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Message:: [QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 7331093, member: 19463"]My earliest "brick & mortar" recollections were walk-ups in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, run by really nice old (then!) men in the early 1960's.  They answered my questions and sold me coins from their junk boxes (denarii $2, AE 50 cents).  I never spent big money (like $10) on their identified coins back then.  That came later. My most recent "brick & mortar" experiences were two shops I will never see again since we stopped driving to Indiana when my mother-in-law passed away (at 104).  One in Ohio was run by a really friendly and talkative fellow who knew nothing about the few ancients he had but seemed to appreciate having someone to talk about them with.  The other was run by a guy who bragged about buying coins cheap from a widow who was bringing in her late husband's collection a few at a time.  The "brick & mortar" experience sure has changed.  Today, I judge a "brick & mortar" store by how large a sign they have saying that they buy gold and silver.  The bigger the sign, the less likely I will be to find anything worth seeing.  I have not seen a LCS for over a year now and plan no trips until the coin shows restart (next year?) so I suspect that is the end of my "brick & mortar" experience.  I know another collector who lives within about ten miles of me but it is easier today to chat with someone in Europe or Asia than it is in my own county.[/QUOTE]