Teresa Mays put Hedge Company up for sale in October last year, knowing she will retire once her precious-metals brokerage at 225 N. Fifth St., Suite 514, gets sold.

That was a tough decision to make, because:

• She loves the work she does as a bullion broker, selling and buying gold, silver, platinum and palladium coins and bars for her customers.
• The business was started by her father, Ron Mays, in 1985, and he ran the show until he died in 2007.
• She loves her customer base and the relationships she established through earning their trust.

It also was a decision she felt she had to make for herself and others.

“I see lots of interesting products, meet interesting people,” Mays said of the temptation to continue to work. “But it’s time, and my spouse is nine years older than me, and I just turned 65. And at some point, you just have to call it a day.

“It’s going to be very difficult, I have to admit, because sitting here, you get to know your customers, and I’ve enjoyed that immensely. And that will be the hardest piece to walk away from.”

Mays hired Kevin Brooks of Sunbelt Business Brokers in Grand Junction to assist with the sale, and there’s an important contingency on the sale: It has to be the right buyer, or Mays won’t sell.

A couple of her requirements of the buyer are deeply personal:

• The buyer must continue running the business in Grand Junction to serve the customer base she established. Mays knows some potential buyers only want her customer list and won’t operate locally.

“That’s too easy,” she said “I think it would ill serve the customers that we’ve accrued over 40 years. And there is certainly a need here for someone to have a physical office to meet with my customers.”

• The business name must remain Hedge Company.

“You know, to carry on the Hedge name is important to me. My dad’s legacy is important to me. My legacy’s important to me,” she said. “Because I live here in the valley, and a lot of my customers have become my friends – you know how that works – that’s really important to me. And I think my customers deserve to have somebody local to help them out.”

When an acceptable buyer emerges and the deal gets done, Mays will walk away from the business that has been her life for the past 26 years.

“I’m selling, begrudgingly, but it’s time to retire,” she said. “The older we get, the more people we lose around us, and it’s kind of a reality check. You know, I lost my sister in January at 61 (years old), and yeah, it’s time to turn the sail in a different direction and maximize the time I have left. And who knows how long that is, so that’s kind of why.”

Mays is one of 10 siblings, and the recent passing of her sister Laura Wright, who lived in Pueblo, hit Teresa hard.

“When she got sick, I tried to spend as much time with her as I could,” Mays said. “And if I was retired, I would have been able to be there a lot more than I could, so …”

Mays said she will travel during retirement and spend much more time with family.

Asked about other plans she has, Mays quipped, “I do want to sleep for a couple of months.”

She also loves shooting sports and plans to remain involved in them.

“I just enjoy shooting. I think it’s a lot of fun,” said Mays, who is a member of “A Girl & A Gun.”

Mays has a coin collection she said she needs to dust off, too.

“I have not looked at my coins in a long, long time,” she said. “Nothing of value, for sure, but just fun, fun historical pieces.”

WANT TO BUY THE BUSINESS?

If you’re interested in buying Hedge Company, it starts with a call to Kevin Brooks of Sunbelt Business Brokers at 970-255-8000.

SMALL PURCHASES WELCOME

Teresa Mays said Hedge Company does not have minimums for buying or selling, except those imposed by the wholesalers.

She said the tagline on her radio commercials says: Putting precious metals within your reach.

“I wanted my business to make it possible for anybody at any income level to buy precious metals, whether it was a single, 10-ounce American Gold Eagle or a one-ounce silver round or a silver coin,” Mays said. “A lot of customers have a budget, so they can only allocate so much to precious metals at a time.

“I have a lot of customers who will buy thousands of ounces at a time, but a lot of my customers, again, on a budget, will just buy a couple ounces a month. And over the years, they’ve accumulated a nice little stash, and it’s just a way of diversifying their holdings.”

NEEDED TO SIMPLIFY

After Ron Mays died in 2007, it wasn’t just Hedge Company that he left behind business-wise. He also had a full-service coin shop, International Coin & Stamp.

Teresa Mays said her stepmom decided she didn’t really want the business and was willing to let Teresa take over, which she did, but she had to limit the operation.

“I knew I didn’t have the knowledge necessary to keep the collector-coin part of the business going, so I opted to just stick with the bullion business, because it was cleaner,” she said. “It was simpler, fewer counterfeits back in the day, and it just made my life simple. And then for years, I had like a hybrid business, where I did have collectible things and also the bullion business.”

Teresa said she got completely out of the collector part of the business in 2009. 

“I sold International Coin & Stamp and all of the assets and decided just to focus on bullion,” she said.

NO NEED TO GOUGE

Teresa Mays said of being a bullion broker, “It’s just a fascinating-as-heck business. And it can be incredibly lucrative, too.”

Evidently it can be much more lucrative for Mays, but she’s content with the commission she charges.

“I’ve been told by folks who have studied the industry that my commission is not high enough, but I haven’t changed it,” she said. “Even after I put the business on the market, I decided just to keep it where it is. So, I still don’t charge what your average bullion broker will charge, but I like giving folks a fair deal, and I think they come back because of that. And they like the personal relationships that we develop.”