What was the worst time you have had in a coin shop

My story is going to be a little different than most of the others I've read here...

I've been collecting coins for most of my life. Once I graduated college and started my first real job (teaching in the inner city OKC) I was able to start investing in a little bit better grade of coin than I had been to that point.

Fortunately, I had a wonderful teacher as a local dealer was very patient with me and helped explain what I should be looking for and what series would be a good fit for me to look at. He basically became my little gray haired mentor.

I continued to frequent this shop for the next 5 years until I moved to Texas. Once in Texas I found a couple of great shops but I always had fond memories of that shop in OKC.

In August of this year I made a trip back to the city and was SO excited about having the time to stop back by the old shop, browse the inventory, and talk with my old friend.

Unfortunately, in the intervening 10 years the owner has developed Alzheimer's and no longer recognizes any of his customers. He has a son in law that helps him with the shop and customers. He still has a encyclopedic knowledge of coins and is able to help his son in law with identification and grading, but he's a shell of the man he once was.

So my worst experience in a coin shop was that visit last August.

 

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I used to frequent a shop in MD quite often when I was stationed there and always got pretty good deals, but I noticed the more I came in, the more pricey the items seemed to get. Finally the last straw came one day when I asked about a barber dime that should have been a F for about $4 but the guy behind the counter told me it was XF and it was $20. I'm sorry but I've been collecting barbers for years and can tell a F from an XF quite easily. So I passed on the coin, from then on everything I looked at was severly overgraded or cleaned and I had no coin shop to go to anymore.

 

Stacks last week when Arthur Blumenthal yelled at me after at the counter while I was accessing Peace Dollars. A man next to me asked me an opionion on a slabbed gold coin and I said to him that I'm not an expert on Gold and its very tricky to grade gold...and then Blumenthal walked accross the floor yelling at me..."No No No -- that's not allow! Stop that now. If you have a grading question to ask me!"

Ruben

 

Once or twice a year I make a trip home to Virginia to visit my mother. There is a coin shop in Virginia Beach that I visit every time I'm there. Their selection isn't the best and owner is kind of a gruff, short spoken guy, but their location is convenient.

The first time I went in there the guy gave my the once over from head to toe. I picked out a few items and went to pay for them. I handed him a credit card and he kind of snorted. Then he asked to see my ID. I gave him my license and he immediately changed his tune. Turned out he had a fascination with Wyoming, so we stood there and chewed the fat for about 20 minutes. I've been back to see him every year since, and he always knocks 20% or so off of anything I buy.

Last Christmas I went in and a 15 year old kid I'd never seen before was working the counter. He had a huge chip on his shoulder too, a real know it all. Anyway, I picked out a common date $5 Liberty gold piece and asked to see it. He handed it to me in a 2x2. The price was on it and I thought it was a little high. I asked if it was the best he could do and he said, "Well, the price that's on it is the price you'll pay if you want it bad enough." Funny guy. I said, "Nah, not today I won't. Guess you can keep it." I truned around and walked out. Not truly a bad experience really, just kind of awkward. It left me shaking my head.

 

You know, as a computer programmer, I'm really glad that I don't have to try to make a living ripping off people, especially kids. I'm happy to collect coins as a hobby.

-StephenS

PS - By the way, I totally agree that you did the right thing by filling in the kid on what he had.

 

You're exactly correct. It should not be that hard for any collector to at least catalog the so called "special coins" for whoever will be getting the collection. I started early and have everything cataloged and enter stuff as I go now. So it's very easy for me. In this day and age, to just tell a kid that a coin is special and leave it at that is quite foolish. The kid probably deserved to get ripped off, like everybody else.

That being said, key words being, "like everybody else." You shouldn't feel a bit bad for giving the kid a quick education. But you should have kept a little more quiet and discreet. That way you could have avoided the whole mess. This is a good lesson. That coin shop is probably ripping off several people every day. So one got away. So what? I'd feel good about it. It's not like they're there to do you any favors.

Plus, maybe the kid will eventually become a collector. I collected baseball cards too for a while.

