Coin Dealers Love 'em or Hate 'em

Ok, I'm not a dealer but I've found most of them very helpful. I'm in a small town and bad manners results in no business pretty quick. I must say though, the collectors are not always as nice. They seem to show poor form much more frequently.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I'm not allowed in my local coin dealer's shop because I filed a BBB complaint over a very bad poor customer service situation I had where one of the staff at the shop scolded me in front of 3 customers for taking his time and interupting his thought. He blew a gasket on me and it was completely unecessary. So, I filed a complaint over it and was told to never go back. Oh well, I have other coin dealers to go to. Nobody yells at me in front of others(granted you're a store employee) for something that wasn't even a big offense.

 

My local dealer is actually a fairly nice guy. He's been dealing coins in our area since I was a child -- I can remember riding my bike to his store in my youth. He does buy low and sell high, but in his defense he has a retail store to support.

 

I agree with many of the comments on here. There are a few great folks out there that genuinly care about their customers, but they constitute the minority. I'm not saying that every other dealer is out to rip someone off...they just go about their business. Then there are a minority on the other end too - the handfull of bad ones.

There are 6 dealers here in Southeast Michigan that I have visited multiple times, and a few others that I wouldn't bother going to (either not much inventory, more of a pawn shop, just way to far for what they offer, or whatever other reason that immediately turns me off).

There are three areas that I look for in a good coin shop which are value/price, inventory, and service.

I think price/value is self explanatory. Fairness in both buying and selling. I understand its a business and I understand there are not any miracles out there. I'd gladly pay a fair price or receive a fair offer. If they are clearly lowballing when I'm selling or are blatantly ripping me or someone else off when buying, I won't go back.

For inventory I'm looking to see if they have what I'm currently looking for, what I may need in the future, and high quality (ie when I'm looking for wheat pennies for example, I don't need to see a billion from the 50's in VG...and you wouldn't believe one of the dealers around here - the place is always a mess and half his coins, which are usually in mylars with rusted staples, have fingerprints all over them).

For service, are they friendly and knowledgeable? Is it a reasonable wait, do they go the extra mile? I had one dealer take a list of some common BU coins I was looking for to complete a Jefferson set - I came back after a month not expecting anything but he had taken the time to set aside nearly every one of them, and we're talking common BU's worth about a quarter apiece. How do they treat customers in general? Is it convenient?

I figure I can deal with a place that meets at least two of the three categories for most of my needs. Thankfully I think that there are 3 places that do that...anbd come close to meeting all three. It seems that that is a rare fin so I feel lucky having three.

 

Working at a shop naturally I'm going to tend to go along with what Lost Dutchman says. Please don't lump all into one category as there are exceptions.

Before I worked there I had as many as six shops in easy range of my house. Two I visited frequently (one being where I work now of course). The other just a few more miles away. Never felt like I was getting ripped off at either hence my repeat visits.

One I would hit occasionally and never had a problem. One was very small and honestly the owner was a nice guy but not the brightest dealer I've ever met.

The other two saw very little of my money. Never anything remotely close to a deal basically. Not exactly rude but not exactly friendly either.

Now can my boss be rude? Without a doubt and as he gets older it happens faster. I've met a few CT members at the shop and I KNOW a few have walked away with the impression that he's rude.

Do I make excuses for him? Not really I just know how he is but will say this. He's 66 years old, has had a shop for 42 years and his wife had a stroke in February. She's still in rehab and shown VERY slow improvement. He's got a lot on his mind.

He's great at numbers but horrible with names and faces. This is where I can really help him at times. He prefers to work on the "bigger" deals as, after all, that's where he makes money faster. I have no problem with this as he now employs 7 people and we like our checks to be good.

I deal with the smaller stuff, the newbies and the "tire kickers". No problem there as their purchases add up and I have the patience. I'll BS with the customer for half an hour if we're not swamped but if we are I'm polite about it at least. I get a lot of repeat business this way.

As I mentioned he's bad with names and faces. Fortunately I'm not. I pull him aside on occasion and "remind" him that a particular customer tends to spend $1-2K every time he comes in. He appreciates it believe me but unfortunately I'm not ALWAYS there to do this.

Do we hate the interet and does it affect us? Well, we don't hate it as we sell on ebay and have a web site. We use ebay a lot to set prices and also as a usefull tool to determine what we'll pay for something.
If you walk into the store and tell us a certain item is selling for $1500 on ebay we'll look it up and offer you, say, $1300 because we just might pop it up on ebay so after fees we'd make a few bucks. If that doesn't work we suggest you sell it on ebay. Simple actually.

Bottom line is if you walked into the shop would my boss strike you as the most honest patient person you've ever met? I doubt it but you'd probably like me.

If you walk into a shop and it's real slow yet they ignore you or treat you as a nuisance leave is all I can say. If they give you a bit of time and opinions then you may have found a good shop.

Realize that we that work in shops are "coin geeks" as well. One big difference is we rely on it to put food on the table.

My boss gave me a job when I really needed one but was always good to me before I worked there and treats me well now. I'm very loyal to him. I just have to deal with his "moods" a bit more often and hopefully get a customer to come back. I've done pretty good at it so far.

 

OK, here is an interesting situation. I think its Doug (GDJMSP) may have spotted a fake Morgan I just bought (see thread below). Now I may have to go back to the dealer I bought it from and ask for my money back. They may work with me or maybe take another line. I'm about to find out.

I want to still verify it's a fake with the help of this forum. That I am doing on the other thread link in this post.

http://www.cointalk.com/showthread.php?t=78980&goto=newpost

 

I love necro-posting

 

Good job Vic.