Starting a business?

Hey forum!
I have been thinking about starting a "business". I am thinking of selling and buying coins to try and make money as well as staying connected with this hobby. I would love if someone could share their experiences/advise me on this.

I am thinking of something like ebay and buying bulk lots and selling individual coins from those or selling coins I can get cheaper than most people (coins from my region or something along those lines). Do you think it's a good idea? Should I sell in auctions or at fixed prices? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Quote: "bennycunha97"​Hey forum!
​I have been thinking about starting a "business". I am thinking of selling and buying coins to try and make money as well as staying connected with this hobby. I would love if someone could share their experiences/advise me on this.
​
​I am thinking of something like ebay and buying bulk lots and selling individual coins from those or selling coins I can get cheaper than most people (coins from my region or something along those lines). Do you think it's a good idea? Should I sell in auctions or at fixed prices? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

​Buying bulk on eBay is taking a shot in the dark, you will most likely get coins that are not worth as much. If you do just sell them for 8 for $1 as that is what my local coin shop does. People are also looking for silver and gold. You may get people who inherited a collection and they want to sell it, so always have something good on hand. Also sites like Craigslist help if you want a physical store.

Benny, as of now I see there is a lot of fuzz for some people (including me) to reach 300 or whatever country count in their respective collection, also silver is king or queen on some people collection.

I rather focus on that... but that will be me. I have kilos of coins that are good for nothing or whatever you can get for a pound, shipping will limit you to sell only around your region, but single coins are easy to ship, bargain and even put on bids if is an interesting one.

rekar

It is a great idea! Did you end up starting a business? How is it going?

What a nice way to remember this forum post! I love user interaction hehehe

So, it's been like 8 years, no? Well, I haven't really started a business or anything, I came to the conclusion that to make a coin business be a primary source of income, it has to be extremely time consuming, as one would imagine with any full time job.

 

But I haven't been afraid to go for it if I see a good deal to resell later, or to buy coins in lots (even if just 3 or 4 coins at once) and sell what I don't need to cover the costs of the ones I want). All in all, coin collecting is still a money sink for me, not a money maker, but doing the maths, it seems I'm "getting back" about a third of what I spend (ie in a given month I may buy 100€ worth of coins but end up reselling some for 33€).

 

So in effect selling coins makes it so I spend 33% less or thereabouts, in general. Not a money maker in the slightest, but I'll take that, it's still some nice savings!

bennycunha97

rekar

It is a great idea! Did you end up starting a business? How is it going?

What a nice way to remember this forum post! I love user interaction hehehe

So, it's been like 8 years, no? Well, I haven't really started a business or anything, I came to the conclusion that to make a coin business be a primary source of income, it has to be extremely time consuming, as one would imagine with any full time job.

 

But I haven't been afraid to go for it if I see a good deal to resell later, or to buy coins in lots (even if just 3 or 4 coins at once) and sell what I don't need to cover the costs of the ones I want). All in all, coin collecting is still a money sink for me, not a money maker, but doing the maths, it seems I'm "getting back" about a third of what I spend (ie in a given month I may buy 100€ worth of coins but end up reselling some for 33€).

 

So in effect selling coins makes it so I spend 33% less or thereabouts, in general. Not a money maker in the slightest, but I'll take that, it's still some nice savings!

Glad to hear that Benny - even offsetting a third of your cost is good going.

Best of luck

Not only are you offsetting your coins, you are offsetting your investment! 

 

 About ten years ago I was able to find an occasional coin lot to buy and then sell about half at a profit and keep the rest for myself. It was great! 

Then I found a really good lot to buy and unknow to me there was a $1500 Morgan dollar in it. I ended up calling the guy back after I sold it and giving him a little extra. 

I was like you, I started thinking of making money out of this hobby. However the coin lots that I was finding dried up and I haven't bought in years now. I believe its probably better this way, when you are trying to make money on every deal it changes the way you interact with the coin collecting community.