Pocket Change Coin Shop: small business report

Larry Comer started Pocket Change Coin Shop (517-663-7701) in 1991 after a life-long interest in collecting coins.  One day he was walking down Main Street in Eaton Rapids and he saw a "For Rent" sign in the window of a small shop.  He was instantly struck by the thought, "That would be the perfect location for a coin shop!" He is located at 121 South Main Street.  His retail space is approximately 10 feet wide by 16 feet deep.

Mr Comer researching coin prices

The Pocket Change Coin Shop hours allow locals to drop in during their lunch break or drive over after work.  Most clients live within 25 miles of Eaton Rapids, a radius that includes Lansing and Jackson.  The business is closed on some Fridays and Saturdays when major coin shows are held.  Mr Comer uses coin shows to increase his business's visibility and to purchase inventory.

Mr Comer also picks up inventory when people want to liquidate collections.  Mr Comer does NOT buy jewelry.  The valuation of jewelry is not straight forward and Mr Comer had some unfortunate experiences with people selling him jewelry that had been stolen.

Contact information

Two markets

The Pocket Change Coin Shop serves two distinctly different clienteles.

One clientele values coins for their silver (or gold) content.  That is, they see physical possession of precious metals as an important component of their investment portfolio.

The other clientele values coins for their artistic and numismatic value.

The silver bugs

Silver (and gold) bugs see precious metals as money with a longer track record that paper/fiat/electronic money.

Historic price of silver adjusted to constant 1998 dollars.  This kind of price distribution is ideal for dollar-cost-averaging if you assume that events that might force you to use your silver as money are the same events that drive its price up.

Dollar-cost-averaging is a buying strategy where the client purchases the same amount---in dollars---every period.  This is a no-brainer strategy that simplifies discipline and results in relatively more ounces being purchased when prices are low and relatively fewer ounces purchased when prices are higher.

These clients buy two kinds of products.  One of those products is "junk" silver.  That is, coins with silver content that have little numismatic value due to wear and/or lack of rarity.

All math errors are by EatonRapidsJoe.  Values do not comprehend wear.

This table is a convenient way to approximate of the value of various US coins.  The two columns on the right indicate the nominal dollar amounts of silver coins one might expect on each dollar-cost-average buy of $20 and $50 respectively.  That is, at $22 per ounce a twenty dollar bill will buy you 12 dimes.

Bear in mind that the coin dealer needs a little bit of mark-up to keep his lights on.  You might get a better deal if you are a regular monthly customer....for example, you might only pay the equivalent of what you would pay for postage if you bought your bullion on-line.

Close ups taken with a Fuji FinePix S700 in Super Macro mode.

These are not coins.  They are bullion.  They constitute one ounce of silver.

The coin collectors

The other clientele are collectors rather than investors.  That is not to say that a collector would refuse a hefty profit on their collection.  It is to say that a substantial, perhaps even primary value of the coin to the client is some form of connection, be it artistic, time related, or geographic.

This is a tougher clientele to sell to.  Inventory can have birthdays until THAT buyer comes in who is looking for that very coin.

Clicking on the picture should make it embiggen for closer examination.  Or you can download it and view it in a photo browser to really zoom in.

The last major home run for the mint in terms of general interest in collecting were the "State" series of quarters.  Those quarters brought many new collectors to the hobby.  The mint hopes to repeat that success with a series of quarters that highlight our National Park System.  I posted some gratuitous close-ups so you can see the detail of the striking.

Pocket Change has some commemorative coins.

I hope I look this good when I am 134 years old.

For the most part, foreign coins are still affordable for the new collector.  It can be a great way to learn geography and history.

Various books and magazines are available for the budding enthusiast.  Books are a great way to feed dreams.  Yes, all of this information is available on the internet but it is easier to navigate on paper. 

Pocket Change has all of the normal collectables.

Just for Fun

I asked several readers for advice about questions I should ask Mr Comer.  One  of my experts suggested "Revolver or Semi-automatic?"

