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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;jj00, post: 2302480, member: 47072&quot;]I was actually going to respond to this awhile ago &amp; then thought, &#039;hey, what do I know, there are a lot more experienced Cdn collectors on this site they will&#039;.&nbsp; Well they didn&#039;t, so here&#039;s my two cents (currently worth about a cent &amp; half in US$ if the dollar hasn&#039;t dropped more again today).</p><p><br /></p><p>The hobby seems to be popular at least from what attendance I see at coin shows/auctions.&nbsp; I personally attended about a dozen coin shows in the last year, and could have went to several more, though most would be local (small) to med sized compared to the huge US shows I&#039;ve read about on this forum.&nbsp; I think the largest show I went to had about 75 dealers max.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are some B&amp;M coin stores, though I&#039;ve personally only been to two of the stores, most are too far away, so I meet them at the coin shows.</p><p><br /></p><p>Generally I will get to know the dealer at a show, see how they deal with me while I&#039;m looking at something that likely isn&#039;t worth their time and then decide if I want to go back to them.</p><p><br /></p><p>If they treat me well in that situation I usually have a good idea how they will treat me in higher $ sales.&nbsp; I&#039;ve actually had 1 dealer throw a coin at me and say &#039;20 bucks&#039;, as in &#039;why are you bothering me&#039;.&nbsp; Now when I see him at shows, I smile and keep walking to his competition.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve tracked my purchases over the last couple of years and of the 23 &#039;dealers&#039; I have purchased from, at least 5 I would go to again &amp; have, &amp; spent way too much money.&nbsp; Interestingly but not suprising, all of which have a B&amp;M store (just a bit too far for me to go too).&nbsp; I say not surprising because in order to have a store, they need to know how to treat a customer and keep them coming back.&nbsp; Each of these dealers treated me with a great deal of respect regardless of what I was buying, tried to get to know what coins I was interested in and when they could, spent time discussing their coins with me.</p><p>eg -&quot;I&#039;m looking for Newfoundland coins.&quot;</p><p>&#039;Oh, you&#039;re the one, I&#039;ve been waiting 20 years for you to show up.&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>I collect mostly Canadian &amp; Provincial coins, though have a substantial world collection as well (my world includes USA).&nbsp; Likely half if not more of my Cdn/Prov collection are raw, bought from dealers who&#039;s grading I respect, the rest being graded by ICCS or CCCS (Canadian TPG&#039;s) with a few PCGS/NGC thrown in.</p><p>Generally I find PCGS/NGC to be much more lenient on circulated grades than ICCS/CCCS (ie -AU or less grades); pretty equivalent on MS+.</p><p><br /></p><p>While I&#039;m not a fan of Slabs, I can see the need for them, especially for someone like me doing a type set of US coins that I know I&#039;m not up to speed on their grading.</p><p><br /></p><p>For world coins, anything in MS+ grades, I tend to rely on auctions, just because the dealers I frequent don&#039;t deal in world.</p><p><br /></p><p>Edit: Apologies for adding to an already long post, but just thought of something to add in regards to &#039;healthy&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>I started collecting at the age of 7, been at it for 43 years now with some years more involved than others as life allowed and a surprising amount still to learn, which this forum has helped with immensely.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I was 11, I was in a local coin shop and overheard the shop owner and a customer talking about the poor state of coin collecting and how very few YNs were getting involved.&nbsp; Sound familiar?&nbsp; That was back in 1976.&nbsp; When I was a YN collector, I knew exactly 0 other YN collectors.</p><p><br /></p><p>The last larger coin shows I was at this past year, at least 25-30% of the customers were YNs, many with their Dads, just as many going solo. </p><p>Much more intelligent collectors than I was at that age, politely asking me what I collected and familiar with the varieties within those sets.&nbsp; I think our hobby has a strong future if we support it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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