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 Replies: 33 / Views: 4,761 |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5400 Posts |
An old quote from an old time dealer.................. " Ah a Numismatist, now there is a tough way to make an easy living"!
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Valued Member
Canada
160 Posts |
 Tough living for sure!! But as a side quest in life it could be cool. If you live in a area where there is larger conventions would help cut cost down in traveling and would be a lot of fun setting up there a few times a year. Me been from Canada I would get crushed very fast by the top dealers here since we are not a huge market like you guys in the U.S. But just having a career and no other goals in life can suck big time....so like I said doing this as a side thing may make you very happy. I can totally relate to that. Edited by redcentcollector
03/26/2015 9:57 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7390 Posts |
Thanks guy. Tons of great info and different perspectives. Just what I thought this thread would bring out. Keep it coming
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Valued Member
United States
212 Posts |
I'd start off in a city with relatively low taxes, such as a small town in Texas. I'd call it "The Cent Shop" and sell coins such as common date Wheaties, IHC, and the occasional colonial and flying eagle. I'd achieve many of my wheat pennies from CRH, then selling them for 25¢ each, creating a 24¢ profit. There would also be common date IHCs selling for a few dollars each, but I've gotten them at a lower price, (this part is still being thought out.) therefore causing me to get a small amount of profit. Now here come the big guns. I would have colonials selling for 15% more than I got them for, same for going with the rest of the cents. I would then expand my business some more, branching out across Texas, and create other branches called the nickel, dime, quarter, etc. store. Soon I'd have a large monopoly of the coin shops, knocking out some of the privately owned shops. Then I'd begin stage 2 This would be going above and beyond, creating auction houses, sponsoring shows, and have websites. If possible, I would also have a small grading service. Oh yea, and then I'd go bankrupt |
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Moderator
United States
16679 Posts |
I've been collecting/selling for over 30 years. Never seen wealth creation from this endeavor.
You'd have to do a sole proprietorship
which would create a tax id that the govt would have access to.
You better be making some money otherwise, what's the point.
$20,000...are you completely out of debt first? If not, I'd rethink.
I also agree, $20K is not going to start anything. Your inventory alone would be done.
swcoin.ecrater.com
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
All seriousness aside, $20k is too much for what you *should* do and too little for what you *want* to do.
Successfully spending that amount on coins capable of generating sufficient profit margin would be extremely labor-intensive. You need to not only find the coins, you have to find them at a price you can flip for profit. I believe you'd need a bunch more capital to look for an existing dealer to buy out or something of that sort, to come up with enough profitable inventory to offer on this scale.
The alternative is to start with $500-1000 and cherrypick nice examples in your area of greatest personal expertise to flip, with the intent to build the business slowly. Back when I first registered here, I was doing this with Morgans and making enough to support my collection purchasing. Cycle every cent back into new purchases; it will be a long time before you realize actual income.
But you don't know what that point is yet, and this is why you should build slowly to it. Learn the business - what people want and what you're best qualified to offer them. Adapt to the scale of things and operational necessities as you first see them.
Above all, don't sell anything you cannot offer professional grading and attribution advice on. How, otherwise, will you know what your stuff is worth?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
This is really not easy. Difficult to know what is good and what isn't when it comes to coins. I go to lots of coin shows and visit coin stores. I keep away from on line dealers. From watching them for many years, I really just don't know how to make such a business grow. For example one dealer I see at all the shows started with one small table and now has grown to 3 or 4 tables at each show. He does not use the internet at all and tells me he makes well over the hundred thousand a year mark all the time. Another dealer started with only one table and made most of his via his web site to the point he moved his family to Florida and opened a store there. Another dealer I see all the time has one table, always has one table and tells me he is planning on stopping this due to no money from this business.
