The Hidden Truth About Car Flipping Profits | JR Garage DSH #829

That's our rule number one.

We have to make money from what we're buying.

At least try our best.

And we've only lost money on two cars.

Debbie.

We've bought tons.

Yeah, like 100, 150.

Dude, that's insane.

Because most people that flip cars that feel like it's a tough business.

Yeah, no, it definitely is.

You learn as you go and fixing them up and learning about titles and auctions.

And you can get screwed really easily.

But we kind of started small and like worked our way up.

All right, guys, got JR Garage here.

Or should I say JR Aviation now?

That's the new thing, but it's a pleasure to be here.

I've always wanted to be on this podcast since you started.

I'm like, this is super cool.

Got to be on that one day.

Thank you.

You were one of the first people I ever hit up, actually.

Dude, yeah, it was like we've known each other for a long time, or at least known of each other, right?

We've been following each other on Instagram for, what, eight years now, seven years, like 2016, I think it was.

Crazy.

And you always did such interesting things.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I'm always wheeling and dealing on a bunch of random weird stuff.

So I can't wait to break that down today.

Absolutely.

We'll start with the cars, and then I want to talk about the Jets and the coins too, but the cars is how you started, right?

Right.

Yeah.

That's how the start came on social media, right?

Most people know me from JR Garage, which is my car page that I started back in 2016.

I just have a big interest in automobiles and always been interested in cars since I was a kid and always wanted cool cars.

That's what really motivated me in the business world, which we can unpack there, how we pay for the cars.

But, you know, me, we, my brother and I,

just have been hooked since then and started with a few Porsches, like early 80s Porsches that are actually pretty cheap Our first car was like 4,300 bucks.

So it's 944 turbo.

Yeah, right.

So we're in high school and have this red 944 turbo and everybody thinks it's like some cool car, but it was 4,300 bucks and we ended up selling the rare wheels off of it for 2,300.

So we were actually in the car at like 2,000 bucks plus 300 wheels.

$2,300 for a Porsche.

That's insane.

I thought those were like six figures.

Yeah, you would think so.

But the early 944s, they didn't get much love.

But now they're starting to appreciate that same car today.

It would be worth like clean 944 turbos, like 20, 30, 40, up to 80 grand if they're low mileage so five to 10x yeah so we're always trying to pick out the cars that are like good good

have a good chance of appreciating or at least try our best right sometimes you just get it because you like it but ideally you want a car that's going to appreciate in value how much of your cars went up versus the other way it was uh almost all of them and Some can even drop a little bit in value, but we don't lose money on them because we just get such a good deal on them.

So we know some cars are going to depreciate.

Our Rolls-Royce is going to depreciate.

Okay, cool.

But we got it so cheap that we can still make 10, 20 grand on it.

So that's our rule number one.

We have to make money from what we're buying, at least try our best.

And we've only lost money on two cars.

Ever.

And we've bought tons.

Yeah, like 100, 150.

Dude, that's insane.

Cause most people will not flip cars.

I feel like it's a tough business.

Yeah, no, it definitely is.

You learn as you go and fixing them up and learning about titles and auctions and dealer stuff and where to maintain it and how to sell it.

There's definitely a lot to know.

You can get screwed really easily, but we kind of started small and like worked our way up very quickly.

I mean, people would say, like, what do you mean you started small?

You're 17 with Lamborghini.

But, like, we had a few cars before then, and we just took calculators.

You guys started in high school.

Yeah, high school.

That's when the channel blew up.

So, talking about the channel, like, yeah, 2016, that one video went viral.

You probably remember it, like, driving my Dodge Viper to high school.

That was the video.

23 million views I saw yesterday.

Yep, yep.

Driving the Lambo to high school.

Yeah, that was the sequel.

And every video we post that having to do with like a supercar and being young in high school just went crazy viral.

So we went from like a thousand subscribers to one week later over a hundred thousand subscribers crazy that was nuts that was the early days of youtube where like you could have one viral video and like gain a hundred case it's a lot harder now way harder now now everyone's views are down like 80 yeah because there's so much competition i hate when people say it competition like seeing their fellow creators as competitors like they're just friends especially in the car space like they're they're just fellow acquaintances that also love cars i don't see them as competitors at all yeah but other people in different niches will see other channels as competitors and want to like beat them and stuff but not how i see it.

But inevitably, there's a lot more channels out there creating, so it's hard to get those eyeballs.

You're fighting for those same people and it can be hard.

I think the same way.

When I see podcasters caution it, I get pumped.

Yeah, yeah, right.

It should fire you up because you see, like, okay, wait, it's possible.

Like, let me put my own twist on it now.

Let me, let me get a piece of that pie.

Absolutely.

Like you're doing.

You've taken quite a big piece

pretty early on.

Trying to get like Rogan, man.

You're really crushing it.

Let's see.

How many cars do you have right now?

Did you sell most of it?

Oh, shoot.

That's what everybody always asks.

And like, the answer is so bad when I'm like, oh, you don't even know i lost count that many oh it's so bad to say but like i i lost count like 30 40 cars ago

probably if i had to guess right now um

maybe 70 cars damn where you even keep that many and and it sounds all fine and dandy and it was cool for like the first few years of having 60 70 cars but like right now i i do not want that many.

I want to downsize, keeping track of like, just like license plates alone, registration.

I go to take a car out.

It's like, oh, shoot, that plate expired like a year and a half ago.

Crap, like, oops.

Or, like, that battery is dead.

Just batteries alone are like the bane of my existence.

Because if you don't turn them on for a year or two.

Oh, yeah.

And unfortunately, a lot of these cars sit.

So it's like $100 battery there, $100 battery there, battery, battery, battery, battery.

That's one of my biggest expenses.

I got to drive these cars more.

I got to pull Jay Leno and hire somebody just to drive them.

Yeah, that's crazy.

You got a personal favorite?

Yeah, a few favorites.

I really enjoyed.

We had this, I say had, I'll tell you the story.

We had this Ferrari FF.

Great car.

v12 naturally aspirated 650 horsepower all-wheel drive four seats modern great car uh that was like my favorite all-around car um until it burned burned to the ground whoa yeah you drove too fast

no it was not me it was somebody that uh was using the car i explained it on my youtube channel but um yeah unfortunately they called and they're like hey bro uh your car's on fire and um yeah that must have been the worst phone call of your life yeah i'm i that was i was like you must be joking

he said no and sure enough it was a pile of ash so it's completely ruined.

