I know there are a fair amount of people on here from Minnesota, what coin shops do you trust and give your business to? I need help locating a shop to do my buying.
What kind of buying? My favorite local dealer is a world dealer. Depending on what you are looking for, i might recommend the local bloomington or st pauo monthly shows instead. The large show is coming up next month, be sure to not miss it.
Also curious, in Minneapolis I'm curious too, I've been lurking thinking about going to some coin shops/pawn shops but would also like to check out a coin show. The only shop I've been to is off of 100 and 36th in St. Louis Park.
The biggest bullion seller goes to every monthly coin show, there are 3 usually, Blooming, St Paul, and Roseville. The show you REALLY do not wish to miss is in Brooklyn Park twice a year. In the spring its called the NW show, and in the fall called the MOON show. THose are huge. Go to shows, and the local dealers for US coins go there too. Get a card and see where their shop is. Sorry I cannot help more, but I simply do not buy much US or bullion, and any I buy I do at a show. I simply do not know any shops in MN except for one a mile from my house. I am originally from Iowa.
I have been to the South St. Paul show a few times; it's at the VFW on 111 Concord Exchange South, and it's every 3rd Sunday of the month. For example, you could go tomorrow if you wanted to check it out. It's a pretty low-key group of the same dealers there month after month, and they primarily have US coins (lots of Morgans, Wheaties, etc. -- the normal common stuff). There are about half of the dealers there that sell only raw coins in 2x2 flips, many of which if you take the time to inspect are problem coins (cleaned, whizzed, overgraded, etc). There will also be sellers there with a few slabbed coins, with plenty of rolls of ASEs and some other bullion, and one rather well known error coin dealer -- again almost all USA coins. I usually like to look through the coin books of the couple guys who have world coins. One guy comes over from Wisconsin (Menomonie I believe) and he usually has some interesting world coins. But, given that the show is pretty slow and these dealers are pretty local, I don't go to the show all that often because the inventory doesn't roll-over much. You may get tired of seeing the same coins month after month. I can't say I've really found anything at that show that I can't life without. If you haven't been to that show before though, it's worth going and walking around, looking, and just getting a feel for things. It's usually about 15-20 tables; so, pretty small. I usually look at this site where most of the Minn/St. Paul shows are listed and regularly updated: http://home.comcast.net/~wdaehn/TCACC/page9.html Hope this helps, -Brandon
That is my ancient coin club's site. Glad you like it. Personally i find the bloomington show to be larger and more diverse.
I've also been to the Bloomington show by the Mall of America...and it was okay. It's still pretty small, and I wasn't impressed with much of the attitude of the dealers. I went back in October, and it still seems that a lot of dealers are more interested in bullion transaction than spending time with people who are interested in numismatic purchased. Too bad really. I'm going to try to make it up to the NW show in Brooklyn Park on Saturday, March 16th...weather permitting.
I hope you had a good time. Based on your other thread, it looks like you came home with some goodies. It's certainly fun to look around and see what's out there. :thumb:
Gary Adkins has supposedly opened up a retail store, but works wantlist and is in the Twin Cities www.coinbuys.com I've bought a few pieces from him at shows and online.
