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 Replies: 18 / Views: 11,874 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1211 Posts |
Seems like a job where you really have to put in some work to earn a buck, for sure.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
there are plenty of coins that get sold for far less than market value to dealers that are well known. Some family members are just wanting a quick sale and a one stop shop and when you do this the seller takes a loss by taking it to a dealer that has the cash flow to afford to buy such large collections. They either don't know enough about what they have or just don't want to take the extra time it would take to list them and sale themselves. Dealers that are known "Honest" will get allot more people walking in off the street with whole collections and the people bringing them in knows they need to make money also so they are willing to take a percentage of what the whole collection is worth for ease of selling it to one person. A dealer that gets these collections in may have specific types of coins that do not move well in his shop so he will contact other coin shops that do have customers for that specific type of coins and sell them to them at their cost or maybe a small amount more which still leaves meat o9n the bone for the other shop as well. So dealers do get coins from other dealers also
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Moderator
 Australia
16859 Posts |
Apart from HSN, I believe the answer to all the questions posted in the OP is "Yes". All of those are possible sources for coins. Whatever your sources, the key is, as with many other things, to "buy low, sell high". "Buying low" can mean: paying way below catalogue for coins that walk in off the street; getting special deals from other dealers; buying coins in bulk then parcelling them up to sell individually. "Selling high" can mean things like: selling way above catalogue price to newbies/investors/non-regular customers; value-adding (such as sending raw coins off to a TPG); using cheap deals to lure in customers, then whack them with full-priced items once they're hooked. Some of these methods are perfectly legitimate; others are shady or downright nasty. Which ones get used depends on the ethics and personality of the dealer in question. To succeed as a dealer, you ideally need three things: knowledge, people skills and business sense. You might be able to get by with only two out of three of these (I've known several dealers that still seem to make a living in the business, despite obviously lacking in one of these areas), but anything less than that, you might as well forget it. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
dealers make a good portion of their profit from their melt buckets as well.
they are also making more than 25%. margins might be tighter dealer to dealer but if a walk-in customer is "cashing out" I wouldn't be surprized if they aren't doubling their investment (or more).
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
723 Posts |
Wade, the melt bucket is intriguing, enough so that I have often considered hanging a shingle "I Buy Silver" to see what might come through the door. I do have a little storefront, but have not done so mostly for safety concerns.
I have often wondered what might be lurking in the silver lots that Joe Seller might be bringing in.
I know one dang thing, and that is that when I am looking for a particular date quarter or such, there never seems to be any deals to be had!
I suppose I am just trying to figure it out. Maybe learn how to get the odd "good deal" from time to time. Not to make money, though I wouldn't turn down a buck that came my way. But to avoid the "I sure paid full price for that fill-in-the-blank." feeling.
Edited by Jon K
11/27/2012 9:39 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
I agree with what has been posted .. and would add.
I am sure each dealer will get their inventory from different sources. But getting them from customers
walking into the shop, is the main source. The good dealers will have a network of other dealers to buy and sell with.
There are also coin shows, many dealers with use coin shows to buy and sell inventory.
I have been helping out at local coin shops for almost two years now, buying and selling collections. And it is amazing what can walk in the door. For example last year a lady walks in and asks if we buy gold coins .. of course we do. She goes to the car and brings in a box with over 300K in gold coins. Another example, couple weeks ago, a guy comes in to sell two 1oz gold eagles(modern). He liked the price we gave him, so he asked me if I would look at some coins his grand father had left him. He with to his truck and brings back a old Dansco album that had "cents" on the cover. I open the book and it has 7 or 8 2X2 vinyl pages, all filled with $20 gold coins. When we told him we would buy the whole book, he said he had four more books and that he had silver coins too, but the boxes were to heavy to carry.
Not all collections walking into coin shops are like that .. most are not .. I helped buy around 10K in coins yesterday and today. Most of the time the volume is so large that we try hard to find all the better coins, so we can pay a fair price for them .. but it make take weeks to sort through a big collection .. sometimes it gets sold to other dealers before it is really searched. Of course not all dealers are high volume dealers. The dealers in the network I help out at buy and sell many millions in coins each year.
From my experience, of going to coin shops for over 35 years. I feel the poor economy we are in now is causing a lot of people to sell collection that have been in their family for generations.
For helping out at the shops, I get to purchase coins for my collection at very good prices .. I do know my collection has grown very much over the past two years .. and it has been very interesting seeing the other side of the counter. Between working at the coin shops and being on CCF .. I continue to learn more about coins everyday.
