Just want to share this story. It's been many years but there was this dealer in my city that wanted to do what ever he could to build the hobby. He had a shop and a booth at the local flee market. He gave away stuff to all the kids and took the time to teach. Lots of folks were looking for bags of wheat cents to search. Lots of parents wanted these for the kids. The dealer would work up a bag for them for $69. That's about what he was paying for them at the time. He would put $50 of wheat cents in the bag and throw in a hand full of early dates and another hand full of S mint coins. Next he would put in a bunch of cull Indian Head cents. Great stuff for the kids. This dealer built a great business with many loyal customers. He did really well for many years. At some point the guy lost that passion for the hobby and lost it all. Fun story with a sad ending.
Sounds like a good guy, probably just got burnt out. Hopefully he is doing well in a different field, or retired.
Its a tough business actually, maybe his revenue was not that great so he had to quit it before he burnt too much money.
I have a dealer friend who finally had to close his shop, just no walk-in business to justify costs of staying open. Now he does lots of shows and a little internet.
