Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Buy and Sell Gold and Silver

To buy and sell gold and silver is a good way some people make a living. But how do they do it?

Here are some guidelines that might be useful for someone contemplating a career in that direction.

To buy and sell gold and silver requires firstly that the person has a thorough knowledge about the subjects of gold and silver.

Both gold and silver are actually used, mostly in industry. However, more silver is used in industry than gold. For example 44 percent of ALL silver used is in the photography business and only around 14 percent is used in coins.

Gold and Silver, for the collector or investor, comes in bullion. Gold and silver bars as well as coins. There are various types of gold bars and coins, particularly gold coins. There are also stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) where gold and silver is deposited in banks and one has a certificate that represents one's holding of the actual gold or silver.

Of course dealers make a living buying and selling gold and silver. Mostly in coins but also in bars as well. Some people simply buy and sell coins and bars at auctions. eBay springs to mind as a way for small collectors and dealers to buy and sell gold and silver.

All of these methods are open to anyone to start and it does not take a vast amount of money to do so.

Probably the best tools one can have, apart from knowledge and some business sense, both easily obtainable, are honesty and integrity as they will enable you to stay in business and build up a large base of customers who will trust you and be happy to continue to do repeat business with you.

It has often been said that the first sale with a customer costs you money but you will make money on the repeat business. This is just as true in the gold and silver business as in any other. The markups are generally very small and the amount of effort needed to get new customers in the gold and silver business expensive, so this means you will really only succeed with repeat business. This comes about by providing excellent customer service far beyond the expectations of the customer.

To buy and sell gold and silver then can be a satisfying and rewarding business, provided you put the effort needed into acquiring and maintaining your customers.

Then of course you can have your cake and eat it too!

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