Coin Dealer Wanta Be?

Coins.

I went to my local coin shop a few weeks ago, when I walked in with my 2 1/2 year old the guy glanced over at me and kept talking to someone in a chair. I looked over what he had in stock and really did not find what I was looking for. I was in there for around 15 min. and at not time did he ask me what I was looking for, if he could help, or even hi! Well I will never go back there, I will stick to the monthly coin shows.

I can tell you what I like best about my coin shoppe that I frequent weekly.

I love that they recognise me, inside or outside of the store. This really isn't too hard, as they see me frequently enough. It isn't like I expect rememberance after one visit.

I love that they do have chairs and couches to sit and chat. The coin store should be a gathering place for collectors to feel comfortable, and socialise. Encourage meetings of coin clubs after hours? Be sure to keep the valuables locked away in the safe. ;)

I love that they always offer me a drink, and usually lunch. This is a bit extreme though, and should probably be reserved for your best and favourite customers.

I wish my coin store had more to offer in the way of Foreign coins. They've got incredible bulk bins, but they've been very picked over. Only rarely do I have the option of buying better grade foreign materials, and this usually isn't displayed. It's kept in the back, and brought out on request. Remember, not everyone is interested in seeing twenty of the same US coin in a pretty display case. Variety, variety, variety!

Books and supplies. Don't just have the ordinary airtites, albums, and RedBook. Try to keep an inventory of different or collectible materials, even if it's just for reference rather than sale. The coin shoppe should be educational as well as lucrative.

Lots of nice things have been said but let us look at both sides.

When you start a shop, It cost you money.
You pay for the footage, you pay for the utilities.
You pay for safes, storage areas, shelves etc, display cases and your inventory. Oh and don't forget insurance etc. etc. etc.

Thus when I go into a coin shop, I am not expecting to be in someones living room.


If I am not a frequent customer I would not expect them torecognise me.

It would be nice it they had a chair or couch to sit and chat. The coin store could be a gathering place for collectors to feel comfortable, and socialize but it is not my club. Encourage meetings of coin clubs after hours.

I am a working man & I often visit coin shops during the day.

I want to be able to ask questions and not be thought of as an idiot.

If my dealer is a specialist in Morgans, that is great for him/her but my interest may no be what theirs is and I want my dealer to be able to at least know where to reference my questions.

I am not there for a drink, or lunch, and I don't like having food or beverages around my coins.

It would be nice is coin shops had more to offer in the way of variety. Not everyone collects the same thing


Books and supplies. Have the ability to refer your customers to some place else even on line if you do not have what they are looking for.

As a collector of Non US coins I have to do all the conversions to obtain airtites or 2x2 for my coins as my local dealers can not/ will not figure out the size of American supplies into metric- which by the way is what the rest of the world uses.

In summary
a shop that welcomes customers and is there to assist them with their purchases.

Also most important
Most collectors do not spend hundreds of dollars every time they walk through the door - but a good dealer knows that all those small purchases will add up and that customer may refer many other customers.

Richard has it the nail on the head.

I set up a shop with basically my own collection and less than $5000 of current release products. In just over 2 years I have $200K of stock. I specialise in Aussie gear as that is what sells in my area. I also have a large range of accessories. Albums, coin and banknote sleeves, price guides and 2x2's form about half of my day to days sales. I also stock a few novilty coins (eg Ancients, German WWII coins etc) that I get in at a price for none serious collectors. These turn over well for the gift market. Remember the are repeat gift buyers as well!!

You can not stock everything...so do not try to. Stock what actually sells and not be afraid to source all the rest on need. I have a number of customers that know I will not have an item, but know I will get it for them...a lot of dealers do not have customers like this.

You also need a range of items for all budgets. At first this will be hard, particularly better quality items (but this drags people in). You also need to keep in mind the fine grade item costing $50 might be the pride of a persons collection (because that is all they can afford) and is just as nice as the same item in unc costing $5000 in the collection of a person with an unlimited budget. To be enthusicatic with everyones collection no matter the grade is the key to running you business. Any less is an insult to you customer and customers that are insulted do not come back.

Always remember the customer that spends $1 when they come into your shop is just as important as the customer that spend $100k. The other thing I have learnt is that the customer that spends $1 when they come into you shop might be the customer that spends $100K the next time they come into you shop...so impressing them is important at the point in time when they only spend the $1.