Well, Mr Comer is "Old School".  He believes that two is always better than one.  And that holes don't count unless they are big enough for mice to nest in.

These are reproductions.

The original New York reload.  Barrels swivel to bring bottom barrel up to the line-of-sight.

The business end of a different, double barrel pistol.

 I also noticed three, side-by-side shotguns tucked in various corners of the shop.

Some pretty good examples of geodes.  Sorry about the lighting.

Three and a half pieces of advice for business start-ups

Keep your overhead low. 
Vast sweeping vistas of plushly carpeted retail space add no value to the coin and make it much harder for your customers to resell that coin at a profit.

Be honest.
Coin collectors have memories like elephants.  They remember.  They freely share their opinions on dealers.  Always be scrupulously honest.  Count things out twice if you need to.

Become knowledgable.
You cannot know everything.  But have some reference books and magazines available so both you and your client can learn together.

The half piece of advice:
Some people want to start their own business because they chafe when working under a boss.  Take a hard, honest look at yourself.  If you are "that" kind of person then you might be a poor fit for retail where every person who walks through your door is your boss.

Link to previous small business report 
Link to next small business report

Pulling Belladonna out of a ditch

Today's excitement involved pulling Belladonna out of a ditch.

Mid-Michigan was under a travel advisory.  Our weather went from snow-to-sleet-to-freezing rain-to-rain.  And then it through all of those steps in reverse as the temperatures dropped.

Belladonna went into work to pick up her pay check. She ran into some slush in the road on the way back, did two 360s and planted the back end of the Malibu into the ditch.  She ended up 90 degrees to the road with the nose of the car even with the verge of the ditch.  Belladonna is physically fine even if her ego is bruised.  She fancied herself a careful and skillful driver.

Pulling her out of the ditch was a minor engineering problem, well within the capability of a species that erected Stone Hedge.  I have ample experience in retrieving vehicles.  Belladonna is my third child to learn about winter driving.

She said that she was not talking or texting on her phone.  She was not fiddling with the radio nor was she messing with the HVAC controls.

She was simply driving too fast for the road conditions.

As long as she could keep two of her tires on pavement....even if it was wet pavement, she was fine.  She was marginally stable when all four tires were riding on slush.  But it only took an infinitesimally small perturbation to fling her across two lanes of traffic and into the ditch.  The latent chaos and kinetic energy found a short-circuit to redirect themselves along.  It was not the direction of Belladonna's choosing.

Of course she claims that there was no prior indication that something bad was going to happen.  She can point to no evidence that suggested that she could not drive that fast.  

Those of us with scar tissue and bruises know that she is approaching the problem from the wrong direction.  There was, in fact, no evidence that she could safely drive as fast as she wanted to drive. And there was evidence that she was driving too fast if only she had the experience to interpret that evidence.

Experienced drivers know when things are getting squirrelly by the soggy response of steering inputs. We know by that "floaty" feeling that is hard to describe in words.  We slow down.

The Economy

Charles Hugh Smith has a tightly written little essay discussing the fragility of the US economic situation.  By his reckoning we have one tire on pavement, a diversified economy.  The other tires are skating atop ridges of slush...

• Intrusive, centralized government
• Excessive debt
• Lack of a politically viable "loyal opposition"
• Recent experience in battening down the hatches and riding out the storms.

I think many of us have noticed the soggy response to steering inputs and the "floaty" feel facts.  Alas, our feet are not on the gas pedal.  The best we can do as individuals is to preserve our ass(et)s by way of prudent allocation of our investments in our families, our finances, our skills, our privacy and our character.

Like Belladonna, we do not know what tiny event will organize all of the accumulating chaos and energy and hurl us into the ditch.  Belladonna passed Windsor Hwy without mishap.  She passed Bridge Street, Vermontville Hwy and Rossman Hwy.  The road was covered with an abundance of slush.  A little bit south of Willard Fox's farm there was a ridge of slush with her name on it.

