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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;geekpryde, post: 1939476, member: 36248&quot;]Hello fellow CoinTalkers,</p><p><br /></p><p>I am working on a master list of <b>Online Coin Dealers</b> for my personal use, and thought I would ask if other members would find it helpful if I posted it here.&nbsp;&nbsp; It is not currently finished, but wanted to updated you all on my progress and take any feedback you might have.&nbsp;&nbsp; I normally check around 50 websites weekly looking for my own purchases, but I know this is a just a small sampling of all possible hunting grounds.</p><p><br /></p><p>I started with around 600 coin dealer websites that I culled from the following sources:</p><ul> <li>ANA</li> <li>CAC</li> <li>PCGS</li> <li>NGC</li> <li>Google</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center"><b>I&#039;m personally checking every site by hand and <u>removing</u> sites that are:</b></p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>Dead Links (domain no longer active)</li> <li>Have no Inventory listed online</li> <li>Have no pictures of online inventory</li> <li>Have out-of-date inventory or site not being actively updated</li> <li>Are strictly ancient / world coins (sorry guys, that list will be in future)</li> <li>Are strictly currency (sorry guys)</li> <li>Are strictly bullion sites</li> <li>Are strictly precious metal IRA / 401(k) sites</li> <li>Are scammy looking</li> <li>Are illegible or hard to navigate or generally suck</li> <li>Are just shell sites that forward to or list items in eBay store</li> <li>Are infected with malware / viruses</li> </ul><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><b>Good Qualities that get a site <u>included</u> on my list:</b></p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>Have Online Inventory</li> <li>Have good quality photos of all Online Inventory</li> <li>Have Prices listed online</li> <li>Actively updated</li> <li>Have basic contact info, email, phone, address, etc.</li> </ul><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><b>Stats</b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b><br /></b></p><p>Around 10% of my original list have dead domains, or sites that are active but have a message that states &quot;Gone Out of Business&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most all of these dead sites were found in the ANA directly, which is clearly extremely out-of-date.</p><p><br /></p><p>Around 50% of original list are only &quot;business card&quot; type sites, listing only contact info and basic services offered, no online inventory, or inventory but no pictures, or simply forwarders to eBay.</p><p><br /></p><p>One site I visited had an active exploit (infection) running which the dealer may or may not be aware of.&nbsp; My hardware firewall AND my endpoint antivirus freaked out the second I clicked the link and quarantined my machine from the LAN so nothing could get outside my machine.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another 10% or so are legitimate sites, but cater to World Coins /&nbsp; Ancient Coins / Bullion / Coins as investments / Numismatic Books / etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, at my current rate I am <b>keeping around 30% of my original list of ~600.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center"><b>Initial Observations</b></p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>ANA dealer list is horribly out-of-date <i>(this is embarrassing, as this is a primary function of the ANA IMHO)</i></li> <li>CAC dealer list is fairly accurate and useful</li> <li>Google is good resource if you are looking for specific types of dealers</li> <li>MANY dealers do not bother listing coins online</li> <li>There are a lot more sites pushing rare coin &quot;investing&quot; / gold IRA / gold 401(k) than I was expecting.</li> <li>Many sites lack basic navigation functions, such as built-in search!</li> <li>more to come...</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center"><b>How Far Have I Come?</b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b><br /></b></p><p>I started with my personal list of ~50 dealers which I have used for the last few years and check constantly.&nbsp; &nbsp; These make the core of my un-finished master list.&nbsp;&nbsp; I am going through the new dealers alphabetically A...Z and so far have finished through &quot;E&quot;, and have added around 30 new dealers.&nbsp;&nbsp; Some of these new finds are great, some are just so-so.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><b>Next Steps</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Continue to purge dealers F...Z and cherry pick good dealers for my Master List.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once I have cooked it down to around 180-200 dealers, I will publish here on CT for your review.&nbsp;&nbsp; As I am sure I missed removing some bad apples or including some good ones, I will take input from you all.&nbsp;&nbsp; For instance, one site I found seems nice, but the search function is completely broken, as is the filtering function.&nbsp;&nbsp; So there will be round 2 of the purge.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Please comment</b> as you see fit, I will keep you all posted on my progress.&nbsp; I plan on being finished within the next 15 days (so around July 4th, 2014).</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for looking,</p><p><br /></p><p>Matt</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><b><font size="5">***** Drum Roll Please *****</font></b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b><font size="5"><br /></font></b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b><font size="6">geekpryde&#039;s</font></b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b><font size="6"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)">Master Online US Coin Dealer List</span></font></b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b><font size="6"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)"><br /></span></font></b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)"><font size="6"><b>A-L <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/online-coin-dealer-website-list-ideas-wanted.248071/page-3#post-1940705" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/online-coin-dealer-website-list-ideas-wanted.248071/page-3#post-1940705">CLICK HERE</a></b></font></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)"><font size="6"><b>M-Z <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/online-coin-dealer-website-list-ideas-wanted.248071/page-3#post-1940706" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/online-coin-dealer-website-list-ideas-wanted.248071/page-3#post-1940706">CLICK HERE</a></b></font></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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