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Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 1588679, member: 112"]A couple of things that have not yet been mentioned. When I was a kid stores like JC Penney, Sears, Woolworth's, as well as many other department stores, sold collectible coins. You could walk in, go to the counter and examine the coins you were interested in buying. Now you weren't going to find any great rarities, but you would find the bread & butter coins that most collectors sought. And they would often even have a minor selection of common world coins. This was like having a coin shop on just about every corner. Another method is one that is still in use today - coin catalogs from auction houses. They have been around for at least 150 years. Here you could find almost anything you wanted, from common coins to great rarities. You were sent the catalog in the mail and could look through it and choose the coins you wanted to bid on. Then you sent your bid in by mail, and on the day of the auction those bids were opened and the mail-in bidders competed against the live bidders on the auction floor just like the internet bidders compete against them today. All of the methods that used to exist in years gone by, they still exist today. But the internet has added a new, faster, easier, method to them.[/QUOTE]