jim4silver
Silver Member
- Apr 15, 2008
- 3,662
- 495
Recently finished my second large coin show working as a "dealer" in a booth. I shared a booth with a real dealer friend and learned more this year than at last year's show. I don't know if anyone here is interested but I thought I would share some observations, etc.
I was surprised that I did not get more interest in my Kookaburras, Koalas, silver Kagaroos in cards, silver Britannias, etc. Really cool stuff silver bugs go nuts over and had few takers since these mostly have higher premiums. I did sell several Mexican Libertad back years and rare years though, and dumped several to some out of state dealers that paid well. Very few dealers had much inventory for the kind of stuff I was selling, like modern foreign bullion etc. Most dealers had slabbed "coins" and such and not as much bullion. That helped me have a decent flow of "customers" and several said "you got great stuff here", etc (was cool speaking to fellow silver bugs into the same kind of stuff as me). I did best with "pretty" or unique coins (with holograms and unique looks like much of the Canadian proof special issues, etc). Or people would come up and say "you have any coins with a dog, cat, polar bear, soccer player, etc."? You name it they asked for it. I was ready for that since I saw that last year, and most of what I sold to the public was stuff in cool boxes that wasn't more than double the silver value (for 1 oz coins) but for smaller coins they would pay up to 4 to 5 X silver value if they liked the coin.
Was good that I was able to almost complete my Australian Lunar series 1 silver coins set (this series is my new addiction), but had to really negotiate in that the guys that had them wanted outrageous amounts initially $100+ for some years, etc. The good thing about being a "dealer" is you get better treatment from the other dealers and they do discount more for you, so I was able to get the prices down to a high but acceptable level.
Since I am considering actually going into the "coin business" in a more serious way I found my self basically "interviewing" some of the cooler dealers about he biz end of all this and learned some interesting things. For example, I met one out of state dealer whose job is basically finding certain coins for his clients, mostly wealthier folks who want certain coins and pay for them well. This guy said he had no store but had an office. He had a list of clients with certain coins they wanted and his job was to find them. He said most coins he purchased were in the $5000 to $25000 range but he has bought and sold individual coins worth over $100000. He receives a fee worth 10% of the coin's value when he finds one on his "list". So basically his customer would pay him $25000 for a $25000 coin, plus an extra $2500 to the coin dealer as his "fee". This dealer was very nice compared to most of the dealers who have somewhat $hitty attitudes (this was not a new observation for me in that I have always known many of these dealers are arrogant ba$tards for some reason?) so I was able to pick his brain for much of the show (his booth was next to ours). He had some coins in his display case with values exceeding $50000 (all slabbed coins, etc). He said he rarely sells to the public at the show because nobody just walks up and buys a coin like that unless they have been looking for one.
Most dealers at the show were from out of town. And the universal theme I heard from the few I got to really talk to was that the dealers (out of state and local) mostly make their coin show profits in buying/selling from the other dealers who show up. Selling to the public is just "icing on the cake", that is why these traveling dealers mark their crap up so much because if they don't find a sucker (like me on the lunar series 1's) they can simply take their inventory to the next show and try to sell it there.
I wound up selling much to the dealers instead of the public. In fact, probably 80% of what I sold was to other dealers. I didn't make as much per item but was able to sell a bunch fast for much better prices than my local dealers (whom I bought much of the stuff from) would have paid me if I sold to them. Next year I am considering not having a booth and simply buying a dealer's badge and walking around the show with a little suitcase on two wheels like many of such out of state dealers who come but don't get a booth. In fact, there are some guys who are hired by large coin distributors to simply go from show to show looking for very specific items. These guys paid well and didn't haggle much so I liked when one of them would come up looking for stuff. They seemed to like Chinese, Russian, etc stuff from the type of coins/bullion I had.
The turnout this year was very low compared to past years, even though last year was said to be "slow" too. Could be the show was not promoted enough, but a couple dealers I spoke to that travel to shows for a living told me the lower turnouts have been prevalent at generally every show they go to when compared to metrics from say 5 years ago, etc. Although certainly some cities draw bigger crowds simply due to populations, etc, but generally speaking all shows are lower now than in the past. One dealer I spoke to blamed the internet in that nowadays it is easier to go online and buy those "rare" or hard to find coins instead of going to your local shows to search. I think too lower/falling prices keep some from being interested like they were before and going into 2011, etc.
PS I noticed some of my coins I had stashed since last year's show had milkspotted since last year, such as my Australian Saltwater Crocs. I have them in air tites in a climate controlled professional "vault" so no way to stop them from happening. I need to not hold these really recent year coins from countries whose coins spot so easy like Canada, GB, Australia (on bullion coins), etc. Now those crocs will be melt value instead of the $6+ premiums they would have brought.
