At a local flea market there is a guy that shows up usually only on Fridays. He basically sells coins. Some other items but biggest commodity is coins. He is sort of a weirdo since although he sells coins he bsically throws all US coins in one big bin and foreign coins in anther one. He has a habit of just leaving to go to the washroom and usually just asks anyone to watch his stuff. Myself and several others told him that at such times and even while he is there many coins are vanishing in people's pockets. So a week or so ago he started to listen and started to TAPE all coins onto sheets or places them in old beat up Whitman folders and then again tapes them in. He also wets the backs of the slots so the coins stick to the glue there. I attempted to tell him he is ruining the coins. This week even worse. Now almost all coins taped to something with Scotch clear tape. Again, I attmpted ot tell him the coins are being ruined but he said just use Naptha and it will all come off. These are Mercury Dimes, Liberty Head Dimes, Seated Liberty Dimes, Quarters and lots more. I just walk away.
Maybe he has to visit la commode a lot because of a drinking problem, which would also explain his erratic and inexplicable behaviours.
Carl, Offer to purchase all of his' coins at a mutually agreed upon price, so that you can save the coins from the destruction he is causing to them! Who knows, he might take the offer and you might be able to pick up some decent coins fairly cheap. Frank
hamman, You shouldn't underestimate the selling potential of Flea Markets! If you can purchase coins cheap and sell them fairly cheap and have a large customer base (large Flea Market that gets a lot of customer traffic), then a person can do fairly well. The bad thing about Flea Markets is that when the ecomnomy is bad and gas prices high, Flea Market customers don't purchase much and they purchase less coins! I used to sell at a couple of local Flea Markets and I have had days when I had sales of $500 to $800 and other days when I hardly had sales above $20. I have a Coin Dealer friend (Ed) that has a fairly large space inside a local Inside/Outside Flea Market that has almost tripled his inventory and sells every year for the past two to three years. Before that, he was still able to maintain a decent inventory and amout of sales long enough that it finally paid off and the result was that he was able to increase both his inventory and sales. His sales were so good, that he was able to get rid (out sell) of two other fairly large inventory Coin Dealers that had spaces inside as well as get rid of the smaller (outside but under cover) Coin Dealers like myself and my friend Tom. No matter how cheap my coins were priced, people would still go to Ed to buy coins (many of which were the same Dates, Mint Marks, Series and Grades) at higher prices, apparently because he had much, much more to choose from. Frank
I stand corrected Frank. I was thinking of my local flea market (about 100 overpriced cleaned coins). South of me is the Daytona Flea market, it us very large and has an inside part. They have 1 or 2 very nice coin dealers that have good prices.
Oddly enough he at one time was my greatest source of Mercury Dimes. He USED to sell them for $1 each. And even then the more you purchased, the lower the prices. I USED to buy from 20 to 50 at a time from him. I've gotten 42D/41, 26S, 31D and once even a 21 and for about $0.90 each. He USED to have really nice grades of coins. Once I got a 38D Merc in about MS60 from him. Now for some reason the vast amount of his coins are barely G-4. Every time I see him it appears to be more tape on the coins. First time just one strip accross each row in the folders. Now accross in both directions. The problem is he still sells many coins regardless of that. As huntsman53 explained flea markets get many, many people wondering around all day. This particular one is just outside Chicago so heavily populated and there are virtually thousands of people there 3 days in a row. Although this guy is usually there only on Fridays, he still sells a lot of coins. He has been there on Saturdays too lately due to a drop in his sales. GEEEE. I wonder why.
Carl, you could just work out a deal whereby you meet up with him BEFORE the weekend or when he has a new stash and just pay him a little somethin' somethin' extra for his troubles on top before he starts glueing coins down to a 2x4 with a hot glue gun. Consider it a "preview tariff".
Good suggestion. I think think this Friday I'll get there about 6AM and if he has anything not taped I'll make him one bulk suggested price. I'd rather give away excess coins to some kid than see him continue this abuse.
