low spending low echelon nerds
CheckersFred
Posts: 82
i enjoyed that comment. i once overheard two dealers talking to each other about people who buy $80 coins at auction. then he spat.
Here's to it and to it again.
If you don't do it when you get to it,
You'll never get to it to do it again.
If you don't do it when you get to it,
You'll never get to it to do it again.
0
Comments
$100 for my collection. I have priorities like feeding the kids and wife.
Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker
With regard to inventory turnover....if profits are your goal, inventory turnover is indeed a very big part of the picture. Another big part of the picture is how low do you lower your margins....there is a cost benefit analyisis. When I worked on my MBA, we did computer modeling and some of the variables are margins and advertising. When you lower the price, you sell more but make less on each piece. At some point, though, your margins become so small that you simply can't make enough to cover your fixed costs. One of my goals is to keep my costs low. I sell about $115,000 per month on eBay and probably another at least 50K off eBay and my cost of selling that amount is around $1,600 per month. You can easily spend that much going to one coin show, especially if you bring your wife or Stephanie. If I wanted to sell more coins, I'd spend more money with full page ads directing people to me. That takes time and money and it has just about nothing to do with buying, selling, photographing or doing write ups on coins, and those are the things I enjoy.
Obviously, the biggest problem, though, is that most coin dealers sufffer from low sales, not low margins. At least that's my suspicion.
Another factor to consider is that it costs money to buy inventory. You don't want to buy a coin that comes along just several times a year and make 3% on it. You're better off waiting for someone who wants the coin and is willing to pay a reasonable markup, which of course depends on many variables, of which a book could be written. There is an art to pricing coins. If I didn't love my best coins, I would lower the price, sell more and have have a crappy inventory. I, though, would rather charge more than 3%, have a great inventory, enjoy my coins, make friends and work more on terms and strong buy backs.There are dealers who will sell at very low markups. They generally will buy anything and service a different market than I do.
With me, time is a major factor. Doing this part time means having limited time.
Incidentally, i find that it's really hard for me to maintain more than 200 items in eBay and in my eBay store. If I didn't have to ship and answer emails, I could get a lot more listed. I would like to get my entire inventory listed ....some day, but find that i buy coins even when i already have a bunch to put up. Such is the nature of man. We never really need even one coin, do we? But boy, I sure do love 'em....like a fat boy loves cake.
adrian
Most of my collection is made of coins in the $100 - $200 range (with quite a few under $100) - that doesn't make me any less of a collector than the person who spends as much as I have in my entire collection on a single coin. I, too, have priorities - like sleeping indoors and keeping my family fed and clothed.
Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!!
'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'
<< <i>Not everyone who collects can afford to buy 4 or 5 digit coins. I feel no shame about buying coins under
$100 for my collection. I have priorities like feeding the kids and wife. >>
Well said,I'm in the "low spending low echelon nerds" club myself as well.
MCDBA MCSA MCP
SQL Server Database Admin
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I think the real trick to enjoying collecting anything is matching the challenge to your budget. For example, if you're a millionaire, collecting unc kennedies is not going to produce too much joy because you can get all of them in a short period of time with little effort and you can pay for them all at once.
If you're on a budget of say $300 a month, you wouldn't want to collect proof gold because you would buy one piece every three years.
I think you should carefully undertake your goals....try to make it so that you're buying at least one coin per month, with two to three coins per month as being a very good goal.
Just my opinion.
adrian
Pennies make dollars, and dollars make slabs!
....inflation must be kicking in again this dollar says spend by Dec. 31 2004!
Erik
I just got back from heli-skiing in Alaska for a month and I'm going to Argentina in August. I would much rather travel the world photographing skiing and mountaineering than purchase a bunch of five figure coins. Someone on these boards said it best; I don't want to go to the grave wishing that I had spent more time working really hard so that I could buy more coins. Another member of these forums commented on a newly purchased five figure coin and said that what was spent on that coin would buy a trip around the world... twice.
I am finding that numismatics is just as fun just reading and learning about coins. I love US coins. Just learning about them is good enough for me right now. Plus I won't have to have the sellers remorse that comes when I discover that the coins I purchased are worth only a fraction of what I paid for them.
Besides, I have a really nice collection already. I could spend hours a day just looking at the coins that I already own. I have more than enough.
With that kind of scenario I find that I am more than able to delude myself that I own the coin as much as he does. I can appreciate the picture of it very well. The only difference is I won't get to live in the nice house he buys when he sells it. Okay... I guess that's a big difference.
