Buying from a pawn shop does not have to be a bad experiance. Most pawn shops are not as knowledgeable as we are in coins so I'm thinking if you bought along a book, struck up a friendly conversation and got to know the dealer, he/she might be willing to wheel and deal if you could show them the real value of what they have? If they have been polished, cleaned or overpriced would it not be worth your time to at least make an effort?
i've come across a few ok deals in pawn shops...but unfortunately after i learned a little more they turned out to be not so good deals...:S just study up real hard before you buy anything.
A local pawn shop I visit often sometimes gets nice ASE's in. I don't much care for the coins themselves, but for spot, I usually buy them all when he has them. $12 for an ASE isn't bad, not to mention they are mostly still in their original packaging. Times are bad and people are selling everything. Guy~
One good deal: In junk silver a SLQ: 1921. Of course it only had the last digit, but that was enough for me!
At my local pawnshop here In East Hartford,CT I was able to get 2 -1944 liberty walking half dollars in ms 60-ms 65 for 2.00 each and 2- 1942 P war nickels in ms 65 for 50 cents each,plus about 15 mercury dimes 1926-1942 in about ef-40 -ms 60 for 1.00 each, also a few washington quarters 1940- 1964 for 1.50 each.Told my wife that good deal as on sale as she doesnot know about coins so when I said sale was able to get LOL. Plus all coins havenot been clean.Was able to fill a few holes in album's.
Pawn shops in my area either do not deal with coins or if they do they are just as knowledgeable as most collectors or dealers. One pawn shop I stopped at even had a grey sheet handly if you asked about a coin. Another one said they don't take coins, cameras, guns, knives, stamps and on and on. I suspect I looked like a cop or something. So far I've haven't found a deal at a pawn shop in many years now. Used to but those days are fading away. One pawn shop's owner and helper take massive amounts of items to a local flea market on weekends. Never any coins though.
you will never get ripped off if you know what your doing and know what to look for. know what you want and what you dont want. and hit the books.
I used to get some good stuff from several pawn shops, but as of late, it's horrendous. One pawnshop had two Hawaii Silver coins (Quarter and Half) in ANACS slabs with the "Cleaned" designation. EF-XX for the Quarter, and AU-XX for the Half. And it looked like they were polished to shininess. Inquired, and when I turned over the slabs after being handed them, I was shocked. $500 and $900 respectively for the coins. Cleaned coins. At best, i'd offer maybe $100 for the Quarter and $200 for the Half due to it's "Cleaned" condition. The guy asked how much was I willing to spend, but for my safety, I wasn't gonan blurt out how much cash I had on my person. I just left in disgust.
My brother gets great deals on low $ coins. And he doesn't even collect! He gets whatever cheap ones he can and they turn out to be worth alot more.
I get no where here in Toronto getting cheap coins from pawnshops. One guy had a friggin Charlton Catelogue there he was using when I asked how much