God was good.  There was no oncoming traffic.  She was wearing her seat belt.

I hope we do as well if/when a critical mass of people recognize the irreconcilable difference between our collective expectations and the mathematical realities.

Neighborhood dogs

There are few topics more incendiary than neighbors who do not take care of their dogs.  The topic becomes even more explosive when people deal with those problems in heavy-handed ways.

I find myself confronted with a "situation".

My across-the-road neighbor recently separated from his wife.  He works third shift.  She took the kids.  He kept the puppy.  The puppy appears to be a male English Setter X Black Lab cross.  The pup weighs about 20 pounds so it is about one quarter its adult weight.  One of my kids told me that the pup's name is (Chuck) Yeager.

Today the neighbor came home and let the pup out.  And left him.  The pup kept crossing the gravel road that separates our lots and doing that approach/avoidance thing with my dogs.  My youngest German Shepherd is 12 months old and is still a bit of a puppy himself.  He jumped out of the kennel twice and chased the interloper away.  Across that gravel road.

City folks

Many city folks would call animal control and let the owner reclaim the dog at the pound and pay for  ticket. Their thinking is that we pay taxes to support animal control and that is what they are paid to do.

S-S-S

Some folks subscribe to the three Ss.  Their reasoning is that a quick end is more merciful than being hit by a car or running deer.

Both of those approaches create animosity that simmers.  I do not rule out either approach as a last resort.  A couple of Chow crosses with overly active territorial instincts come to mind.  But this is a case of a young puppy and an overwhelmed guy whose life just got turned upside down.

I here-by give notice

I here-by give notice that I intend to break the law tomorrow if that dog is not under control.

My neighbor works third shift.  I used to work third shift.  One must attend to one's sleep schedule.  We called it "the bounce".  It is like a diver setting up the diving board for the final "TWANG!"  We all came up with our magical wing-of-bat, eye-of-newt routines.  Those routines became sacred because our schedules are upside-down compared to our natural circadian rhythms.  My neighbor's bounce includes fans, music, blacked out windows and unplugged telephones.

My neighbor and his wife picked up the puppy before they separated.  I suspect my neighbor feels overwhelmed by having to care for this puppy all by himself.  That was not the plan.

If this pup is running amok tomorrow I plan to trespass.  I have 100' of synthetic rope that I will stretch between a couple of my neighbor's trees.  I have a spare leash.  I will do that "Golden Rule" thing.  I will do to that dog what I have done to mine.  It seems like a reasonable "middle path".

With any luck, he will assume his estranged wife will have done the deed.  This is how things are done by country folk.  We do what needs to be done, and then blame the wife...somebody's wife, anybodys's wife.

Eaton Rapids Women's Basketball season is over

Belladonna and the rest of the Lady Greyhounds played their first post-season game this evening.

They lost.

Both teams played gritty, high energy, defensive basketball.  The Greyhounds led through three of the quarters.  The Mounties of Northwest Jackson tied it up on a three point basket as the buzzer went off.

The momentum was with the Mounties and they won it in over-time.

Life goes on and tomorrow is another day.

Working in the Woodlot

The ERJ compound includes the old home site.  The old house burned down about fifty years ago when the fire ate through the grout in the chimney and caught the frame on fire.  The "new" house is located about 150 feet east-southeast of the old house.

After the fire, the home's owners converted the old home site to pasture.  We let that lapse shortly after we moved here.  We grazed the area with sheep for a few years but there was just not very much forage available there.  It only amounts to about  a half acre.  Black Walnut and Box Elder self seeded in the area.

Today was a great day to be working in the woodlot.  The sun was shining, there was no wind and the temps were in the mid-20s.

Leaners

Doubles.  As you can see there is some slope to this bit of heaven.

I almost left this one because it was leaning to the right, but then I saw it from the other side and it had changed its mind.  A windbreak of White Pine on the right side of the photo in the background.