You know you can debate and speculate who gets the most joy out of numismatics, and at what level of collecting, but in the end I think it comes down to any given individuals ability to enjoy and glean meaning out of anything.
I sometimes come away from these forums feeling sorry, because it seems like enjoying things just isn't in the cards (or the coins) for a lot of people. But, hope springs eternal, and little chipper Clankeye gets about his happy day.
Little Chipper Clankeye
<< <i>
I think the real trick to enjoying collecting anything is matching the challenge to your budget. For example, if you're a millionaire, collecting unc kennedies is not going to produce too much joy because you can get all of them in a short period of time with little effort and you can pay for them all at once.
adrian >>
One of the nicest things about moderns is that they are collectable on almost
any budget. Granted a million dollars would be a real challenge to spend on a
set of slabbed Kennedies but it probably could be done with a lot of effort. On
the other hand an MS-60 set could be assembled for around $100 if special col-
lector issues are omitted. A circ set wouldn't cost much more than face value. If
some care were taken in assembling ANY of these sets there would be some great
coins which could bring the collector real pride.
While a super high grade set might be expensive to put together it will not prove
easy to accomplish since many dealers don't stock any moderns and some of the
coins are elusive and in strong hands. It could be a lot of fun trying to make one of
the finest of any collection.
However, owning coins without seeing them seems a shame. Coins are cool and i love looking at the ones i own.
adrian
Clankeye, I couldn't agree more!!!
As far as cards are concerned, it seems that there are people that have to wager the rent money before it becomes "fun". They do not enjoy wagering nominal amounts (of course, everyone's nominal is a different number)
I feel if you can enjoy something regardless of the dollar amount, then you REALLY enjoy what you are doing.
Joe.
<< <i>Psychologists who study happiness report that they believe that happiness is accomplished by those that continuously set and reach goals. >>
Hi Adrian. In my life, I've discovered that setting goals and reaching them has been anti-climatic. For me, the journey was almost ALWAYS better than the arrival (with the exception of having children where the arrival was as wonderful as the journey).
Happiness for me is when I've been able to build mansions out of the bricks that my enemies have thrown at me.
<< <i>
You know you can debate and speculate who gets the most joy out of numismatics, and at what level of collecting, but in the end I think it comes down to any given individuals ability to enjoy and glean meaning out of anything.
>>
Some people can't be happy unless they're miserable. They may well get just as much joy as
anyone else though it's so hard to tell sometimes.
I've got that beat. the most expensive coin i've ever bought (excluding the 1/4 A.E. my wife bought for me) has been $30. between two houses, two businesses, and three kids total, i've got zero money to spend on coins, except for Xmas and my birthday. (which is in two days, so i'm salivating & dreaming of the coins i will be able to get) All i'm trying to do now is complete my whitmans and get a few nice coins along the way. I love just looking at coins, but i havn't been to a shop in a few months becasue i know dealers don't like groupies.
So tough shi'te on the dealers who think cheap spenders will always be cheap spenders.
B.
A Tax is a fine for doing good.
I agree that collecting is a balance of buying what you want on a budget that is reasonable. I would disagree with one point of anacondas post, however. I dont think that you necessarily have to buy one coin a month on average. I understand too Adrian, that was a guide, not an absolute. It greatly depends on the person. If you are a saver, then I would recommend that you take whatever your budget is and wait until you find the best thing you can find. I find that being ultra picky and saving for six months to a year for a coin is very rewarding. It brings on a real feeling of pride and accomplishment that you were frugal with your money but still ended up with the best looking girl at the party so to speak. My dad is a postman and I'm in the Navy, but with patience I feel that we have put together a collection that , appeal wise, is in the top 1% of all collections. That should always be your goal, whether you are in it for the money or the collecting part of it.
In the interim, I study, do my homework (coin homework that is, not oceanography homework), and try to become more knowledgeable. Knowledge is most certainly money in this hobby we have chosen.
So, in regards to the dealer spitting at the mention of the "80$" collector I would say this... If you want to throw it in his face, put together a complete date set of ultra pleasing Barber Halves in Very Fine. (Talk to ARCO if interested). If you are as picky as you should be and your monthly budget is that magical 80 number, it will take you around six years to put the collection together. It will be alot of work, alot of frustration and a lot of fun. Take that set up to the elitest dealer and see what he says. I guarantee he will be falling all over himself to buy it.
That is when you say...... (Enter choice sarcastic phrase here).
V.r,
John
siliconvalleycoins.com