 

Carl Bachmann was the name of the owner of Tri Willow Coin Shop. He was my father. Today we learned that William Hanna, the mastermind behind the murders has died on 7/19/2011 in a hospital prison located in Rome.

 

^Good riddance. Sorry for your loss and thanks for stopping by and bumping this thread, I enjoyed reading it.

 

IMO unless you have ever had a small shop of any kind? Overhead for rent, taxes, insurance, and utilities can run from $3,000.00 to $6,000.00 a month. You still have to replace inventory. This is a very hard business in today economy. These shops need a good buy every once in awhile just to survive. I learned a expensive lesson after opening a bait and tackle store how hard it is to run a small business and be successful.
But at the same time I agree it is hard not to help someone that will be taken advantage of because of lack of knowledge.
Thanks Big Ed

 

My guess is, that employee can't read the inscriptions, so he thinks such coins must be "junk".

 

Nice old thread! Maybe the problem with the 1893-s was the TPG advice. Once it's slabbed, he could sell it himself on eBay.

 

haha. guys this thread is the story of my life. i live outside of baltimore, and when i got into collecting i never knew of any coin shops in my area. after about 3 hours of research i narrowed it down to three shops that were within a decent distance and seemed reliable. i go to the first one about two days later,(the furthest one) and he tells me that everything he has is packed up for the whitman sho and is down at the convention center. the show was free so me and my dad walked down and i picked up a few things. then we went back to the shop so i could ask a few questions and they say "oh we dont do normal coin business. if u have a specific coin u want you can call or come in to see if we have it and we will get it out for you. (what?!?!?!) then i see a little mat overflowing with mercs and walkers and franklins and roosies and ask if i can look through them and buy a couple. then the owners and two of the customers begin to laugh at me because the coins belonged to the person behind me and she was selling them to the store. i gave the owners a dirty look, walked out, and slammed the door.

coin shop number two was a edited disaster. it was located about 20 minutes from my house. one day my sister says she will take me. i had called the previous day to ask what time they close and he said they close at 5. we get to the shop around 12 and hes closed with a sign that says open 3-5. now i know coins arent the best business and he doesnt need to be open 24/7 but 2 hours a day 5 days a week?!?! there was an antique shop next door so i walked in. he had a few coins but nothing took to my fancy.i asked the antique shop owner about the coin shop and he said that the coin shop rarely opens and the guy sometimes doesnt come in for days at a time. i called the coin shop later that night and the owner said they would be open from 3-5 the next day. my mom said she had no problem taking me. we got there at 3:15 and they were closed...i called the shop because it is the owners cell phone number and he said that he was running late and would be there soon. half an hour later he pulled up and let me and 4 other customers who had been waiting in. you would think that the guy couldnt be more of an idiot but then....i had a silver round that i wanted him to look at because i was weary as to if it was real silver or not. i handed it to him, he looks at it under the light for two seconds and says "oh well it says .999 fine so it looks real." i say "well there is a lot of counterfeits of that particular coin, and it sounds nothing like silver." then he says "well if it says .999 its real. a counterfeit wouldnt say .999 on it." are u edited kidding me man. how the **** is a coin dealer, A COIN DEALER, so stupid when it comes to counterfeits......i had a few coins i wanted to sell but them some guy and his wife came in with 25 pcgs boxes of ms70 silver eagles. i laughed looked at the dealer shook my head and left.

now if your still with me,,the third shop. its two exits away from my house so about a week after the second shop experience, my mom drives me over. i walk in and there is not one coin. its all frikin stamps and albums... i show him my silver coin and he believes that it is real so i traded it to him for a columbian half, franklin half, and slq wich he dug out from his desk drawer under tissues and magazines.....wow.....looks like i got to stick to shows and good ole' feebay

 

I went to a coin shop, I walked up to the door it was locked. it said it was open at 9 it was 10 I pulled on the door nothing. I left and as I was leaving I saw an older couple being helped inside by the owner, I guess he didnt want my money.

 

Watching an obvious drug addict selling what I think werestolen Silver Proof Sets. Never went back to that shop.

