Buying collections - can this work?

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by raulus

You can always try it out and see how it goes.

There's an old military quote that "no plan survives contact with the enemy."

Rather than spend too much time engaged in excessive omphaloskepsis and theorizing on the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin, I'd be inclined to give a few things a try, and see if they stick. If it's not working, then you can always adjust and/or abandon your approach. Another part of the fun here is that it's likely to be very lumpy. You might land a big collection at one show, and then nothing for the next 3.

The economist/business part of me does think that you'll be better off if you can somehow differentiate yourself from the "other guys". Obviously there's a lot of competition out there in this space buying up collections. Your differentiation might just be geographic. Or you might be willing to travel further than others are willing to go. The table at a show approach could theoretically be a differentiating factor, especially if you're at shows where the "other guys" aren't showing up.

It does strike me that you'll need some way to find:

1) People with collections
2) Who are ready to sell, and sell now
3) Who are willing to sell at wholesale prices

I'll go out on a limb and guess that for the most part, the people who fall into this category are probably either heirs, people who haven't collected for a while, or old guys who are just ready to be done (or need the money fast), and willing to sacrifice on price in order to get it done fast.

The only question in my mind is whether those people are the kinds of people who go to shows, or whether you need some other approach to reach them. I see lots of those "other guys" advertising on hobby sites online and in trade magazines, so that's another alternative, although it might be difficult to stand out in that crowd.

+1, you'll swim much better by jumping into the pool than theorizing, the barrier to entry is super low to test your hypothesis. You'll gain experience and meet nice people if nothing else.