Destroyed.

Yeah.

The rear wheels were like the only thing left.

Holy crap.

Yeah, he was in a remote part.

So it took fire department so long to get to him.

By the time they got to it, it was just a blaze.

I'll show you some pictures.

It was just a fireball.

That's rough.

I hear nightmare stories of luxury car rental companies that happen to me.

So that was a great all-around car, but like my favorite, like weekend cars, I'd say Lamborghini takes the cake.

The Euros.

No, I'm not a big Euras fan just because Twin Turbo V8.

Not fast enough for you.

No, no, it can be plenty fast, but it's just such a

dare I say boring car.

I might catch some of you.

Yeah, I will.

But they've made so many of them, like 10,000, 15,000.

You see them every day.

Twin Turbo V8, that's it's the same as an RSQ8, just twice the price.

Like, no, thanks.

Lamborghini, I'm talking.

Gallardos, Mercia Lagos.

I'm even, I'm not even a huge like Aventador fan.

Everybody goes, oh, SBJ, Lamborghini, Ventador.

No, I like the older cars, like the Mercia Lagos.

So we've had a few of those, and like that's that's been one of my best buys the Mercia Lago and our first or second second Gallardo was actually our like biggest profit on a car.

It really worked out nicely.

Wow.

Our twin turbo Gallardo.

Yeah, you made a good killing on that.

Yeah, that worked out quite well.

We bought it at an auction, crashed.

Super crazy weird story.

This car was like the fastest manual transmission car in the world in like 2015.

It did a half standing half mile, like zero to half mile distance, and a trap speed of 220 miles an hour.

This car was stupid fast.

So it had 2,200 horsepower when Underground Racing was racing it back in 2014, 2015 when it set those records.

They tuned it down to 1850 wheel horsepower, which is just ridiculous.

40 psi boost on the V10.

And then they sold it to a guy who was, I mean, great guy, but he told me he's legally blind.

So I don't know why he bought this car, but 100 miles later, he crashed it.

We ended up buying it from auction for super cheap, like only $68,000.

I don't think people saw like the twin turbo kit.

And then we fixed it for about $8,000.

So we were in it.

That's it.

Yeah, that's it.

It was super minor.

We got really smart buying like used parts and like kind of hacking it and just not hacking it in a bad way, but like hacking the deal of like not buying new parts, just saving money where we could.

And yeah, so we were in at 75 grand and we sold it.

I got an offer of 150,000.

So kind of had to sell.

Yeah.

Wow.

That was a good profit off Lamborghini.

So because people have the misconception that you buy Lamborghini, you lose money.

You buy a supercar, you lose money.

No, like we need to like stop promoting that idea.

If you just know what you're doing and you buy a good deal, then you're going to make money.

Yeah.

Any car brands you won't touch?

Just too many issues?

People ask that a lot.

Overrated cars.

And I'm not a fan of new BMWs.

Never have been.

Oh, man.

The new M5 that just got released, like weighing 4,700 pounds.

Like the new M5 weighs more than a Rolls-Royce.

Like, are you kidding me?

It's ridiculous.

But even like the M3s, M4s, I just think they're a little overrated.

Once again, I'll catch some flack for that, but I just don't think they sound

the greatest.

I don't think they're just,

they're just a boring, overrated car, in my opinion.

Oh, boy.

Here come the comments.

I could see that.

Never had one.

I don't think I'll ever buy one.

Wow.

Yeah.

You like the older models, I've noticed.

Yeah, I mean, I had one M3, so I can't hate too much, but it was an E90 naturally aspirated V8.

Like, that's going to be a great investment car.

It already has been.

Prices are going up on them because it's the only V8 M3, naturally aspirated, six-speed manual.

I mean, like, that's a great car.

I sold it.

Actually, probably.

I mean, you're doing something, right?

You're the only one I know that actually makes money off the cars you buy.

Yeah, yeah.

I guess maybe I've gotten lucky at times, but if you if you're just really calculated and you spread your reach super wide, you don't just look in your hometown.

Like I look across the whole country.

I'm constantly scanning the auctions and the government auctions.

Like,

yeah, I buy some interesting toys.

Auctions are where you could get a good deal.

Yeah, in general, those are usually where you find the best deals because you're usually bidding against like wholesale buyers, not the general public.

Whereas stuff on Facebook, a good deal is gone, Facebook Marketplace in like 20 minutes, boom, gone.

People sell cars on Facebook Marketplace?

Yeah, it's one of the biggest places to sell cars now.

Yeah, it's kind of shifted from cars.com and all these like old, old kind of deal online dealers to now like

Facebook Marketplace because people, it's just simple.

Just toss up a little description, 10 pictures, and post them up.

But there's constantly people scanning for good deals.

So you'll you got to be you got to act so quick if you want a good deal off Facebook Marketplace.

So instead, I go to the auctions where it's a lot less competition.

That makes sense.

And you've recently transitioned into planes.

Yeah, right?

You know, what's next after cars once you collect all the Pokemon when it comes to cars, all the brands, it's like, well, where do you go from there?

Well, airplanes.

So that's been a fun challenge to learn that whole world, but it's the same idea.

Buy good deals, enjoy them, keep them for a year or two, and then sell them for a profit.

Done it time and time again.

And now I do know the number of current airplanes.

I don't know cars, but planes, it's like seven or eight, well, seven or eight planes.

I guess I don't know the answer.

Okay.

Right now, seven or eight planes.

