Wannabe Dealer Seeks Advise

"I am considering getting involved in coin dealing and therefore am seeking any advise."

My advice: Don't do it. You will most likely bite off more than you can chew.

I thought I wanted to do the same but realized that coin dealers don't make THAT much money. Some of the swindlers do, ofcourse, but the work to profit ratio was to skewed for the normal business man. The real money is in flipping and cherry picking.

Read the book: How to make money selling coins or something like that I don't have the book handly. The premise is to seek out under valued slabbed coins, buy them, crack them and resubmit them. If you get a higher grade, the profits are limitless. I've made more in the past 3 years that have far surpassed my wildest dreams.

Let the old timers deal in no date buffs and cirulated cents. Time is money and your time is best spent cherrypicking. Knowledge is power ...go get'em.

Jim,

I know that lots coins to search but you can always start out doing small lots not thousands of coins like I do each weak.

One last thing get to be freinds with those tellers at banks it pays offs . Tonight after turning my lefht over pennys from roll searching. My freindly bank teller saved me 39 Ike dollar coins an person turned in this week. I bought at face value. It was all bu 1976 philly coins. I can sell them for 50 bucks per roll on ebay or sell each coin for for around 3 to 15 per coin on ebay. I was amazed big time on that buy for sure. Serval weaks ago he sold me an 1980 half dollar that was error coin I need to send to an grading company to get it graded where I can sell it for an lot money.

My other bank teller serval monlths ago sold me 5 1964 thru 1969 silver halfs at face value. I was happy with that deal geting silver at face.

So the key is try to get as much stuff as you can buying at face value on collector coins that can be sold later at an profit. I work in my spare time checking banks chasing those colletors coins at face value.

Also get know the guys working the gas stations or stores where you live. My freinds has helped me get cool coins that way also. Serval monlths ago my freind sold me 1963 5 dollar red seal star note at face value they turned into to buy gas for there car. You will amazed all stuff they turn in at the locol stop and go store. My freinds there has gotten rolls of silver coins, wheats, Peace dollars at face before. Its amazing what they get at times at there store. They tell me the first and end monlth is best time to pick up old coins or bills. Reason the peaple are broke and need stuff.

Good luck

Chevrolet454ss

Chevrolet thats awesome and is definetly good advice. Thanks

Andrew-Thanks

Tights,

I am watching it to see if the reserve gets met. In the meantime do some homework. Thanks for the link.

I'm certainly not arguing completely with you Hadley, but if you look at the current teletrade pricing for what is even shown as the top 40 in this listing, it's not at a bad price right now at all. I only went through the first 25 or so and I was over 4K with prices realized. I was also being conservative on the pricing and grading when researching.

I do agree that whatever is chosen, you really need to be an expert in that field.

Tights and Bruce, again what bothers me about this auction is the very poor quality of the coins in it. I doubt that 84-cc in the rattler holder or the 1894-O would make dmpl by today's standards, the 78-cc is covered in carbon spots, and there are several that appear to have fairly unattractive toning. According to the seller, besides the 40 listed coins you get another 240 slabbed coins with very little value.........widgets.
Could you make money flipping the coins from that auction? Maybe, maybe not. It would be a lot of work getting rid of the 240 pieces that are of very little value, you'd probably end up selling them as a group!
Did anyone notice that the seller is also auctioning off a 'mystery' 40lb bag of world and damaged US coins for only $250? Danger, Wil Robinson, Danger!
JimR, if you are looking for groups of coins, perhaps take a look at the Heritage and Superior auctions for smaller groupings of coins (they often run groups of 4). You might be surprised at some of the nice coins that get trapped in these groups, and how decent the prices can be. You also get to be a lot pickier with what you are buying, and thus avoid the problem coins altogether. Believe me, there are more than a few of the larger ebay dealers that get a significant portion of their inventory in just this way.
You don't have to be big-time to be successful. Look at Mark Feld, an ex-NGC grader who also worked for Pinnacle Rarities. He has a very small website with a fairly small inventory, yet the material is so nice it never seems to hang around. Quality sells itself.

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Tights and Bruce, again what bothers me about this auction is the very poor quality of the coins in it. I doubt that 84-cc in the rattler holder or the 1894-O would make dmpl by today's standards, the 78-cc is covered in carbon spots, and there are several that appear to have fairly unattractive toning. According to the seller, besides the 40 listed coins you get another 240 slabbed coins with very little value.........widgets.

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I was thinking more from an inventory standpoint than a huge flipping money maker. Even if you break even, it is inventory. This will bring eyes I think to other coins you would have for sale where you might make profit. Kind of like a used car dealer with 10 cars compared to 50 cars. Who will get the most traffic?

Regardless, sounds like Jim is passing on this one. Good luck with whatever you decide.