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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;clembo, post: 551439, member: 8033&quot;]Sorry Elaine but you couldn&#039;t be further from the truth on this one.</p><p>Dealers aren&#039;t going to be closing down because of the internet and &quot;mature&quot; collectors. In fact, the internet has helped many of the &quot;stone age&quot; dealers.</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;mature&quot; collectors know that a good dealer is a great asset to them. A good dealer can find the right buyer for that person&#039;s coin in many cases much better than ebay can. Dealers know dealers and dealers know people.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dealers have also had &quot;dealer to dealer&quot; networks since BEFORE ebay came into being. Believe me they are still very active on these networks.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ebay itself? Many dealers sell and maintain stores there as well as their own web sites. You also have to realize that no matter how huge the internet is there are still millions of coins sitting in homes owned by those that are totally clueless about them.</p><p>They are not going to do a ton of research. They&#039;ll look for a local coin shop. It is not uncommon for people to drive 50 miles one way to sell coins to us. To them research is calling more than one shop.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sure some dealers will go under but that&#039;s really nothing new. The established dealers are doing just fine believe me. Experience, knowledge and business sense goes a long way in numismatics.</p><p><br /></p><p>One also has to think where a lot of the &quot;internet&quot; dealers get their coins. Gonna tell you that dealers supply a lot of those folks as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>Perfect example happened today at work.</p><p>My boss is looking for a few Proof Shield Nickels (can&#039;t get those from the mint). He knows a dealer about an hour from here that specializes in older proofs. He has a few and a price is given. Boss calls potential customer and this guy is looking for a &quot;gift&quot; price. Waste of time for both dealers in the long run. Basically, find it yourself pal.</p><p>So since the boss is talking with the other dealer he asks if he has anything else he might want to move or need.</p><p>Turns out he has a ton of proof and mint sets from the late 50&#039;s-90&#039;s. Many are in packs of five as they were sent to the original owner from the mint. He packs them up and brings them to us in his car.</p><p>I sorted these sets for well over an hour. He also had a killer set of Franklin Half proofs and a bunch of common Mercury dimes. We have ready buyers for all of this stuff.</p><p>The boss paid him over $11,000 when it was over. So the other dealer moved it fast and made some money. We&#039;ll move it and make some money.</p><p><br /></p><p>Where will it go? One customer buys Mercury dimes in bulk. Another buys the proof and mint sets. Know why he buys those sets? He has a web site and ebay store and we&#039;re his main supplier.</p><p><br /></p><p>So much for the &quot;no middleman&quot; theory. THREE parties will profit from this scenario.</p><p><br /></p><p>The point is there are many smart dealers out there that utilize all connections and the internet. My boss has run a shop for 42 years now. He&#039;s computer illiterate but certainly no fool. He has two computer literate people working for him.</p><p>We sell on ebay and have our own website which does quite well actually.</p><p><br /></p><p>A great deal of rare coins that &quot;come out of the woodwork&quot; end up in dealer&#039;s hands and always will. The mint and internet will never replace that.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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