Comments on: Sell my booty!

Question: Sell my booty!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:52:59 -0800

How to sell a large-ish quantity of silver bullion and gold coins?

A relative recently gave me a few hundred ounces of silver bullion, about a hundred silver half-dollars and some gold coins, mostly American.

What is the best way to sell? From previous questions I take it that finding a coin dealer via the American Numismatic Association is the way to go to sell the bullion. But what about the coins? I see a wide variation in the selling price for some equivalent coins on Ebay. Do I go to a dealer for these as well?

Bonus question: Does the IRS automatically find out about this?

By: de void

de void — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:42:48 -0800

I'd do this:

Take a sample of each coin to a dealer and get a quote.

Try an auction for each of the single coins on ebay.

See which nets you more, after shipping/paypal/insurance fees, etc.

My guess is that you'll get closer to the spot gold/silver value on ebay, but maybe your time is valuable and you want to do a big sale all at once without the hassle of setting up auctions and shipping, and the possibility of fraud in dealing with remote buyers.

The IRS won't know about ebay, except via your bank records if they audit.

I'm not sure if coin dealers necessarily report sales to the IRS.