I went to a coin shop today...

Suggestion - Ask your local fast food restaurant what is their slowest day. Ask them if you could hold your "coin club meeting" that day in their restaurant. Post a notice on craig's list with date - time and place and invite all coin collectors and vest pocket dealers to attend. Do the meetings weekly or monthly and enjoy yourself. A small sign on cardboard saying "BUYER - SHOW ME YOUR ..." will work wonders. good luck

 

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The discussion here highlights why I don't think I could ever go into sales. The fact is, if you want to make money, you have to under bid and over price. I kind of see it like politics. Everyone (hopefully) joins with good intentions but then the reality of the scenario sets in and they quickly find themselves getting sucked into the system.

 

You didn't mention this: are you able to visit coin shows in the area? They offer many more dealers than the one or two you might meet in local shops and some of them are happy to spend time chatting during shows if they're not busy helping others. There's also much less pressure to "buy" since the dealers aren't sweating about overhead the entire time (which b&m dealers always seem to be doing). I've been in my share of coin shops where the owner has been impatient, unhelpful and even rude.

As for Atlanta, sounds like you're unaccustomed to spending time in big cities. To each his own. I visited some friends in Atlanta for the first time a few months ago and had a great time. Good food, good people, vibrant downtown. As you probably know, as long as you're not acting stupid, crime is pretty rare, and this is true everywhere. I understand very well there can be more crime around college campuses in cities but even this is rare. I just wonder if your worry (as opposed to exercising common sense) is unnecessary. On the other hand, some people just don't like cities.

 

I think part of it also is many so called dealers are nothing but middle men who really end up only tacking on their fee's to the price of a coin that a customer could likely have found themselves cheaper with a little bit of effort on their part. I don't know the ages of the people who have responded thus far but I'm willing to speculate that those of us who prefer the internet, etc for buying and selling are of the younger crowd of numismatists or early adopters from the older crowd but most of the older crowd seem to be fine paying middle men to conduct business for them.

The numismatic market has changed and brick and mortars like with almost every other retail industry are dying out. I laughed the other day reading how many people on the PCGS forum had negative opinions and shunned doing business on places like Instagram or Facebook. I imagine there was a time when many also shunned buying coins via mail order and preferred face to face B&M transactions as well. Myself I don't really get paying someone else who adds no value to the transaction and simply adds a percentage to the total cost; when with a little legwork and tech savvy you can find almost anything yourself. I've had more negative experiences with dealers than positive ones at coin shops or shows. Even one guy I had some respect for at one point, I lost it after I watched him totally rip off an elderly woman. After that I ceased doing business with him as his attitude was basically 'well everyone does it' and I think that rationalizes it as being OK for many dealers in this industry.

 

I am anxiously waiting for the one on the second weekend in july.

I feel very uncomfortable in big cities. There are too many people. The largest city I have felt comfortable in is Greensboro, NC, and I lived in downtown.

As for crime, I am not overly worried. I just have to be extra vigilant. It's annoying, but nothing has happened to me yet *knock wood.*

I had felt the same way until I tried it myself. Selling is truly a retail market for lower-end stuff (sub $50). Ebay is better for the higher-end stuff, as well as damaged coins.

 

Brick and mortar shops do offer value though. They provide inventory you can see and hold. When the inventory they have overlaps with both your wants and your budget that is where their value comes from. Often they don't overlap with your budget but I'll argue even then they're still offering a value which is the experience to see and hold coins you have interest in.

 

My thoughts exactly. Can't wait to retire and move out to the countryside where I know all my neighbors

 

Enjoy it!

 

And after one receives their Chinese counterfeit or altered key date arrives it can be much more difficult to return to the seller than the neighborhood dealer.

 

As you've had time to reflect on this, did you conclude that maybe at that time your offerings were simply too small-potatoes for him to "bother" with? If he offered you less than face and didn't even look through things, sounds like he was sending that message.

I sympathize with you but am not surprised. My experience with shops is that they get so weary of "common" stuff because there's really no profit in it, if they can move it at all.

