Coin Shops: What would you do?

Hypothetical question:

You own/run a coin shop. You have a customer who walks in the door and asks to look through some proof or mint sets to buy...and you have hundreds and hundreds of them, so many that they are literally piled up in boxes and stacked up on shelves within plain view of the customer. What would your response be? What should your response be?

 

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First I'd ask 'what date?'.

 

what dates are you looking for ? give a discount if he buys many of them.

 

The reason I ask this question is that this happened to me today at a Chicago, IL area coin shop. I walked in, politely waited for the part owner to finish with the customer he was dealing with, then said I was interested in buying some proof sets or mint sets, and does he have any I can look at, preferably starting in the 50's and 60's? His response:

"Not really."

When he said this, there were at least 3 boxes on the floor behind the counter overflowing with proof sets, SMS sets, and mint sets. There were about 100 sets in his counter displays alone...and I could see them all over the place. So I thought he was being sarcastic...until he basically refused to show any of them to me. I finally got to look through about 20 sets, of which I only bought 3 because his prices were a bit higher than retail. I was fully prepared to buy a large quantity of them if I found coins I liked for one reason or another...so I'm just wondering what would make a coin shop refuse to even let someone look at inventory that's in plain sight of the customer requesting that exact inventory to buy?

 

This what I did at my shop before I retired @closed. I did have access to a very large bulk and bullion gold thru platinum
I would hit the grey sheet and talk to person see and show him/her prices ect. See what kinda deal we could do . Honest and helpful is one thing We tend to be a forgot exchange
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For the life of me I can't figure out why the store clerk would give ya such a hard time about looking through the sets, except maybe he was afraid you might bugger up the packaging? I was at a local show awhile back and there was this one dealer who had a ton of proof sets in a box on his table. When I started to look through them and began opening up a few sets he came over and asked me not to do that......he said he'd open them for me. This was a total turnoff for me and I exited his table. I will add that I'm very respectful when opening the packaging at a dealers table and treat the stock as if it were mine. His loss.........

 

It surprised me as well - because I am ALWAYS respectful and courteous, no exceptions. I can totally understand that fear for a double mint set - where the paper is usually stuck on one side of the cardboard, and you can't see one side of half the coins...or for an older, still in OGP proof set that might have brittle cellophane...but I just don't understand how they expect to sell them. Probably to people who don't know what they're doing...

"I'd like to buy a 1950 proof set."
"I have one right here, but you can't look at it before you buy it."
"Perfect! I'll take it!"

But the guy clearly did not want to show me coins. He helped 4 other customers while I was there...and was terribly friendly with them as they asked questions like "What is a mint mark?"

Oh well. My search continues to find a coin shop with stuff for me to buy...

 

A bit off-topic: There WAS a 1987 D Jefferson that was almost perfect except for two large and poorly placed hits...but the strike was perfect, the luster was full...the kind of coin that stands out in an album of BU coins. Such a shame...

 

At my store I wouldn't do that ever. That is just disrespectful to the customer. Granted I don't have a physical store BUT on my online store what I do is if a customer asks me about a coin or set and the pictures don't satisfy him/her I will offer to video chat with them through oovoo. I show them the coin/set and if they like it they buy if not they look at something else.

Bottom ine is I do whatever I can to satisfy my customers I would never be disrespectful like that guy at the store you described.

Note: maybe he wanted to keep all the sets from himself? or he was just too lazy to help you.

 

1950 Proof set could be the reason as its a very low mintage and pricey proof set. If cameo prices go up .
Sometimes it could be shops only set. But that should have not affected treatment .

 

Sorry Angelo, that did not actually happen - I was merely making up an example of what the perfect transaction might be like. When I went in, I asked for 50's and 60's proof and mint sets...SMS sets...which they clearly had plenty of.

 

It could have been a myriad of things why the shop person acted that way. Perhaps they had just recently acquired the sets in the boxes on the floor and hadn't yet been able to go through them all yet. If that was the case I don't think anyone would want someone else going through and getting to cherry pick from coins/sets that weren't yet looked over thoroughly. On that note some places also just don't like having someone go through potentially hundreds of sets and just cherry picking a couple all whilst the shop person has to take out, keep an eye on and then put back afterwards.

 

If you were shopping, would you just want a random set or would you try to take a look at it to get an attractive set?

At the least I would expect the shop to let a customer look at the coins in the display case...

 

Some stores are like that. I have some that are really strange, but I look around and sometimes find some real great bargains in some of those kinds of stores. I know what you mean though. Some of these stores you practically have to convince them to part with their coins.

 

I'm not sure why the shop did that to you. At one shop, I have asked to look at something and I was invited to the back room. But that's because they know and trust me as I have been a loyal customer for about 3 years now.

 

I would tell them eaxctly what you are looking for and how much you want to spend.

 

I had to plead with an owner to see his 2008 Uncirculated Mint Set.

My hypothesis as to why he wasn't willing to look through the stuff on his shelf? He's used to people entering the store to sell coins and used to people ordering coins via email.

He was friendly enough, just not used to the type of business I am used to.

 

GDJMSP -

Actually, I did, repeatedly. I received various replies, like:

"Not really."

"I don't like to."

"I just don't like to let people look through them."

"I'm not even usually working on Saturdays."

"Not really."

You know those situations where someone is stonewalling you, refusing to answer questions, and generally ignoring you? That's what this gentleman was doing...no explanation, no desire to even provide a modicum of an attempt to show me coins to buy...and I was curious if other coin dealers would act like this for a specific reason, so I can maybe justify what happened in some way that makes me go, "Oh, I understand...he had a reasonable justification for his actions." Since I don't own a coin shop, I might not realize certain reasons why someone would act like this...so just trying to be better informed if it happens again. That's all...

Eventually, I just gave up, because I felt like there was not going to be a polite way to get a truthful or helpful answer from this person...and I prefer to remain civil and respectful. I realize not all customers do this, and maybe I catch slack for other people's actions...but this just kind of stunned me. And disappointed me - because I was ready to buy!

 

I know that feeling.