I find when I have one person in my shop everyone wants to come in. Getting people through the door is half the battle. Your market will have a wide range of people...from investors to collectors...the young and the old and the disabled...chair is always welcome for the last two groups. It might be a pain to you has it will encourage a lot of idiol chat but at the end of the day...anyone that sits in the char is a valued customer and if that means spending 15mins of you day in idiol chat gets them through you door you have solved half your battle. No body can spend money with you if they do not walk through your door.

You will also find people will want to milk you sole for information. You are there to sell coins...but you are also there to provide a free information service to those of need. Without doing this yiu will find people will not walk through your door.

Advertising is also a key. I spend over $1500 a month onadvertising. You will not get instant success but I have found that two years down the track some of the advertising I thought was worthless is now starting to pay off. This could be because my reputation has grown

It is a hard profession, particularly to establish yourself. Your reputation does mean everything so do not compromise they for any reason. As long as you work hard for your customers you can make a sucessful business. One thing I have learned....being a coin dealer beats working!!

I hope this helps.

Not to be repeditive but note that Bigfella is in a different country. It may or may not be similar where you live. In some areas it is becoming very difficult to compete with the numerous coin shows. For example we have 3 permanent ones a month around me. I've met many dealers there that USED to have a store and gave it up due to the amount of coin shows in this area. A coin dealer in this area can sell at a coin show every weekend, occationally for several days. You are surrounded by nothing but people that are into coins as a hobby or investment. In a store you have to sit and wait for the occational purchaser. At a coin show you meet other dealers and can compare information as to where to accumulate material to sell nad you can also see what others sell better than others. As noted you pay for a table, no utilities, no worries about maintenance, not even garbage removal. You just go to the place, set up, sell, buy coffee, wrap up what is left, go home and no problems with a store to worry about being robbed or whatever else could go wrong.
To sum it up, prior to a store, you may want to check out the amount of coin shows in your area. Here is Illinois, they are all over the place.

Robert, first of all welcome to our CC family!

In my opinion, a successful coin shop would have a nice selection of average collector coins ($1000 and under in value) and a smattering of the more expensive coins with the ability to fulfill individual wish lists. You would need to have a decent source for purchases. Knowing your discerning eye, you could probably purchase at a significant discount on ebay and other on-line auction sites and make a profit with the resale. It's slow going to get it started, though.

When I started, my entire collection became inventory and I also purchased a few small to medium-sized collections to keep us going until we started to get consignment clients. We also sold items other than coins in the beginning to get established. Since we sell on ebay, it was very important to get our reputation set before being able to sell more expensive coins.

A good way to start (and avoid the overhead of a brick-and-mortar store) would be to go to shows with a few coins to sell. These would have to be more high-end because your best customers in this situation will be dealers. Slabbed coins would be preferable. You will still need some money to invest, though.

If you have a dealer that you are friends with, you could start by attending shows with him/her and offer to walk the floor to sell their coins to other dealers. If you can get more money over what your dealer friend wants, then you have made a profit that can be invested into your business enterprise. You could also see if a dealer friend is interested in opening another shop and willing to let you run it. This would give you great experience in selling.

I feel that the main inventory should be in coins with a nice selection of reference books. Series-specific reference books are very popular, but you wouldn't need to have a high stock of them. Basic supplies are also important. I also think it's a good idea to have items available for kids. Whitman folders for cents, nickels, dimes, etc. with buckets or bins that they can go through and be able to afford something just from their allowance money is great. This helps to keep the parents as customers also. The kids would have something to do while their parents are shopping the more expensive items.

Once you have achieved dealer status, I could provide you with a company to obtain supplies and reference books at wholesale.

I hope this helps.

Just Carl,

I agree with you on looks, I am an electrical contractor and a lot of times I will go out to the jobs and work with the tools. I admit I probably look a mess when I go out shopping. Today at a coin show people were rude to me and my boy, there was one older man who was nice though, I bought $75 worth of coins from him, had he had some matte proofs or a couple of the others I needed I would have spent a lot more. I love it when people look at me and discount my purchasing ability by just my looks, to bad for them!

Robert, welcome. You say you have no money to speak of so I can't see you opening a brick and mortar store. But You could sell as a "store" on ebay. Almost no money needed, except inventory. Spend all day on ebay buying what you know is a good deal and then selling your good deals with excellent photos.

Isn't this the only real option for opening a coin store today unless you have some very deep pockets?

I am tempted myself to do just this. Is it feasible if you specialize in just what you know? You would have to constantly buy inventory to flip, because ebay is about auctions (selling your inventory). Hmmmmmm?


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