I'm a long-time precious metals investor just getting started in coin collecting. I'm viewing this as both an investment and hobby and I've been reading Sam Sommer's book "Gold, Silver, & Rare Coins." This book has only made me more interested in numismatics. But the author mentions his strategy for buying rare coins at below market prices: 1) Advertise in the local paper about buying coins 2) Meet with individuals at a neutral location, locate the coin's value, and offer 50% of the Red Book price. 3.) Resell coin or keep it in the collection for long-term This process sounds simple, but almost too simple. Has anyone from the CoinTalk community tried setting up a coin business using local ads and meeting sellers in person?
Yes, but I'll tell you right now that you would be wise to back it up some. When anyone admittedly new to this hobby wishes to buy from the public in order to get a "deal", they're setting themselves up for a potential disaster. Just as you would be looking for others to take essentially take advantage of, there are knowledgeable individuals out there perfectly willing to return the favor by taking advantage of novice buyers. There can be much more to this, and other ways to look at it, but the greater point is that knowledge is key to success, and until or unless you possess it, taking this route very well may be a fool's errand.
It is a good way to get nice collections from a collectors estate. I have the family get an written estimate from a local coin shop. I offer slightly above the estimate in hand if I feel the collection is worth what the shop's offer was in total. I also put up flyers with tear off phone numbers at local laundry mats, Walmart's, and grocery stores.
Neutral location= a bank conference room or local, friendly police station. IMHO. In any case, take Books advice.
First, welcome to the neighborhood! I've lived by this saying for a long time......."Those who can...do! Those who can't...write books!" You have to have very deep pockets to make a good return investing in numismatics. If you don't have deep pockets, you've got to cheat people. If you don't mind cheating people, you don't belong here. Chris
If I were you I wouldn't buy any raw coins in your position (OP). Stick to slabbed coins. Even then you need to be careful and look out for overgraded coins that people won't pay you what you expect when you flip it. Also, 50% is pretty greedy.
Add security to that list. IMO, the less people that know what you do, the less chance of a burglary or robbery. I try to keep my collecting exuberance to a minimum around people outside of my immediate circle of friends and colleagues. I use a PO Box for hobby publications and ordering coins. If someone knows that Eric Cartman who lives 1313 Mockingbird Lane collects coins, it could set them up as a target. Lots of bad people out there, so you need to plan accordingly.
Good advice by BooksB4Coins. Pawn shops are regularly offered counterfeits and I think that classified ads would be targeted too by opportunistic folks looking for someone that knows something about coins but is not an seasoned dealer that would immediately see the red flags. I'd also add that most of the stuff offered to you would likely be junk, not the quality coins that you are hoping to add to your collection. There is so much low value common stuff out there that is unlikely to do anything but decrease in value for the foreseeable future. Yeah there might be the occasional score out there but I think it would be a lot of work to just sort out the people with unrealistic expectations and those that have stuff you don't want.
Agreed with Brooks. There's people out there more than happy to sell fakes, especially when it comes to bullion type pieces. Also the other thing to remember about a neutral location (police station is a very good suggestion) is to make sure you aren't followed home as a set up to be robbed later type thing. I would also just ad that if it was a simple as the book makes it sound everyone would be doing it, and if it was as profitable as the book makes it sound they likely would not have written about it giving everyone else the idea
