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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1365097, member: 19463&quot;]Fifty years ago a small town might have a shop with a few ancients.&nbsp; I was from Indiana but I suspect it is not all that different from other states.&nbsp; For a treat, my mother would take me to Indianapolis (big city) where there were three or four shops with a better selection.&nbsp; Usually I had to walk up a few flights of stairs and was greeted by an old man who would sell me coins in the 50 cent to $5 range.&nbsp; The old men died and their grandsons either left the business altogether or converted to selling proof silver eagles.&nbsp; Now I live a similar distance from Richmond VA where I know one shop that has a part time visiting dealer with&nbsp; a few ancients (about the same as the Indianapolis ones) with one small case over in the corner on Friday and Saturday only.&nbsp; In 50 years we seem to have dropped from three dealers six days a week to one dealer two days and I suspect I have it better than most.&nbsp; In trade we now have eBay, the Internet and CoinTalk.&nbsp; Instead of a friendly old man who would talk to you all day and sell you nice coins for a small price, now you get a bunch of overpriced junk on eBay and opinions from Randy, Chris and I (not a complete list).&nbsp; The difference I see is that in the 1950&#039;s I was the only person I knew who collected the coins and I had no way to contact people in Arizona, Minnesota or North Dakota.&nbsp; Actually I prefer 2012 to the good old days except for the part about overpriced junk.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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