You asked about selling 1 BTC brass bitcoin in Jan 21. It is now 22 March 2021. The Bitcoin price recently went over $60k, so we afe talikg alot of money here.
Firstly let me talk about value. A few days ago, I asked one of the world’s leading auction houses. They offered a free valuation service. They declined to value it, saying they don’t auction money items like bitcoin due to the traditional buyer and seller premiums.
Historically a number of sales are “purported” to have taken place through this forum and others, and on eBay, but you should not use those as a guide since:
1) The bitcoin price has tripled in the last 3 months.
2) The rarity of un-peeled Casascius has increased, as many were peeled as the price rose.
3) Any sales may have been to shills, or even completely fake.
4) Both buyer and seller had a “trust” issue. Most people would not buy or sell online, meaning prices do not reflect a true market value.
Based on sales which purportedly happened, i think an online sale in this or similar forums might fetch between 1.3 BTC and 3 BTC. I think it would go for much much more if auctioned in a way which was more trust-worthy for the buyers. Some eBay listings a couple of years ago were asking in excess of $200k. That would have been the equivalent of 10 to 20 BTC, but there is no proof that those sales really happened. I am not sure about whether eBay even accepts fully loaded listings.
I would like to see a major auction house sale happen, but see the second paragraph above.
Given the trust issue, I would try to sell via a specialised coin auction house who will give reassurance to buyers. Worst case scenario is that you end up with less than 1 BTC due to the auction house fees, but there is an extremely good chance that you will get much more. The downside risk is worth the upside potential in my view. You might well see a price above $1 million.
Another way to avoid trust issues is to sell in person face to face, by advertising locally. The trouble with that is the price. The places you would advertise typically have second-hand bargain items at low prices. What are the chances of a multi-millionaire bitcoin enthousiast spotting your ad?
The safest way to get value is to peel it and redeem the BTC, but that seems a shame, given the rarity.
This is basically all terrible advice, and mostly wrong.
First, a 2012 Cas will not fetch between 1.3 and 3. If you are lucky you will get 1.1, depending on condition. This is the most trustworth place to sell physical bitcoins, bar-none. Auction houses are not interested, and charge a fortune in commission anyways. A price above $1 million??? Lol, that will not happen until bitcoin is worth $800k.
Ebay has basically
zero seller protection. If you sell it there, someone will buy it, pay for it, receive it, then tell Ebay you scammed them and sent them an empty box, at which point Ebay will 100% return their money to them, and you will have no coin and no money.
Face to face is fine, and something I have done many times, but you better trust the person or do it somewhere safe. Lots of people will rob you if they know you are carrying what is basically $60k in cash.
At this point you have 3 choices:
- Keep it, it will be worth more in the future
- Peel it. This is the safest option, at most you will probably lose around 0.08
BTC if you know how to sweep all the forks. ( ie 1BTC, 0.01BCH, 0.001BSV + peeled coin value)
- Auction it here with minerjones as escrow. You will probably get 1.05-1.08
BTC. Minerjones removes the risk of being ripped off, but not the risk of the coin going AWOL between you and him. You can't get insurance, so you are shit out of luck if that happens. I have personally bought quiet a few this way, and it always went smoothly, but it was stressful as fuck.