 

I just noticed this thread and just HAD to post my story.

I recently moved into an area outside of Harrisburg and wanted to see what shops were around this new area. I generally just drive the extra few miles to my normal guy, but wanted to see who else was out there. So...shall we begin??

I notice a little shop in the town of Lemoyne (yes, I'm naming the town and everything to tell people to STAY AWAY) that said buying antiques, coins, silver, gold and noticed some coins and other numismatic objects in the window. So one day I decided to stop in. There was some younger guy in there talking to an old lady as I walked and looked around. He had some fractional currency notes, other paper money I was interested in, as well as stacks of Morgan and Peace dollars locked in the case.

So I'm patiently waiting and happen to hear the conversation he's having with the elderly lady in the shop. She is asking about whether he buys "old silver dollars" and he lets out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, I do. What do you have?" She stated that she was not sure as they belonged to her recently deceased husband. He then rolled his eyes and said "If you don't know what you have, then I can't give you an idea of worth. I can't even start." He started asking about mintmarks, luster, and other details of the coin in numismatic language that someone outside of the collecting realm would have no idea about. When she asked about what a mintmark was and where it wa slocated, he quickly spouted off all of the mint sites that produced the coins and told her "look for those on the coin."

She obviously looked confused so he told her that she needed to bring them in. When she got up and left, he said "glad that idiot is gone." I know for a fact that he saw me and still didn't care.

So I go up to him, ask him about the paper notes he had in the cases, along with the Peace dollars and he just looks at me and said "none of it is for sale." I was flabbergasted. So I said, let me get this straight, you have a shop with coins and other wares, yet you sell nothing here? He then proceeded to tell me that he buys things when people come in and then sells them on ebay. The pompous jerk then starts telling me his conquerer stories of how he rips people off by underbidding or buying CC coins at Philadelphia, Denver, or New Orleans prices and then making boatloads of cash.

I had previously asked about the fractional notes and he told me that he would only sell them as a set for $350, take it or leave it. He told me about ripping off people as we walked towards the case that housed the fractionals. As soon as I heard that, I told him where to go and slammed the door on my way out. I don't think he even cared.

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!

 

My worst stories actually come from my favorite shop growing up. My favorite shop was run half the time by a great old dealer named Ben. He was nationally known, great guy, I got tons of education, and got good deals. Unfortunately, his partner was total jerk, hard to deal with, and a rip off artist. When Ben was there, I could sort through all of the junk silver drawers and pick out all I wanted for junk prices. When his partner was the only one there he would even pick though a pile of war nickels I had picked out and pick out one or two dates he said were "better" even though they were in the same pile. He refused to sell me those at bullion prices.

Even deals I had worked out with Ben his partner would try to renege on. I came to pick up a bust dollar once I had agreed to pay $275 for, and his partner was behind the counter and said no, that is a $500 coin. I will not sell for that price. Thankfully Ben was in the back and came out and sold it to me.

You know its bad when you get into the habit of doing "drive by's" of your favorite coin store to see who is behind the counter, and that will determine whether you even go in that day. To this day in Des Moines, IA, any collector over the age of 40 reminisces how much they miss Ben, and how his partner is a complete SOB. Its kind of like boot camp stories for collectors there!

 

I've actually been to that store (about a year and a half ago) and walked out without buying anything. One of the reasons why I say coin stores are for the owners to buy, not the customers.

My worst situation happened to me at a place in Jersey City, where I was basically rushed out by the dealer who was trying to buy some junk silver from an unsuspecting "customer".

 

Of course. I would bet most B&M cannot survive just selling to local collectors, and I would guess half basically pay the rent by buying low and wholesaling out their purchases.

Its a tough business, and they make a buck however they can. Most of the honest ones I know nowadays either are hobbies for guys who should be retired, or make most of their money from jewlery and bullion sales, and only sell coins because the owner is a long time coni collector. There, with a few exceptions, just not enough coin collectors left to support these stores as only buying and selling coins.

 

I agree, but calling themselves a "coin shop" and not a "we buy gold" store (which I see all the time) is somewhat misrepresenting themselves.