That's quick for you only started, what two years ago yeah our first our first like plane flip uh was in 2021 this uh bonanza i told you i got crazy stories on where i get these things from this one was seized by the government for um

running some illegal things in it drug trafficking uh yeah

and it was found with like two hundred thousand dollars in cash on it they busted him after like a drop or whatever i don't know wow so five years later when this plane comes up for auction they take forever to go through all the court battles and all this stuff but uh anyway it finally came up to auction i was ready to bid on it sight unseen i bought it it was risky but i could tell from the pictures and a couple key things on that plane like i knew it was like modded in a very good very nice way it had an upgraded turbocharger put on it had extended range fuel tanks it had all these avionics upgrades typical stuff that these drug runners would want like souped up planes right uh so i could see all these upgrades and i don't think other people did so i ended up um getting that plane for 110 000 bucks oh it's it yeah it's it planes planes don't have to be a lot of money oh man i just bought a plane for ten thousand we can get into that next but but yeah this plane was 110 grand then we put like 20 grand into like some maintenance fixing it up couple upgrades and then uh once again we kept it for a year enjoyed it flew it all around the country not me my buddy i'm just a student pilot learning learning as i go but my buddy owen shout out to him fly with owen uh he's the best pilot out there he flies gulf streams all these cool planes but He's the one who teams up with us on these deals.

And anyway, yeah, we sold for $235,000.

Damn.

Made $100,000 while owning our first plane.

So once that happened, I'm like, oh, game on.

Like, let's go.

More planes.

So, yeah, we've bought a lot of planes since then.

And you bought one for $10,000, you said?

$10,000 airplane.

Oh, you got to be kidding me.

No way that's going to fly.

No way that's safe.

You're crazy.

I've never stepped foot in that.

That's what I hear all the time with this plane.

But no, it's a perfectly safe plane.

It's a great plane.

It's a Cherokee 180, which is like an entry-level training plane, but it has an upgraded engine.

So it's a very popular plane.

These planes go for like $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 in average condition.

And this one was posted up onto like this little plane classified website for like $19,000.

I'm like, holy smokes, that's a great deal.

I messaged the guy right away.

A day after he posted, I'm like, yo, like, I'm interested.

Tell me more about the plane.

He's like, oh, I got somebody coming tomorrow to buy it.

You know, you're too late.

You can be next in line.

I'm like, dang, missed out.

And then the next day he messages me.

He's like, yeah, the guy came by.

He offered like $9,000 for the plane.

So like, do you want it for $10?

And I'm like,

say less.

Here's the money.

So I wired the money site unseen to this guy, hoping that it wasn't a scam.

and it wasn't a scam.

Why?

Why would he sell it that cheap?

He needed money really quick, and he wasn't flying it.

He had it for like a couple of years.

And the previous year flying it, he flew it two hours.

You own a plane and fly it like twice.

So he just didn't care.

He lost interest in it, needed the money, and just sold it for 10 grand because I guess that's all he thought it was worth because he got an offer for nine.

So he's like, here, if you give me 10, I'm doing all right, right?

So that was a crazy deal.

You flipped that one.

Still have that, but I got just got an offer 40,000.

It's worth like 40 to $50,000.

So all we had to do was an annual inspection.

Each plane every year has to go through an annual.

Big jets have to do a lot of different items, like sometimes up to 100 different inspections.

Holy crap.

Yeah, jets are just a whole nother world.

We'll get to that in just a second.

But the normal piston small planes, they're one inspection a year.

Annual inspection, they usually range from like $2,000 to $10,000 usually on a plane like this.

So we got lucky there wasn't much found on this airplane.

It only cost us about 100 bucks in parts and

$1,000 in labor for the certified mechanic to come out.

We can't do an annual inspection.

We're not allowed to.

You got to be like certified.

They don't mess around with airplanes.

So he came out.

We paid him $1,000 for his labor and we helped him, an owner-assisted, owner-assisted annual.

And then, yeah, out the door, about, I guess, $1,100 or $1,200.

I broke it down on my YouTube channel.

You'll see it if they search JR Aviation, $10,000 plane.

That's insane.

It'll pop right.

Yeah, you've really broken my perspective on airplanes.

I thought thought they were millions.

We got to get you a plane.

Yeah, money.

When they're only this much.

I'm down.

All right.

But now we got to dive into the economics of flying because that's where it gets pricey, right?

Right.

It can definitely be expensive and just depends on the plane you get.

So, sure, a $10,000 airplane isn't going to be too much to maintain and own, but it doesn't go very fast.

It seats four people.

If you want something to zoom around your business meetings, you're probably going to need a turboprop or a jet.

And that's, like I said, when you just get into stupid, stupid money.

I mean, it's no joke.

Like, everybody.

Coast to coast is.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, it's a charter, a jet, coast to coast, non-stop, like a Gulfstream.

I'm not some jet charter broker.

So, but off the top of my head, you're probably talking like $8,000 an hour.

So, yeah, five hours, like we were saying, $40,000 for that flight, something in that range.

That's ridiculous.

That's too much.

You fly first class for, I don't know, $800.

Never flown first class in my life.

I'm always just in the back of the bus.

Really?

Even this day.

$600.

Oh, no, never.

I've never flown first class.

You're 6'5.

Yeah, 6'5.

Yeah, 6'5 ⁇ .

Why the flight?

I'm flying first-class or Economy Plus at least.

Shoot, people ask me that all the time.

Like, wait a second.

You're telling me you fly Frontier for $40 when you have a private jet and you're 6'6, you know?

And it's like, yeah, I'm just way too frugal.

I could never justify calling up Owen and say, all right, let's go.

We're going in the jet for my business meeting in Vegas.

No, no, absolutely not.

Damn, but you'll drop a million on a jet.

Yeah, if it's a good deal and I can make money on it, but I'm not going to fly it because there goes my profit if I fly it a bunch.

I've flown a few times, but I'm packing in people.

There's eight people in that plane.

Like I'm getting my money's worth.

We're going on a group trip.

I'm not going to go myself.

That's ridiculous to pay six grand and jet fuel to go somewhere when you can pay 50 bucks to go on Frontier.

So I'm always economy in the back.

And that's, I don't think I'll ever change.

People ask me, like, come on, how much money do you need to have before like you, you change?

I don't know.

Clearly, I've grown a lot and grown a lot in the bank account, and I'm not changing.

You and Graham Stefan would get along.

Yes.

That's the number one comparison.

I think on a frugality scale, we're both pretty similar.

I wonder who would be more frugal.

I would say he's got the edge.

He eats at all-you-can-eat sushi buffets for 25 bucks.

Dude, I eat all-you-can-eat, but at

Chinese buffets or golden crowd or something for $10.

I wouldn't even.

Gotta beat there, I guess.

So, like, I don't know.

