Are brick & mortar coin stores obsolete?

With more and more of the day to day coin business going online, do you feel brick & mortar coin stores are obsolete?

 

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I vote no because of the volume of "fresh" coins brought IN by good coin stores is what feeds the online sellers if the stores don't do it themselves.

 

Good question....

If you ask the store owner, the answer is probably "no." If you ask the customer, the answer might be "yes."

The cost of doing business is higher than ever. The store owner has to find ways to cut his overhead to survive in today's market. While charging "tax" on purchases of coins and precious metals is
appropriate, I think that is obsolete.

I think regular participating in coin shows beats maintaining a retail location, unless you own the retail location outright.

I only go to retail locations to check out current trends and talk "shop" with the owner and other consumers. You can get better deals online and at competing coin shows.

My local coin retailer sponsors and maintains a bid board to encourage traffic. I think you have to do things like this to keep your retail location viable.

 

For straight purchasing of coins, I think they are already dead. The real draw of coin shops is the social atmosphere. At the best shops, you don't just browse the cases and buy a coin or two; you meet the owner, chat with the regulars, and actively engage in the hobby, rather than just passively purchasing. There simply is no adequate digital substitute for that kind of interaction.

 

Coin shops are always going to be around. Theres a certain amount of buyers that like to see,touch.... Also if your selling a collection. Its best to do in person in my humble opinion.

 

I prefer to buy my coins in shops, as I can better judge the coin in person as opposed to using pictures, and I enjoy the social interaction. But, for me the biggest problem with B&M's is the selection. What are the chances that they will have the specific year/date/mint coins for which you are searching? Also, the condition is typically pretty poor on average. Everyone wants the higher grade stuff, therefore it is the first to go. In most instances the better coins probably do not even make it into the showcase because the dealer has lists of people that want them. What I've typically encountered at B&M's are cases full of cheap junk, and then a few nice coins for which they are asking an arm and a leg.

Buying online beats the crap out of B&M's in these respects. At any given time, there's just about every coin that you could possibly want in a variety of grades listed on eBay alone. Not to mention, you will typically get these coins a bit cheaper online as well. These create tough circumstances that B&M's have to compete with, I say that after the precious metal boom passes, they will be a thing of the past.

 

I prefer to buy from a B&M when I can. In my area anyway, it seems coin shops are popping up everywhere. True, many started because of the bullion fad, but have since blossomed into coin shops. Rent is cheaper now than ever and the economy hasn't really effected the bulk of their business because the people who keep them in business aren't the ones who are out of work, normally. They're no more obsolete than Walmart. People will buy online, but more will buy in person.
Guy

 

This is the type of business that will always thrive through a brick and mortar. Bullion sales however, would be best sold online since its not a grade specific item.

 

I voted no for this reason as well. I believe we are seeing b&m stores morphing into more buying locations, with sales being more online.

Especially if you are not a collector, most people wish to sell in person. It is this functionality that I believe will keep b&m coin stores alive in the future. There is not a thing wrong with that, especially considering most b&m coin stores treat sellers much better than pawn shops and "gold buyers" do.

 

The Future Is Yet To Alter Current Advantages.

I believe you'll find the answer is NO for numerous reasons. The past primary advantages of selection and economics are rapidly changing.

In the past there were internet selection advantages because of the old Yahoo, eBay, and major internet auction sites. The search engines were still trying to meet the needs/desires of the customers. As these sites have developed (or failed) competition has been reduced since these entities have become self-serving, rather than servants of the internet users. Even craigslist has been invaded by eBay, and probably soon will be more self-serving, unresponsive to users desires.

It's becoming easier to find a B&M locally (relatively) than an internet source for items that are often offered/discussed in this venue. A B&M may currently have disadvantaged pricing, but often that's offset by selection/assistance.

Sellers have learned that past avenues for sales aren't currently economically feasible, and with increased costs have learned the futility of selling items which aren't in the "mainstream". Auction venues have also allowed tactics which are undesirable to both participants in a transaction, rapidly creating more of a "sight-seen" personal touch buyer/seller mentality.

Some of the larger internet advantages of eliminated sales taxes and monetary exchange fees, is being avidly reviewed in these austere times. It's believed that societal pressure for additional social funding, and local business advocates will soon effect change to reduce/eliminate these relatively unfair financial advantages.

