Yes it can be done, others have started with less. But I do agree with another poster it takes $100 K......
Try an ebay store and take a table at inexpensive shows. You will start to get a feel for how tough the business really is. You do not want to get inventory heavy as super deal might walk up. Your goal is to get to retirement with a business which will supplement your income once your career has played out.
Sharing tables at shows with a friend who can mentor you can help too. A 2x3' glass case can handle 6 layers of 80 slabbed coins. It can handle 4 bourse trays with 28 raw coins in 2x2 each. While pieces of currency may take up a lot of room in a case they can be stacked. For a $30 K investment I would want $20 K in coins - 100 pieces which average $200 each. The other $10K I would retain as buying cash for buying deals very inticing - at BV or about 60% of Market Value or less. If want to mix currency in I would want graded large size notes, VF or better.
Market very slow right now, really tough to get retail sales.
Just be warned most coming in the bourse room probably have no more than $300 in their pocket many no more than $20. A guy once bought 3 junk coins from me for $20 after I had fudged it down from $26. He then handed me a $20 bill out of his wallet (there was no other money there). So out of 100 bourse dealers in the room getting all his money was I successful - possibly so lol.
I have never seen x$ of investment as a deal breaker variable. If my cases at a show are full of coins and currency and I do not sell enough to make expenses I do not believe more inventory is the answer. The biggest variable is people coming in the door, loaded and hot to buy.
You don't need coins when you only have 30k to work with. You need customers. How to attract customers should be the #1 priority.
I started with something like 5-10K in coins in 1975. (In current dollars, that's 22-44K.)
My #1 priority has always been finding coins at attractive prices, and I've always sold more coins to dealers than to collectors. The point is not that I'm doing it "the right way", but that you don't have to focus on finding customers, and that here is no single "right way" to be successful.
Andy Lustig
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Could one be a successful dealer with a sub $30,000 inventory?
At no time total inventory won't exceed $30,000 at any given time.
TPG COINS
Maybe 10 to 40 coins.
Focus on quality coin, quick turn over with compound returns.
Answer before reading the other responses is, define "successful"
Provide spendable income to support a family in a metropolitan area?
No, not bloody likely.
But, provide a nice second income, grow your collection/inventory/portfolio, build contacts and a 'presence' that could possibly evolve into a primary income stream with hard enough work?
Sure.
How hard does the person want to work, and how efficient are they with their time, and how smart and lucky do they expect to be at it?
I always figured coin brokering success was based on arbitrage: the difference between what you pay and what you can sell the coin for. When I peruse coin prices for quality coins, I am not sure how anyone can make money paying the premiums that dealers are asking for the good quality coins and then turn around to sell them for any profit. There doesn't seem to be any room for arbitrage...unless one waits about 30 years and sells far in the future. Have you seen Ebay and the billions of fixed coin prices that just sit there week after week?
It seems that a great opportunity for coin dealers was the transition from raw to slabbed. Someone with a discerning eye could pick up raw coins that didn't always sell for a premium (compared to their slabbed counterparts), holder the coins and sell for much higher.
Now that most higher priced quality coins are in holders, all the premium is built into the coin.
There's a lot to be gained by starting with a smaller inventory. I started with a $3,000 inventory some 15 years or so ago, and built from there. It was good that I only had that much to spend, since I was able to learn the ropes by make relatively inexpensive mistakes instead of blowing bigger dollar amounts.
Start part-time, and just keep pushing till you find your niche/business model that works for you.
A $30K inventory with 10 to 40 graded coins. If a guy can flip the inventory every month and make 20% on the flip, he could make about $72K per year pre tax dollars. Good luck doing that.
Now like I said earlier , "anything is possible". A golden boy could do it.
Nowadays with an ebay store like 24.95 a month subscription one can start with much less.
If you can make a positive P&L with a 30K investment go for it. Only way to find out is start taking tables at shows, doing an ebay store.
Inventory Minimum Investment is meaningless if you can not make a positive P&L. At a minimum I would have enough material to fill up 2 cases at a coin show whether slabbed coins or currency or just stuff in 2x2's. If the your not making money on the stuff you have now, then adding more inventory is not the answer.
I have had shows I set up at where I did not sell anything except junk or not even made enough to cover expenses. Attendance may have been bad or the people coming in the bourse room did not have any money, would not pay anything, or were just looking for a rip. So negative P&L on those.
