Making Money From Coins? Advice Would Be Nice!

I'll answer this as succinctly as possible.

If you wish to make money by reselling coins, you need to become sharp enough to distinguish a bargain when you see one, committed enough to invest the large amount of time and effort required to find these bargains, and a good enough seller to convert these bargains into profits.

To paraphrase, the best way to make a small fortune in numismatics is to start with a large one.

There is no easy money in coins, frenchcoin. For virtually every dealer, margins are extremely slim and subject to market caprices which sometimes make no sense at all. Generally speaking, you'll be doing well to average anything over 10% in the long run.

I recently conducted a successful liquidation of my collection of Morgan VAM's. Acquiring that collection consumed 20-30 hours a week of my time, for three years. I looked at approximately 2000 coins per week, and perused all the available information, both online and off, daily. I maintained a presence at half a dozen coin-related forums to catch every bit of information I could regarding my specialty.

Did I mention, this was all directed towards a single date of issue of a single denomination?

That's what it takes to make a decent margin in the world of coins. I made a fair amount of money, and an excellent margin on my initial investment. As near as I can tell, my total profit worked out to about 20 cents per hour worked to get there.

Expressed in dollars and cents, if you need $US3000 to reach your goal, you're going to need $US10,000 and a solid year, and that only if you're lucky. If you're not lucky, your $10,000 is going to turn into $8000.

In the immortal words of Robert Anson Heinlein, TANSTAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

No one else is allowed to do this except me.

ONE thing I do is spend a lot of time on ebay for incorrect listings of silver items that no one else happens to find and get them at or way below spot. It's time consuming and the profit margins are slim but it's an investment at the same time. I won't give away all my secrets

As to your second question

I am an investor/seller but I have such a love for coins that there are a Lot that I just cannot sell because I love the beauty and history of the coins.

Thanks for the advice so far guys!

Superdave: I understand its a big market out there and with alot of dealers out for a bargain.I couldn't ever do what your doing,as in big amounts as much as id love to!
I was thinking more along the lines of buying job lots and sifting threw them.Its what my gran used to do and more often than not get a few big winners!I guess what I'm saying is i'll be more hoping for luck than knowlage(which is a risky thing to hope for but I guess the best I can do)

Gracceoutcast: I used to do that on star wars figures!Got myself a nice r2d2 many moons ago,thankfully some guy listed it as a r2f2,came up alongside jets!

Thanks Mathman!Good luck to you to with ebay,thats a tidy profit!

Im not after making $$$ just a few hundred $'s would be nice to keep the airline ticket tocking over!

Cheers people!

Let your friends,relatives, acquaintances and neighbors know you're interested in buying coins. Yard sales, estate sales are some other good places to buy. I sometimes find old coins in change; I go thru rolls of coins from the bank. You have a very steep learning curve ahead of you. It sounds like you know very little about coins so you'll be trying to sell to people who know alot more than you. It is very difficult to make money under those circumstances. It has taken me a couple of years to figure out what is a desirable coin and be able to place a reasonable value on it.

BTW, I made my money via (a) salary from a job; (b) stocks; (c) real estate. I have collected coins slowly over the year, hoping sometime in the future they would go up in value but not counting on it. And just because it is fun and educational.

I do the same that graceoutcast does. Look for badly placed lists with simply wrong names etc. I also go to my coinshop and look over their stuff. Recently I went to my coinshop looking at random Peace dollars. I noticed he had some that were in what I'd call VF to EF 1934S, each for $10. I simply spent all my money that I had there with me and bought me 25 of them. Needless to day that in VF condition they're $75 each I managed to get me a very nice profit to use towards paying off some bills and stuff I guess you have to go look and carry a RedBook with you or know what you're looking for and know the what the people are wiling to pay for it and jump on it.

I will second that Susan lol. you could also do like I do it. lol and this is not funny at all lol but I cant stop laughing when I think about it.
i bought a few coins awhile back I think I paid 20 for the one coin and a few more for the other. well I put them both on ebay and made I want to say about 15 less that I paid after fee's and every thing I lost my shirt on it. so don't do it my way lol. do not buy coins that you have no knowledge in. you will loose your shirt.
Gary too

As noted by chasinva69. Yard/garage sales, estate sales, flea markets are the best places to find valuable coins. Not easy, but they are there. Remember, not estate auctions, sales. I've found virtually thousands of dollars worth of coins at such places. The biggest thing is you have to ask. At all such places I always ask for any old jars, cans, boxes, etc of coins laying around. Most people will not put such things out in the open. If you ask, many will pop up with something. At one garage sale a lady pulled out a jar of old cents and said I could have them for face value if I sat there and counted them. I estimated about $30 worth and offered her $50. She took it. I did that because the bottom was full of Indian Head cents in what appeared to be in MS grades. Later I estimated about $10,000 worth. At a flea market I found a notebook with 228 Buffalo nickels in at least EF grades or better for $80.
As to how to make a profit, use ebay. Now here is something a coin dealer I know does. She goes to banks, buys uncirculated coins for face, puts them in 2x2's and sells them on ebay for about 10 times what she has in them. Example a dime, in a 2x2 she pays about 13cents for and sells on ebay for about $1 to $2. People are dumb and they do buy them. Whe also goes to coin shows and sells the same things there. Her table is one of the most visited and she sells a massive amount of coins. At shows she gives regular customers a big discount of about 25% off. What a lady.

Justcarl,thankyou for your reply.Thats some good advice I will be sure to follow up.
I remember burying a jar of coins in my back garden come to think of it.....had some nice Uk vickys in there,might be worth digging up!

Also thats one heck of a find!The kind of thing I dream about most nights.Were you not shaking handing over the money?Im a cool calm customer when I try but with $10,000 at stake I dunno if I could be.

Baseball cards you say?Over here we have Football(soccer) stickers/figures ect.You always think as a kid getting a complete set and u'll be set up for life in a few years,sadly the reality is your lucky if you get half of what you put into the collection in the first place!
Still saying that id love to get your collection one day!!!