All right. Let's clear this up.
On September 3, 2009 my wife and I bought Rocklin Coin Shop. It is NOT a pawn shop. California UCC has separate definitions for Pawn Shops, Secondhand Dealers, and Coin Dealers. We are a Retail Coin Dealer. What does that mean?
It means we don't make loans to people. We buy stuff from the general public and wholesale distributors and sell it for more than we buy it for. Pretty straightforward and simple. The business breaks down into three major categories: investment grade bullion, numismatics, and scrap.
Investment grade bullion is physical precious metals that investors buy for various reasons. Some simply want to hedge against inflation. Some are preparing for the zombie apocalypse...and anywhere in between.
Numismatics is collectible money and exonumia (stuff that's kinda like money but not quite--tokens, medals, etc.,).
Scrap is any type of precious metals (mostly gold and silver) that is broken or damaged and has no future but to be melted down with a refinery.
We provide superior customer service and competitive prices. Over the last 12 years, we've built an extremely loyal customer base and have an outstanding reputation. I don't spend much on advertising, as the vast majority of our new business comes by referral.
We bought Rocklin Coin Shop as an existing business, so there was an existing customer base that we've grown considerably since day one. We have average revenue of between $500-700k per month at an average of 7.5% profit (more revenue with lower margins on investment grade bullion, lower revenue with higher profit margins on numismatics, and lowest revenue with highest profit margin on scrap).
Mrs. V has both Hashimoto's and Sjogren's, and used to work nights at the local hospital in ER Registration when the now-oldest kids were in school. Primarily, she was a stay-at-home mom. She continued to work at the hospital for the first 18 months that we owned the business, because the benefits were amazing. After 18 months (after we were fairly confident that the business had solid legs) she quit and began working at the coin shop full time.
We maintain 1.4 FTE. While we can all handle almost every part of the business, we have our specialties. Mrs. V is the unquestioned master of numismatics, mostly due to a ridiculously good memory and near photographic memory of whatever she reads. I maintain relationships with our larger bullion clients and financial advisors who refer their clients to us for physical precious metals needs.
In the last 3 years, we rely on our employees to operate the brick & mortar side of the business, while Mrs. V and I work from home most of the week sorting, pricing, and placing product into the correct sales channels. Most of our large clients have now become comfortable handling big transactions remotely since COVID. This also makes it much easier to homeschool the school age children.
Mrs. V is NOT too sick to work, but her life is certainly made easier when she can make her own hours. To be certain, what she brings to the business is worth more than her ER job, even having to pay for our own health insurance now.
Disneyland: We bought a time share through the Disney Vacation Club in 2012. This would normally be a disastrously stupid decision like most time share purchases. But we grew up in Southern California...so MOST of our family still lives down there (her parents moved up a few years after we did, and my mother moved here about 10 years ago). Mrs. V's brother and his family live 5 minutes from Disneyland. All of my cousins, aunts, and uncles that I grew up with are within 45 minutes, including my father before he died in 2018. Two of my closest childhood friends are just a few miles from my brother-in-law. In short, we're down that way A LOT during the year anyway. We have maintained annual passes to Disneyland for the last 12 years, and the DVC membership (paid in full the year we got it) gives us 2-3 weeks per year of hotel stays on property. It's not as expensive as one might think.
This is the kind of stuff that no one has to play a guessing game with. Just ask.
