Where to Sell a Top-Pop Unattributed 1964 QDO Proof Kennedy Half (FS-105): eBay, GreatCollections, or the Coin Show Bourse Floor?

Where you sell a coin can matter as much as the coin itself. I’ve watched two sellers offer the same rarity and walk away with wildly different checks. So let’s put the modern digital marketplace head-to-head with the traditional dealer bourse floor—and find out where your numismatic value actually lives.

I’ve been running an online coin dealership for over fifteen years, and if there’s one lesson the market keeps teaching me—and keeps re-teaching sellers who ignore it—it’s this: the same coin can realize wildly different prices depending entirely on where and how you offer it. Nothing illustrates this better than a recent auction night that had the variety-collecting community buzzing. An unattributed 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar, certified by NGC as Proof 68 Cameo, carried a hidden secret—a Quadrupled Die Obverse (QDO), catalogued as FS-105. Once the right buyers recognized what they were looking at, it sold for what one observer aptly called “a pretty penny.”

That single sale was a masterclass in numismatic liquidity, buyer psychology, and venue selection. So grab your loupe. We’re going to walk through exactly where coins like this belong—online auctions like eBay and GreatCollections, or face-to-face on a coin show bourse floor—and why the right answer shifts with the coin, the seller, and sometimes even the day of the week.

The Night the Unattributed QDO Proved a Point

For those who missed the drama, here’s the setup. A 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar—the beloved first-year issue struck in 90% silver amid the raw grief of national mourning following President Kennedy’s assassination—crossed the auction block at GreatCollections graded NGC Proof 68 Cameo. On its face, nothing earth-shattering. But the holder said nothing about die variety. The coin was unattributed. Four savvy bidders knew precisely what they were seeing: a Quadrupled Die Obverse, listed in the Fivaz-Stanton numbering system as FS-105.

As one collector in the discussion put it, the more complicated varieties are still findable in the wild—but “all it takes is one more person to know what to look for and a cherrypick can turn into just a standard auction.” In this case, at least four people knew. The price reflected every bit of that knowledge. Another collector shared photos of his own raw cherrypick find, sent off to the grading service years earlier—a reminder that these discoveries are still out there, waiting for sharp eyes and good lighting.

In my experience, attribution is the single greatest value lever a seller controls. An unattributed FS-105 Proof 68 Cameo sold to four informed bidders is a windfall. The same coin sold to zero informed bidders is a heartbreak.

But here’s the question every seller should ask: would that coin have brought the same money at a coin show? Would it have brought more? Less? Let’s work through each channel honestly, because I sell through all of them—and each has its own personality.

Know Exactly What You’re Holding Before You Choose a Venue

Before we talk fees and floors, a word about preparation. When confusion erupted over what the bidders actually saw—one skeptic noted it didn’t appear to be the famous Accented Hair variety, and he was right—the answer was sitting in plain sight: the letters “QDO” in the listing told the whole story. A Quadrupled Die Obverse shows four overlapping hub impressions on the working die, creating dramatic spread across the design elements. On this particular Kennedy, the pick-up point (PUP) lives in the motto “WE TRUST” on the obverse, where the quadrupling jumps out clearly under magnification.

Skeptics who couldn’t see it were pointed toward Variety Vista, the indispensable online reference for die varieties. And when one poster wondered whether the coin went unattributed because it wasn’t a recognized major variety, another quickly corrected him: it’s FS-105, a fully recognized Fivaz-Stanton listing. The grading service simply hadn’t applied the attribution to the label. That gap between what a slab says and what a coin truly is? That’s precisely where money gets made—and lost.

• Date/Type: 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar, Proof issue, 90% silver, 10% copper
• Variety: Quadrupled Die Obverse (QDO), FS-105 — a recognized rare variety hiding in plain sight
• Grade: NGC Proof 68 Cameo — effectively mint condition, a genuine condition rarity for a first-year proof with knockout eye appeal
• Key diagnostic: Quadrupled lettering visible in “WE TRUST” on the obverse
• Not: the Accented Hair variety (a separate, well-known 1964 proof diagnostic)

Actionable takeaway: Never consign or list a coin until you’ve exhausted attribution research. Ten minutes with Variety Vista, the Cherrypickers’ Guide references, and a decent loupe can be the difference between melt-plus-premium and a five-figure realization.

Selling on eBay: Fees, Reach, and the Reputation Economy

eBay remains the largest numismatic marketplace on Earth, and I move a meaningful slice of my inventory through it. But let’s talk numbers without varnish.

The True Cost of eBay’s Fee Structure

When I calculate my net on an eBay sale, here’s the stack:

1. Final value fees: Typically around 13% on most categories including collectible coins, though rates vary by category and any store subscription discounts. On a $5,000 coin, that’s roughly $650 before anything else.
2. Payment processing: Generally bundled into the final value fee these days, though historically a separate ~3% bite. Read your current fee schedule carefully—these numbers move.
3. Listing/upgrade fees: Subtitles, bold, gallery upgrades, reserve fees (often $5 or a percentage of the reserve). Optional, sure. They also add up fast across hundreds of listings.
4. Shipping reality: Insured, signature-required shipping on a five-figure coin isn’t cheap, and buyers punish inflated shipping charges with negative feedback.
5. Returns and disputes: Even honest sellers eat occasional return shipping, plus the occasional “not as described” claim that resolves against them.

Stack it all up and a realistic all-in cost of selling on eBay often lands somewhere in the 13–18% range of hammer price. For a common-date Morgan or a generic gold piece, that’s simply the cost of doing business. For a six-figure rarity? It’s a second mortgage payment.

Liquidity and Buyer Depth: eBay’s Genuine Superpower

Here’s what the fee math doesn’t capture: eBay’s audience is enormous and global. A niche item—an FS-105 Kennedy proof, say—might have only fifty collectors in America who care deeply. That’s a small pocket of collectibility, but eBay puts the coin in front of every one of them simultaneously, plus international buyers, plus speculators. Competition drives price. I’ve watched obscure varieties bring more on eBay than reputable dealers would pay wholesale, simply because the two collectors who “had to have it” finally found each other that week.

Online Reputation Is Your Storefront

On eBay, your feedback score is your reputation. As a dealer, I’ve spent years building thousands of positive feedbacks, detailed photographs, and consistent descriptions. That reputation lets me command stronger prices than a brand-new seller listing the identical coin. Buyers pay a premium for certainty, and feedback history is certainty. If you’re a one-time seller liquidating a collection, understand that you’ll likely net less than an established dealer would on the same listing—not because your coin is worse, but because

Related Resources

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• Mint Error or Post-Mint Damage? Decoding the Lamination Flaws, Clipped Planchets, and Tooling Marks Behind the Top-Pop Unattributed 1964 QDO Proof Kennedy Half – Is That a Rare Lamination Flaw, or Did Someone Just Scratch It with a Screwdriver? Is that a rare lamination flaw, or di…
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