This is what it looks like afterward.  Box Elder and Black Walnut with no "up-side" removed.  Trees are on about 15' centers and have about 20' of straight, clear stem.  That pencils out to about 200 stems per acre.  Most of the stems are about 6" in diameter.  They should show a burst of growth now that they have been "released".

A graft from last year.  This one is about 8' from the ground.

The next challenge will to be figuring out how to get 25' up in these trees so I can graft on some improved nut producting cultivars.  For the other nut growing geeks out there, I will be grafting Davidson (scion wood from Nebraska) and Sparrow (home grown scion wood).

I will be dragging the poles out after the snow melts.

Eaton Rapids Wrestling

The Eaton Rapids Wrestling team took second in the State this weekend.

One of the heroes of the post-season run was a freshman wrestler.

From the Lansing State Journal:

Earlier in the day, for a span of six minutes during the semifinal round, it seemed as if all the weight of the Eaton Rapids team was resting solely on the shoulders of one of the smallest boys in the school. Tied at 27-27 against Niles with only the 112-pound weight class remaining and a chance to advance to the state championship on the line, freshman Austin O'Hearon came up with a huge 9-3 win to vault the Greyhounds into the state finals match for the first time in seven years. "You put all that on a freshman and it makes you a little nervous," said Eaton Rapids coach Joe Ray Barry said about the close win over Niles.

This is a win for the Eaton Rapids wresting program.  The start these kids young (4 years old) and keep many of them in the program until they graduate.

Congratulations to the wrestlers.  Congratulations to their families who have been supporting them for years.  And a huge ""Thanks!" and congratulations to all of their coaches who gave up countless evenings and weekends thorough out the years to develop these kids as athletes and as men.

Dyer Lime Kiln

Interesting corner detail.

We have very little stonework like this in Southern Michigan.  Most of Southern Michigan is overlain with a thick layer of glacial till.  Successive periods of glacier activity stripped the Canadian Shield of its native soils and piled them on Michigan.  The glacier's extreme southern travel pushed about fifty miles south of the Mich/Indiana line (Fort Wayne, Indiana) before receding.

The only places where bedrock is visible is in river valleys where erosion has stripped away most of the overburden.  I live about three miles from the Grand River.  According to the well drilling records, there is 160 feet of clay, sand and gravel on top of the shale bedrock.  There are some places in Michigan where there is 800 feet of overburden.

Rocks can be found in our fields but they tend to be well rounded from the tumbling as they traveled many  hundreds of miles.  They also tend to be igneous and metamorphic materials unlike our sedimentary bedrocks.

The Dyer Lime Kiln was the third or fourth lime kiln built in Bellevue, Michigan.   Lime burning is rough on the facilities.  Chunks of limestone and cordwood are piled into the top.  The fire is lit through the draft hole.  Temperatures of approximately 1800 Fahrenheit (1000 C) are required and that beats the crap out of the structure.

It is a few hundred feet east of the Battlecreek River where erosion exposed the top of a limestone reef.  It is hard to imagine coral atolls lazily growing in languid tropical seas as I look out the window at our snow covered ground. 

This is one of the draft holes.  It goes all the way through to the other side so spud bars can be used to knock clinker loose from the backside and scooped out of both.

The kiln stopped operation in 1899.  It is safe to deduce that Bellevue, Michigan is not seismically active.

Another arch detail.  What you cannot see is that there is an iron tiebar through the middle of this wall from left-to-right about 15" above the top of the arch.  It has nutted ends and puts the leaves of the arch into compression.

I am pretty sure that the roof is a new addition.  It would have caught fire if it was there when the kiln was in operation.  If you look closely you can see the nut-ended tiebars.  The exposed nuts are near the corners.  Limestone flags have fallen away near the top and exposed the bars.

Slaked lime was used for whitewash, sanitation, plaster, cement and solidifying grease.  Ground limestone from the area is still used for agricultural purposes.