In other words it just seams really difficult to know what will make it and what will not. Way to unpredictable to know what coins will sell and which ones don't.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1804 Posts |
The heartless (probable) truth is 20K is 90% short of a dead-bankrupt business in 2-3 years. As a mid 20th Century Merchant I could get a 1,200 sq ft store rental at $1.00 per foot per year, on a month to month basis. Labor was cheap (loyal-faithful-mostly honest). There were no heath care issues. I do not remember any GOVERNMENT issues except taxes. State and federal. Key point is YOU WILL MAKE "the" MONEY THE DAY YOU BUY IT. If you do not buy cheap, you're dead. This means, as you buy a widow's coins, on the cheap, some persons will criticize you for taking advantage of the poor ignorant widow. Rather reminds me. Just bought a car. First we made the deal on the new one, and after that I offered to sell them 'em the used Camry. A clean offer came at $2,200. We took it to another dealer and they offered $2,500. Four or five days later, on both ebay and C.L. we had 47 hundred dollar bills in hand. ($4,700) We became a personal to person car dealer the minute we started taking pictures and placing ads. The way I look at is we made-saved (about) $500 a day to sell it. Now, back to your situation. PLEASE PLEASE DON'T DO IT. Try doing MORGAN "stuff" with out the over head |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
Man sooo many great ideas and cautions this thread is going to be a great teaching tool... I was asking in a general sense and putting a low figure on it to cultivate such great responses for any future reads and u guys nailed it! Now lets get specific, for me I'm just toying with the idea as it would be a side thing and not a main source of income. Just a way to turn and burn with the profits going into high-quality pieces for an investment collection. I've had some luck buying 100 & 500 ct. bank bags of cull morgans with a profit margin of 20-30% with no fixed overhead finding no high value cull keys but errors and counterstampes yes, o/cc's & o/s abound. And that's when I couldn't care less about vams. So who knows how much of a pm increase VAM hunting will add to the bags... this is what I'm thinking as far as starting inventory... for a side biz |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:So who knows how much of a pm increase VAM hunting will add to the bags Not enough to make it worth your while, as you would need to spend 15-20 minutes on every single coin to attribute. And value-added VAMs probably amount to less than 10% of the different ones known, and probably less than 1% by mintage. You can see part of what I'm saying there - $20k gets you a whole_bunch of labor without offering sufficient return. A Million will buy you a known inventory. $20k buys a lot of work. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
937 Posts |
I have tried to start a business on a shoestring it all but drove me to the poor house. Many people have said some very wise things in this thread. One thing that one must realize is everything you sell must pay for three things, if it fails to do this you go broke. These are; 1. itself. If it doesn't do this then turn mother's picture to the wall as you run out the door. 2. another. It myust bring you money to buy something else to sell. 3. you. it must pay for its share of the overhead, and there is always overhead even if you sell on ebay. Does this mean you have to sell everything at a two or three hundred percent mark up? No, but that sure would be easier. You want to focus on Morgans so... You get 10K worth of morgans and head of To the Local Happy Valley Coin Club Three day CoinFest! You get one table for three days at $200. It takes only an hour to drive there so you go home each night three round trips of 140 miles each and tolls in the family SUV $100. Food and drink at the show $50. So now we have to sell $350 worth of Morgans just to pay for the show. No prob. Right? We get to the show and find our table- in the back between the lady selling Outer Mongolian coins and trinkets and the twelve year old YN selling circulated Lincoln Memorials. So after three days of long drives, listening to bored house wifes oohing and aweing over Mongolian hats and scarfs and 300 pre teen boys coming to see their friend's table you actually sell one $100 coin to a father who came back with his son to see the neighbor kids 'penny table'. then when picking up on Sunday you realize that one coin is missing and 10 slabed morgans are stuck to the table because some ten year old spilled his overly caffinated beverage on them when you were trying to stop his little sister from chewing on one of the slabs. So just how much did we make this weekend? Okay, replace the coins with hand made leather goods and this is pretty much all true and from experience. This is the life of a small show vendor. You will burn through your capital just trying to match the market. Take your 20G and buy and sell on ebay until it is gone, it won't take too terribly long, and be more relaxing. |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Heh. Give me 20G's on ebay and I'll never spend another dollar of work income on a coin again.  It would never compensate my time, though. There are 5000 1921 Morgans alone on ebay right now - that number has more than doubled while I've been a Mod here - and I look at every single one. 2 hours a day, before I even buy something. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
IF there are many coin shows in your area, might be worth a try setting up a table and just trying it out.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
711 Posts |
I think I would start off by purchasing a house with a basement and then some slabs. Perhaps a 24 pack of mason jars and then relocate the business to my own private island for the low low price of $229,500. http://www.landwatch.com/Cayes-Beli...id/301161021 At 1.41 Acres, there is plenty of room for your lavish private grounds and also the ability to extend your footprint with more terrain development. Serious offers will be considered.I figure 24 mason jars full ought to get me to Belize. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
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Replies: 33 / Views: 4,761 |
First Page
Posted 03/26/2015 9:44 pm
