Washington Quarter Dilemma - on eBay!

[Rastatodd]

I am trying to top off a roll of Washington quarters and I'm looking at eBay. What is up with the premiums people are paying for 90% Washington quarters"? Example -
2 Washington quarters a 64 and a 63 (mine you quantity of two).
Price with shipping is $15.01
$7.50 each - melt is at $5.28
I find that getting some what of a good deal on quarters on eBay is impossible. I have better luck getting halves and dimes at or close to spot. But quarters, really $7.50 each!
Were can one get quarters at a reasonable price. Is Ray having a quarter sale anytime soon?
Any thoughts?

[JerrySpringer]

Sometimes the best way to find junk silver on Ebay at spot is to bid on an inordinate amount of auctions and wait out the results to see if you win one or two. A few years ago, when silver was in the teens range, finding stuff at spot was less difficult. The interest was just not there. My conclusion is that people paying 40% premiums for junk silver are not stackers. Why consistently pay 40% premiums if you want to stack? Just buy from an online dealer like Apmex, for example, but make it a big order to defray shipping and premium charges. The casual stacker can nab spot deals on Ebay. I find dimes are the best ones for that.

[Rastatodd]

Would it be to my benefit to bid on actions that are just listed, than bid on a far amount of auctions . Bidding the max I am willing to pay. Than maybe than my Washington quarter yield will be higher. I'll try this technique. Thanks Jerry. I wonder how much of high prices are due to "Snipping" programs that people are using? Just a thought.

[texcollex]

If you have a smart phone there are apps out there that will "snipe" in a bid at the last few seconds of the auction. You can set your max price and tell it to bid for you at the 3 or 5 second mark. This allows you to watch and bid without actually running up the price in advance and creating competition. I have had mixed results with it, but usually try and set a pretty safe price to come out ahead.

[68Camaro]

But for exception items, I only bid two ways, BIN or sniping. For sniping I use esnipe, and have used it successfully for years. I still have to bid 10x the number of items that I'm interested in, if I'm trying for low price. Sniping has a negative connotation, but there is nothing wrong with it. It allows me to set a rational price and stick with it, takes the emotion out of the last second decision (which is why ebay, and sellers, don't like sniping). It also allows me to bid competitatively on items that would be ending at inconvienient times, when I'm asleep, or at work, or otherwise occupied.

Shipping prices on small dollar items will eat you alive on ebay. You'll have to factor that in.

[Treetop]

probably shouldnt reveal trade secrets.. but...

Ive gotten the bulk of silver Ive had on ebay... if your willing to bid on hordes of auctions, bidding outright beats sniping. Ive tested this over and over. the reason is YOU are willing to pay lets say 20X. Each bidder has their limit. If another bidder bids the 20x before you, your snipe doesnt work. If you had bid it from the start and were the first to bid at 20X and that particular auction doesnt draw others willing to pay more its yours... ive bid on 10s of thousands of auctions atleast. I can also tell you the exact periods your most likely to win auctions doing it, and periods you almost never will, also which items its worth doing it with at particular times. ebay is a funny thing. i wont though. have to keep some secrets.

[scrapper2010]

I've also had the least amount of luck with getting quarters in particular at close to spot. Ironically when I do, a lot of times it's on proof state quarters, which is fine by me.

[68Camaro]

probably shouldnt reveal trade secrets.. but...

Ive gotten the bulk of silver Ive had on ebay... if your willing to bid on hordes of auctions, bidding outright beats sniping. Ive tested this over and over. the reason is YOU are willing to pay lets say 20X. Each bidder has their limit. If another bidder bids the 20x before you, your snipe doesnt work. If you had bid it from the start and were the first to bid at 20X and that particular auction doesnt draw others willing to pay more its yours... ive bid on 10s of thousands of auctions atleast. I can also tell you the exact periods your most likely to win auctions doing it, and periods you almost never will, also which items its worth doing it with at particular times. ebay is a funny thing. i wont though. have to keep some secrets.

I hear you. I have a hard time doubting the veracity of your system, since I've bought a lot of what you've bought and been surprised at what you've been able to get. So clearly however you are executing it makes a difference.

However, I haven't found it (yet) to work for me, and I haven't been unhappy at my sniping. When I snipe, I usually pick a number I would be happy with, then think about whether or not I would be upset if I lost by the next bid increment, and will usually place my snipe at that slightly higher level. When I lose, I usually lose big, clearly there are at least two people willing to pay a lot more than me for that item - I'm not losing by a small margin and a direct bid would not have worked there. If you limit the comparison to those that I've lost by one bid increment - my win/lose ratio is probably 50/50, and those losses probably to another sniper.

