Coin Dealers, What is your Plan?
ctf_error_coins
Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭
Are you buying, selling or holding the line.
I personally have been buying very slightly, thinking about going to hold the line, and maybe sell off the bottom tier of my inventory even if at a loss. I will not discount or blow out the bulk of my inventory as I will hold it for the other side. I have zero debt so I can do this. My wife has a steady paycheck so we can endure this.
We do have a small cash reserve, but 100% of that will be put in the stock market.
We are hunkering down at home.
Other coin dealers, What are your plans?
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Comments
As a collector/flipper at I can pass the time on ebay and other online outlets...
What if USPS shuts down?
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
I am already 100% online.
No one is buying right now as everyone has something else on their mind.
If i were holding a bunch of eye appealing major mint errors, I'd be a lot more concerned, in regards to my Inventory, about someone with a creative mind, a lot of know-how, and an actual surplus mint coin press, than any but the most virulent of microorganisms.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Mine are all in plastic so they would have to be able to trick the guy who authenticates the coins which is the same concern for all coins but so far less so for major error coins.
I am a small ebay dealer. My sales have been slowing down, and I figure I will slow my buying down as well. I think cash is king for a little while, to at least make sure we have what we need. I have two apartments as my main income, and I am worried my renters may not be able to pay. It is an owner financed deal, so I will have to make my payments even if rent income drys up. Yikes.
I'm definitely not seeing that on eBay … the deep pockets are still aggressively bidding against me.
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
Just keeping busy on my website until it all blows over and shows tart back up. I've seen normal activity on my website.
HAPPY COLLECTING
Riding the Storm Out! eBay's trying!
Edit to add...several good sales I would have made at Baltimore happened the day after they cancelled the show. Hoping more to come!
...when dealers can’t hold on for any longer...money will be there to scoop and score...money changes hands but NEVER sleeps
Waiting.
This is from Doug Winter with permission to reprint here
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“Oh, great, you’re thinking, yet another email from someone discussing The Virus. I’m personally sick of reading them and I’ve gotten them from sources as diverse as luxury hotels to my local Thai joint.
But I’d like to share some thoughts with you about the trying times we live in.
The first is this virus is serious. If you are over 60, have a compromised immune system, or other health issues, you need to be self-quarantined. This means virtually no trips out of your house except maybe to walk the dog or to hunt for fresh produce; you should be extra careful with what you eat right now. If you can find fruit and veggies, buy a few days’ worth at a time and eat them at least twice a day! Please, take extra good care of yourself right now. (Jenna is currently quarantined on her small urban farmstead.)
The second is that this is going to severely impact every facet of our lives for at least 45 days, and likely much longer. Every day news of more closures and ambiguous reopen dates flood our inboxes, and we too have watched favorite stores lay off their staff.
I feel qualified to discuss the potential impact on the coin market; I’ll leave the impact on other aspects of your life to people smarter than me…
It’s a safe bet that there will be no major shows until June Long Beach, and possibly beyond this. The impact will be quickly felt. For me, this means that I will be buying fewer coins as many of my suppliers sell to me exclusively at shows. You’d think it would be just as easy for them to ship me a box of coins, but it just doesn’t work that way.
My supply chain relies on numerous smaller dealers sending me one, two, or three neat fresh coins whenever they are available. With fewer trips being made, this supply chain takes an immediate hit. I’ll still be buying good coins; probably just not as regularly as in the past (and, by the way, if you have some stuff for sale, now is a great time to offer it to me!)
To minimize potential virus contact, Jenna and I are staggering our hours and locations. This means we aren’t as efficient as usual (without bragging, I feel we are the most efficient duo in the US coin market). If you send us coins to buy, it might take two or three days for one of us to get to your package. We won’t be able to list new coins on the site as quickly, and we won’t be able to mail things out to you with our usual rocket speed. And one last point: there is a chance the planes flying our Express Mail and Fed Ex might be grounded. We’ll worry about this when and if it happens, but please keep this in mind.
