Buying Low and Selling High

[Houston Investor]

Everyone who has ever set up on the bourse or run a shop has heard the term "Buy Low / Sell High" or that the only way to make money in the coin business it is to "Buy it Right."

 

What does this really mean to some of you and what are some of your most memorable experiences buying low or selling high? Feel free to brag.......

 

 

[MikeInFL]

I am happy to say I don't look at this hobby as a profit center.

[TomB]

In my personal experience this has meant buying into niche markets before they have exploded in popularity. In that way I am able to not only buy quality material, but am also able to later sell quality material without having to buy or sell coins too far out to the normal trading range. This has happened to me in four niche markets and I have never had to wait very long before the advance in prices.

[WinstonWare]

Tom, what's the next niche market

[cpm9ball]

In my personal experience this has meant buying into niche markets before they have exploded in popularity. In that way I am able to not only buy quality material, but am also able to later sell quality material without having to buy or sell coins too far out to the normal trading range. This has happened to me in four niche markets and I have never had to wait very long before the advance in prices.

 

Well, Tom, I'm glad to see that you've finally found your niche. Fortunately for me, I don't need to find one. I only buy for myself.

 

Chris

[Houston Investor]

In thinking about your comment Tom, one specialty area that comes to mind is US Mint products. Since there are so many types of issues there can be some opportunities for profit taking in the after market like the recent burnished unc AGE's and 20th anniversary ASE sets. The Buffalo Silver Dollar is another case in point. It will be interesting to see how some of this years issues play out but to cover most of the bases it takes a lot of pocket.

 

The key thing is to jump on these early before the USM halts ordering. Usually I will hold this material to see what the bids are going to be in the CDN. If the bids come out where you are in a really good profit position, then you may want to blow out a lot of your stake to take some profit. I cleaned up on the 20th ASE sets and took all the money and put into Gold American Buffalos which I have put away in my bank box.

 

The Presidential Spouse series certainly seems like a good investment at this point in time. With half of an ounce of gold these appear to be an investment double play. It will be interesting how the CDN will treat these. I like USM products as there can be profit opportunities - almost all of the money has been wrung out of the classics (this is evident in the lackluster PCGS 3000).

 

As far as classic coins - stay away from coins that appear grossly over priced (If PCGS market retail is $35 then ideally that should be a $35 coin at the most in my view) - I have seen people use a lot of gimmicks to jack up their pricing -1 the manipulated toning craze (I have seen people jack up coin prices as much as 1200% over PCGS market retail simply because a coin is toned - cmon now liking toned coins over untoned coins is a preference not a sales gimmick to rip off the public) and 2 it appears CAC (if it ever manages to get online) is going to be another similar slick marketing gimmick.

[SuperDave]

As a widgeteer, my low-high stories are mostly of the "spent $50, sold for $500" sort. We ain't swimmin' in the deep waters here.

 

There was a lot of 3 Morgans I bought, a 1921 PDS set, primarily for the one which was a 1921-D VAM I needed. The San Francisco coin was a VAM-1F, the only one I've ever seen, and the 1921P was a VAM-47, the dies used for the Zerbe "Proofs." It came back from NGC as MS63PL ( ). In all, not bad for $45, as the Zerbe coin realized nearly $500 on Ebay.

 

Then there was the lot of two coins, a nice 1944 Walker and an 1847 Large Cent, that I snagged for $55. The walker flipped for $50, and the Large Cent came back from ANACS at AU55.

 

I've got one on Ebay right now that's going to be a when it's all said and done.

 

I'm hardly a dealer, but I gotta finance my habit somehow.

[Houston Investor]

Way to go Dave - looks like you picked up some good buys.