Best Type Of Coin And Grade To Get Slabbed And Sold.

with everyone above.
The way that may be most profitable would be not to go to coin shows, but antique stores, pawn shops, stores that do coins "on the side." This will most likely give you the best chance at profit, there may be none and you will have to know many of the key dates, varieties, and other coins that are undervalued by the shop. I have had the most luck going to antique stores and pawn shops. Over the past 2 years I think I have increased my collection by a hefty amount using this method.

Keep in mind those bags of BU Morgans are coins somebody else, probably a lot of somebody elses, didn't see fit to be graded and slabbed. If there was a way to make a profit off them you can bet there's 10K people that would already be doing it.

Unless you can get in on some huge estate sales or find someone locally that's selling their entire collection it's going to be tough turning a profit starting out with no inventory. I'm sure most of the people on this forum have contemplated at least once how to turn their hobby into a business.

But I don't want to be a downer, if you have the focus, passion and drive you can accomplish anything. Go out there and make us naysayers eat crow!! I like mine with ketchup.

Rick

Not sure where I heard it ...

Know how you make a small fortune buying and selling coins...
Start with a large fortune


Do think the best way, as mentioned, is to learn the coins your interested in. The buy the right coins , mostly problem free key and semi key dates,
And hold the for 10, 20 or 30 years. Then find the best outlet.

For me my plan is, I have been putting coins away for 40 years.
Some time in the next few years I think I will start selling the bulk
of my coins just to see how much money I have put away.

I feel some of the coins I will pass down .... But most I have bought for part of my retirement. Many of my coins are worth multiples of what I paid for them, because I have had them for many years.

I totally agree with all the sage advice the CCF experts have given. Studies have shown that it takes about 10,000 hours of study to "master" a skill, whether it's chess or hockey or coin grading. I know I'm very far from that, so I don't even pretend that I can beat the pros at their game. Thus, coin collecting is a hobby for me - and I don't expect to make money from my hobbies.

That said, returning to the OP's post, is there a place where buying raw coins and investing in slabbing them might be worthwhile? I would look for situations where there is more demand for slabbed coins than supply. Two areas spring to mind:

In early coppers, the community is widening from an "all-raw all the time" expert culture to a more inclusive "slab the best" culture, which pulls in type and investment collectors. The advantage here is that there are still good quality, unslabbed coins available. Identifying attractive candidates, getting them into problem-free slabs, and ESPECIALLY getting them CAC'ed takes a lot of expertise, but could pay off well.

Most dealers concentrate on rare coins - whether from population or condition. However, many collectors can't afford those rarities - or just like honest circulated coins. I believe there is a strong market for attractive, circulated coins, both in high-end (AU58, for the PCGS Everyman crowd) and mid-grade (XF45-ish are often attractive and affordable). The key word is *attractive*. There are tons of mid-grade circulated coins floating about. Finding the absolute prettiest, problem free, uncleaned and undipped - in other words, true premium quality - and getting them slabbed could be a strong business model.

Both of these options still require mastering grading and considerable hours at shows, on the internet, and at coin shops, finding the raw coins others have overlooked. Not a weekend's work. But I'd sure love to patronize a dealer with either of these business models!

shootnstarz. Correct about it coming from auto racing. Don't know if jawz said it or not.

I'll take that back about the price. if a person was patient enough he/she could probably make a 20/25% profit.

Just to clarify in response to FadeToBlack:

I am absolutely, positively NOT suggesting the OP should try his hand at either of my suggested business models. Without that 10,000 hours of quality experience backing up his/her coin selections, s/he is almost guaranteed to lose his/her shirt! Especially when s/he is competing against the amazing expertise of EAC members.

I should also point out that the coin collecting hobby is quite well-developed over many decades - and that means that if there is a profitable niche, it WILL eventually be filled as full as the market demands.

However, there are aspects of the market that grow (and shrink) over time. I gave my opinions about two I perceive as growing - but I very well may be completely and entirely WRONG. People who saw the commemorative half dollar market as a growing one in 1989 lost two-thirds or more of the value of their collections quite quickly in the 1990's. And experts have been predicting that market will bounce back for years now, but it hasn't.

So please take my opinion as merely an opinion - and not as advice. It's worth noting that I am not putting my own money into it! ;-)

I just got burned chasing bond yield. I've yet to pick a good mutual fund. But over a long period of time I've seen my coins appreciate in value. Here are a couple thought:

Pick something you like and build on it as a specialty. 20 years ago cc coins were relatively cheap and I liked them. But somewhere along the line I lost my taste for the relatively common Morgans and started picking up cc Seated coins whenever I saw them. Over 15 years the thrill of the hunt has been a lot of fun. These coins have appreciated enough, and are now mostly sold by specialists, so I can rarely afford to add to what I have. I've switched to foreign silver coins, which hold similar interest for me but are often way underpriced by dealers who can't sell them.

Remember that you have to beat retail. Some of the cc Seated coins I have have tripled in price. However they sell wholesale, so I'd be very lucky to sell them for 2x, and more likely 1.5x what I paid.

Don't plan on flipping, unless it's in the very long term. There are millions of MS63 slabs of common date dollars. Adding a few more won't change the market. If you're interested in playing a market stick to bullion, which is what common MS63's are, plus the grading service fees. They move with bullion, but are much harder to liquidate.

If you want to slab something do it to a coin whose value makes the grading cost trivial. $1000 collectable coins, like 1795 cents in VF. I had a dealer advise slabbing only once, and ANACS identified pin scratch graffiti. I returned that VF 1795 cent to the original seller for a refund.