We're probably pretty similar.

I'll call it a tie, but same, same philosophy.

Just if you're not getting a return on whatever you're buying, unless you really, really need it or really, really want it, probably shouldn't be buying it.

Damn.

Do you think it's a fear you have just of losing money, like losing everything?

Yeah, I wonder.

My friends have tried to like break it down because they see it firsthand.

I mean, I'm always using coupons and like just the whole nine yards.

And

they're just like, dude, you own all these cars and planes and you're here like pinching pennies.

And I don't know, I think it's just the way kind of we grew up.

There wasn't much money in the family at all.

So like you had to learn to like be super, super frugal and like know the value of a dollar really early on.

And I think that's just always stuck with me.

And honestly, I was having this conversation with my girlfriend.

Like,

I think it's almost like insulting to some of the people around you or your family, like your extended family, aunts and uncles and cousins, who, if they're not like doing really, really well and they're like struggling a little bit, but I'm doing really, really well.

And I'm just going to go out and treat myself to some

something from Gucci or some crazy, stupid purchase.

Yeah.

While they're like struggling, like, I just think it's a slap in the face.

Like, you better make sure that everyone in your circle, family number one, immediate family number one, extended family number two, and then like friends three.

I feel like everyone's got to be taken care of first before you go making those stupid purchases.

Wow.

And I wouldn't argue that my things are stupid purchases.

This Rolex, oh, okay.

Oh,

he just contradicted himself.

No, I mean, this is a Rolex at retail.

You know the game.

This is $11,400 and it's worth two, three, four grand over retail because it's a desirable watch.

Like if it was worth two grand less, but I just like wanted it, absolutely not.

I'm not buying it.

Right.

I would only buy Rolex retail.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And only the Rolexes that are worth more than the retail because plenty are worth immediate loss.

You just got to know which ones to pick.

And this happens to be a good one.

Yeah.

Master, Rhodium, Dial, Platinum.

So.

Anyway, that's just the philosophy I have.

I just, I don't hear many people talking about that.

But like, I'm buying my uncle his dream 1970 Chevelle SS

before I go spending like stupid money on stupid things.

Wow.

I'm actually trying to do that.

I'm just trying to find the right car.

That's cool.

Anyway, so I want to.

I'm with you on that, though.

Designer is, I don't like designer.

Yeah, yeah, you're the same way.

I mean, we share a lot of, a lot of things in common.

I used to cheap out on, so here's where we differ.

I don't cheap out on food anymore.

Okay.

Because I think it impacts your performance.

I would agree.

My girlfriends opened me up to that.

Yeah, because I used to get pissed if I spent more than 10 bucks on a meal.

Dude.

I used to like literally get mad at my girlfriend when we would go out and it'd be more than 20 bucks yeah okay wow i've had to shift that mindset yes wow that's so interesting so i i would i would agree with you on that my uh my girlfriend is rightfully so you know teaching me about like nutrition and stuff and like the stuff that's in those foods okay they're cheap but like you're gonna pay for it in the long run which is so true gosh the amount of it's a whole separate conversation you've had the experts on your show regarding nutrition but it's like it's eye-opening what's out there and the the disgusting, harmful chemicals and crap that's in these, and that's in this food.

So you do want to pay a little bit more and get a better product when it comes to food so i feel i would agree with you there i'm transferring into that yeah found some similar common ground now let's dive into coins oh yeah coins how did that start oh man so so yes that for everybody watching so far it's like all right something ain't adding up this kid's young he's got all these cars and planes um he must have a billionaire dad right and early on you probably remember those videos j our garage exposed his dad is this billionaire that pays for all these cars and people just make up these random stories like one guy said my grandpa died and he left me all these cars that I inherited.

Like, and they'll get millions of views talking all these made-up lies.

And it's like, oh my gosh.

But no, like everything I've always said on social media is true.

Like it was, it was really tough growing up.

Didn't have much money.

And that

fired us up to want to get nice things in life because we've seen how one side is.

And like we certainly wanted to

have more money in life, let's just say.

And the first business that kind of triggered that.

All right.

So first, first, of course, it was like the lemonade sand that you have at five years old.

Classic.

Six years old, seven years old.

Every kid has that, right?

So we had that, tossed the basics in business.

Cool.

But the first real business was, yes, as you say, coins.

That started in like 2008.

That's when we got interested in it.

Our aunt actually gave us like a couple old pennies.

And we're like, whoa, this is really cool.

Like, this penny's 100 years old.

Like, we want to learn more.

We just got kind of some spark was lit.

And we went to our first coin show.

And we got really, really interested.

These older guys were super nice.

Unfortunately, this industry is very,

it's slowly dying.

Everyone will say, like, you, people don't go collecting coins anymore, like young kids.

I mean, obviously some, but not like it used to be in like the baby boomers when everyone was collecting coins.

So a lot of these guys end up being older, like they're in their 70s, 80s, 90s, even back when I started in 2008.

So a lot of these older guys know that they're not going to live forever and they're trying to pass on what they know to people that are interested in it.

They love seeing a young, young kid with a spark.

So they were just like, hey, hey, kid, you know, come over here.

Let me teach you about coins.

So all these guys imparting so much knowledge.

We met some really great mentors along the way and they taught us everything we know about coins.

Our parents weren't there to teach us about coins.

My dad has no idea about coins.

But he's like, hey, if there's something you're interested in,

let's go to some coin shows.

Let me take you there.

So it started with just 50 bucks buying some coins.

And then after maybe running through some of the savings, we're like, oh, we can't collect anymore.

We don't have any more money.

So we started reselling some of these coins.

And we're like, whoa.

If you buy them cheap enough and you sell them,

you can make a profit and buy more coins.

So that's what we did.

It just slowly started.

And 2009 was like our first year like flipping coins at 10 years old.

I'm 10.

My brother's 12.

But we grossed like 36,000 bucks in 2009.

At 10 years old?

10 years old.

Yeah.

People hear that and like, you must be lying.

Well,

I'm not lying.

Like, that's just, that's just what it is.

And then the next year was like 72,000, doubled that.

And then it was over 100K.

And then it went to a quarter of a million.

And then it was, we broke a million in 2014 at like 15 years old.

Selling coins.

Yeah, it's it's great.

