Where to sell a single paper stock certificate online?

Question

Is there any easy way to sell a paper certificate online?

I have a Scotts Trade account and usually leave work early to goto the nearest branch, but its a long ways.

It would be much nicer to do it online, place a sell order and get a check in the mail a few days later. I assume I would still have to send in the certificate?

I do this once or twice a year, not a regular trader. The stock is from our employee purchase program and our stock has been trending down for a while, just offloading the stock as it comes till things start looking up.

Answer 1

In order to sell your certificate on-line you will have to send it to a brokerage firm to have the security placed into their books (book entry form).

Once that is done, you can then use their system to sell the security where ever it is traded.  Remember that there may be some fees associated with the transfer into book entry form (but only if your brokerage firm sucks).  There will also be a commission when you sell the security.

Answer 2

There's no way you should sell the certificate on line, both you and a buyer will have problems especially with the documentation that must accompany such a transaction,

You're not going to get your check until the firm gets the stock that you sold.

Call your local Scotttrade office, get a name, tell them you're mailing in a certificate and to send you a stock power.

You mail the stock, make sure your account number is on the certificate send to the person you spoke with

When you get the stock power in the mail, sign it on the lower right side and return it to Scottrade

The stock power will be attached to the stock certificate and forward to the depository for further processing.

When Scottrade receives both the stock power and the certificate, you are then entitled to a check.