Quit Your Day Job to be a Coin Dealer?

I know their are coin dealers on this site, and I am envious of you guys. My dream job would be to become a coin dealer. I don't think that is in the cards. So my question to everyone that reads this thread is would you quit your day job and be a dealer if it was lucrative for you and you could maintain your quality of living off of it? I would still be a collector too!

 

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I've done it before, but didn't particularly like the outfit that I was working for. I thought that I would be able to handle some nice coins considering that this company builds some very high end collections, and I did a bit, but the job was really more of a cold call to sell gold kind of job. I was recently offered a job by one of my area dealers, but I'm pretty happy where I am now. Still, I had to do some good thinking about making the switch again though.

 

I've heard B&M dealers say that if you want to make a million bucks as a dealer, you need to start with two million bucks.

Chris

 

Coin Collectors make lousy coin dealers and the best one's, only collect to showcase their particular specialties.

As with most businesses other than collecting taxes or burying people, there are lean times and their are fat times. Taking advantage of the fat times can carry a dealer through the lean times but it takes extreme caution and responsibility.

A lot of folks that come on here, dream of being coin dealers without thinking about the fact that it simply is not as easy as some would like to believe.

 

True Words.

 

As near as I can tell, it'll cost me a minimum of half a million dollars in inventory to have sufficient stock to support inventory turnover and profit margin capable of supporting me. It's not like you can expect a consistent 50% margin, net after cost. You'll be lucky to manage 20%, which means a quarter of a million dollars a year in sales, and for that you'll put less than $50k a year into your pocket since we haven't factored taxes yet. And that's not even considering the enormous time and effort required to build a clientele, an industry reputation, which exposes me to enough buyers to make that turnover possible.

If I thought I could support myself as a dealer, I'd already be doing it. I'm not.

 

Sounds about right.

 

Hmmmmmmmm great question! I'm getting close to retirement and since I caught this awful, horrible, destructive, coin collecting disease/affliction/addiction thingy, I have often pondered becoming a dealer in retirement. Then reality strikes, and I say to myself, self, how could I ever sell my precious shiny wonders to another. I usually pour myself a nice tall Jimmy B and hit the Bay (buy more coins) and the thought goes away.

 

Nudo, Chris, that statement is reserved for the food business....hee hee hee

 

I think it's a great thing to do in addition to your regular steady job. I think a small percentage of people would make it work as a full time gig and a large percentage of that small percentage would be stressed out constantly and miserable and probably hate coins in a short period.

 

As I stated it wouldn't be in the cards for me to be a full time B&M Dealer. However, the part time possibilities are there in my area, as there is a local show circuit.

 

I've put being a coin dealer in the same category as owning a race horse. Sounds like a whole lot of fun until reality kicks in.

 

Could always make it a collectables shop with more than just coins.

 

Like @Bman33, I've thought about hitting the local shows after retirement. But I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be fun or remunerative enough to keep my interest.

I do wonder how well one single individual can do by just scaling up an eBay storefront. The cost of entry is certainly tiny, you don't need a physical shop, don't need to keep regular hours... but you also don't get the walk-in "I want to sell these coins I inherited" trade that seems to keep a lot of B&M dealers going.

 

You should look into how many folks are PNG dealers, which have these requirements:

 

Hm. First of all, ten or fifteen minutes of online searching has turned up nothing about the number of PNG dealers. I also see other pages that claim not "net worth of at least $250K", but "numismatic assets in excess of $175K". There was also a bit about being approved by a majority vote of members...?

I've seen a number of eBay sellers prominently displaying the PNG logo. I'm sure some of them are reputable; maybe most PNG dealers are reputable, and maybe most reputable dealers are PNG members. But I've seen enough sketchy (or downright laughable) auctions under that logo that, without thinking much about it, I'd pretty much discounted it. Now I guess I'll have to go back and figure out if I jumped to the wrong conclusion.

 

This.
If i were to open up a shop, or open an ebay store. I would do antiques, comics, sports cards, paper money etc etc. Diversify, as they say, then you can hit yard sales/flea markets etc and maximize profits

 

I agree with your conclusion. I put no weight into whether or not someone is a PNG member.