If you want to make a living in coins .. you need as much knowledge and you can ... and then some more.
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Valued Member
United States
79 Posts |
I agree with the above comments too about estate buys and such. One particular thing that is important too is personal friendships and becoming known as a first name basis friend with the individuals working in the shop. Once you are recognized and welcomed when you pop in, it doesn't take long before they start cutting you a few deals.
Ask them what their favorite coin is, if they have any deals, and before long they value your repeat business enough that the discounts become a regular thing.
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Valued Member
United States
79 Posts |
Oh, and I am starting to add some 2012 Silver Eagle Bullion coins to my collection to every now and then. In the event I need to sell off a part of my collection in the near future, I can sell those off instead of having to dip into my older collectible coins. I call it "insurance"
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Basically as already noted that most coins are acquired from people selling off collections. Some from when they were kids and many from inheritances. Many collectors have no one in their family that wants what they spent their lives acccumulating so it is just sort of dumped to a coin store or coin show dealer. At coin shows I've seen people bring in bags of coins from a Father's or other family member's collection. And also, since coins do not have serial numbers, a stolen hoard can not be easily identified as a stolen item. A crook could walk into any coin store with stolen coins and simply say left over from my parents. I wouldn't doubt that many coins are purchased in a similar situation. And then too there are many people with an old jar, can, box, etc. of old coins laying around for a rainy day. People in buisnesses that deal in coins also may be watching for valuable coins to sell to dealers. For example a person I know that owns several laundromats has his family go through all the coins each night. He told me he makes thousands of dollars doing that eacb Month.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
For example a person I know that owns several laundromats has his family go through all the coins each night. He told me he makes thousands of dollars doing that eacb Month. That might be the greatest idea ever for collecting and making money |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3283 Posts |
Sometimes when I hang out, looking through coins at the coin shop;
lines of people develop with grocery bags half full of coin books and loose coins in 2x2's,
waiting to sell them at melt or whatever. People have coins stashed away or get them when
death's occur in the family and they cash out.
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Rest in Peace
United States
1729 Posts |
The poor economy has pushed many people into coin shops to sell coins which have been "buried" for years. I watched a cockroach crawl out of a dilapidated cardboard box on my dealer's counter; the guy selling his collection, who looked as if he couldn't afford a bar of soap, was trying to sell off very common coins in torn Whitman folders, thinking he had treasure on his hands. The family silverware collection of cheap plated stuff often shows up. But as several have stated, many long-term collections which have been inherited show up, too. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3789 Posts |
dealers get them from many places.
For one, they deal with private mints. In many cases they need a valid business license, and then a line of credit. Then such as with these private mints, based on their allocations and what they can sell, they have to pony up 8,000, 20,000 and even more, tens of thousands of dollars. In many cases, this is what they are stuck with, there is NO turning back they are committed to buying X lot.
This is why NOT all dealers have everything. they are going off demand, and what their customers have asked for. And this can make or break them, so they stick with whats trending and whats in demand.
so you got these guys really going out and taking risk every single day. Not fun.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
As I said I know a person with laundromats. That has me thinking of all the other buisnesses that utilize coins. For example I wonder who looks though all the change at toll booths. How about all the change used at automatic car washes. Vending machine companies. Parking meters. Just stop and think of all the places that use large amounts of coins each day. Could be scarry on how many 1916D Mercury dimes go through those machines. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
My favorite dealer buys whole estate collections that have been built up by the collectors. The business has been around for nearly 50 years, and has established a good rapport with the collectors.
When the collector dies, the collection is bought via an executor of the estate by the dealer. Over the 50 year period so far, some of the more valuable coins have been recycled by auction a number of repeat times.
The dealers are happy, and so too are the collectors. The industry keeps moving and healthy, due to a steady increase in the demand for good coins, that keeps prices moving higher on the average, over the decades.
A record of some of the more notable coins has been kept by the business, and so an auction history has been maintained of them. That helps to establish and maintain the coins' authenticity.
The more valuable coins go to auction and the less valuable coins go to stock in the business. The business itself has a chain of four shops established in major cities.
A significant proportion of the more valuable coins become part of investment portfolios, for superannuation purposes.
The established dealers are happy, and so too are the collectors.
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Replies: 18 / Views: 11,874 |
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Posted 11/27/2012 8:30 pm