And what coins were you buying exactly?

A little bit of everything.

So primarily U.S.

coins.

And people hear coins and they're just like, there's no way there's that much money in coins, but there absolutely is.

It's a huge industry.

I was just at a coin show.

That's why I'm here in town wheeling and dealing coins.

And I brought a few.

I got to show you.

So really all coins, but primarily.

Like I said, U.S.

coins, but one of the coolest coins are ancient coins.

So take a look at these three.

Whoa.

You might know some of the people on them.

Kingdom of Macedon.

Yep.

Alexander the Great on that one.

Holy crap.

What's so cool about ancient coins?

Not that I specialize in ancient coins at all.

I just know that they're good conversation stuff.

How old is this one?

300 BC.

I think it's 336?

Yeah, 336 to 323 BC.

So, yeah.

Holy crap.

Do the math.

That's a...

It's an over 2,000-year-old coin.

It's still in great shape.

Roman Empire.

Yep.

And who's on that label?

Can you read that?

Marcus Aurelius?

Yep, Marcus Aurelius.

Damn.

This is history right here.

Super rare ancient coin.

Rarely see those come up.

And then that one is one of the most rare ancients.

Julius Caesar.

Julius Caesar.

See, he was only in power for what, two years before he was assassinated?

Yeah.

46 to 44 BC.

So you never see those coins.

When I saw that, I'm like, all right, I'm keeping these.

So these are just out of my personal collection, kind of some cool coins.

History comes to life when you see these coins.

That's what got us fired up.

One more cool coin that I brought.

Check that out.

So it's a quarter from 1796.

That's the first quarter ever made in America.

Who is this on it?

That's just Lady Liberty.

So now we have like presidents on our coinage, right?

But back then, we just had like this fictitious made-up Lady Liberty.

And they designed the coin and

that those coins are just extremely, extremely rare.

So that little coin right there is probably almost 15,000 bucks.

This coin?

15,000 bucks.

How many of these are there?

There are, I think, a mintage they only minted in the tens of thousands, but still existing today.

I mean, it's probably in the thousands or some of these coins are under a thousand known.

Wow.

And some are under 10 known.

The highest coins that are worth millions of dollars, there's one, two, three, four known.

It's just crazy.

That in perfect shape would be over a million bucks.

Damn.

So what considers this perfect shape?

Is it?

Yeah, so like cards, which you know, it goes up to what, scale 10?

Yeah.

All right, so same idea with coins.

It's not out of 10, it's out of 70, 0 to 70 points.

That's the grading CL.

70 out of 70 being perfect.

So that one grades about 25 out of 70, which

the thing that hurts that coin is it's lightly cleaned.

It's a little, it's repaired.

There was a scratch in the field that somebody tried to like get out, so they like buffed the surface to try to pull the scratch out.

So you can tell it's repaired if you know what you're doing.

So because of the repairing, that coin's worth 15 grand.

If it was all natural, VF25, VF30, it'd be a $35,000 coin.

Wow.

Yeah, so just because it was a little messed with and cleaned and stuff loses 20 grand of its value that's why you never ever clean coins really yeah that'll even if it's rusty

don't ever clean coins especially if you don't really know what you're doing do not touch it hold it by the edge keep it in a protective holder like that you will ruin the value if you clean a coin it'll like i said it'll drop usually sometimes up to 50 or more uh so you think you're adding value making it look shinier

it looks better in my collection no you are erasing value off that coin all these these coins are all original, except for that one.

And people pay for that patina.

You want it dirty.

You want it tarnished.

You want it toned.

Collectors want that.

So big PSA to anybody out there.

I'm trying to do more coin educating.

Everybody says, launch JR coins, JR coins, JR coins.

So I did kind of just launch a coin page like a few weeks ago.

Okay.

Yeah.

Called like the coin expert on TikTok and Instagram.

So if anyone's interested in coins, they can check that out.

I'm trying to just educate people with...

what these coins are worth.

And because I know people are inheriting these collections every day from grandpa that just passed passed away and they have no clue what they are.

They don't, they don't want them.

They just want to sell them and know what they're worth.

So that's kind of why I established these pages to give like free evaluations.

Anybody can message me with what they have and I'll just tell them what it's worth.

If they want to sell it, I'll buy it.

If not, you know, that's okay.

That's cool.

Yeah.

People could be sitting on gold mines and not even know.

Oh, dude, you just have no idea.

The $15,000 quarter, dude, I bought this off a guy in Scotland.

He messaged me and he's like, yo, I got the $17.96 quarter.

I'm like, no way.

Send a picture.

Sure enough, it was legit.

And I'm like, holy cow, where'd you get that?

And he's like, I'm in Scotland.

i bought it at an antique store for a dollar it was in a junk box what it was in a little junk box you know pick any coins for a dollar he's like yeah so you know what what do you what will you give me dude and i'm like dude

i'm like that's a very rare coin i'm like i'll give you uh five thousand bucks and he's like

oh well Now on second thought, like I want a little more for it because I said such a big number.

He's like, oh, shoot, it's worth something.

So he's like, give me 8,000.

And I think we met at like seven grand so i can still double my money after i work really hard to like get it authenticated do a lot of work um but yeah just a just an example stuff like that is out there that's cool man people are getting these coins every day and i'm just here to help spread the good word and by no means am i the coin expert the most knowledgeable guy absolutely not i was just at a show where guys could probably run circles around me but they're not on tick tock these guys aren't social media folks they're old yeah i'm trying to like spread the word on social media share what i know you said you sold a few this morning right yeah yeah i uh i would have brought it to show you but it's it's a really nice coin.

I sold this 1894 Morgan dollar, which is a semi-key date, but this one's an extremely high-grade.

MS 64 out of 70, 64 plus out of 70.

They give little plus designations when it's just in the middle.

And that coin I sold for 10,000 bucks.

Damn.

Yeah, 10,000 bucks.

Is that the most you've sold the coin for?

No.

People do ask me the most valuable coin I've ever sold, and it would be...

Oh, there's two that are up there.

I'll tell these stories quick in case people are bored with the coins, but this 1865S, 20,

maybe 63S, $20 gold piece.

It was 10 years ago when I bought it

12 years ago.

I was like 12 years old.

