What price should you expect to pay at a coin show?

I would liek to poin out that coins, houses, cars are not he smae thing hence a universal rule may or may not apply to them. secondly in my opinion if a dealer quotes you a price they always have some room to work with it. the price has profit built into it. its uptot hem whether they want to reduce that profit or not. noone in their right mind will buy coins in 4 figures and above unless its at an auction without trying to ge a discount for the price and it will be the rare dealer who wont dicount thier profit. you lose nothing by asking. i for one have got discounts ranging from 5% to 20% on coins that are both high end and desirable. Ther eis a numismatic answer and there is an economic answer and anyone out to sell/buy will do well to remember both.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I can't believe how long this has gone on and nobody said:

"As little as possible".

 

LOL - that was a similar answer I gave the dealer when he asked me the same question! I qualified it with "I want the most I can get for as little as possible."

And Spock1K - You would be surprised at how many parallels there are.

Thanks for the replys guys ...

 

I'd very much like that Spock. I do a show 3 Sundays a month. Come and we'll meet. Maybe I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

 

Will you be at the CICF? I am avoiding all trips to the city till spring

 

This is a very interesting and informative thread. I do not mind showing someone the greysheet at a coin show and discussing my pricing in relation to the greysheet.

The problem is that the market prices aren't always clear to people. The "stated market rate" listed in either wholesale or retail price guides are not always an accurate depiction of the market. There are coins that I would not pay anywhere near greysheet levels to purchase. However, there are coins that I would purchase as a dealer at over retail trends prices, because the stated prices are not true indications of the market.

Mark made some excellent points about the quality of individual coins. I tell our customers that every coin is a unique item. If one looks at the auction results of any particular coin in a specific grade, they will find that prices for a single coin in one grade will very widely depending on the quality of the individual specimen. For example, a half dime recently traded at auction at double the price of another half dime of the same date, grade and holder. The one was just obviously much nicer, although the holder did not say so.

 

"The difference between the first sentence and the second is the “quoting prices” part?"

Absolutely Darryl and I'm talking a "newbie" that for some reason thinks if he/she has a copy of Greysheet they know it all.
I've seen it happen too many times. A person approaches a table, pulls out a Greysheet and starts quoting prices they should pay. You can spot tnem believe me.
They have done no other research. They can't grade, they don't know the history, they basically know nothing about coins but feel they are "investors" and some plebe of a dealer should sell to them at the price they want.
Of course the "plebe" of a dealer has forgotten more about coins than this person has ever known and possibly in the last ten minutes. THOSE are the people I'm really talking about.

Coin shows for ANYONE should always be a learning experience and fun. Those that walk in thinking they know it all because they have a Greysheet but NO experience need to wake up or just leave.

I feel rather strongly about this. Does it show?

clembo

 

Yep

- figured that's what you meant and just wanted to clarify. BTW - I agree.

Thanks for the post!

 

probably not. I usually do Itasca, Countryside and Lemont. If ANY of you plan on coming to those 3 shows in the future, please let me know. I'd love to meet you. Including you, Clem!