I found this to be very interesting and maybe great news for the hobby in general. I just received an e-mail from an ebay dealer letting me know some stuff had recently shipped. I purchased something else from this dealer about a month ago. Naturally, I was curious if this dealer may have remembered me. After a quick look at their feedback though, I soon realized my answer. (LOL) So then I became curious to know how business had been for this dealer over just the past 28 day month. I figured, maybe I was a page or two back. The economy is slow after all. Wrong!! (20 pages back). My original intention was to go back through and see how many sales they had and add up the total dollar amount for us all to see. lol But soon realized I didn't want to waste an hour calculating it! (I did remember to click on the 'selling only tab.') From Feb. 1 to March 1, this dealer sold 434 items. Each item being a coin, mint set or boxes to a set. The items ranged in price from a few dollars up into the thousands. So, I decided to calculate the feedbacks left ON ONLY Feb. 1st, assuming that most of those were probably sold on the same day, or close. This seller received feedback for no less than $12,317 worth of coins on a single day. And every date afterwards was similar or more! If that was the average, that's around $350k worth of business on a short month! I find this hard to believe. That's one, single, dealer......on Ebay no less. So, can it be said that the hobby is going strong, considering we're in arguably the worst economy since the Great Depression? My question is, what happens when things pick up!? Next question: Could this dealer do this well with a B&M shop ONLY? Probably not. I don't want to defend Ebays policies, but it was just an observation. I thought you guys might find this interesting. Most people, including myself, usually won't take the time to snoop around.
Wow! That's volume.......with the slim margins he probably works on he should be able to make a good living. I have to believe he is easily fully occupied a minimum of 50-60 hours per week.
Was there a lot of bullion or gold? Could be the paranoid among us or maybe the economy really isn't that bad just over hyped? Or he's one lucky son of a gun.
Didn't see any bullion! He was selling gold coins, St. Gaudens, rare coppers and Morgans though. Massive inventory. The paypal fees on 350k would have been $10,500 for the month! From this one seller. Just for the priviledge to use the servers that transfer the money. After all the paypal fees and shipping, if this place only averages 5% profit, that's around $15k rolling in a month. It's easy for your imagination to run wild as to what the actual percentage is, minus operating costs.
I think for the most part, people who collect seriously have more disposable income and better financial stability than most people, and these people are usually the last to be effected by slumping economies. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but as an example, I'm actually making slightly more now than say a few years ago. It's hard to judge slumps in business with people who can afford to collect money. Guy~
Wow, it is hard to believe that one coin dealer on ebay is actually selling that many coins. He must be a pretty trusted dealer to be selling that many.
Wow, that is an amazing sales volume for ebay. I would have to guess that this seller is an outlier though. TC
I had to go back and see if it was a fluke. Obviously the amounts do change depending on what part of the week you check. Feedback was left for sales in the following amounts on the following days: Feb. 1st: $12,317 Feb. 2nd: $12,015.86 (All commemoratives and high grade keys, semi-keys) Feb. 3rd: $10,597.62 (Sales included an 1805 $5 for $6225 and a 1795 Flowing hair for $2141.) Feb. 4th: $2,763.71 Feb. 5th: $9,160.87 Obviously, there must be shipping lulls on some days so I was probably high with my estimate. But still, this is more than I could have ever imagined in continuous, daily sales.
It's supply and demand. He has a supply and their is a demand. It's just the amount of time and effort someone or a group of people for that matter want to put into it. When I was selling hot and heavy for a while I was doing 100-200 packages shipped a week.
My theory is that coin collecting tends to attract a more educated and successful demographic. And said demographic is less likely to be vulnerable to a recession. Obviously this is a generality, and I would not expect this to explain everything. But I would submit its a contributing factor. Also, considering the rising prices of gold and silver, it is not as hard as it used to be to rack up an expensive purchase.
I doubt he is doing this all by himself. There is labor to take out of those profits as alot of auction listings, deposits, packages, and book keeping not to mention getting more inventory. Vess about how many items per day did he go?
Obviously, this guy didn't just start selling a few months ago. He worked hard at earning a good, honest reputation and the respect of some loyal customers. He must also be accurate on grading, and good with the camera, or he would not be selling high dollar coins at a worthwhile frofit continuously either. Gotta admire (and envy) a guy like this!
He had feedback for 434 items in February which averages out to be around 15.5 items per day being shipped out. Some days much more, some days much less. Almost everything they're selling is slabbed by one of the top TPGs. And yes, excellent pics. Just about anything you're looking for, you may run across them. 50k+ feedback so far. I'd love to work there for a week just to see what it's like.
