The costs of the coin dealer

Can we get you to explain this advice statement, Speedy?

 

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Old Dan...you have to understand 1 thing...when I wrote that post I was in my first years of collecting and didn't know how to say everything right!...but I still agree...

I was talking about this guy wanting to be a dealer...a dealer doesn't collect...(I have never met a dealer that could collect) they buy to resell to pay bills...put food on the table and such...if I was a dealer and a collector I would only be selling the junk because I would want to keep the good coins...

Is that a better way of putting it

Speedy

 

Think of it like this. I am a dealer and you are a dealer and Joe Schmo is a buyer and Jack Schmack is a different buyer. I deal mostly in old US gold coins (saints, indians, liberties, et al) and you deal mostly in moderns (proof and mint sets and MS/PF 69 and 70 coins). Joe is a frequent customer of mine since I sell a lot of what he collects and regularly have his needs in stock (or at least can quickly get them), and the same goes for Jack with you. He is putting together registry sets of modern clad coinage and you always have what he wants. Anyway, one day a local collector in my community passes away and his family brings his coin collection to me to sell it. I'm interested because it has a pretty wide selection of US gold and I know that Joe will be interested so I purchase the lot. After cataloging it all I find a number of modern coins including a couple of 99 Silver proof sets and the 2004 and 2005 westward journey coin and medal sets. these are really good coins and I know they are valuable, but the people that walk into my shop just aren't interested, so I look through the list of dealers I've worked with in the past and find you. I remember that you sell a lot of mdern stuff and so I contact you with an offer. You accept and relieve me of coins that while valuable were not helping me be profitable, even though you can sell them at a good profit.

Does that make sense?

Basically, dealing is about connecting buyers and sellers and the biggest profits are in being the only middle man between them, but if you can't be the only middle man then you lose some of the profit by bringing in a second middle man, but that is always preferable to sitting on "great" coins that you can't find a buyer for, and then going out of business.

 

Ok, that makes sense now. Thanks for the info.

 

One more question - I see people refer to a "coin dealer license", is there an actual entity (whether governmental, private, etc.) that actually issues a "license" to be a coin dealer or does having a "coin dealer license" just refer to the Federal & state tax ID #s and/or having one's name in the NDD?

Thanks.

 

I found this thread at the bottom of another thread......." like topics"

Great reading. I will finish it later, I only read the first 2-3 posts, but got caught right away. Good stuff !!