How to Tell Which Marketplace Sells Your Coins Best

To tell which marketplace sells your coins best, compare three numbers for each one over the same period: margin after the marketplace fees and the cost of the coins, sell-through (the share of listings that sold), and the average days from listing to sale. Then break the same numbers down by coin category. The best channel is often different for Morgan dollars, modern bullion, and early type coins, so a single overall answer is rarely the right one.

Most dealers judge a channel by revenue, because revenue is the number every marketplace shows. Revenue alone hides the two things that decide whether a channel is worth the work: what you keep after fees and the coin's cost, and how long your money sits in a coin before it sells. This guide shows how to work out each number, a worked comparison of three channels, and the mistakes that make a channel look better or worse than it is.

The three numbers to compare

Margin after fees and coin cost

Margin = revenue − marketplace fees − coin cost

Margin % = margin ÷ revenue

Revenue is what buyers paid for the coins. Fees are what the marketplace kept: final value fees, payment processing, and any per-order fees. Coin cost is what you paid for each coin sold, including anything you added before the sale, such as a grading fee.

Fees differ by marketplace, category, and seller level, and every marketplace changes them. Use the fees each marketplace actually charged on your orders, not the rate you remember. For eBay, the fee on each order is on the order in Seller Hub, and the current rates are on eBay's seller fee page.

Sell-through

Sell-through = listings that sold ÷ listings that were live

If 37 of 96 listings sold in the period, sell-through is 38.5%. Low sell-through means coins sit. It does not always mean the channel is bad. You may have listed coins there at prices that are too high for that audience.

Days to sell

The average number of days from when a listing went live to when the coin sold. This tells you how long your money is tied up. A coin that makes $40 in 10 days frees your money for the next purchase much sooner than a coin that makes $60 in 90 days.

Worked example: three channels over 90 days

A dealer sells on eBay, on their own website, and through one auction platform sale in the same 90 days:

	eBay	Website	Auction platform
Coins sold	71	22	36
Revenue	$9,840	$6,150	$8,300
Fees	$1,330	$185	$1,245
Coin cost	$7,020	$4,480	$6,450
Margin	$1,490	$1,485	$605
Margin %	15.1%	24.1%	7.3%
Sell-through	71 of 180 (39.4%)	22 of 140 (15.7%)	36 of 40 (90%)
Days to sell	24	61	35

All figures are an example. On revenue alone, eBay wins. On margin dollars, eBay and the website tie, though the website did it with 22 coins instead of 71. On margin %, the website wins easily. The auction platform has the lowest margin and by far the highest sell-through.

Add time to the picture

Margin % ignores how long the money was tied up. A simple way to add time is margin as a share of coin cost, scaled to a 30-day month:

Monthly return on cost = (margin ÷ coin cost) × (30 ÷ days to sell)

Channel	Margin ÷ cost	× 30 ÷ days	Monthly return on cost
eBay	21.2%	× 30 ÷ 24	26.5%
Website	33.1%	× 30 ÷ 61	16.3%
Auction platform	9.4%	× 30 ÷ 35	8.0%

This is a rough measure. It treats every coin as if it sold at the average speed. Still, it changes the story. The website keeps the most per coin, but eBay turns money over more than twice as fast, so each dollar in eBay stock earns more per month.

What the dealer should do with this

• eBay is the volume channel. Keep listing coins that sell there in under a month, and watch fees on low-priced coins, where any fixed per-order fee takes a bigger share.
• The website keeps the most per coin but sells slowly. It suits higher-priced coins that repeat buyers look for, and coins you are willing to hold.
• The auction platform clears coins. A 90% sell-through on 40 lots means it moved coins the other channels did not. It is the right place for stale stock, even at a thin margin.

Look also at what is not in these numbers. Shipping labels, packing time, photo time, and payout delays are real costs. An auction platform may pay out weeks after the sale. If one channel takes far more of your staff's time per coin, count that too.

Break it down by category

An overall comparison mixes coins that do not behave alike. Run the same numbers for each category on each channel:

Category and channel	Coins sold	Revenue	Coin cost	Margin over cost
Morgan dollars, eBay	30	$2,640	$2,010	$630 (23.9%)
Morgan dollars, website	6	$560	$410	$150 (26.8%)

Margin over cost here leaves out fees. Add eBay's fees on those 30 Morgan dollar sales, say $356, and the eBay margin drops to $274, or 10.4% of revenue. The website looks better per coin, but six sales in 90 days is too few to decide anything. The useful conclusion is narrower: Morgan dollars sold five times as often on eBay, so that is where most of them should go, and the website should carry the better ones.

Mistakes that skew the comparison

Coins with no cost recorded

A coin that sold with no cost counts as all profit. Ten coins that sold for $1,200 and really cost $900 make your margin $900 higher than it was. Before you compare, find the sales with no cost and fix them or leave them out.

Comparing different periods

Spot prices, the season, and a big show all move sales. Compare channels over the same dates.

Too few sales

A channel with eight sales can swing 10 points on one coin. Use at least 90 days for most comparisons, and 12 months for slow categories.

Counting cancelled orders

Count only orders that were paid and shipped or ready to ship. Cancelled orders and cancelled lines did not make you anything.

Different coins on different channels

If you send your best coins to the website and your common coins to eBay, the website's margin reflects the coins, not the channel. The category breakdown helps here. Comparing the same kind of coin across channels is fairer.

How CoinManagerPro reports marketplace performance

CoinManagerPro builds the report from the eBay orders it imports and the purchase price on each coin's record. Open Marketplaces, then Performance, and choose "Last 30 days", "Last 90 days", or "Last 12 months", for one marketplace or all. Each marketplace shows "Orders", "Coins sold", "Revenue", "Fees", "Coin cost", "Margin", "Sell-through" (such as 37 of 96 listings), and "Days to sell". Margin is revenue less the coin cost and the marketplace fees. Sell-through is the published listings that sold in the period, divided by the listings that were live by the end of the period. Only orders that are ready to ship or shipped count. Cancelled orders and cancelled lines do not.

The "By category" table shows the "Category", "Marketplace", "Coins sold", "Revenue", and "Margin" for each category. Margin by category is revenue less coin cost, without fees. A coin with no purchase price counts as zero cost, so record your costs. To open the page, a member needs the permissions to view reports and to view coin cost.

The report covers eBay. The Walmart Marketplace connection is not open to dealers yet. For sales, profit, stock, and expenses across the whole business, use Reporting. See marketplace performance and the performance help article.

The short version

Compare each marketplace on margin after fees and coin cost, sell-through, and days to sell, over the same period. Weigh margin against how long the money is tied up. Break it down by category before you move coins between channels. Fix missing coin costs first, or every number is too high.