And I say "common" only because, unless you had led with your best pieces, and they were unusual/remarkable, before presenting the rest, I don't think the average dealer is going to get excited by your example of circulated 2 and 3 cent pieces.

 

More than likely the offer was based off the best pieces with maybe a couple bucks for everything else. Selling a large amount all at once always brings the lowest priced offers

 

So true, which is why I believe it's so important to cull your collection as you go.

 

I find talking to yourself and acting as if you are on some really good drugs will keep even the hardcore thieves and dopers away from you.

Try it.

 

I went to put gas in my car the other day. The price was $2.68 a gallon!
Outrageous since, if I drove into town, I could get it for $2.48 a gallon.

If I drove the extra 15 miles into Roseville, I could get it even cheaper at Sam's Club!

I DO like bashing Coin Shops by whining about the prices and how everything is WAY over graded and how they never offer to buy my stuff at anywhere NEAR Market Value! Shoot, buying bullion at spot? Forget about it!

Until I remember that, owning and running a business has a LOT of expenses and most of them rarely offer the modern junk I'm usually after. Power, Security, rent, Insurance, Internet, accounting, blah blah blah, all costs money and the only way a business can survive is if they have strict markups and/or do a nice volume of business.

If you folks think coin stores are way over priced, price out retail clothing, groceries, furniture. They all charge 200% over cost! Their Cost!
The Nerve!

Bottom line, if you don't like the prices "asked and offered" at a local coin shop, don't go there!

I had a couple of coin shops where I live that could be quite pricey on their coins BUT I usually visited those shops for supplies and such that I might need. Occasionally, I'd buy coins just to subsidize their business. (Supplies were pretty expensive as well!)

Both are now gone since the market just could not support having a shop open. One fellow just disappeared while the other suffered too many losses from burglaries.

Now, when I need supplies I either wait for a Coin Show (which could be 90 miles away) or order it online and pay shipping charges. I can no longer go in and "chew the rag" with these folks unless I run into them at that Coin Show!

It's nice having the internet where we can gain knowledge about coins and pricing and such with no individual financial responsibility or commitments but something all together different if you're trying to make a living off of coins.

Of course, if you open a coin shop "as a hobby" because you have other sources of income, then things might be different.

 

Sad to say but after going to some of the same coin shows for a few years, I see the same old age guys selling the same coins and just can't get rid of them. They ask too much and maybe too attached to them. I offered $90 for a $100 coin and the guy couldn't budge on $10, so oh well.

Also, what you have to watch out for at coin shows is many of the dealers are in collusion with each other on their prices, especially on bullion like ASEs.

 

Man, that's not what I see around here. Heck, during the frenzy back in 2011, I remember buying a bag for 25x at one dealer, picking out the few things I wanted, and selling the rest to another dealer for 26x...

 

I think the "collusion" claim is a little silly.

Advice: Buy a table at a Coin Show. Experience life on the "other side of the table" for 10 or so shows.

Do dealers collude? At the coin shows I've participated in, the dealers go around to each other before the show starts to either add or sell inventory.

Again, buy a table. Then report back.

 

Funny you mention this. I offered $44 on a coin that was buy it now for $48 and got rejected with no counter. Why are you listing something with that option if you won't come down $4? I would have paid full price too but since that option was there it implies the guy would come down a few dollars and I thought $4 was reasonable. If your floor is $47 then just list it at that lol

On the opposite end I've been listing some of my doubles and things I want to upgrade and put a "Best Offer" option on them on ebay. It is just laughable at the offers you get. I had a nice 83-CC MS64PL, average offers have been around $180-220 and it's buy it now was $319. This morning I removed the Best Offer option and put it just as Buy It Now at $305 and it sold within an hour.

Do other ebay sellers find the Best Offer option is just a waste of time?

 

Yes especially on nicer items. There's a decent number of people who just spam various ones sending super low offers hoping that some will be accepted. Then you get others that complain if you don't come down enough "It was listed at 400 and he only came down to 350, sellers should come down at least 20% bla bla bla".

Much easier and less hassle to just list things for the price you want Not having to deal with you face to face makes it easier for people to be extra aggressive/demanding and rude during the process.