Thread: Has anyone made a decent profit buying and selling coins

I'm a new coin investor and I'm looking to make a profit through buying coins, mostly gold coin at one price then selling them to mainly local dealers at a higher price. Now that I have the info that I need from the greysheet I can better coordinate my plan of attack. let me know some of your experience's. I've seen many different auction websites where coins have been bought way under current bid price and I've seen some sell for way over bid price. Any tips when trying to make a profit this way. Also if you buy through online auctions what website has the lowest buyer's free, I've used greatcollections in the past as there fee is only 10% but, are there any other sites with a lower buyer
s fee. You don't have to give me all your secrets just some tips, thanks.

Thank me later

If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya........

Originally Posted by j2theq

I'm a new coin investor and I'm looking to make a profit through buying coins, mostly gold coin at one price then selling them to mainly local dealers at a higher price. Now that I have the info that I need from the greysheet I can better coordinate my plan of attack. let me know some of your experience's. I've seen many different auction websites where coins have been bought way under current bid price and I've seen some sell for way over bid price. Any tips when trying to make a profit this way. Also if you buy through online auctions what website has the lowest buyer's free, I've used greatcollections in the past as there fee is only 10% but, are there any other sites with a lower buyer
s fee. You don't have to give me all your secrets just some tips, thanks.

You'll never make a profit selling to your local dealers unless you can get the items for a lot less than the dealer would offer you.

Keep this within easy reach.

Originally Posted by BUncirculated

You'll never make a profit selling to your local dealers unless you can get the items for a lot less than the dealer would offer you.

And with gold coins, that could get very difficult.

Originally Posted by dsmith23

And with gold coins, that could get very difficult.

Next to impossible.

Silver coins yes
Slabbed coins maybe
Gold coins no

I've found the best way to approach coins is out of love for the hobby and the coins themselves. When monetary gain gets into the mix, so does great disappointment.

Just because the grey sheet exsists or that you have the info from them doesnt mean squat . They are not the be all & end all for prices. The bids & asks are taken from multiple points & there are many,many other bids & asks out there for coins. Higher & lower . If you are new then the cards are stacked even less in your favor due to issues that coins may have that you may not see but the dealer will.Being that you also stated you are new at 'the game' please read the fine print at the bottom of any CDN publication. Unless you are established or have some type of ''in" with the buyers of your purchases you will be hard pressed to get any deals.

Good luck though-

Also if you buy something for under greysheet, don't always expect the dealer to pay the greysheet amount either, most likely it will be under, depending on how long he'll have to hold on to it, demand in the area, etc.

For most gold (generic) there are daily bid & ask sheets sent out to dealers from Heritage,Rarcoa, & multiple other dealers that post buy & sells every day . The prices fluctuate more than one would think ,also when a big house gets an influx of material that market maker can sell things to dealers for prices that are nowhere near to publically posted prices.

Originally Posted by Bedford

For most gold (generic) there are daily bid & ask sheets sent out to dealers from Heritage,Rarcoa, & multiple other dealers that post buy & sells every day . The prices fluctuate more than one would think ,also when a big house gets an influx of material that market maker can sell things to dealers for prices that are nowhere near to publically posted prices.

+1 on both of your posts

Originally Posted by j2theq

I'm a new coin investor and I'm looking to make a profit through buying coins, mostly gold coin at one price then selling them to mainly local dealers at a higher price.

How do you propose to get coins at lower prices than your local dealers pay?

I've bought underpriced or poorly-described lots on eBay at prices low enough that I could profit by selling to dealers at coin shows -- due to immediate competition, dealers typically must make stronger offers at shows. I've also bought when PMs were low, then sold when they went up.

On the other hand, I've bought lots on eBay where the price I paid wasn't that great, and I've bought when PMs were higher than they are now. I'm underwater on quite a bit of stuff at the moment.

You can make some money, but I don't think it's nearly as easy as you appear to assume.

The one way that you're guaranteed not to lose money is by coin roll searching, where you get everything at face value. All you stand to lose is time.

Originally Posted by -jeffB

How do you propose to get coins at lower prices than your local dealers pay?

I've bought underpriced or poorly-described lots on eBay at prices low enough that I could profit by selling to dealers at coin shows -- due to immediate competition, dealers typically must make stronger offers at shows. I've also bought when PMs were low, then sold when they went up.

On the other hand, I've bought lots on eBay where the price I paid wasn't that great, and I've bought when PMs were higher than they are now. I'm underwater on quite a bit of stuff at the moment.

You can make some money, but I don't think it's nearly as easy as you appear to assume.

The one way that you're guaranteed not to lose money is by coin roll searching, where you get everything at face value. All you stand to lose is time.

The other factor the OP must consider is dealers not buying everything that walks into their shop, or up to their table at a show.

The last bi-monthly show here, not many dealers, if any at all, were buying. Some of the reasons are they have the same or similar item for a long time and their money is tied up on those items, and some aren't buying common stuff at the moment, which seems to be a lot of what people are bringing in to the shows, to sell.