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Message:: [QUOTE="andrew289, post: 515508, member: 6463"]I wouldn't call a coin dealer a "crook". Dealers are, as you pointed out, a necessary evil when it comes to collecting. They are the gate keepers. They hold the knowledge and with great knowledge comes the competitive advantage in business.  One must realize that transacting with a coin dealer is a ritual dance. There is a degree of pomp and circumstance involved. A test of wit and a test of wills. The buyer wants to pay the least he can and the seller wants to get as much as he can for what he is selling. Sometimes the buyer walks away thinking he got a deal and sometimes the seller walks away thinking he sold it for more than expected. Most often the deciding factor is knowledge.  Did a buyer, who knows everything about franklins, walk into a store and cherry pick a poor dealer's stock because the dealer knows cents but not franklins? Or did the dealer selling mercury dimes get some newbie to buy AU dimes for a BU price? Little buy little, coin by coin the dance is played out all over the country in stores and online. Little battles of wit and will. To the victor goes the spoils.[/QUOTE]