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Whatnot Livestream Kearney, NE Coin dealer’s $2,000,000 week
Tomthemailcarrier
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A fair use, summarized version of the article to satisfy any and all legal obligations:
-- Bjorn Bergstrom, who is a 41-year-old coin shop owner from Kearney, Nebraska, ran a continuous 177-hour livestream auction on the live-shopping app Whatnot to test the limits of the booming digital marketplace.
-- Streaming allows Bergstrom to reach an audience of fervent regulars, as his business employs 30 people and brought in $64 million in sales over the past year, making him one of the platform's top coin sellers.
-- To captivate viewers, Bergstrom uses fast-paced tactics inspired by social media creators, including "sudden death" auctions with countdown clocks lasting as few as two seconds to gamify the buying experience.
-- His streams operate partly as an online community and "therapy" space for viewers, but the intense format demands massive personal sacrifice and a grueling rotating schedule for his co-hosts, as well as his wife.
-- Despite tech glitches and falling short early on, a final push of high-value sales including shipwreck silver bars and gold coins pushed his weekly total measured in the article to $2,047,000, successfully passing a $2 million goal he set.
-- After accounting for $125,000 in giveaways and other operational costs, the marathon livestream cleared roughly $155,000 in profit, and exhausted from the ordeal, Bergstrom slept for 11 hours straight before returning to livestream again just two nights later.
I first heard of this in posts from Laura from Legend Numismatics and Doug Winter. It’s like the HSN for coins. Myself, I can’t imagine watching something like this for hours at a time looking for a coin. I guess I’m showing my age.😉
Jeez, quite a bit of revenue. Hard work but that is serious money.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Thats amazing
It would be interesting to divulge out of the 2M what his costs for all the coins originally was.
So that is where those tacky "Trader Bea" holders come from.
I don't know for sure, but maybe the WSJ might take exception to their article being reproduced on a coin chatroom. That is probably why there was a paywall. Just saying.
http://www.victoriancent.com
Who names their daughter "Trader Bea"? Seriously though, I'm not really shocked at how well they're doing in business. Years ago I used to deal with Bjorn and his wife at shows in Omaha and always had tremendously enjoyable time doing it. Enthusiasm and professionalism to the max! They deserve the success that they've earned.
I’m a subscriber and I attempted to gift the article. So, it’s not a problem.
It says he cleared about $155,000 in profit:
Great article.
I’ve never WhatNotted before, but have been concerned from the outside that new buyers paying $80
for blast white raw Kennedy half dollars would be chased from the hobby. Hopefully I’ve been wrong and it’s fueling positive growth.
Bjorn seems like a decent fellow……I don’t begrudge him for anything except the atrocities that are the Trader Bea holders.
It's definitely a different environment than traditional auctions. It's not for everybody. That said, it can be fun to surf around if you are bored. There's always something going on and the busier rooms usually have fun banter by the attendees. And, of course, free giveaways are part of the culture.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Where does all the material come from I wonder.
It can't be all widgets.
In a traditional auction we can preview and think about our buys.
So a 1921 PL MS65 Morgan is in an auction and I want it I can plan for it. Save money and bid. How does that work here?
I am not willing to stare at a screen and hope one pops up.
Am I missing something?
Educate me!
So 2 questions, where does all the material come from?
How do we know what's going to be auctioned off, any type of preview by lots?
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
Successful BST transactions with: Namvet Justindan Mattniss RWW olah_in_MA
Dantheman984 Toyz4geo SurfinxHI greencopper RWW bigjpst bretsan MWallace logger7 JWP BruceS bigjpst
JWP PROMETHIUS88
The material comes from the same place as any other auction or ebay store. It's just sellers using a different venue.
Whatnot allows you to create an auction catalog and when have pre-bidding. In that sense, it is exactly like any other auction. HOWEVER, I was one of the few people that did it that way. The culture of the site favors a more random, discovery-based approach.
Again, the best way to understand the differences is to pop in and watch a few. It is probably not a site if you're looking for a very specific coin to fill that last slot on your registry or box of 20. It is, however, more like popping into a coin store and just kind of looking around. And it can be a very social atmosphere.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I buy my coins the old-fashioned way, by actually looking at them, assessing worthiness of pieces for my collection before opening up my wallet to purchase. This gimmick asks you to throw your money at the coin first and then hope for the best. Coin shops, online or brick and mortar no matter, are full of less than quality coins begging for a not too fussy buyer, rather a buyer who has bought into the illusion that they are "winning" something that is highly desired by other collectors.
I've been around coin collecting too long to fall for gimmicks like this one. Want a nice piece for your collection? Take the time to examine the coin itself, or at least the image of it, closely. If the piece passes muster then be ready to pay up for it.
