ive been saving my silver lately though, and am upto 15 rolls of 40%, so if I ever wanna buy a new gun, or invest in the business, easy 900+. Honestly though I wanna try to stop selling it and just keep stacking stacking...

HH!!

I mainly sell my 40% coins. I've only ever sold one roll of 90% kennedy's. Once the 40% reach 400 or 500 coins I move them. The way I look at it is that the 40% are less desirable, they take up a lot of space, and it's pretty much guaranteed that I will find enough to replace them over the long haul. Ideally, I would love to save all of my silver until the spot price hits $30, $40, or $50 an ounce again, but reallistically the real profit of this hobby comes from finding silver at face value not so much the appreciation of the spot price. It's also nice to take some profits every now and then to actually benefit from the finds. Plus, I don't partake in this hobby under any false pretenses. I know that the majority of our finds are probably actually the result of robberies that have occurred. I'd rather take some profits now since there is always some chance that I could be robbed and lose my stack. I'm hanging onto the 90% though. I really like having them and I think they are just plain cool. I also keep all of my "rare"/low mintage finds (silver proofs, 70d, bicentennial silvers, commemoratives, barbers, etc). If and when silver ever hits $30, $40, or $50 an ounce again I will probably start liquidating the better finds as well.

 

[Avago]

As for regular junk silver, ebay is usually not the best option. Once you consider the ebay fees, paypal fees, actual prices for shipping, confirmation, insurance and the hassle of having to mail it you are no longer clearing that 25-35% premium.

You don't have to sell on eBay, but you can sure see what people have been willing to pay and then pursue other selling avenues

I just did a quick check of recent sales of circulated 40% on eBay and being less desirable, those lots seem to be demanding a 5-15% premium, give or take. The speed of asking spot is probably an advantage though. As you said, you were able to unload in a day or two which is convenient compared to waiting around for a CL buyer to pay that 15% premium.

It's great to see the successes of others on here. Congrats on a successful year and a half!

 

[fish on!]

Thanks man.

 

[drewbaccas]

Not to hijack your thread but, how much would the spot price of silver have to rise to make a 40% half melt price raise up $1 vs. a 90% half melt price raise a $1?

 

[fish on!]

~$6.50 for 40% and a little less than $3 for 90%. swings in the spot price affect 90% much more than 40% simply because there is that much more silver contained in a 90% coin.

 

[fistfulladirt]

You did good fish! When I listed several rolls of 40's on C'list, they sat for weeks at 20% below melt. Finally hooked a newbie after no bites for weeks, and he hemmed and hawed for a while before finally buying.

 

[fish on!]

You did good fish! When I listed several rolls of 40's on C'list, they sat for weeks at 20% below melt. Finally hooked a newbie after no bites for weeks, and he hemmed and hawed for a while before finally buying.

Thanks. That's wild. I wonder if mine sold so quick because silver popped for the last few days and people are betting that it will keep going up.