"But you have to understand something about the pawn business. The majority of their customers are not coming into the shop specifically looking to buy coins." True, and this may be part of the reason why pawn shops are a horrible place to buy coins. A pawn shop can make of itself what it wants. The ones who want to build a reputation for having good, fair coins, will get more customers. The ones that want to price their coins like their a typical pawn shop, won't. And then they will hold onto their coins forever. And then they start to worry about profit margins. If they are going to operate that way, they shouldn't bother with coins in the first place.
I never said they were a good place to buy coins. I agree they are not the best place to shop for coins, or even takes coins in to sell. Biggest reason why, they are not very knowledgeable about coins. The only thing they know of coins is searching completed sales online to see what coins are selling for. They only thing they're really looking at is silver, buying below melt, and selling over melt. Like any B&M does. There is a B&M a few miles from me that buys as much as $4 under melt, and sells for $3.50 over melt. Just down the street from there is a pawn shop that buys at $3.50 under melt and sells for $5 over melt.
BU it sounds like you are giving a whole bunch of generalizations. I happen to work in a pawnshop. The Southern Maryland area is a nice area and we happen to be the only shop. We have a lot of coins that walk into the shop. Furthermore we do not rip people off or sell at outrageous prices. 90% of what comes in the door ends up on ebay if it is of any quality. Currently we have 30+ ASE's, 30+ Franklins, a large variety of Morgans, and a couple very nice gold pieces (5dollar and 50 dollar gold piece). Maybe you worked in a crummy run down shop. ~Jason
Jason, I never said pawn shops rip people off. What I did say was pawn shops are not the best for buying/selling coins from a customer's stand point. You should actually read all that I have stated about pawn shops and you will realize I have defended their reputations. NFN, the volume of numismatic business a pawn shop does would depend a lot on the size of the shop, IMO. The shops I worked in were not run down, or crummy. They were very reputable, and never did shady business like some, small percentage mind you, shops do. I've visited numerous pawn shops that have large inventories of coins, and some, you actually have to ask the staff if they have any because their inventory is that small. I've also done business with the Goldman's in Detroit, they don't do coins. Les' reason is there isn't much money to made from them. To each his own. In so far as speaking in generalizations, I'm speaking from my experiences, and in no way do I claim my experiences to be what every pawn shop does, business wise. Some are the same, and some are not.
Meh any time I am paying significantly less then spot for silver I am doing good, that was my goal. I did not go to the swap meet to find the holy grail MS70 DDO 1794 dollar and make 50 million in a day. I go to the swap meet to find silver. And if I can pay 20 dollars for coins that have a $26 melt value, for my purposes I am doing good.
Just to throw my two cents in, I found two cents lying on the street today outside the pawn shop. Of course, inside the pawn shop I found a 1961 Australia Shilling (.0894 asw) and a 1926 Great Britain Sixpence (.0455 asw) for $.50/each...that's $4.28 in silver for a dollar. I know it's not a world-beater - but if you can't smile over a minor "win" like this...I think you need to be in a different hobby, perhaps... ...not to mention I get to keep the two cents.
I must be lucky, because a local pawn shop is run by a coin collector, and he is a family friend, so I never get a bad deal. Got my first coins from his shop. He has taught me a good bit. Must be my luck
From an antique shop, I did pick up a peace dollar for $14.00 , and a couple morgans for $17 and $20 a piece. Also a a franklin half for $7 and 2 silver ikes for 10 a piece. They were all genuine also. I just happened to be their when a guy came in to rent a case to sell some stuff and was the first one to look at items. I do otherwise agree that antique shops are overpriced. I just like to look around every once in a while. Just got lucky on that one. I don't think the guy knew very much about coin prices.