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
Albert Einstein (14 March 1879--18 April 1955)
A local shop manager said it sounds like a gambling/gaming site. If so I hope that state oversight is looking at helping the buyers.
Sounds like a fun game, and not a crazy way to pass some time. Commissions might be a killer for some dealers though.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
A “killer”? Whatnot has nearly half the fees as eBay on average, even more as the item price increases over $1,500.
If he had already sold $8.4 million in his highest sales month this year then that $2 million in sales for a week doesn't appear to "test the limits" all that much.
If he sold $2,047,000 in merchandise and cleared $155,000 profit from it then it's still about 7.6% profit if we assume that the $155,000 was after platform fees. I wonder how much it cost to ship all of it and how many man hours this represents overall? I mean, the livestream was 177+ hours then you have to package it all and ship it all and no doubt he had to put in time and effort to find all the material and there were at least three other people working full time with him that week on the stream plus hours spent with invoice, labeling and shipping.
It appears lots of folks do well on the site and lots of folks buy off the site, but I can't imagine ever stopping by and seeing it unfold.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
It's a problem. You can't "gift" paywall content to the world by posting it on a public website. Which is why people without subscriptions cannot access it through the link you posted.
And then @mattniss violated the copyright anyway by copy pasting the entire article. I hope no one at Dow Jones or CU gets upset. Because, otherwise, this is the type of thing that could end up costing CU big bucks by not aggressively policing what we are doing here.
Which could then lead to other problems for us. Because we are supposed to know better. Plus, I'm pretty sure the T&Cs for the forum prohibit us posting content we have no right to post.
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/one-man-tries-to-make-2-million-selling-coins-at-the-internets-outer-limits-ad9b6f4f?st=ZXHgYb&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
@NJCoin, you are partially right. I used “gift an article” which allows anyone to read it. The paywall pop up closes and does NOT require you to subscribe. That is the proper way to do it.
However, copying and pasting is a violation. That is clear. I thought that forum members would be interested and I think that Mr, Murdoch of the WSJ is smart to have the gift an article feature.
I don’t intend to engage in a back and forth on this. Hope that you found it interesting.
I don't know because I have a subscription, so I was prompted to sign in. But I was under the impression that the gifts were for personal use only, and would not work on a public website, other than maybe for the first person clicking through.
No back and forth. I just think @mattniss created a potential problem for CU, which would, in turn, create a potential problem for all of us.
Not really true if you have a store. I pay 8.1% on ebay and whatnot is 7.9%. Ebay also gets a low as 2.5% on high dollar items without the additional transaction fee. You also lose control of shipping and you pay the maximum transaction fees because you can't combine transactions for single billing.
I don't think either one is terribly expensive. I also don't think either one is generally suitable for bullion and low margin items.
You also can't easily just jump on whatnot and have anyone show up to see your auction. What really ended my whatnot experience is the cost of building a following. You need to be constantly running giveaways, paying for promotion, running $1 no reserve items, and offering free shipping. If you are not a full time seller, eBay is 1000x better than whatnot.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Can you access whatnot on a desktop computer or do you have to do it with a smartphone?
There isn't much WSJ that's free in my experience. Sometimes www.archive.is is good for getting around paywalls.
I used to see Bjorn at our local Coin A Rama. Sold a lot of stuff to him. He pays up for nice coins and is honest. At one show I had nearly a monster box of ASEs late in the show. He said if you still have that at the end I'll take it. 3 days later a SFRB with cash showed up by registered mail.
Maybe he was just clearing out stuff or he has buyers he sends out to shows to snap up the good stuff.
You could contact him thru his website and ask if he will ever have some sort of running order list. Would be worth the effort only for higher dollar stuff IMO. Or he could say such and such will be listed between 9 pm and 10 pm on day X.
You can do it on a desktop.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Weeeeeeee.....
SMH! RGDS!!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Retiring at 55, what day is today?
Tried it, they want a phone number to just look around. No thanks (to whatnot, not to you).
Give them your neighbors number. Lol
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
That only works if they don't send a login code.
It was a joke. I think they did send one. But they never have contacted afterwards.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I thought so. Everybody wants to get your info (as much of it as they can, anyway) in their system, don't they?
In their case, I think it's a legitimate safety feature.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
That's their right. As such, I'll give their website a pass. I can live without whatever it is there that's for sale.
I will note there are plenty of places you can go on the intertubes and just look around (more than enough to keep me busy, anyway
) without logging in or providing personal information (with the recognition that just visiting a website doesn't mean you're doing it anonymously).
