Trying to Trade at a Coin Show - Value of the Trade?

For the record...there are two posts above that I did not mean to send. Not sure how I did it. Brain freeze or whatever. I was trying to ask Baseball21 how dealers are able to buy gold coins at 90% under spot. I think that was one of the statements that he made in his post. Thanks and sorry.

 

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That's just what they tell the customer who is trying to sell they'll pay. Anytime you see a dealer selling something at spot and metal prices hadn't had a big jump recently they make their money by buying under spot

 

I was responding to the first post where he said he wanted to trade his coin for a graded coin. It wasn't until post #7 that he mentioned the $100-150 addition to the trade. At any rate, my comment stands, dealers don't exist to give fair exchanges, coins or money, for their goods. They mostly have B&M expenses along with table fees at shows that they have to cover. If they buy at 10% under spot or grey sheet and sell at 10% over, how much money do you think they actually make? From what I see at shows, none of the dealers are driving Cadillac Escalades, they mostly have 6 year old Toyota Corollas. Coin dealing as a dealer is a business of passion, not of immense profit, and anyone who thinks they're not getting a good deal should take up another hobby.

 

The good ones drive modest cars in order to not bring attention to the inventory that might be traveling with them.

Also, one can just as easily turn this:

“Coin dealing as a dealer is a business of passion, not of immense profit, and anyone who thinks they're not getting a good deal should take up another hobby.”

into:

Coin dealing as a dealer is a business of passion, not of immense profit, and anyone who thinks they're not making enough money should take up another profession.



And again, one can succeed on smaller margins with high turnover. In fact, some of the more successful dealers have small spreads but more than make up for it by the quantity of sales. Another avenue for profit is specializing in PQ coins. A widget will always have a small margin since one can buy it anywhere. However, a quality piece might not be so easy to find and thus will allow a dealer to make more off of it.

 

The largest and most successful coin dealers have a business model of a corporation.

 

And the bank accounts to match