Has anyone made a decent profit buying and selling coins

I'll make $500+ this month buying off of ebay and reselling.
I say I'll make because I haven't received or sold off everything I've bought.
So it's very possible for someone to buy/resell, I'm 23 and if I can do it anyone can







**just realized I have 2 (20)90% halves, i have to remove one**
Ignore some of the stuff, they're from an auction I went to

The profit column already has fees etc from ebay/paypal included

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

It is better to go into this as something to enjoy more than something to make money on. If you want to make money i would find something else that is much easier to do.

 

Coins are a hobby, not an investment.
If you love the coins, and are willing to win some and lose some, collect.
If you want an investment that pays better than most, there are far better options out there.

 

Gas, wear and tear on vehicle, etc...

 

And you said you spend 2-3 hours a day, 3-4 days a week, right? Plus a few hours to resell the stuff you buy. Maybe $10/hr, somewhere around there?

Of course, as long as it's fun, it's free money.

 

Id prob say 10 hrs a week, but hey I'm not looking to get rich.
Just trying something new to make me some additional income.

 

It sounds as if you want to enter the bullion trading market with very little knowledge or experience under your belt. Unless you get lucky, I don't see you making money that way. If you are interested in becoming a vest pocket coin dealer, then you need to develop a niche and exploit it. For the purposes of this thread I am considering a vest pocket dealer as someone who tries to make money flipping coins but is not a full time coin dealer and does not make their living dealing coins.

I would consider myself a vest pocket dealer. I sell all of my coins on E-Bay. From January to May 2012, my gross revenue was over $20K with a profit margin of 14%. S&H was 2.5%, E-Bay fees 5.6%, & Paypal 2.9% of gross revenue. The problem with these statistics is that my starting inventory was my existing collection which included many coins that I had purchased 3-5 years ago. I have not separated out my margins for coins that I have bought and sold in 2012 only but I don't think they would change that dramatically. The reason I say this is because many of the coins I bought years ago, I did not purchase with the intent to profit, hence I overpaid. Anything I purchased this year, I did so with the intent to flip & profit.

My niche is that I am very experienced in Jefferson Nickels and can pick out premium quality examples for just about every date/mm for both TPG's. I also have outstanding numismatic photography skills which allows me to maximize my sale price on E-Bay. Without both my Jefferson knowledge and photographic skills, buying and selling coins would not be a profitable venture.

I think you will find that if you don't treat coins like a business, you will have a very difficult time making a profit. I say this because in order to have a successful business, you need to start with a sound business plan. From what I see, you don't yet have one, but I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

 

Make a profit by selling to dealers? Ha ha ha ha! Only if you steal the coins, so your cost is zero. Seriously, I’ve only made a profit a few times selling to dealers and that’s because the coins appreciated over time. Since the internet, I’d sell there for more than any dealer would pay.

 

Gold and silver, both.

 

Not making fun OP, but you wish to buy retail, sell wholesale, with little knowledge, and make a profit? I won't say it cannot be done, since that is the basic business model of "road show" thieves, but it cannot be done unless you intentionally seek out those who don't know coins values and prey on them.

A dealer buy price is effectively the lowest legitimate price in this hobby, with anything lower being someone taking advantage of others with no coin knowledge.

If you wish to make money in coins, it can be done. Read Lehigh's, (Paul's) post and see how someone uses knowledge to be able to become a dealer. Many new collectors become dealers, but you need to really learn the business, learn coins, develop buyers and sellers.

Just my opinion.

Chris

 

For me it is been the other way around.

 

It can be done.

 

OK, I am going to give everyone the easiest way to make money buying and selling coins. You can thank me later.

1. Get good at grading coins (as good, or better than a PCGS or NGC grader).
2. Buy certified coins that are under-graded, or raw-high demand coins that will make you money in a 66 or 67 slab after the cost of certification.
3. Send them in for certification.
4. PROFIT?

Please note, you better be darn good at grading.

You're welcome...

Or take all your money to the Roulette table. Chances are about the same.

 

Many different angles at making money in coins. You have Gregs approach listed above, then you have zach who puts in the hard leg work of finding deals on ebay.. I think the easiest way to make money in coins is one which I personally witnessed while working at a pawnshop. The fact is that when people go to sell their coins they are usually desperate for money. I don't ever remember paying more than 60% greysheet value for anything that came in the door. We then immediatly sold those coins on ebay. If you take away the 9% final valuation fee your looking at 30% profit per coin.

So how can you best market yourself to make sure people know you are looking to buy coins? Remember you don't have to buy everything that they offer.. only ones that you know you'll be able to get rid of. Easy operation if you have a storefront.

 

I'll give you a +1 for that.

 

If this is the depth of information you have going into this endeavor, then I can assure you that this will not end well for you.

 

I think not only do you have to be good with grading, I think that you also have to be good at picking out problems with a coin. I can see someoene buying a coin for way under Graysheet but the coin is a problem coin and not worth graysheet. For instance, this coin I got for a little over $5 and that is about all I think it is worth. Graysheet is much higher on it but since it is beat-up and cleaned, those prices don't apply. You could try to get gold coins for under melt and I really wonder about them since it is hard to get them at below melt.

 

Your going to make millions like this arbitrage. Local dealers are so stupid.

 

Only need to know 3 things the way i see it.
Always take full advantage of the unknowing
All coin dealers are crooks and you need to be the bigger one.
Grey sheet prices are only used for those you see with it in hand.
J/K