Sell Collection For Cash Or Take It To Auction?

Hey guys,

Thanks again to those that recommended auction sites for me to use for selling my early Chinese collection. The auction house is reviewing the collection now and is going to give me the option of selling it to them outright or having it broken into lots and sent to auction. The collection is several hundred mint early Chinese stamps, some in sets, some pairs, some singles. I know that selling it outright means the price is lowered to some extent so the auction house can make a profit when they resell the stuff and, on the other hand, you never know what can happen during an auction... could be a good day, could be a bad one. What do you guys think? How would you sell the collection?

I've sold surplus stuff at auction for probably 20 years, but never a full collection. I've not sold anything outright to a dealer. My auction results have been more disappointing in terms of price than wildly enthusiastic. But that is the nature of the business. I do think it's important to sell material via an auction house that might specialize in specialized material. Several years ago, I sold some world wide surplus through an auction house that specializes in Asian material. Couple old India & Chinese items realized prices "through the roof," so to speak. Other material in the same auction had average realizations.

I've done reasonably well selling surplus material through the APS Stamp Store. I don't use ebay for buying or selling; just keep reading of too many problems that people have with that site. I have not checked out any ebay "clones," like DelCampe.

I think it depends on your situation. If you need to raise cash quickly consider taking their offer. Auction should bring more money but you could wait 90 days before getting paid.

Your in the drivers seat with this one. The house will likely give you an offer and you will be able to adjust your risk levels. Take into consideration they don't have to pay themselves the sellers fee 20%ish so they are way ahead in that respect. However I would expect them to want 40-60% return on the investment if not more and they will of course advertise their own material heavily.
Do you have scans that you can post? Some members here will be able to give you great opinions ( sometimes better than experts) and you can get directed to realized prices . If its going to auction it will take time so no reason not to take a bit more time and research what you have.

If you are worried about the auction house having a bad day, then you've taken it to the wrong auction house. You take it to the auction house that you have confidence will get the best price for your items. If you have premium items, the ignore the commission rate. There is a legitimate reason a great auction house charges a relatively high commission.

All the major auction houses take a commission off both seller/buyer, and it's no longer the 10% cut of yester-decade. So they're going to make their 25%+ on the hammer price. The cash offer will not be unreasonable in most cases, but if you want a hint at how much of an ADDITIONAL hit you are taking by accepting their cash offer, just consider their seller's commission (which they will lose if they sell their own inventory).

If you are set on selling through a major auction house, then there are really only 2 things to consider regarding cash offers from auction houses (my opinion):

#1. How bad do you need the cash? If you MUST have the money within 1-2 months, then take the cash offer.

#2. Is it a "hot" area? The China market is still considerably better than average, even if it is not Cultural Revolution era items. You are very likely to meet or beat the estimated auction values. You won't lose out by risking an auction. The only issue is #1.

Again, my non-expert opinion.

Best wishes!

k

One thing that has not been mentioned yet, what condition is the collection in ? Remember, it all comes down to condition. If the pieces are off centered, or have missing perfs or are hinged the take home check will be considerably less. The auction house will take it's cut but if it's a reputable house,they will congregate the buyers. If you decide to bypass the middle man and sell it yourself it will take longer and you'll have to put in a lot more effort, but it might be worth it.

Yeah, stallzer, these are all mint stamps. The more I read these posts, the more it sounds like I might want to auction these myself via ebay. I'm in NO rush to sell them at all and the auctioneers cash price seems kind of low, considering that ONE of these several hundred mint stamps has been selling on ebay for about one tenth of what the auction house is offering for an outright purchase price...

A friend of mine was offered a cash offer by Harmers of California.he opted to go to auction and realized CONSIDERABLY more by doing so !

Wow that is lowballin. As mentioned above condition is everything so that may have a big role . The one thing with ebay is you will likely get fair market value provided you do a good heading with appropriate scott numbers year and description. My suggestion and I believe it was mentioned on other post is sell the lower values first maybe in small groups or singles. You may find that selling 3/4;s of what you have leaves you wanting to keep the remainder. Just keep in mind the "hot" china market could be short lived - now there is alot of excess funds in asia but we all know how fast the economy can mess that up.