Coin collectors earn income by trading all or a portion of their collections, sometimes for financial gain, sometimes to dispose of a collection, and sometimes to cover expenses.
“Many coin collectors collect coins for the sheer pleasure of it. It’s possible to make money with coins as a business, but you have to learn about the market first. To achieve your business goals, you’ll need to manage your coin collection, keep track of your expenditures, and promote. It’s possible that certain coins are valuable but aren’t selling well, which might impact your company should the market go down,” advised unsecured business lender Shane Perry of Max Funding.
If you’re interested in coin collecting as a business, here are the different ways to make money as a coin collector.
1. Buy And Hold Coins
This time-tested stock advice also applies to coins. Choose a decent coin and keep it. While there are noteworthy exceptions, coins tend to appreciate in value with time—often dramatically.
But remember that you’re spending retail pricing for coins even though the dealer asserts to be selling at wholesale prices. That means you need to keep the coin long enough to bridge the difference (about 30%) between retail and wholesale prices before making a profit.
2. Watch For Inflection Points
The best time to buy coins is when rising inflection points are on the downside. Almost all coins have an “inflection point.” This is a grade where more people want it, which drives up the price from a low grade, often massively increasing it. In a hot market, the inflection point shifts to the downside. Profits may be made by predicting where it will go. Consider it a numismatic version of stock market movement investment.
3. Acquire Blue Chips
Buy blue chips—coins with a significant market cap and a lengthy history of continuous appreciation. Blue chips are frequently collected series’ key coins. Consider VDB Lincoln from 1909, Standing Liberty quarters and Morgan dollars. Blue chips increase in value year after year and typically do so in all grades.
4. Purchase Coins With A Sizable Collector Following
Some blue chips aren’t blue enough to be called blue chips. As a coin’s value rises into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, the potential buyers’ pool shrinks to almost nothing. Many scarce and coveted coins have traded for thousands of dollars one year and then gone pleading for a buyer another year or two later.
Extreme rarities might have enormous benefits, but they can also have catastrophic losses. Thus, it would be best to buy or sell coins that are within reach of the regular coin collector.
5. Cherrypicking
In the world of coin collecting, knowledge reigns supreme. You may find rare coins at a fraction of their worth on eBay, local auctions, and dealer inventories on the market floor. Knowing about variations and die states may be pretty beneficial right away. Spotting value in broad daylight is the key to cherrypicking.
Cherrypicking news is featured in Coinweek regularly. We believe that cherrypicking is perhaps the most enjoyable of all the methods to generate money using rare coins.
Start Making Money As A Coin Collector
Coin collecting is one of the very few hobbies where you can practically recoup your initial investment if you decide to sell them. This is particularly true if you consider the value of the coins while purchasing them and only invest in excellent offers.
