A coin collection flips into profits

Ebay's New Richie Rich

My son's buddy came bounding into our house recently to do a little eBay bragging. Knowing I am the eBay gunslinger in these here parts, the young whippersnapper couldn't wait to tell me all about the big money he was recently making on eBay. It couldn't have come at a better time for the kid. Like a lot of newly minted college grads in a tough economy, he was between jobs and nearly broke. But lo and behold, he was now claiming to be raking it in on eBay. I was a little skeptical at first. But the kid insisted I check out his eBay listings to back up his boasts. So I humored the eager-beaver, condescendingly clicking on his seller account and fully expecting to find a bunch of lame baseball cards or similar. What I found instead nearly made my jaw hit the keyboard. Normally I am not easily impressed, but in this case I let out several stunned, "Wows!" The kid wasn't just blowing smoke-he was making major dollars that would put even this DUDE to shame! For a few brief seconds I hated the kid! How dare this rookie jump into eBay and hit home runs in his first go-round! Didn't he understand you first have to put your time in through eBay trial and error before seeing big profits? Once I worked through my emotions however, I learned the kid had pretty much stumbled across an awesome selling opportunity. His story proves you don't always have to be good at finding eBay inventory....sometimes you only have to be lucky!

After I picked my jaw up off the keyboard, the young entrepreneur gave me the back story on his finds. In hyper-excited tones, he told me about his friend who's grandfather recently passed away. His friend had inherited his grandfather's coin collection along with other neat collectibles. The grandfather wasn't super wealthy-just a regular guy who collected lots of different stuff including stamps, Franklin Mint items and most importantly-coins. The coins in question were not fancy numismatic rarities. Most were just standard mint sets and special commemorative editions purchased directly from the US Mint over 30 years. The entire collection was stored in several Tupperware storage containers. The cache was so big that the grandson was overwhelmed and intimidated with the thought of having to liquidate the countless sets. He also didn't know the first thing about selling on Bay. That's when the kid stepped in.

Something about being broke can really motivate a person. Smelling an opportunity to make some fast bucks, the kid made a sharp business proposition to the grandson. He offered to sell the coins and other collectibles on eBay, handling everything from photos to posting auctions and shipping. For his efforts he wanted 35% of the gross sales. It was a pretty fair commission considering some eBay sell-it stores ask as much as 50%. The grandson, looking to quickly liquidate the collection agreed. With a deal in place, hot-shot carted off the old timer's life-long coin collection and began his auctions.

By now you're probably wondering how much did the kid actually make? Okay, so here's where the fun begins. In the interest of bringing my readers useful, accurate information, I cyber-stalked the kid's completed auctions and added up his sales. In a recent two week period, this upstart punk, whoops...I mean young entrepreneur, had total sales of $6800! Several of his auctions closed at sky-high prices of $500 to $1100 per set. Overall, he averaged just under $140 per auction. Doing the math, the kid's commission for just that two weeks came to $2400 dollars! Keep in mind he's been at this for about four weeks, so he may have earned close to $5000 in commissions in a month! I am not sure if the kid has reached the bottom of the old timer's Tupperware containers yet. But either way, those are some awesome profits he's making!

The kid's coin selling deal proves consignment selling can be another great money making opportunity on eBay.
Like the kid, have you ever sold consignment items for a friend or relative? If so, how did it work out for you? Send in your stories and we'll post them.
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