Myers Depot Metal Detectors

One Hundred Seventy Silvers

Martin_V3i

Martin_V3i

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Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
5,138
Location
North DFW, TX
My Dear mom bless her soul, left a stash of 175 silver Washington quarters which I took from a family gathering this weekend to analyze and determine the more valuable ones from the average ones. I've not done anything but bring them home yet I sampled several and the quality (personal grade opinion) of those was very good, but I ain't any kind of expert at all.

Question 1. Assuming the bulk is only worth melt, bout $6 a piece,how do I move and sell these for the brothers and sisters to sell? You can't melt? Can they be sold for melt at a precious metals buyer?

Question 2. What about the ones with a value showing in a Google search indicating that they a are possibly worth more, some to $300?

I have a lot of work to do, and the siblings only know that melt makes them worth 6-7 hundred. How do I proceed? I am going to have fun doing this but don't want to screw up. martin
 
There are key dates to look for, such as 1932, so cull those out first. If it were me I would seriously think about putting them on E-bay. I think you would get more than melt there and they might find their way into the hands of a collector instead of a smelter.
 
As strange as it is for a internet and computer nerd, I have never opened an Ebay acount, so I would be starting with a zero-sales record. If I was to isolate the general 5-6 dollar silvers(melt) and look to move them in bulk, what percentage would I expect per quarter for the "stock" quarters? Would the general collector come close to the melt value or is there an expected barter to expect? martin
 
I agree. Have fun sorting out the good dates.Find your best price for each and every one of those including key dates,and I may be able to beat it!!:cool:
 
You can try small batches on here or the whole lot after you cull the key dates out also. There are a bunch of coin collectors as well as silver coin horders on here. I am a budding collector but full time horder. Lol.
 
Current melt value is about $1050. If any are key dates or in better than average condition, that number will go up.
 
If all else fails find the nearest coin collector and see what he will give for them. Then offer the siblings melt value of the less costly coins and split the rest of the cost of the good coins between them.

This way they get a deal, and so do you. Of course I would take an extra 5% for all the trouble. Just MHO...

GL&HH
 
a refinery would be my last choice, they'll only pay out 90% of melt
 
I would say create an e-bay and put them up for auction. I dont know if i would worry about the feedback, you have to start somewhere... folks on e-bay are paying up to $8.50 a quarter on there!
 
All great advice thanks. I won't be able to rip off the siblings, even if I had that thought. One brother has detected for 30 years and makes this pile of collected silvers of every kind, look small in comparison, and he knows the basics for getting the real values. He ain't real computer savy so he wouldn't do Ebay, but he's not ignorant in the least. He is also heavily considering liquidating his stuff instead of leaving it for the remaining family to spend when he dies, possibly in bulk, but not at melt for the total of it all. He really does have a ton of coins, plus rings and such...most all found on beaches over three decades. He has one very nice 1909S IH our grandma gave him years back. He has those(2 key dated IHs) neatly stored by themselves.

I may just have to get into Ebay, but I would be a seller with a zero sales count going in. Are there real worries about ending a sale at a massive loss? That was my brother's initial concern about the Ebay path. martin
 
Folks here will probably give you better returns than all the fee's on Ebay. First off though, my father went through the same thing but with a much larger amount of silver. There was everything from 100's of war nickels to about 70 morgan/peace dollars. All in all almost $15,000 in silver. My dad told his brothers and sisters what he was offered from a local guy and they all agreed to that price. My advice is do the same thing, but if you can afford it... match that price and keep the silver in the family.

I wish I had been able to get some more money together to buy some as I know the effort it took for my grand parents to put that collection together and I know they would have liked for me to keep it in the family.

Just my opinion though and good luck in whatever you decide,

Greg
 
I just started Ebay as a seller this year, had bought for over 10. You have to factor in the fees which will amount to about 9% to sell. Most smelters give you melt less 10%. Cash for gold and other local buyers give way less than that. Your best bet may be on here for the common stuff and on Ebay for the other collectables. You can look at completed listings on Ebay for just about any thing and see what they really go for. Don't just look at the regular search results because that is not the complete picture. Only what has sold counts in my opinion.
 
Ebay can be great when a few people get in a bidding war over an item that you are not able to get a good price for locally. I have been selling over 10 years but it's just not like it used to be. I would say 9 or 10 percent off the sales price may be a little low. It really varies how you list an item, what the item is, and a million other things. Then Paypal takes a chunk too. I sell for others @25% of final price to myself. After all costs are taken out I'm really not making much for the trouble, researching, photographing, answering questions, packing and shipping. I still sell on Ecay some. I just try to stick with items that wouldn't bring beans locally. Look through some completed auctions of silver similar to what you have. That should give you a pretty good idea of what people (at least on Ebay) are paying right now.
 
Also, porche makes a very good point. Concentrate ONLY on items that have sold (or even just had bids even if reserve wasn't met) Sold items should be in green. I can't tell you how many times I have heard "do you know what these are selling for on Ebay?" when in reality the auctions end with no bids. Just because someone is asking $500 doesn't mean the item is worth anywhere near that.
 
Sell 5 to 10 at a time on here at spot and I bet they will all sell. If you try to go to a coin dealer or silver buyer you will get @ 95% of spot. If you want help with grade etc, shoot me a list of the dates and mint marks. If their are any that are key or semi key I will let ya know. Shoot me photos and I can approximate a grade and value for ya. WOLF
 
As many people on here know I "came" into a lot of 280 silver quarters myself. I ended up keeping about 15 and sending the rest for smelt. I sold a few on ebay and I can say it really isn't worth it. After taking away the fees, your time to package them and mail them out and all, to me wasn't worth it. Plus the first one I sold went for less than melt. I got 90% of spot and got over $1300 for them. Spot was less than it is now. Most of the poeple buying them on Ebay are going to eventually melt them anyway. While I cannot divulge whom I went through as a smelter, they are easy to find online. Don't go to a coin collector or pawn shop. The most any of them were willing to give was about 50% of spot. Good luck...
 
wolf-n-wa said:
Sell 5 to 10 at a time on here at spot and I bet they will all sell. If you try to go to a coin dealer or silver buyer you will get @ 95% of spot. If you want help with grade etc, shoot me a list of the dates and mint marks. If their are any that are key or semi key I will let ya know. Shoot me photos and I can approximate a grade and value for ya. WOLF
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help offer. I very meticulously seeked out the value ranges of each and every coin in succession, and none were key or semi-key, unless uncirculated. There are lots of these quarters that look genuinely perfect, but otherwise, each one eval-d to a range of $6-$30, pretty standard.

My mother likely saved all of these for my brother, a coin collector during that time, and he went through and saved the valuable ones before he left this world. What we have here is some nice silvers in quality, lots of 1964 dates, and many older dates fairly well worn.

Does it sound like finding the best silver melt refinery may be my family's best avenue? What percentage of melt value is an acceptable loss at these places? martin
 
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