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I can help out with this thread. I was a professional coin dealer for 8 years. I was very active on the coin show circuit, and know the ins and outs of the coin business. Im also an ANA life member. Coins are valued by 2 main criteria, rarity and condition (in that order.) Rarity is pretty self explanatory, the fewer the coins that are minted the rarer it is and the more valuable they are. Condition is the grade of the coin, the more detail that is left in the coin the higher grade the coin is, and by extension the more valuable it is. There is also a thing called condition-rarity, where its a fairly common coin but it is extremely rare in higher grades. Standing liberty quarters come to mind as a coin that has a lot of condition-rarity, just check the price guides and look at the value of the higher grades. The biggest issue I had as a coin dealer was people coming in thinking that there grandfathers Indian head penny is worth a million bucks, and get offended when I tell them that they could get $3 for it on eBay. Sentimental value is a great thing, and it is deeply personal. I understand that this coin connects you to good memory's of family, and perhaps better times. But the real value is the real value. If you have any questions on the buisness side of coins feel free to post or pm me. And with the op's permmison I can help valuate coins as well. And please, if you want fairly accurate pricing on the coins, then post a pic of the obverse and reverse. It really helps by determining grades, mint marks, and possible varitys.
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Oct 24, 2013 19:58
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c0ldfuse posted:Can you just tell some interesting stories about your time as a dealer? I got my start in dealing coins by cherry picking out of coin shops backroom stock. I got pretty good about finding different variety coins, for example a small date variety that 10x more valuable than the normal coin. So when I got my shop, I would make a point to keep quality cherry pick-able coins buried in my stock. Once my customer found one of these coins, i knew i had them hooked. And it was a bit of a pay it forward type of thing as well. In the coin business, knowledge is worth money. Ron Don Volante posted:I'd also be greatly interested in hearing how you originally got into the coin business and any tips or advice you have for coin dealing. I just started a small coin-selling website of my own this past summer and also sell a fair bit on eBay, though it's just a little income on the side for me at this point. Well my grandmother got me into coin collecting, and it became a bit of a bug for me. I was the kid at school that always carried a bunch of coins around at school. Eventually everyone else wanted coins to, so i started taking there lunch money. My big break was (as i mentioned above) getting the knowledge together to cherry pick coins. Its what took me from working fast food to making $3000-4000 a month. I would sell my coins on eBay, so i know that aspect of the business as well. And keep it up, turn your hobby into your buisness and youll never work again. pm me if you ever have any questions. Jimmy James posted:
It really varies from dealer to dealer, and what that dealer is trying to accomplish. For instance, you may not be concerned with making a "profit" from the show. Your interest may be to meet potential customers, hand out business cards, build an email list, or drive hits to your website. Sometimes actually selling coins my be a secondary thought for a dealer at a coin show. Any interaction with potential customers has a value all its own. There are many dealers with a Winnebago, that travel from city to city buying and selling coins. And you are correct, they wont really be getting rich because of expenses and such. But there again, what is that dealer trying to accomplish? They get to travel all over the country, selling what they are passionate about, and get to eek out a bit of a living. We should all be so lucky. At the bigger coin shows, most of the deals are made in hotel rooms before the show even starts. This is where most of the dealers really make their money, selling wholesale dealer to dealer. And there are dealers that specialize in this, all they do is rent a hotel room and sell to other dealers. The coin business is actually quite vast, there are many people that specialize in one thing and make a decent living at it. It really is a business that pays if you have the knowledge, and are creative.
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Oct 25, 2013 04:59
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Aika posted:So what are morgans worth? I have several 1922s and I believe an 1878 in good, circulated condition. I can't check the mint mark because i'm in another country -- but i'm really curious! If you have 1922's they are not Morgan dollars, they are peace dollars. The last year they made Morgan's was 1921. The 1922 peace dollars are (retail value) about $30, give or take a dollar or two. The 1878 is an interesting coin because there are several different varitys of the coin. In circulated condition it doesn't effect the value too much, but it is an interesting thing to note. If it has a cc mint mark (Carson city) it greatly increases the value, at the extreme low end a cc is around $100. And it can go well up from there as the grade increases (I would have to look at it). If its a common mint mark then the value is $30-40. Mint penny's are easy to get, your local coin shop should have most of them in stock, and really shouldn't be that expensive unless your trying to build a high end registry set. You can also find them on eBay, but look for solid date mint rolls.
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Oct 25, 2013 19:52
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Ron Don Volante posted:
Your website looks really good, it is actually about 100x better than the one that I had when I started. You have a blog on there and that is pro, good articles, good information, you are on the right track. You definitely need more stock, and i would get a better template for your site once the money starts flowing a bit. Use those facebook likes to market new coins in stock. 600+ people is a really good starting point, you should not have an issue selling coins to them. Ron Don Volante posted:
Cherry pickers guide is a great resource, and that's where i started. The trick is to specialize, pick a type of coins that you like and learn everything about them. I started with mercury dimes, once i became an expert, i moved on to another type. If you look at it as a whole, it is overwhelming. But by breaking it down and learning it piece by piece it becomes much more manageable. Magugu fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 16:50
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Al Harrington posted:I can answer any questions pertaining to US paper money from the colonial period through today. This is great, I mostly collect pcgs graded currency as of late, mainly small silver certificates. One of my issues I had as a dealer was I never really learned to properly grade. At the higher end of currency I find it difficult to tell the differance between a 66 and a 68. Could you possibly explain a bit of how you grade, the process I mean. And what are the subtle differences that we should be looking for. Brennanite posted:Christmas is coming up, and as BFC is teaching me, there's is more to budgeting than saying "we have $X in the account, don't spend more than that." My dad's an amateur coin collector, mostly pennies because they're cheaper, but I'd like to get him maybe a silver dollar or half-dollar. What's a coin that looks nice, but is around $25? Would a more common coin with some nice toning be more realistic for that price range? You should be able to find 1940's pcgs graded ms-64 mercury dimes in that price range. I know it's not a half or a dollar, but mercury dimes are a great coin to collect on a budget because a good portion of the later dates you can find in mint state for less than $40, some as low as $20. They are personally my favorite coin, they are a beautiful design, lots of varitys, and most are affordable.
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Oct 26, 2013 22:00
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Franklin half's are great coins. I feel they are under priced in high grades, and have been for a few years. Its really a coin that doesn't have a huge following yet, and i think the meta will change over the next 10 years or so, when walking liberty's get priced out of the average collectors hands. Alot of the coins are condition rarity's, and a cherry picker with an eagle eye that can spot a mint state with full bell line will find value to follow. Another coin i really like is the 1996-w Roosevelt dime. It was only issued with the mint set that year, and at a mintage of just 1,457,000 coins it represents the lowest production of all the Roosevelt dimes. You can pick them up for $15-20 each, and have a huge upside potential. Build you a roll, and put it away for your kids.
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Mar 16, 2014 20:37
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