Life's Possibilities as a Coin Dealer
abcde12345
Posts: 3,404 ✭✭✭✭✭
"I was supposed to be rich, a world-famous coin dealer with a gleaming black Porsche and a villa in Monaco, but I drive a dull gray Chrysler which starts one-third of the time. You were supposed to be my muse, my confidant, the one who shared my success.
Instead we share the foul air of unpaid bills and the silence as we choke down Ramen and wait for the movie to load. I was supposed to travel to various coin shows, to sample the wine in Paris and the sausage in Munich, but my wild escape is the pawn shop looking through dateless Buffalo nickels.
The Thai restaurant we frequent where the menus are laminated plastic with crudely fashioned stickers where the pad thai once cost a dollar less. This was supposed to be journey of triumph love and laughter and coin adventure.
Instead we fear cancer and ponder whether death will come from a stray bullet, a stray truck or just a clogged artery. And so it goes."
Comments
Wow, ok! Expectations can now be reformed and you shall be a success!! Forget the Porsche, expensive to fix..Monaco is nice but there are places just as beautiful for 1/3 the cost....Unpaid bills? Welcome to the party pal! Ramen is not a good food source...Plant a garden its cheap! There is great wine for cheap now all over the place. I cannot comment on the sausage. It might lead to that clogged artery that seems to be a concern. Forget the dateless buffs man, go for the junk bin!!. I'd take a bullet over cancer any day if my time was up. Continue the adventure. Jonathon Winters said that if your ship does not come in...swim out to it..:)
You alright?
A government accident left me a former man, a potato. That photo on my profile is a low resolution selfie. I like coins.
Arby’s......we have the meats
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
clogged artery most likely
exercise and Omega 3-6-9 can help
Oh, yes !!!
Note the quotation marks in the OP.
Smitten with DBLCs.
You could also replace this story with "golfers and golfballs", and it'd still be a sh**y copy/paste off Reddit, but I'll bite.
I think some people who start businesses get to the point financially in which they are sitting around eating Ramen, burning out doing nothing waiting on nobody to call for their resume, and then realizing they can just make the money themselves doing something better and more fun. It's when people get comfortable and complacent and forget their roots that ends up biting them.
Like anything else, getting to the top requires sacrifice. I am very far from there but I see myself expanding every day and now possibly another platform as well. It would be easier if I applied for and got a small business loan, but avoiding that I believe is a smart business decision even if it means slower growth.
We went from OPs situation to me now having an extra job, +2.5x my income, working from home, the most disposable income we've had in a long time, and the business is expanding. Work provides free, sparkling union insurance. I get free coins to play with.
I think some people also fail when they get comfortable. It's OK to take calculated risks and cover your own butt, like making sure you still have the money in 14 days for a return that comes from nowhere, or an angry shopper SNAD.
Would I still ride 7 miles to the post office for 5 bucks? Sure, and I still do, it's not often but if it makes a customer and keeps a customer, that 5 bucks raises exponentially.
I spent 90 minutes the other day on a customer who was slowly heading towards becoming a problem after spending a few grand in my store the past 6 months. He was getting frustrated and wasn't getting the right education. I can provide the tools but not the experience. I woke up to $500 in my paypal. Minus costs and fees, I made $300/hour.
Of course, there are over a dozen people here who I know have spent over a million on a coin before, and I'm pretty sure that covers a tricked out lambo and bikini babes.
Just another fictional piece copied from another board or something. But still, there are elements worth discussion.
Anybody taking anything like this personal is seeing it from a wrong angle - it usually is referred to as "baiting", a form of trolling.
I'll admit it's kinda funny when people melt over these threads lol.
Or worse rupturing a brain aneurysm during a witless CAC thread debate
It's a brilliant scam if you think about it, but necessary until the next best thing comes by.
It sounds like you tried to operate on a 10% margin.
Ah the trials and tribulations of this fascinating journey we call life.
Cheers, RickO
Kinda off topic but the “dream vs reality” is likely the same.
I’ve lived in my current location for 10 years now and there is this restaurant space that I drive by everyday, to and from my work. 10 years and it has been 7 different restaurants.
And it’s about to be 8. I have thought many times about those folks that have opened and closed there. What were thier dreams and realities? Why did they think they would be the successful one?
That retaurant is one of the reasons I work for someone else. Sure, I’d love to be self employed and have my own successful business but uncertainty keeps that reality alive.
I've known a few "full-time" coin guys whose automobile would not start reliably. Not fictional.
someone can get 10% these days?? really?????
Bill could easily operate at 22.5% all the live long day. Probably 30.
Yes as long as you don't suffer from dragon breath
I am a full time dealer since 2008, the gold boom years were good, its decent now, I do okay. But if you want to get rich in this area, you got to be a shyster. Another dealer across town, who constantly buys stolen stuff, hoses folks left and right, ripps little old ladies on there late husbands coins (or heirs), absolutely kicks as*. Buys sports cars, boats, houses in cash literally monthly.
I just cant seem to do it, because I am an ethical person.
Wow , But they say once you hit bottom there is only one way and that is up so up up and away.
Hoard the keys.
They also say once you can fake sincerity, you have it made...
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
The number of dealers on the U.S. circuit with a Porsche and a villa in Monaco is probably zero.