Your right. Buy there's enough users here that you can be assured it's not a scam.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I don't think they are a scam. On the other hand, I'm on my third credit card in two years because other companies I've done business with (who are also not scams) managed to not manage my personal info such that it could not be acquired by others, who were indeed scammers.
I know it's a small thing, but I prefer to not put personal information out there any more than I have to.
As I said, it's your right.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Have their people call my people. It would take all of two seconds for any actual potential problems to be solved if this was actually a real concern. Either way, it's now a fair use summary, which is 100% fair game to any legal eagle.
I didn't gain any financial value, or literally any incentive, for that matter, out of sharing this news article, and nor did the WSJ lose any meaningful value through me doing this; sharing the article was purely for educational purposes within a specialized community. I'm sure there's some people out there who appreciate your service for being the internet police.
Oh, it's a real concern, assuming they become aware of it. "Fair use" is mentioning the article.
Not copying it, chapter and verse, for public viewing outside the paywall. That is actually called stealing intellectual property. Not "fair use."
"Their people" will have no interest in talking to "your people." They might, however, want to have a chat with CU's people, since they are the ones hosting you, and giving you a platform to publicly share their IP with the world without compensating them. CU has a far deeper pocket to explore than you, and that represents the "actual potential problem."
They actually only have copyright protection for their original article, the information in the work is real world news events and is not protected by any type of intellectual property law. And yes, I am an attorney and admitted to practice before the USPTO and did many copyright cases. And even publishing directly a portion would be fair use, so stop giving advice where you don't know what you are talking about -- stick with coins. CU would have no potential liability even if you published the exact article here under some of the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA (17 USC §512).
???? What are you talking about? Because I'm not talking about "the information in the work." The entire article was literally copied and pasted here. That is absolutely a copyright infringement.
What "safe harbor provision" gives the host of an online forum protection when a user violates someone's copyright? CU is not an OSP. That would be whoever provides your internet connection. Not the host of a website.
CU is absolutely responsible for the content it allows us to post, and has an obligation to police it, subject to a take down request. But don't think for a minute that it is okay for us to violate someone else's copyright, and that there would be no consequences if Dow Jones found out about it.
You don't seriously think that CU would have no responsibility if people were soliciting illegal activity, or posting illicit content here, do you?
So Bjorn sold $3 mil worth of coins for $2 mil excluding “givvys” . Go Big Red.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Sounds like you're doing a heck of a job for them, gratis! Way to own CU's exposure risk for them by leading your own take down request crusade, all (in your words) because of "a potential problem for CU, which would, in turn, create a potential problem for all of us."
Surely you'll let us know when any of CU's actual problems become forum user problems, let alone this pesky little potential one.
Tuition paid here
I watched a few other sites for a few minutes. It was amazing what people will pay for ungraded common coins.
Buyers over the years have gotten great deals on eBay; I'm sure there are some good deals on "Whatnot" if you are quick to the trigger. Ebay is more generous with returns for buyers who have "regret" which is part of life in 2026 with the Amazon marketplace having generous returns. "Whatnot" not so much, only for improperly described items.
Overview of eBay vs. Whatnot.
eBay provides a vastly larger global audience and higher profit margins, operating as a "long-tail" search-based model. Whatnot, an entertainment-driven live auction platform, offers much faster sales and quick cash flow but frequently results in lower per-item sale prices. Comparison at a GlanceFeature: eBayWhatnot Sales Volume Velocity Slower, consistent background sales. Extremely fast during live streams. Average Profit MarginsHigher; sellers control pricing and wait for the right buyer.
Audience ReachHuge (130M+ global buyers).Concentrated niche markets (mostly collectibles). Time InvestmentPassive; create a listing once and let it sell anytime. High; requires active streaming, audience engagement, and prep. Best ForHigh-ticket items, rare collectibles, and steady margins. Bulk inventory, impulse buys, and rapid liquidation. Strategy and Best Practices The "Slow Dime" vs. "Fast Nickel": Many sellers use both. You can liquidate bulk, lower-margin, or visually appealing items on Whatnot to boost immediate cash flow, while listing higher-value, slower-burn items on eBay for top dollar.Platform Culture: Success on Whatnot relies heavily on your personality, entertainment value, and ability to build a community. Viewers often expect deals, so sellers usually need bulk-sourcing strategies (like estate sales or liquidations) to maintain profitability at lower auction prices.
Selling Experience: On eBay, buyers find your items through SEO algorithms, meaning you do not have to be "on stage" to make a sale.
So ask yourself if they are really worth the $3 million. It's not like they come from a factory with a MSRP.
Getting too old Bajjerfan? Or did you forget ; “if ya wanna make a million in the coin business, you have to start with two million”. Man, some guys forgot the old cliches. (Or lost a sense of humor) SMH
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5