Comments
Tell the truth, work hard and establish a working relationship and mentor relationship with 1- a few dealers.
You don't need coins when you only have 30k to work with. You need customers. How to attract customers should be the #1 priority.
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
Try an ebay store and take a table at inexpensive shows. You will start to get a feel for how tough the business really is. You do not want to get inventory heavy as super deal might walk up. Your goal is to get to retirement with a business which will supplement your income once your career has played out.
Sharing tables at shows with a friend who can mentor you can help too. A 2x3' glass case can handle 6 layers of 80 slabbed coins. It can handle 4 bourse trays with 28 raw coins in 2x2 each. While pieces of currency may take up a lot of room in a case they can be stacked. For a $30 K investment I would want $20 K in coins - 100 pieces which average $200 each. The other $10K I would retain as buying cash for buying deals very inticing - at BV or about 60% of Market Value or less. If want to mix currency in I would want graded large size notes, VF or better.
Market very slow right now, really tough to get retail sales.
Just be warned most coming in the bourse room probably have no more than $300 in their pocket many no more than $20. A guy once bought 3 junk coins from me for $20 after I had fudged it down from $26. He then handed me a $20 bill out of his wallet (there was no other money there). So out of 100 bourse dealers in the room getting all his money was I successful - possibly so lol.
I have never seen x$ of investment as a deal breaker variable. If my cases at a show are full of coins and currency and I do not sell enough to make expenses I do not believe more inventory is the answer. The biggest variable is people coming in the door, loaded and hot to buy.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I started my inventory with less than $5,000 being able to buy 1-10 coins at a given time
What year?
That can certainly make a difference.
Heck....Julian and Bowers probably started with a few dollars back when they started
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
Not everyone is looking to buy $1000+ coins. There's plenty of market for what your are talking about.
Plenty of market but is there enough margin. Shipping, table fees, photography, website, are all fixed costs you would need to absorb.
Latin American Collection
You don't need coins when you only have 30k to work with. You need customers. How to attract customers should be the #1 priority.
I started with something like 5-10K in coins in 1975. (In current dollars, that's 22-44K.)
My #1 priority has always been finding coins at attractive prices, and I've always sold more coins to dealers than to collectors. The point is not that I'm doing it "the right way", but that you don't have to focus on finding customers, and that here is no single "right way" to be successful.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Could one be a successful dealer with a sub $30,000 inventory?
At no time total inventory won't exceed $30,000 at any given time.
TPG COINS
Maybe 10 to 40 coins.
Focus on quality coin, quick turn over with compound returns.
Answer before reading the other responses is, define "successful"
Provide spendable income to support a family in a metropolitan area?
No, not bloody likely.
But, provide a nice second income, grow your collection/inventory/portfolio, build contacts and a 'presence' that could possibly evolve into a primary income stream with hard enough work?
Sure.
How hard does the person want to work, and how efficient are they with their time, and how smart and lucky do they expect to be at it?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Yes just have Peabody and Sherman set the way-back machine to 1967
It seems that a great opportunity for coin dealers was the transition from raw to slabbed. Someone with a discerning eye could pick up raw coins that didn't always sell for a premium (compared to their slabbed counterparts), holder the coins and sell for much higher.
Now that most higher priced quality coins are in holders, all the premium is built into the coin.
Tyler
Find raw coins that you can get into a high grade holder, or play the crack out game.
Start part-time, and just keep pushing till you find your niche/business model that works for you.
If a guy can flip the inventory every month and make 20% on the flip, he could make about $72K per year pre tax dollars. Good luck doing that.
Now like I said earlier , "anything is possible". A golden boy could do it.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
I would not be looking to make it a full time occupation, maybe aid in building a core set and occasional travel.
If you can make a positive P&L with a 30K investment go for it. Only way to find out is start taking tables at shows, doing an ebay store.
Inventory Minimum Investment is meaningless if you can not make a positive P&L. At a minimum I would have enough material to fill up 2 cases at a coin show whether slabbed coins or currency or just stuff in 2x2's. If the your not making money on the stuff you have now, then adding more inventory is not the answer.
I have had shows I set up at where I did not sell anything except junk or not even made enough to cover expenses. Attendance may have been bad or the people coming in the bourse room did not have any money, would not pay anything, or were just looking for a rip. So negative P&L on those.