This was a big ticket coin.

It was at this auction and I'm like, oh my gosh, this coin's worth a ton, but it was just loose, just like this.

It wasn't like certified.

So there was no proof that it was real.

And I'm 12 years old.

So to shell out a bunch of money was scary.

But, you know, the bidding started.

It was like $1,500, $2,000, $2,500.

Bidding slowed down.

I got the coin for $2,700.

And I'm like, I think this thing's worth a fortune.

But this was the biggest coin I bought up until that point.

It had me really worried.

So I sent it out to PCGS to be authenticated.

And what do you know?

It was real and they graded it MS63.

Damn.

And I sold it the next day for $13,000.

Holy crap.

At 12 years old.

Made 10,000 bucks at 12 years old.

That's insane.

That was nuts, but couldn't have done it without the mentors and the guys around me, you know, teaching me what I know.

Because at 12 years old, it's hard to make that call.

A good chunk of the money I had at the time.

And that's cool.

Have you bought a fake coin before?

Another good question.

Right now, fakes are running rampant.

Really?

It's bad.

From China?

It's bad.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, a lot of coming from China.

And they are so dang good.

If you don't know what you're doing,

bad things.

Bad things are going to happen.

Because what was always told back in the day is, okay, if you don't know coins really well, buy them when they're certified.

Buy them when they're graded.

Real, authentic.

You know the deal with cards.

You get more money when they're graded because people feel safer.

As you've probably seen with cards, same thing's happening with coins.

They're faking the holders.

These holders, the whole thing will be fake.

The coin is fake.

The holder is fake.

And the grade is fake.

Wow.

Everything's fake.

So it's so sad.

People, collectors think they see a great deal on that key date and they buy it and it's all certified and ready to go.

And then

it takes an expert to tell them, dude, I have bad news.

Everything is fake.

And the coin's worthless.

I've seen that.

countless times.

Damn.

They're starting to roll out.

So no one's safe anymore.

You can't just buy a certified coin and be safe.

So raw coins are fake, you know, ungraded just like this.

These are fake it's getting bad they need to make a digital system where you scan it and it can tell you right yes but they're faking the barcodes off and the yeah our rfid chips so you scan it everything pops up as normal holy it's crap it's nuts how sophisticated they're getting like like the maybe if you look at the coin it'll look slightly different because they're stealing the barcode off a real one and they're just trying to make the coin look the same i see so to answer your question um

i've i've bought like one or two fake coins in my life early on early on you know i'm 10, 11, 12 years old, just learning the ropes.

So it's understandable why I'd make a mistake like that.

But luckily, it was from guys who they didn't know either.

And when I went back to them and said, hey, this coin expert or the grading company said it's fake, will you give me my money back?

They said, yes.

I got really lucky.

Yeah.

Most people, it's gone.

They buy it off Craigslist and it's fake.

Poof.

The Logan Paul Pokemon one was nuts.

Yeah.

So was there a fake Pokemon one?

Yeah, you saw that with the million-dollar box.

Oh, shoot.

It was sealed by the grading company.

I forget the company.

It was like.

Did you see this?

It was everywhere.

So the whole box was fake?

It was a box of first edition Pokemon cards, and it was sealed by the grading company.

So everyone thought it was real.

Yeah.

As soon as they opened it, G.I.

Joe cards.

No way.

Yeah, a million dollars.

What the heck?

Did they go back to the grading company and say, you certified this?

No, it wasn't the grading company.

They just faked, whoever sold it, faked the tape or whatever.

Oh, my gosh.

And they opened it on camera.

Yeah.

So live.

Yeah.

So cards are being really faked right now, too.

Dude, okay.

Yeah,

it's the same idea.

So when people try to understand the coin industry, it's basically just cards, both coins.

Yeah.

So you really got to buy from just actual coin shops then.

Yeah, reputable guys.

If again, if you don't really know what you're doing, you know, start with reputable guys.

You're safe there.

Go to the big conventions, talk to the guys, know who to buy from, and you'll be safe.

But me, of course, I dabble in buying all sorts of collections and stuff.

So I got to know, or else I get burned.

Like, I'm not going to buy a collection off somebody off Instagram and it'd be fake and be like, hey, I need my money back.

No, like, that's my fault.

So I got to be able to tell from a picture alone.

So it's really hard, but hopefully I can keep up my track record of not buying fake stuff.

Yeah, I got to look into that.

I'm into this stuff.

I bought George Washington's hair.

Oh, shoot.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm into historical items.

Dude, it's so cool.

I want to get more into that.

You know, with these coins, you inevitably run into some old documents and stuff.

Besides the hair, have you ever had any?

I've been presented documents, but no, the hair was just interesting to me.

So I got it.

Dude, that's cool.

And it's certified?

yeah it's certified it was a mystery box so you didn't know what president's hair you were getting but it was every president's hair that could potentially be in there dude and you pulled a george washington yeah pulled the rarest one that's cool they had lincoln i believe yeah yeah it's it's so interesting these like they're a new take on trading cards right the like historical cards i can't believe they even saved that thing yeah like the hair i wonder how they would prove the provenance because that's really hard unless they have like written documentation from all right martha washington and then her granddaughter dude that's a good point because it was cheap so yeah it could have been fake, honestly.

Here it could be off to dude who put the package together.

No, that'd be a crazy scam.

But yeah, it's all about the documentation and the certification companies.

They do their work to ensure what they're saying is legit.

You collect anything else?

Not exactly.

Just a couple of those documents, like I said.

Some old bills.

Like I had a bill printed by Benjamin Franklin.

That was pretty cool.

It says, you know, right on it, printed by B.

Franklin.

That's cool.

So, yeah, aside from coins, there's bills as well.

I got to show you a few of of them.

People always get a kick out of these.

Well, it's just falling with stuff.

But look at that one.

So, printed 1777.

What?

This is a bill?

Yep.

Yep.

Nine pounds, Massachusetts.

Look at the top.

It's just, they're crazy.

Look, to counterfeit is death.

Whoa.

They were messing around back then.

Like, you counterfeit our money, you die.

Holy crap.

How much is this worth?

They're actually not as rare as you think, unless they're printed by like Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin's stuff will be thousands.

But this, I probably bought for like 60 bucks.