What will the virus do to the coin market? That’s hard to say. The past week has been decent for us and we’ve spoken with dealers who are still selling coins. But this is a small sample size. The Pogue sale will likely be very strong, but this is also a small sample size. It will take a national coin show to really get an idea of the strength of the market and we won’t see one of these for months. If there is an ANA this summer, my guess it will be spectacular: either spectacularly good, or spectacularly bad.
One other impact you’ll see in the market in the coming months is a severe lack of liquidity among many dealers. Even “name brand” firms will be feeling the pinch. Please be careful who you ship your coins or your check(s) to. And please rest assured that DWN is 100% debt-free, very capable of reinventing itself quickly in a wacky market, and extremely well-capitalized. In other words, we’ve earned your trust and we intend on keeping it.
In closing, remember one of the reasons you’ve chosen to collect coins is because numismatics is really fun and really relaxing. I’m assuming you have a lot more free time today than you did two weeks ago. Can I suggest that you use a little of your free time to become a better collector? Buy some coin books and read them. Go on my site and download articles and blogs in my archive. Call me and ask the questions you always wanted to ask but you were worried I was too busy to answer them. Jenna, Irma, and I are here to make your collecting experience richer and more varied.
We at DWN greatly appreciate each and every one of you and we hope to hear from you in the coming days! Stay safe and be healthy.”
-Doug, Irma, Jenna, and Earl
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......
With Congress about to drop $2T on people, I think gloom and doom is a little early. Everything I've bid on lately is still going strong, but we shall see.
My inventory is mostly gold and silver coins. Fortunately my business model does not require a constant cash flow. I see this as the secret to surviving down cycles.
I'm holding the line. Good time to build inventory.
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
Mark, thanks for sharing that. Doug is a great guy. Always fun to talk with. If you're interested in gold, take him up on his offer and give him a call. I've had several conversations with him, and learned something every time. I'm not a frequent buyer, but he comes up with some amazing coins. His thoughts on the market at this time are intersting.
I agree that liquidity is going to be an issue. As he says, it will possibly be harder to locate good coins than to buy or sell good coins. In times of uncertainty, many people just sit on their hands.
@BryceM
Indeed. I can count on one hand the dealers I use. He’s one of them. He’s a national treasure of knowledge. His site is a literal wealth of information.
m
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......
Doug was one of my mentors in the hobby, and Irma is great too!
Latin American Collection
Still a brick & mortar guy. Intended on selling and retiring. My wife wasn’t having it. Online sales are slow. Been moving a lot into the market via another dealer I know. Bullion is brisk and hot and heavy. One of my customers owns a liquor store. He says it’s a boon for his business ( this virus thing). I don’t wonder why coin dealers drink any more; or any less ...for that matter.
I’m thinking “ this too shall pass “. Like a kidney stone.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
I have been running smaller dollar items on ebay since the past week or two, prices are a little off, but its stuff I have little in, so I don't care. Wont be offering any nicer quality coins till this is over. As far as bullion, never kept it more than a day or two, I've always moved it fast, so I was not affected by the drop at all. The past week , the number of people coming in to sell has been minimal, probably don't want to sell at the lower prices, orscared of being out in public (cant say that I blame them on price). Calls looking for silver are numerous, but I try to send them to another dealer across town who has a ton, but him at 18 bucks, they just laugh. Still very little intrest in gold coins in my area , even after the 175 buck drop from 2 weeks ago. I had two 1/2 age left from last fri, sold one to a board member a few days ago, and one in the shop today, so I am out of it as well.
When folks do come into sell, I will still try and pay fair, but I am not going out on a limb unless its a dynamite coin, or .999 silver which I can move within the hour! Who knows how long this is going to last and then how long it takes for things to recover!
Ebay sales up 26% for last 31 days, and not selling Toilet paper.
My eBay sales are up for last 30 days slightly. (But the previous 30 days were terrible so that isn't saying much.)
But overall very slow and I am in a hold position.
With several shows looming and now looking as if they will be cancelled, I am only buying if it is an obscene rip.
Oddly, I've sold a LOT of stamps this week...
Coins are a bit sluggish, but they have been since the internet tax came to be.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
It's been a little slow at the shop I work at, but we're still here...
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