I have my suspicions about your other techniques, but haven't tried them yet, and won't even voice a suggestion here - you need your secrets. Maybe next week when I'm home with more time I'll try some other systems.

[MUTiger]

I typically find that I can get deals at or below spot on the larger lots and rarely have good luck bidding on items less than $3.00 FV. Buy a roll or two of quarters, halves or dimes and it seems to me there is less competition and sniping.

mutiger

[Rejinx]

I started looking in to the coin collecting market. Likely the reason they are selling above spot is because of there collector value.

[beauanderos]

Ok, secret-revealing time. I hardly ever bid on ebay anymore, so I'll part with one of my more successful techniques. Find a seller with multiple (I'm talking thirty, forty, fifty or more) listings ending a minute or two one after another. They need to be the smallest items you can find. Dimes work best, quarters not so well, halves iffy. Find these listings that offer a SET amount for shipping each item, with no indication as to whether they discount for multiple wins. THEN... WRITE to the seller before bidding and suggest you would be willing to bid VERY aggressively on ALL of his listings... IF... he is willing to offer you a handsome discount on combined shipping for multiple wins. YOU suggest a fair price that represents a significant savings to you. They can turn you down if they choose... but most won't. Instead, most will thank you for your consideration in taking the time to write and ask, and surprisingly, a few will wind up giving you free shipping for the trouble you save them. And so...YOU know in advance what the shipping is going to cost you, but no one else does. On a $5 quarter with $1.25 shipping, therefore, you can now bid $4 (above melt value)... and anyone else would have to bid $4.25 (plus shipping) to win. Unlikely that will happen. Yet you know that, say, each additional item is only going to cost you another dime, so you have the inside track. Why would a seller agree to this? Because it saves them from the inconvenience of having to ship to multitudes of buyers. And in your email, you tell the seller you don't mind if you're the final winner or not, but that by using this system, the seller is guaranteed to get the highest possible prices for their listings. Someone else might have the same idea, so you have to be early to make this work, and you have to fine tune it to perfection (that takes practice). But I have won thousands of auctions, many times winning as many as a hundred from one seller, using this method. You can also suggest, in following correspondence, that both parties might benefit by a private transaction in the future, saving costs for both of them and creating a win/win situation. Second tip. There are fewer bidders on higher priced lots... say $2000 or more. Third tip. Find the listings of Treasure Hunters Roadshow. They have about twenty different names. They charge something like $5.75 for shipping, but for each additional win they only add another dollar. Many people don't realize this. They have listings similar to what I described above... for instance, twenty Barber quarters... and they'll have ten in a row ending a minute apart! They flood ebay at times with the number of listings they offer. You can find bargains there, if you search, if you're lucky, and if you're bidding when others are out of money. This is a perfect time of year for that.

[beauanderos]

I am trying to top off a roll of Washington quarters and I'm looking at eBay. What is up with the premiums people are paying for 90% Washington quarters"? Example -
2 Washington quarters a 64 and a 63 (mine you quantity of two).
Price with shipping is $15.01
$7.50 each - melt is at $5.28
I find that getting some what of a good deal on quarters on eBay is impossible. I have better luck getting halves and dimes at or close to spot. But quarters, really $7.50 each!
Were can one get quarters at a reasonable price. Is Ray having a quarter sale anytime soon?
Any thoughts?

Todd... paying shipping only to buy a few coins to top off a roll is dumb. Sorry, but it is. Buy a roll PLUS a few extra coins next time when you save up enough to do so. A better route to keeping your costs more manageable.

[Rastatodd]

I figure shipping into my bids to coincide with what melt is at the time of auction for what I'm bidding on. So the cost of shipping is neglect able.You may not win as many auctions, but that doesn't make it so "Dumb". I'm a big fan of cost averaging. If you get my drift.
Besides, the original question had to do with the high premium people pay for quarters. Nothing to do with how I acquire my coins.

[beauanderos]

If you want to dollar cost average into 90% junk on a limited budget, find a seller you trust and ask them to set you up with a lay-away program... for instance you make payments of $50 a month and they ship whenever you have two rolls, etc. Ebay is not really an accurate reflection of pricing for silver. You have too many who lose control of their emotions running the bid up. I used to use a sniping program myself. Powersnipe. Well worth the $45.99 a year if you do a lot of bidding.