Previously undocumented token - seeking advice on sale

[Phillip_in_NM]

Found this token last week and have spent the week researching it. It is not listed in the definitive work on New Mexico tokens by Billy Kiser nor at the tokencatalog website. Searched the name of the bar "Cosme Serrano" and found a person by that name listed in New Mexico census records from 1870-1940. Sorry the pictures aren't better. These were taken with my cell phone. Just heard today from a relative of Cosme and should be learning more about the man and his bar soon.

For those who have experienced selling tokens, is EBay the best way to sell what might be a one of a kind token? Would love to read your opinions.[attachment 265313 IMG_20130508_215638.JPG][attachment 265314 IMG_20130508_215800.JPG]

 

[knarfj]

Having found a few "Good For Tokens" myself I've asked myself the same question. But I have noticed that most the tokens that go for big money on Ebay begin with a low starting bid of from around .99 cents to say $4.99.

One thing you may want to try if you haven't already is do a search on Ebay for "good for token", after the search is completed, near the top of the page select "Sold listings" and then sort again on "Shipping and Price Highest first", or vice versa. Next if you click on any of the images of the "sold" tokens (selling price shown in green text) it will list the number of bids. Click on the number of bids and it will show what the starting bid was and how the bidding progressed. I've noticed that most sellers that start with these low starting bids are well established on Ebay, i.e., a large amount of sales.

My suggestion would be to take a hard look at Ebay and go from there.

Not seeing your token listed by Billy Kiser or on the tokencatalog website would, to me, be a good sign as to rarity. FWIW, of the few tokens I have found over the yearsI chose to hold on to one and post it on the "Token catalog" and the others for good or bad I either sold or gave to other THing friends who were interested in them at that time.

Good luck! HH

 

[nolanation]

One problem with your token, is that if the info on it is hard to find, then chances are not many people know about it, and not many people will care about it. You would want to run it in like a 10 day auction just to get the handful of people that might be interested in it a chance to see it.

 

[Phillip_in_NM]

Very good comments thus far, you have really given me some things to consider.

Generally speaking (VERY GENERALLY) New Mexico tokens seem to sell at pretty good prices - not exactly sure why. I figure the more background info I can get, the better price I should expect.

This is only the sixth token I have found. A detecting buddy who has found several times more than my meager six made two points (his opinion): 1) Tokens without the name of the town usually sell for less and 2) Tokens which only have one representative such as mine can sell for very little or quite a lot. So now I'm seeking advice here to hopefully help mine to sell for a lot. I wish I had the luxury of keeping it, but currently, much of what I find and can sell goes towards gas and equipment.

Thanks very much for your help and great ideas!