Okay.

So kind of cool piece of history.

That is.

Yeah.

17 April 4th, 1777.

All right.

A couple more.

People always get a kick out of this one.

Check that out.

What is this?

People don't know those existed.

$500 bill?

$500 bill.

They're like, what?

This is fake.

No way.

There's no way.

Can you use this right now?

Yep.

Legal tender.

Really?

I can spend that right now.

And they'll accept it.

They have to.

Yeah.

Bank would have to accept that.

So people, people didn't know these bills existed, and they are so cool.

The 500, 1,000, there's a 5,000, there's a 10,000, and there's a $100,000 bill.

No way.

Yeah.

Imagine paying for a car with a $100,000 bill.

Yeah, yeah, you could.

The $100,000.

You should make a video of those.

The $100,000 are now legal to own.

They were only for like, you know, kind of between banks and big transactions back in the 30s.

So those

you can't have anymore.

But up to a 10,000 you can legally own, and those are worth $200,000, $300,000.

Oh, so it's not even worth paying with those?

No.

Do not pay on that.

Do not pay with that.

Even this, it'd be so stupid to pay with it because it's worth about $1,000.

Wow.

What about $2 bills?

All right, $2 bills, good question.

Yeah, you can feed me any question of any bill coin.

So, $2 bills, most of them are not worth anything.

If it's a green seal, more than likely, it's only worth $2, unless it's an error, unless it's a star note, which has a little star at the end of the serial number,

or unless it's in like perfect mint condition.

But otherwise, it's only $2.

Where they start to get good is 1963 and before when they had red ink on them.

I probably have one here.

This is funny.

You got everything.

Oh, man.

It's not here anymore.

Okay.

Hope that didn't fall out.

Anyway,

$2 bill from 1963 and before, the red seals.

Those are worth like $4, $5, $6.

And then when you get before that, they get to be the large-size currency, which is like this stuff, huge bills.

Yeah, the 1917 $2 bill was the last large-size $2 bill.

And those are like $100.

Then they just go up big time.

Wow.

There's $2 bills that have sold for...

tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars from the 1860s, 1870s, 1880s.

Crap.

So, yeah, they get really rare.

But to answer answer your question, no.

Most of the green seals spend it.

I didn't know those bills were bigger back in the day, too.

Yeah, they were huge.

Like, that's a Confederate bill from 1864.

Wow.

I love bringing these things with me because people get a kick out of them.

History, man.

Yeah, so that.

No Illuminati eye on the back on this one.

No, not on that one, but it looks like fake Monopoly money.

It's all Confederate currency, and back in the day, that's what they use.

And then last one, 10 cent bill.

People didn't realize they made fractional currency.

10 cent bill.

Yeah, so when they had some shortages of metals to make coins, they're like, well, screw it.

Let's just make them out of bills.

So tiny little bills.

Who is this?

That is the Secretary of State, I believe.

So I can spend this as well.

Imagine going to pay it for 7-Eleven, whip out 10 of these, get a Slurpee.

Savage.

10-cent bills, they would never take them.

But they legally, like, they have to.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe I'll.

I actually don't carry change anymore, which I probably should because some of them are rare.

Oh.

You never know what you're doing.

Credit card only.

I just feel like it's annoying to carry change personally.

Yeah, a lot of people.

I know that probably breaks your heart.

Yeah, it does.

It does.

But I always tell people, you know, when they do get change or bills, it doesn't hurt to take a five-second pass just to look at them because, once again, you don't know what's out there.

Well, the banks probably know the rare ones, though, right?

You would think, but

no, not really.

Bank tellers will sometimes, I mean, they're within their rights to like see a rare thing come across and then

buy it out, keep it for themselves.

But sometimes they can get like fired for it.

This one story, which is true, this old lady brought in $20, $20 gold pieces.

$20 gold pieces.

These suckers are like almost an ounce of gold.

Right now, they're worth like $2,200 a piece.

Damn.

She brought them in to deposit for $20 a piece.

She's like, hey, you know, I just, I got these for my husband.

You know, can I deposit them?

And the teller didn't tell her like, hey, these are super rare.

He took them.

He cashed them out.

He gave 400 bucks for them.

took them home you know sold them for a fortune and then yeah he got fired because i guess wow i guess it wasn't right to like steal those from that granny but you're not stealing anything i mean technically not stealing yeah it's 20 but i guess he should have told her like, hey, please go sell these for a lot more money.

I didn't know gold appreciated like that.

Yeah, gold's an interesting one.

It's been up and down a lot.

It's nothing like these, some of these huge stocks that just go 10x.

Gold's not something just like, oh, I'm going to buy it.

And then in a couple of years, it's going to 10x.

No, like it's.

Peter Schiff.

It's been at around 1,000 to 2,400 for the last, whatever, 20-something years.

Stable, right?

It doesn't change much.

People like to just park money in it.

But a lot of people are saying gold and silver are about to go crazy.

Really?

Yeah.

Too slow for me, man.

Yeah,

for this younger generation, they want instant returns.

They want instant gratification.

They don't want to deal in this old metals.

But like people are saying the instability in the U.S.

dollar, all the stuff going on with Russia and China.

The dollar does worry me.

Dude,

I'm keeping very few dollars right now.

Okay, right.

Yeah, put it in assets.

Yeah, don't just park it in a bank for starters.

Obviously, you're losing it to...

Inflation, but it's like, what's going to happen?

I'm sure, you know, nothing crazy is going to happen in the U.S.

dollar, but like, if it does, the people who bought gold are going to be looking a lot better than the people holding fiat.

Fiat currency.

Our currency is worthless.

It's just fiat currency.

It's just made up.

Nothing backing it.

Back in the day, it was backed by gold and silver.

Not anymore.

They need to go back to that.

Yeah.

A lot of people are calling for us to go back onto the gold standard, but I would need an economics major to break that down.

There's so much to it.

It's not just some simple one sentence like, okay, here we go.

And it's going to fix the U.S.

dollar.

You got any crypto?

Yeah, a little bit.

You probably remember I was back, geez, when that blew up, end of 2017.

