1) Where to buy coins? Go where sellers buy. Many people buy coins only online or in coin stores. It's nothing wrong with it, but if you want to buy cheaper you should go where sellers go. I've seen many times when coin dealer bought nice looking rarer coin at auction and after week he sells online. The final price was about 15 - 50% higher. It makes me feel sick. Some people made a business from it and they needn't to work. But you can pay for your coins less if you can find some small local auctions. The best are auctions without pictures in online auction catalog, where buyers need to visit auctioneer to see what he has. The prices here are the lowest.
We have one auction house that holds auction every Saturday. Sometimes we go just for something to do. However, I've yet to find any coin lots there that were any more impressive than the change I get at McDonald's, and that's being generous. Maybe in larger cities it might be different, or more affluent areas, but not here.
Yep... here's just one of his many rants about "the evils of auctions": http://www.cointalk.com/threads/im-...ever-been-to-a-coin-auction-read-this.209906/
Oh.. and from another of Tim's threads on the evils of auctions, Doug chimed in with this quote (hope he doesn't mine me quoting him): "Just because it was an auction does not mean that the buyers attending had any clue about what they were doing. So the result is that the buyers pay way more than the coins are actually worth. That is rather typical of the small, localized auctions.... most of the time there will be a lot of fakes, altered coins, problem coins, and over-priced coins. Generally resulting in your trip to be a complete waste of time. "
I think if you are patient and knowledgeable you can find deals almost anywhere. Saying auctions are better then online or a coin store I think is rather bold. For some reason though every little auction I have been to I have never seen a coin go for less then its general value, actually they usually go for a lot more because it seems most people think because a coin is in an auction it has to be worth a lot.
The problem with auctions is many are a waste of time. I buy on craigslist. I keep constant add and reup it every day. Some sellers are a waste of time, but some have made me lots of money.
Yeah, I pretty much live in the middle of nowhere which means there's nothing good or fun to do. Buying online is my only option unless I want to drive pretty far to get to a city. So, I guess paying the extra online is my surcharge for living in a cheap town.
See, I usually spend less online than I would at a coin store and especially when sellers combine shipping,.
I am the exact opposite, I can almost always buy better in person then online. I can only imagine it depends on where you live.
That’s a trade secret…. hush.. hush.. hush.. keep calm and carry on buying from where the sellers do.
