I've been collecting for less than 15 years, rethought my goals a few times and learn more (hopefully) every day. I visit a local shop, like the owners a lot and have brought them a little business over the years so they seem to like me also. They also seem to have the best prices for buying bullion, coins not so much. On the vast majority of visits I see sellers with little knowledge of coins disposing of what they hope is a fortune but is really just common dates in circulated condition but rarely see anyone buying coins. They know I do high end toners and they call me when they get a coin or mint set that I might like but there are just sellers, not buyers when I go. What do shops that take in collections of lower end stuff do with it? I doubt they bother with Ebay so do they wholesale it out to other dealers and, if so, what do they do with it. I'm sure they have some favorite buyers for speciality coins and I have put in a request twice for high end slabs that they filled in short order but they seem to take in much more than what goes out across the counter. Just curious.
A shop wouldn't bother with lower end stuff unless they could move it quickly. If they buy a collection, they are buying the coins that can and will sell. No point in keeping tons of common stuff around. Space cost money. Unsold inventory is cash that is tied up and can't be used for purchasing until it's converted. So, dealers would just avoid it. Some common coins just get tossed into bins for sale at shows or given away as change.
Most dealers sell probably 80% or more of all the coins they buy to another dealer. And yes, that especially includes the common, every day stuff.
Some stores do sell on ebay, of the few stores I visit all of them do. And some sell wholesale too, if you look through coin magazines you will see a lot of stores selling rolls of coins for a bit over wholesale prices to the public.