You could put money into anything crypto related boom 10x within a week it was crazy so i hopped on that train a little bit you know threw some money here there and everywhere and then yeah everything went berserk made a few youtube videos about it yeah and those videos got a lot of views you could have missed dude it was nuts yeah

yeah i i just didn't love that that was a interesting few month run it was crazy i mean every every you just hate to see something go up so crazy and then people just like a lot of people lost someone makes money someone loses so yeah that's true but you just people however however many times you say it only invest what you can afford to lose

you see it every day people just putting their life savings going all in on something and they lose it it's like yeah

i would just feel really bad for them because i mean people like do yeah can't say it on the podcast but people make some bad decisions after they lose their life savings and um you know that's why the statement is true only for what you can only lose only invest what you can afford to lose and that's what i did you know so yes i most certainly got hit with that decline as well but oh i got wrecked i don't care like i just put a little money into it wasn't once it's a little bit of crypto to answer your question yeah i got blasted oof what coin or what uh everything well yeah

everything was down 90 yeah but that's the thing i i went a little too hard and it was a good lesson right yeah you definitely learned something but you had you had the potential upside and you probably did yeah remember you posted a few things i mean you you were up a ton but it's just knowing when knowing when to time it and it's so hard.

Luckily, I had the skill set to make money during the down, so I was able to withhold it, and now I still have everything, and it's picking back up.

Exactly.

I'm the same way.

Like, why mess around with crypto if I don't know it inside and out when I can focus on cars, planes, and coins and have pretty much guaranteed investment returns on the corner?

No, it's fascinating to me because you're in risky industries, but your risk mitigation is phenomenal.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

It's very impressive because a lot of people in your spaces lose money.

You're right.

Yeah.

Cars, planes, all those things are terrible on paper.

And I'm sure plenty of people will tell me that I'm crazy and that my luck is going to run out or whatever.

But I don't think so.

It's very strategic.

It's partially luck, but partially doing your homework and just really knowing what you're doing and having the right people in your circle to ask questions to.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you've only lost on two cars.

No losses on planes yet, right?

No, no, not a single plane.

And some really good returns.

The jet, the jet is crazy.

Yeah.

So for those for those of you out there watching,

yeah, we'll see how that one goes.

What'd you drop on that?

Not that much.

You're good at that, man.

People will be surprised.

So I'll be okay on it, but people think jets equals tens of millions of dollars, which it usually does.

Well, you had Grant Cardone in here not too long ago, right?

He has a G650.

It's like a $70 million plane.

Holy shit.

$70 million.

And he did it for the tax reasons.

The government gave huge incentives to buy planes.

It was crazy.

80%, right?

People don't, 100% accelerated appreciation.

Yeah.

100% accelerated appreciation with like no limits.

So Grant Cardone, you heard him say on the Logan Paul podcast, you know, I wired that money and I told my accountant, write that whole thing off.

You know, that viral clip.

Yeah.

It's technically true.

It's for business use, 100% business use, 100% business, 100% accelerated depreciation write off.

And now it's phasing out.

They're minusing 20% each year.

So you're right.

I think last year was like 80%.

This year is probably 60%.

But for a while there, it was crazy.

Guys were just buying planes left and right.

And the thing was, it wasn't just new.

So cars for Section 179, it's got to be a new car, right?

Over 6,000 gross weight or or whatever but a plane it could be a used plane so that just exploded the market wow for used airplanes so I wasn't complaining because I had a couple but the prices on planes just went crazy nice like some just nearly like doubled tripled with COVID everyone's like life's too short like I'm gonna go learn to fly so you got those people buying planes and then you got the business people with the Trump

this tax thing that he put in in 2017 or whatever and that also blew up the market I hope he brings it back man Yeah, well, we'll see what happens.

Yeah, I wonder if he gets re-elected, will he reinstate the 100%

tax write-off on airplanes?

If he does, I'm going to hit you up.

As soon as it passes, text me, and I'm in.

Then it is.

I actually bought a G-Wagon last year because of that tax code.

Yeah, you know the drill.

So it's a huge kind of loophole.

And a lot of people don't like it.

I guess I can see their arguments.

But for the aviation industry, it did amazing things.

Mechanics were busier than ever.

Salespeople, manufacturers, Sirius, all these companies were just cranking out planes.

Everybody was cranking out planes, and it was, it was good for that industry.

And it's still pretty hot now, even with it slowly tapering off.

So it'll come down a bit, it'll cool off a bit.

But

I saw it as a really good thing.

It was interesting to watch.

But yeah, when I do call you up on that jet, I got you.

I can help you.

Yeah, I'm going to hit you off for a car too because I got ripped off, dude.

Oh, yeah, dude.

I got any cars, planes, cars.

I pretty much, I feel like, know pretty darn well I can advise you good on.

But jet, I'm still learning.

You know, I, I, I,

dude, it it's nuts i just got called saying like hey for this phase inspection for your jet like i said there's like up to 150 of them or whatever phase 49 inspects like windows and stuff and they're like dude uh i don't think that your windshield is gonna pass the inspection you might need new windshield i'm like okay how much is windshield on jet and they're like it's gonna be like over 40 000 holy crap for a windshield yeah so i really hope that passes the inspection but that's why i'm like on the fence if i'll make money on that plane or not because like that's coming up 40 grand maybe.

And then the phase one through four is coming up on that plane.

And that's like can be up to like 50,000 bucks or more, depending on what they find.

So

I'm a little worried on that one.

But you got to learn by biting the bullet and doing it.

Yeah, you got to live and learn.

Yeah, I overpaid by 40K on my G-Wagon.

I found out I got wrecked.

Shoot.

But that's common.

Like when you go to these dealerships, like.

Oh, they were charging over sticker.

Yeah.

Right.

For it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially the G-Wagons.

Those were so hot.

Yeah.

Dang.

Yeah.

Yeah, that hurt.

But this year, when I need a write-off in December, I will hit you up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I got you.

I can definitely advise you for the best car and airplane when the time comes.

Oh, yeah.

JR, it's been fun.

Where can people find you, man?

All over social media.

Let's see.

We've got the JR to Rush.

We got the JR Aviation for planes.

And then, like I said, the coin expert for the new coin channel.

If anybody knows about coins out there, we'll link below.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Dude, thank you so much.

That was fun.

Forward to chat more and blast catching up, man.

Cool.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you tomorrow.