What Is A Coin Dealer

IMHO - A coin dealer is someone that buys and sells coins for immediate profit, as opposed to a coin collector who buys and sells coins for pleasure or investment purposes. Of course there can be a blurred line between the two, but the basic principle is sound.

 

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Although I agree with Dude regarding the changing landscape and employment of sales channels in the coin hobby, I have to side with Doug regarding what defines a coin dealer. "Most" collectors will sell from time to time to fund their hobby, to upgrade, and to liquidate portions of their collection that they no longer enjoy... however, they remain in the "collect" mode. I do not consider those folks dealers, they are collectors selling to other collectors and dealers. As to those employing the new sales channels to primarily sell while also keeping their day job, I would consider their activity a hobby also.... maybe we need a new term. ie.- "Coin Dealer hobbiest",,,,, but I would still not consider them "Coin Dealers",, more like Paddiwan's (in training ; )

 

Yes and no. I use a huge list of dealers, but still have items on want lists with a few. Basically some of the stuff I want is REALLY scarce, and the dealer I have talked to is a professional dealing in that area and occasionally will run across one. I have done this with both books and coins with different degrees of luck.

Yes, its mainly not like before where a collector would build a collection solely through a single dealer, but want lists are still very valuable for certain material. If you can think of a better way to track down rare Roman Egyption, colchis, or rare sassanid emperors I would love to know what that would be.

 

Chris, I'd agree with you on your specialty, as Ancients are a whole different category, and the methodology is definitely NOT the same as, say, getting Kennedy Halves. For that, the want list is probably a very good idea, as the type of coin you're looking for is less easily found, and not usually slabbed.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I had the mistaken notion there was a single wholesale and retail price. With online auctions and an abundance of information, one would assume the market is real efficient with just two tiers of prices.

 

Oh heck no. Coins are about the most inefficient markets I know of, except for something like gemstones. This is especially true of ancients and many world coin issues. Problem is, by definition, each coin is unique and therefor not completely comparable with each other. Yes, an MS70 2013 ASE is pretty much a commodity, but even that you will see sizable prices asked.

You HAVE to learn to be a good shopper to be a coin collector, unless you simply like flushing money away.

 

OK, more dumb questions. Note I am a rookie at this.

If the market is inefficient, where is it the most inefficient where a prudent shopper can make hay. It seems like online auctions are going to tend toward retail give the volume of people monitoring them. I would not expect to find junk silver selling at half of melt value for example at Ebay, Teletrade or Heritgae.

 

The only answer I can give you sir is: Everywhere.

I have bought coins well under retail on Ebay, at coin shows, at traditional auctions, (usually group lots), in coin shops. Its really about knowledge, knowing the market for the coins and spotting an above average deal, (or at least know its a fair deal).

I wish there was something better I could tell you, but I can't.

Regarding your "half melt" example, I HAVE bought groups of world coins at half melt on Ebay. With all of the attention nowadays to PM it might be close to impossible, but many of us did just that. Heck, I bought a groups of ancient silver coins at less than melt once.

Knowledge sir, that is what its all about. Being here on CT is a great start.

 

If you want to take the risks involved you can always look on craigslist where most people will sell silver for below melt value.