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Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#381

Self-employed on and off as a graphic and web design consultant since 2005 or so, with some time in offices, making websites with static generators, PHP/WordPress, and Python/Django, and print work with pencil, ink, paper, and graphics apps. Tips: 1. Live simply and reduce expenses. Avoid debt if you can. Rice and beans recipe: https://hypertexthero.com/eat-play-read/ 2. Try to be nice to other nice people and stay i…

Are you still finding clients for static websites and Wordpress? I got out of that game six years ago and am considering getting back in as a side-hustle. It seems though that most of that freelance work has dried up.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#382
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

I have been curious about using computer vision to bulk scan and identify valuable coins. Have systems like this been put into use already? If not do you think they might dilute the value of "rare" coins by creating many more "finds" then were typically possible without the technology?

Hasn't been done (well) yet, and it's absolutely doable. BUT - I don't think that's actually one of the big problems to be solved. I would argue there are enough knowledgable eyeballs out there that there really aren't too too many "undiscovered" rarities.

And what I mean by that is, for example: The 1909-S VDB or the 1955 Doubled Die are two of the mega rarities when it comes to Lincoln cents. They are worth $500+ even in the worst shape. But they're very obvious to someone with even basic coin knowledge, and there are lots of books and pictures out there. And in fact, I'd argue there are very very very few of those coins out there that haven't been identified for what they are -- they've been known rarities for 114 and 68 years respectively. So computer vision telling someone that it's a rare coin isn't going to be too much of a game-changer.

(This is a strongly stated, loosely held belief btw - I can easily be argued into a different perspective).

I think a much more interesting application for computer vision to the business is when it comes to grading (coins are graded on a 1-70 scale for Reasons). And in some cases, the difference a single grade point makes can be $thousands. Official grading is still done entirely by human eyes. An efficient computer vision system to look for undergraded coins I think has real opportunity. It's not an easy feat though - you can't really truly grade with static photos, and there needs to be normalization, so you'd need video clips w/ depth mapping of many thosands of coins to train a model properly. But it could be done!

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#383
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

If you're comfortable answering, I'd be SUPER interested to know how the income compares to tech!

If I may give you a somewhat indirect answer: One of the best things about this business is it returns proportionate to the effort you put in. I know people working with $50k in capital who make $500k a year. I also know people with $1m in capital who make $100k a year. (And I know people with $50k in capital making $50k a year).

And at the extreme: I know one high-volume wholesale dealer (who's been doing this for decades) talking about his business. He has about $250k in capital for inventory and he turns his inventory 36 times a year --- $9m in gross sales! And he's a high margin guy -- so I'm guessing he's making $1.5-$2m a year on $250k in rolling inventory.

There are a lot of ways to make money in the coin business and one of the most fun parts is learning new and different strategies every day.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#384
Successfully self employed since 2018. Built my own product that I sell as B2B to large businesses in Kubernetes/OpenShift space. Making a good salary of principal software engineer.

As a hobby working on side projects (apps for apple ecosystem) and my main hobby - skydiving (it is expensive).

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably worth remembering this sort of thing when people say there is no difference between the parties. Every Republican voted against it, they almost repealed it, and apparently are gearing up for another crack at repeal https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/01/trump-o... At your age, you'll likely be on Medicare soon either way, but some of us are still decades away.

I truly am waiting for Medicare (traditional only, no Advantage plans as those are a complete rip-off). I can tell you though, I've been continuously on the ACA since it started selling plans in 2012 and it's always been better than anything I could cobble together before. It's fantastic to be able to decide how and where I want to live my life without being locked into a shitty job or tied to a crap insurer because…

Thank you - as someone with a bit of disability and facing future hip surgery, that's a helpful perspective. You're not far off on my age; I actually aged off my parents insurance right around the time the ACA passed and so I was able to get back on because of that law which extended parental coverage until 26. I'm currently quite happy with most aspects of my employment which includes my health insurance, but that situation never seems to last.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#386
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

What percentage of your sales are to other dealers vs collectors/non-industry customers? Thx

This is a good question and one that comes up often. I'd say it's around 60% to dealers, 40% to collectors. I'd like the skew to be more like 10%/90%, and that's my aim, but I take the position that a quick profitable sale to a dealer can be better than waiting for the right collector to come around and pay full retail price. It's a delicate dance and you need to develop an intuition for what coins are collector-friendly and quick sellers vs. what's more likely to sit around for a while. And the answer is different for every dealer and every series of coin. There are a lot of variables!

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#387
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

how specific is the hobby? are folks generalist collectors or do people go deep on a specific region/period?

All of the above! There are people who are SUPER specific -- they collect only a single series (say, Buffalo Nickels from 1913-1938), some people who only collect a very specific type within a series (Buffalo Nickels from San Francisco in MS65 or better), and generalists who just like anything that's pretty or interesting or gold or silver or from their hometown, etc.

There are 1001 ways to collect and it's fun to meet all the different folks and learn about their different approaches.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#388
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

Do you do paid appraisals of collections?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#389
post #231
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

Are you hiring? Haha

Eventually, I hope so! Gotta spin up the machine a bit more. I don't ever want more than a handful of people working on this I am a big fan of the 2-pizza team, but I know I need to scale to a bit more than just me.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#390
post #217

Currently self-employed as a.....rare coin dealer! Odd path for a tech nerd hacker like me, but certainly the most fun thing I've ever done with no plans to change this gig ever. My backstory: Collected coins as a kiddo, took a 35-year detour into startup land: Started a VC-backed Web 1.0 company from 1999-2002, ran a non-tech company for ~10 years, then 2014-2022 did very traditional early stage tech product managem…

Do you do paid appraisals of collections?

Yes! And free appraisals if the collection is for sale and I can have an opportunity to make an offer :)

It's a balance of time investment for me. If I know someone has no intention of selling and just needs an insurance appraisal, then that would be a paid service since I'm simply selling my time and expertise (which I'm more than happy to do). If there's an opportunity for me to purchase the collection, I'll usually put the bid together at no charge since that's a sales & marketing expense on my internal brain books.

A lot of dealers will try to split the difference -- they'll offer the appraisal at no charge if they get to purchase the collection, and if they don't end up purchasing then the appraisal fee comes into play. I actually think that's a reasonably fair model and may adapt that.

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