Prices on slabs at coin shows

Let me tell you a little story. I was 15 and working for a coin dealer at a show and at the end I asked a dealer the price of a coin. When I asked for a dealer discount he raised the price and laughed. I walked away buying nothing, but had he simply said no politely I would have bought the coin at the stated price right then and there. Just because you are selling coins and not widgets doesn't mean it makes sense in any retail situation to insult or treat a customer rudely.

 

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This has been an interesting read. For fun, go back and re-read the entire thread but substitute "car" for "coin" and see what it's like. Years ago there were no prices posted in a car. And you can bet the sales rep "sized you up" when you came in, and based his projected selling price on the results of that assessment. Today there is so much information available on cars that the consumer is far more educated, and buying a car is less "random" than it used to be.

I'm not a regular at coin shows (I've been to two!) but my experiences were both good. There were prices on coins, but frankly even in my inexperience I knew they were too high. I think it was understood there would be some bargaining involved. I bought some coins, probably paid to much, but I was happy with the coins and that's what matters.

What makes the coin business so dynamic, I think, is how much of the coin market is subject to a personal opinion rather than something that can be measured objectively. For example, suppose that someone developed an app for a smart phone that could measure the reflectivity of a coin. This could then general an objective scale for "shine" or "luster" or whatever you want to call it. Another app could use a chromatic scale that would evaluate toning. For each of these apps they would be able to assign a specific and scientific number to the results, which would then drive the price of the coin up or down from some agreed upon baseline. There wouldn't need to be any room to haggle.

But we don't have that.

 

Tom's web address is listed at the bottom of his post.

 

It's natural that people want different experiences when attending these shows. There are those who are there to buy, not shop, thus they want info prominently displayed so they can make quick decisions and move on. There are others who seem to bring their entire library of coin books and "camp" at a dealers table browsing through his/her endless supply of raw coins in 2x2's. Some don't want to interact with the dealer, some do. Some want to be treated like royalty.

I can relate to many of the comments, on both sides of the discussion. I've had good experiences interacting with the dealer and some not so good. I have not attended any big shows, but just local/regional.

However, if I am treated well (my opinion alone), than I will return to that dealer to conduct more business.

I think the analogy to car buying is apt. Prior to the TPG's, you really needed to be educated prior to purchasing coins. Now you can buy TPG slabbed coins while you learn the series with a much smaller downside.

 

I see the problem, the coin was bought for $440. No choice, have to stick with at least $500 to break even while offering free shipping.

http://coins.ha.com/itm/standing-li...03-976-mintage-1-509-200-numism/a/1188-7706.s

 

Since we are discussing this particular example personally as a toned collector I would not pay a large premium for that coin. And I pay for toning. Anyone seeing my coin pics has figured that out by now. Second as a collector I would have bought any of the below examples before buying that coin at that price. Again just my personal opinion. Yes the third is an unpleasant tone but I have no concerns about the other three and even with the toning personally I would spend my money on the third before buying the example coin being referenced. This is just my personal opinion. And I would rather not get the cac sticker and be 5 points higher on the grade, for less money. This is what I meant when I said in today's world every dealer is competing with every dealer and collector selling on line. Guys like me do internet searches and really do look under every rock, and do it in seconds. I'm not saying anything negative about tom b and his prices. I'm just saying this is where, as a retail buyer my money would go.

 

I like this thread, several points of view are intelligently discussed.

One of the things I like most about Coin Shows is the diversity of both sellers and buyers. Think how boring it would be if every seller carried the same product at the same price.

I take pride in offering a product at a show that no other seller is offering, that is my niche. I devote half of my table space to coins mostly Bust Half Dollars from 1907-1836 and the other half to Dino-Lite microscopes.

 

I admit I haven't read the last two pages so I don't know if this has been covered or not, but a lot of dealers have prices on the back. We'll often need space for our cost code, a retail price, and a wholesale price. That can look sloppy on the front if handwritten, and if you're one of the us who prints out their own labels with barcodes, you can't physically put it on the front of the slab without covering part of the grade, the coin, or both.

I would guess that those who walk by after a quick glance in the case have passed up a lot of coins that are priced -- on the back.

 

Now that we look at it, the price dropped between August and December 2013.

I agree with buying a coin 5 grade points higher for a similar price, without any fancy stickers.

 

Lower not similar.

 

I'm thinking similar to $411 - $440, the store price is high, even for a must have CAC bean collector.

 

Let's see some of these back of the slab labels and codes. I'd like to see how helpful they might be at a glance, if they were visible to potential clients. Needless to say, you can have the codes under your shoe, doesn't help when someone is looking at your showcase, while you're schmoozing.

 

Interesting post, but I doubt anything will change.

 

Only 2 posters here can change the world. The rest of us are just here to talk coins

 

It doesn't have to change. There are plenty of great and honest dealers out there, cleaning up. One of my favorite occurrences is seeing a dealer website with astronomical prices, advertise 5%, 10% or 15% off. It just makes me smile.

 

Are you speaking of Josh's Coins and Detecto.

 

"No, the dealer isn't always right. But neither is the customer. And there's something that used to be taught to children called common courtesy. And it was taught to children because it is so very important to have it when you become an adult."

I really didn't want to say anything again, but I just had to when I read this comment. Apparently many dealers have never been taught about common courtesy, because if they had, they would not be ignoring potential customers at their tables.

And no, many of the dealers I saw talking and COULD HEAR were NOT discussing a deal between each other. That is the problem I am talking about. If I was a dealer paying all that money for a table at a big show to sell my wares, I'd sure as heck make sure I talked to every person that stopped at my table, even if it was just to ask them to give me a minute if I was busy. That goes a longgggggggggggg way toward generating a return customer at future shows.

As far as eating, I understand a sole dealer who has nobody to help him might have a little problem getting food and I agree, the food at most every show is not the best, but you should be experience enough by now to know how to bring a Subway sandwich or two with you in the morning or something akin to that so you are not sucking down Excedrin and granola bars instead of eating real food.

 

"As far as eating, I understand a sole dealer who has nobody to help him might have a little problem getting food and I agree, the food at most every show is not the best, but you should be experience enough by now to know how to bring a Subway sandwich or two with you in the morning or something akin to that so you are not sucking down Excedrin and granola bars instead of eating real food."

Excedrin with protein/granola bars and water do not bother me in the least, but they may not be for everyone.

 

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I appreciate your response. It makes a lot of sense. I think in a lot or most cases with expensive coins, prices are less of a concern up front for buyers because they already know ballpark figures (which is good) and have a lot of funds. For buyers like my self, who have a few hundred dollars, we are perhaps looking for the best deals we can afford. And I'm one of those quantity over quality types, at least in general. I'm much happier leaving with a bunch of decent coins rather than a few more expensive ones. I think people with smaller budgets benefit more from prices labeled up front. One might argue that a few hundred is a lot, but considering that at least half of the dealers or more at the big show I attended were mostly set up for people with much deeper pockets, I think it's safe to say that I didn't have much to spend and am within the category of a small budget buyer. Again, thanks for the well-thought-out comments.