Life span of a dealer

2manycoins · March 27, 2012 12:28AM

I've wonders of the dealers you see at a major coin show how many of them are still dealing in coins 10 years later. Do coin dealers have the same failure rates as other businesses?

Thoughts?

MrEureka · March 27, 2012 12:38AM

I've wonders of the dealers you see at a major coin show how many of them are still dealing in coins 10 years later.

I would estimate 88%.

Do coin dealers have the same failure rates as other businesses?

I would think that the failure rate is far lower than in other businesses, for two reasons. First, because overhead is relatively low for most dealers. Second, the numbers are skewed by the fact that there are relatively few newcomers to the business, and newcomers are the ones most likely to fail.

ThePennyLady · March 27, 2012 12:39AM

Even though I haven't been a dealer nearly as long as many I see at shows, I can tell you that many dealers, including me, switched from some other profession to become a full time dealer, and for the most part the dealers who no longer attend the shows have either completely retired or have passed away. I don't think coin dealers have a very high "failure" rate because many have been involved in numismatics most of their lives and have a complete passion for coins which usually conveys into more knowledge and a more fierce determination to be successful.

Sonorandesertrat · March 27, 2012 12:42AM

There are fewer coin dealers today than there were 30-40 years ago. It's tough being a dealer today, in part because the playing field (with respect to knowledge) has been leveling. The availability of lots of formerly insider information, chat rooms, online dealer inventories, online auction catalogs, etc., via the internet, gives buyers powerful information that the average guy didn't have ready access to decades ago. Furthermore, TPGs have made life difficult for dealers in another respect--many would undergrade when buying and overgrade when selling, and it's much more difficult to get away with that now. In prior recessions, a noticeable number of dealers would simply throw in the towel. What is saving many of the small B&M operations now is healthy bullion-related trading--they aren't selling many collector coins because their collector-customers are sitting on the sidelines (due to financial worries). I think that today's dealers have to work harder than ever, and I certainly wouldn't want to do this for a living, as I expect that it can be nerveracking at times.

FredWeinberg · March 27, 2012 12:44AM

I've been a full-time dealer for 40 years,
this year.

Davideo · March 27, 2012 12:53AM

I would also image the vast majority of dealers were experienced numismatists before becoming a dealer and thus were more experienced and better prepared than other business ventures that tend to have people jumping in blindly.

TwoSides2aCoin · March 27, 2012 1:00AM

I think failure is part of what makes us succeed.

georgiacop50 · March 27, 2012 8:50AM

They are dropping like flies around here...

seriously, I don't think it is a healthy lifestyle....

(of course, there are exceptions, Segoja comes to mind...gotta be fit as a fiddle to climb Denali!)

WhiteTornado · March 27, 2012 10:49AM

<< <i>I've been a full-time dealer for 40 years,
this year. >>

Slightly OT, but congrats on 40 years in the biz!

AMRC · March 27, 2012 11:20AM

I figure I will do it until I get slabbed (sorry could not help it).

HalfStrike · March 27, 2012 11:38AM

With gold and silver prices having done as well as they have I would assume the rate is much better than the alternative.

If silver and gold prices eventually start a long bear market then many may be like the dinosaurs.

keets · March 27, 2012 11:42AM

Do coin dealers have the same failure rates as other businesses?

i can't give an opinion on that but i'll say this much-----when Bullion prices fall(not if, when) and the Coin Business regains some sanity and returns to lower levels i think many, many dealers will fade away and many, many shows will close not to be held again. the influx of both is tied directly to the spike in Bullion. oh yeah, i assume many, many "collectors" will also leave the Hobby.

Mark · March 27, 2012 11:47AM

I initially collected coins in the 1960s. I stopped around 1968. When I returned in the mid 1990s (25 or so years later) there were very few names of dealers in Coin World that I remembered from the 60s. So I think the life-span of "major" dealers that advertise in trade periodicals is such that about 80% or thereabouts do not survive for 25 years.

ColonialCoinUnion · March 27, 2012 11:50AM

My view (which may differ from your view) is that a lot of dealers evolve their businesses over the years, maybe change their focus, get a different partner, switch firms or move from retail to wholesale, etc., but not many seem to disappear altogether.

curly · March 27, 2012 11:55AM

J. H. Cline, Julian Leidman, Dale Williams are still around. I remember them from around 40 years ago.

bosco5041 · March 27, 2012 12:17PM

Don't know if many of you have heard of him but a guy named Q. David Bowers has been around for a little while.

mrpotatoheadd · March 27, 2012 12:19PM

<< <i>So I think the life-span of "major" dealers that advertise in trade periodicals is such that about 80% or thereabouts do not survive for 25 years. >>

How old do you suppose the average dealer is (I'd guess most don't start right out of high school) when he starts his business? That might have something to do with how long the business survives.

Life span of a dealer

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