Jim
I was surprised that I did not get more interest in my Kookaburras, Koalas, silver Kagaroos in cards, silver Britannias, etc. Really cool stuff silver bugs go nuts over and had few takers since these mostly have higher premiums. I did sell several Mexican Libertad back years and rare years though, and dumped several to some out of state dealers that paid well. Very few dealers had much inventory for the kind of stuff I was selling, like modern foreign bullion etc. Most dealers had slabbed "coins" and such and not as much bullion. That helped me have a decent flow of "customers" and several said "you got great stuff here", etc (was cool speaking to fellow silver bugs into the same kind of stuff as me). I did best with "pretty" or unique coins (with holograms and unique looks like much of the Canadian proof special issues, etc). Or people would come up and say "you have any coins with a dog, cat, polar bear, soccer player, etc."? You name it they asked for it. I was ready for that since I saw that last year, and most of what I sold to the public was stuff in cool boxes that wasn't more than double the silver value (for 1 oz coins) but for smaller coins they would pay up to 4 to 5 X silver value if they liked the coin.
Was good that I was able to almost complete my Australian Lunar series 1 silver coins set (this series is my new addiction), but had to really negotiate in that the guys that had them wanted outrageous amounts initially $100+ for some years, etc. The good thing about being a "dealer" is you get better treatment from the other dealers and they do discount more for you, so I was able to get the prices down to a high but acceptable level.
Since I am considering actually going into the "coin business" in a more serious way I found my self basically "interviewing" some of the cooler dealers about he biz end of all this and learned some interesting things. For example, I met one out of state dealer whose job is basically finding certain coins for his clients, mostly wealthier folks who want certain coins and pay for them well. This guy said he had no store but had an office. He had a list of clients with certain coins they wanted and his job was to find them. He said most coins he purchased were in the $5000 to $25000 range but he has bought and sold individual coins worth over $100000. He receives a fee worth 10% of the coin's value when he finds one on his "list". So basically his customer would pay him $25000 for a $25000 coin, plus an extra $2500 to the coin dealer as his "fee". This dealer was very nice compared to most of the dealers who have somewhat $hitty attitudes (this was not a new observation for me in that I have always known many of these dealers are arrogant ba$tards for some reason?) so I was able to pick his brain for much of the show (his booth was next to ours). He had some coins in his display case with values exceeding $50000 (all slabbed coins, etc). He said he rarely sells to the public at the show because nobody just walks up and buys a coin like that unless they have been looking for one.
Most dealers at the show were from out of town. And the universal theme I heard from the few I got to really talk to was that the dealers (out of state and local) mostly make their coin show profits in buying/selling from the other dealers who show up. Selling to the public is just "icing on the cake", that is why these traveling dealers mark their crap up so much because if they don't find a sucker (like me on the lunar series 1's) they can simply take their inventory to the next show and try to sell it there.
I wound up selling much to the dealers instead of the public. In fact, probably 80% of what I sold was to other dealers. I didn't make as much per item but was able to sell a bunch fast for much better prices than my local dealers (whom I bought much of the stuff from) would have paid me if I sold to them. Next year I am considering not having a booth and simply buying a dealer's badge and walking around the show with a little suitcase on two wheels like many of such out of state dealers who come but don't get a booth. In fact, there are some guys who are hired by large coin distributors to simply go from show to show looking for very specific items. These guys paid well and didn't haggle much so I liked when one of them would come up looking for stuff. They seemed to like Chinese, Russian, etc stuff from the type of coins/bullion I had.
The turnout this year was very low compared to past years, even though last year was said to be "slow" too. Could be the show was not promoted enough, but a couple dealers I spoke to that travel to shows for a living told me the lower turnouts have been prevalent at generally every show they go to when compared to metrics from say 5 years ago, etc. Although certainly some cities draw bigger crowds simply due to populations, etc, but generally speaking all shows are lower now than in the past. One dealer I spoke to blamed the internet in that nowadays it is easier to go online and buy those "rare" or hard to find coins instead of going to your local shows to search. I think too lower/falling prices keep some from being interested like they were before and going into 2011, etc.
PS I noticed some of my coins I had stashed since last year's show had milkspotted since last year, such as my Australian Saltwater Crocs. I have them in air tites in a climate controlled professional "vault" so no way to stop them from happening. I need to not hold these really recent year coins from countries whose coins spot so easy like Canada, GB, Australia (on bullion coins), etc. Now those crocs will be melt value instead of the $6+ premiums they would have brought.
Jim
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