Hopefully B&M owners will assist in their continued existence by modifying some of their seemingly obscene buying/selling tactics, such as our only local B&M non-negotiating operator who overgrades when selling, undergrades when buying, gloats about buying Silver at 20% under melt, while selling at shows for 110% melt or more. Has an uninformed wife operating the store while he majoritively roams the countryside scamming naive individuals, or selling at shows. He's made it easy for competition!!

Just my humble observations/opinion. :thumb:

 

I drop a couple hundred every two week at my bm. I get tired of searching through crap on ebay

 

Here is my opinion based on personal experience.

The question of "are they obsolete" is too black and white.

In short driving distances from my house there are 5 B&M stores. Of these 5, 4 are obsolete.

Why are those 4 obsolete?
3 of them have owners/employees who have some sort of "Numismatic God" complex. They are rude, know everything, and the customers are stupid (according to them). It's like you are bothering them if you actually want to purchase something.

1 of them is staffed with the opposite. Complete morons who looked and acted like they just left the crack house.
Case in point.
I went in and was looking at the case with Jefferson nickels in it. I asked if they had a 1938-D Jefferson. The dirty employee (smoking a cigarette right behind the counter) said: "Is that a quarter?". I said "Umm, yes!". They didn't have any...

Another store.
me: Do you have the following Danscos in stock? (I named a few albums)
them: No, but we can order them.
me: Ok, great! Go for it.
them: Just call us every week and ask if they came in yet.
me: Good bye.

To me, I would much prefer to go to a B&M store, but only if it is a quality store, with a nice selection, and nice employees.
There is one like this by my house, and it is fantastic. But since the attempted murder and robbery last year at the store, it is now by appointment only.
Anyone in the Detroit area, the store is The Coin Cove on Gratiot just north of 10 Mile rd.

The question to me then becomes: "Are quality B&M coin shops obsolete?"
My answer, no.

When you collect toners, or purchase raw like I do, even the greates images on eBay cannot compare to actually seeing the coin in hand.

Carry on...

 

They do good; I don't do business with ebay, I do some occasionally with online auctions, I average $10s of thousands a year if not hundreds with face to face transactions, where there is greater recourse and accountability IMO.

 

I vote no.

No matter how much volume of coin sales, or deals in general, occur online, there is always going to be a need for getting the coin in hand before buying it.

 

There is also people that want to walk out with it right then instead of waiting and paying for shipping. Coin shows are also good I noticed because many dealers are there.

 

As a hobby store I would say its considered obsolete.

Not one store can possible have a larger inventory than say an online site like ebay, Heritage or Teletrade among many others. You can argue all you want about seeing the coins first. But when so many buyers are more interested in slabbed coins, the idea of seeing the coins first doesn't become that important to them. Its also much easier and cheaper for someone to just list stuff online to sell. Sadly B&M stores have to compete with these places and most are losing out.

Another main problem is the "Whats its worth buyers." Most don't really care about the collectibility and thats the most important thing that drives the hobby. Its like comic books and baseball cards, when the bubble bursted back in the 90's thousands if not millions of stores closed across the U.S. And all of that happened because everyone was speculating on the value instead of enjoying the hobby.

 

To me my bigger beef with B&M's and online sources are too many are simply bullion distributers or middlemen. Yeah it's what's white hot right now but some are just abandoning coins and currency outright. I have 6 B&M's close by. 1 I liken the guys in there to someone who would rather sit day after day and look at their collection than sell anything to you (it's god complex, high ask price, lowball bid price), the other doesn't have the selection because they don't get the traffic and enough people selling them anything, one was bad to sell good to buy that after expansion has left lowball when selling and high retail prices, the last one has pretty fair prices both buy and sell but has gone bullion and gold and silver coins almost exclusively. That leaves me my two regular shops that I always visit to buy or sell and now I found out I'm losing one guy to retirement at the end of this year with no definate buyer but 3 interested parties one of which only wants his location/store name and phone number..lol. Ya just can't win I tells ya.

 

Sorry to say this, but I got a good chuckle out of this one. Are you talking about pounds?

 

I've got 3 that I regularly do business with. They are all different in what they are good for. None of them sell online.

 

People will always need to bring their coins somewhere. Even with more shops going 'online' they are still keeping their stores. Traditional shops may change over time, but I still see them being around.