Thread: Buying coins!!!!

Hello guys, I got a question. Do you recomend buying coins from pawn shops. I went to see one last weekend and ended up buying some silver quarters the oldest one being a 1936 and a few more..I also saw some nice mint proofs from 1976 for about 9 dollars. And they had other nice coins for reasonable prices. Do you think It's worth buying some from these pawn shops. Thanks..

If the price is right..why not....

If I'm looking at a pawn shop I know that the store owner paid alot less then value of coin and probably doubling the price now. My suggestion would be to use the blue-book prices for buying coins at a pawn shop. Always remember their prices are not set in stone.

I do not know if it is the same at every pawn shop, but the local one around here charge ms prices for anything they sell, the coin could be at best a ef dont make no difference, I wonder if they pay ms prices for ef coins, I sort of doubt it, I just think they operate under the theory that the customer does not know the difference. I asked one time why they were charging that price for a coin in that bad of shape, and they told me that it was in great shape considerring how old it was.

Pawn Shops, buy low and sell extremely high. I would stray away from Pawn Shops and go with Trusted Dealers in your area.

Pawn shops are for collectors who have done their homework and know how to grade and price the coins they see , so if you know how to grade and have a good current priceguide or at least checked what similar coins have sold for at Heratige and other Auctions you should be ok , but remember most Pawn shops buy for almost nothing from desperate people and sell for as much as they can .
rzage

I won't, because here almost all stuff is stolen. But if is not the case there, and the price is right I don't see why not.

If you have the time, i guess. Bring the Greysheet with you and have an idea of grading helps.

Pawn Shops are not coin dealers. At best, they have a blackbook or a redbook somewhere, probably an outdated one.

To them any coin that still has detail on it is "BU UNC MS70" and etc., and will be sold for highest value they can figure out to slap on it. Bying and selling in a pawn shop ususally ammountto "pound of flesh" type of deals

However, I've gotten GREAT deals too. I bought a roll of Mercury/Roosevelt circulated dimes a year ago for just a few bucks over melt from a place by me. They must have been drunk when pricing that one.

Now, what I'd love to know is how to get a license to open one, I'd be making $ hand over fist as I've sen what they pay people!

If you feel the price is fair I see no reason not to purchase....

I've only stopped to look at one pawn shop out of curiosity. They had a few trays of stuff in 2x2s. All common. Nothing good. All over priced. Beyond that they had a bunch of margarine containers with junk silver in them. Silver was down at the time.

The coins in those containers looked cleaned but were sticky. I was looking for key dates, mms, but I had a strong feeling about 100 people had sorted through them before me. They wanted $4 a piece for a silver quarter and $6 a piece for common circulated Franklin halves. It was a joke.

Keep in mind most pawn shop owners won't really have a clue about coins. They've got to be the easiest places to pass off a fake and I'm sure people take advantage of that all the time.

Most of them have got to be pretty much the same so I would not recommend the places. There's just so many better options.

If the price is low, you can bet its stolen merchandise. If you want to go that way buy his cheap stolen bullion coins. Traci

Know your stuff and make your own decision is all I can say in a nutshell.

We have a pawn shop that now refers "coin sellers" to us a coin shop. Says a lot I think. They have much higher margins in buy vs. sell so coins tend to be overpriced and sit there.

We buy from them when they're strapped for money. Best bet is to walk in with a hefty wad of cash and see if they want to dump for a quick but not excessive profit.

Your research as a buyer is the real key in a pawn shop or anywhere else.

Pawn shops, flea markets, yard sales, swap meets - all of them are probably the very worst place there is to buy coins. They are notorius for problem coins, fakes, altered coins, harshly cleaned coins - virtually everything bad about a coin that you can think of.

That said, if you really know your coins and have the ability to identify all of the issues I mentioned above as well as a professional - go right ahead and look. But the odds of finding anything that really is fit to buy are about the same as winning the lottery.

Originally Posted by GDJMSP

Pawn shops, flea markets, yard sales, swap meets - all of them are probably the very worst place there is to buy coins. They are notorius for problem coins, fakes, altered coins, harshly cleaned coins - virtually everything bad about a coin that you can think of.

And I have to completely dissagree with that. Most of my greatest purchases in coins have come from garage/yard/estate sales, flea markets and pawn shops. Only close to that is coin shows.
One pawn shop near me USED to have fantastic prices on coins until some idiot told the owners about the Red Book and now they think those are the right prices. Other pawn shops around me have little knowledge of coins and prefer not to get involved since they rather handle more easily sellable items such as cameras, tools, jewlery, etc. One person I know has been purchasing coins from one pawn shop for many years now and they call him as soon as they get them in so I loose out there.
As to flea markets, there is one dealer seller at one that I find the best deals anywhere. At one garage sale I purchased a jar of about $35 in cents and the newest coin was in the 50's. Entire bottom was Indian Cents and all for $50.
Purchased a book of Indian Head Nickels with 238 in there and most in fine condition for $80. Those are just some of the deals. Many, many more also.
As far as my experiences I can not find a better place to find coins for really great prices than at pawn shops, flea markets, garage/yard/estate sales.
To clarify one thing though I mean Estate Sales not auctions. These are the ones where someone died or a family is moving and wants to dump lots of just STUFF. Old coin collections are to some just STUFF.