Coin show etiquette: Price guides

Is it acceptable to bring a big Krause catalog to a coin show and look up the coins you are looking at? To me that feels like a no-no, but I saw a few people doing that at a show I was at today.

 

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Do you try to find out everything you can about a car you might want to buy or do you just trust the car dealer?

 

Go ahead and open your Krause up on his display case, and if you have enough room, open your laptop, too! The dealer won't mind. He just paid the rent for the space so he could have something to do on the weekend.

Chris

 

They don't care if you use price guides - they do it too! I just don't use it to haggle, that's rude. If you don't like their price after checking, then politely tell them "no thanks".

 

Now, that you have to watch. Dealers HATE when you block their cases from other potential customers.

 

And don't forget to also throw your US mint handbag on the dealer's display case too. He'll then know who he's dealing with.

 

Or he might get a good laugh and give you a better deal

 

I do need to get one of these bags to bring to my next coin show. I'll be the hit of the show!

 

My feeling is that its a bit presumptuous since if you don't know the market value of what your looking at then perhaps you shouldn't be shopping??

As a buyer, it kinda pisses me off when other buyers spread their "office" all over the dealers table and I;m sure the dealer might feel the same way. But, what can you do once a customer shows some interest in a coin?

As a side note (and after thought):

Doesn't somebody have a APP for that??

 

Why, yes, at least if you have an Apple device:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/guide-book-united-states-coins/id661935947?mt=11

 

If you don't block what dealers are doing in terms of spreading things around or simply hanging out in the aisle in front of a case then it is fine.

 

This is kind of the way I was thinking about it too.

 

I'd say Krause is fairly useless as a price guide. I think you'd be better served bringing a smartphone and checking numista for mintage details and eBay completed listings for values.

 

Better yet! Get yourself a canvas bag similar to one of these and make your own tote bag.........

 

The Redbook is available on Amazon for kindle. There is a thread of mine on site about the program on a kindle fire.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Official-Red-Book-United/dp/0794836798

 

Generally when I go to a coin show I have an agenda. Specific coins I am looking for. One of the things I do is use the snipping tool to copy the section or sections from my digital copy of Krause, save as jpeg and copy to a dropbox folder. Keep this on your smart phone.When I come across the coins I want to look at, I simply open the folder and look at the information I pre-stored. Another useful tip which has saved me a lot of money and heartache if you are looking for a particular coin in a specific minimum grade. Say for example, you want to find a Indian head cent in XF. Go to PCGS Photograde online. Find the section on Indian Head cents and the photo of one in XF. Copy the photo and put in you folder. Then when you see a coin that matches your need open up the photo and compare it to the coin in hand. Saves you from trying to remember what an XF looks like and hoping your grading skills are up to speed. I can't count how many times I picked up a coin marked XF on the 2X2, checked the photo and found it was not even close. I also have an app called U.S. Coin Identifier. I can enter any US coin and get specs and values by grade. Another useful app is NGC Coin Details. You are going to have your phone with you anyway, it takes up little space on the counter and is extremely handy if you prepare it before hand. Another tip, keep a copy of you coin have and need list to remind you if you already have or need a coin. Let you phone store all the information and keep your head clear. It pays to be organized.

 

These US Mint bag jokes will go on for years... and they will still be funny

 

I'm someone who doesn't spend much on coins and what I like to do is look through value bins where everything is 50 cents or thereabouts (I collect world coins). So when I'm at a show there are only a few dealers who offer this because it's mostly high-end stuff, and it was really annoying me that the few dealers who offered these value bins had people clustered around them looking every coin up in their price guides. There was a guy who was using a phone, but it's the same idea. I guess I look at it like you educate yourself before you go and then you put that knowledge to work. I'm not saying it's not smart to have a price guide, but that's not how I play the game.

 

At our local shows most of the dealers have the price guides and are happy to share them if I want to look something up.

That said, I usually go to a show with a hit list (complete with target prices) in hand, so looking up prices isn't necessary. But sometimes I stumble across something I wasn't planning to shop for.

 

Thanks for that link! I've just been using CoinBook Pro...didn't know RedBook was an option!