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 Replies: 24 / Views: 2,473 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
880 Posts |
trd that's a great point about selling what your customer wants. But antiques are a very wide thing to sell. You at one point decided that you wanted to deal in your specific area correct? Did you collect them prior to that? Or did you even get into collecting them after that point?
Also - thank you for the bullion idea (never thought about having a known price bulk purchaser). I doubt I'll have the purchasing power to buy bulk bullion like that anyway though :( unfortunate.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
651 Posts |
From experience and without deep pockets, it's a dog eat dog world out there.
Try it out though.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
Theres no doubt in my mind that it will be a painful start. But that's why I have a day job :). I should be able to invest a few hundred every month so over the course a few years that should help me out. I'll just have to get my hands on a great deal right? :)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
I collected coins & antiques long before I became a dealer. Most small time antique dealers like myself started out collecting & decided that they had enough inventory that they could go into business to support their collecting habit. That was how I started & what I intended until I realized that what I would buy & what my potential customers would buy were two entirely different things. Fortunately for me I realized that before I went into business.
The vast majority of my income is from buying items I know I can immediately resell for a profit. I hit antique malls , estate sales, garage sales & thrift stores on a regular basis. There is absolutely no way every dealer can be an expert on everything so items get sold for under wholesale all the time. I'll also buy entire or partial estates when they are available. My preference is to buy small items that are easy to transport & store. I'm always looking to expand my knowledge base, especially if there isn't anyone in the area buying a certain type of items. Lack of competition combined with knowledge is one of the keys to success.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
I guess my biggest problem at this point would be determining a customer base. I could essentially target anyone I wanted to since I'll be doing this via the internet. There's deffinately someone to collect every coin out there. Targetting the bigger audience could lead to more sales, but also harder competition. I can see how it can be looked at both ways.
I feel like my biggest hold up will be shallow pockets. Which is something that can be overcome by possibly targetting modern coinage. I think I'd like to target key and semi-key date coins. This would allow me to start at lower grades and work my way up as time goes on, but I'm not sure. I have about 4 months to get a good solid game plan.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
I can't offer much advice for selling through a website/webstore. It would seem to me that competitive pricing & generating site traffic would be the keys to success. If you can't buy at prices that allow you to meet ebay pricing & still make a profit it doesn't matter how much site traffic you get because sales volume will be low. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
You are correct. I plan on searching shows for inventory and just trying to establish some relationships with other dealers. Not sure how that will go, but who knows right?
Lets put it this way, if it fails and I fall on my face I'll be okay since it's really to help my wife with her final project. That's not to say I don't totally care, but it's not a life or death situation.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
My suggestions are to not limit your questions to dealers. Many possible customers may help you, become a future customer of yours, give you helpfull hints as to what they look for on the internet. A dealer could give you advise as to what they do but unless you know if they are a failure or a success, not a real good source of advise.
If your planning on having a coin web site, ask the people that may be looking for yours.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
Carl - Wise as always. Great great point...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1348 Posts |
SOOOOOOO What should he look to make per coin? If he can sell a coin for $10 what should he pay for it. I read this whole thing trying to figure out what a good profit margin is only to be disappointed.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
I think it all has to do with turn around time. If I know I can buy a coin and sell it to someone when I get home (per a request) then I'd be willing to make less off of it. But if I have to hold on to the coin for a bit I might have to make a tad bit more money. I also need to figure out tax laws. I'm assuming that I'll have to pay taxes on profits of a business wether the coin is sold on ebay or personal site. So if you look at costs (that I know of) I have to pay my 6% sales tax, probably a 3% Paypal fee, gas/car maintenance, personal time and shipping. To actually make a profit I'm thinking I'd have to at least turn a 25% profit per coin? Is that about right? |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
Turnover rate is right. You don't want to sit on anything. Like the song says, "If ain't got the clientel say heck no". Buy as much as you think you can sell and don't cross business with emotions.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
SOOOOOOO What should he look to make per coin? If he can sell a coin for $10 what should he pay for it. I read this whole thing trying to figure out what a good profit margin is only to be disappointed.
Everyone is sort of jumping ahead a little to much here. The original post was about a future web site and here everyone is already talking about a profit margin. Like discussing the selling price for an oil painting and the canvas, oils and brushes haven't been purchased yet. As a suggestion as to how to start such an on line buisness, I would say do as most people do with a new buisness. Super deals at first to get everyone's attention. An example is near me a cleaners/tailor opened up. For a grand opening you could bring in cloths such as dress shirts, get them cleaned and pressed and returned on hangers if you wanted for a Quarter each. And the quality was and sort of is still great. Naturally after a while the prices kind of climbed to really be more realistic but by then many people were hooked. Any new coin web site too would have to be special to get people's attention since there are probably billions of such sites now in existance. (Slight exageration of coures) My suggestion is to get a real lot of common, everyday best selling coins and issue for a really great price as a come on. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
There's a lot to be said for selling merchandise at low prices to establish a client base. That's a marketing strategy that has been used for a long time. However, if you don't have a plan that includes the profit margin you need you might as well forget it. It takes a lot of time, effort & money to get a business started. Where would you be if you did all that only to find that the minimum profit margin you need to survive is more than the maximum profit margin you can achieve?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
Well you all will see more threads on this topic for me. Like I said, if it flops than oh well. It's not like I'm stuck with inventory I can't move. Of course I don't want to take a loss on stuff, but if all fails I shouldn't take that big of a loss.
So as things get moving forward I will be looking for lots of suggestions. And for those of you who are interested, I hope you provide as much feedback as you can :).
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Posted 06/19/2011 8:28 pm
