Sunday I went to one of regular flea markets and as usual got there as they were opening up. Noticed a guy with some black notebooks that looked like they contained coin pages. Opened them up and yes there were many pages of coins in 2x2's. One book was all cents from Indians to Lincolns. The other contained all nickels. I asked how much for the entire books. He said $200 for the Nickels and $300 for the Cents. Only had enough money to bargain for the Nickels and ended up with a $170 price for the entire book. He said he used to be a dealer but never had enough to make a go of it so getting rid of the remains. It will take me weeks to go through all this. Sure wish I had to money to buy the other book of cents. Got home and found the following in that book: 1- Indian Head Cent 1875 in less than G-4 47-Liberty Head Nickels from 1897 to 1912 in grades of G-4 to F-12 228- buffalo/Indian Head Nickels from 1919 to 1938 in VG-8 to AU-50 9- Jefferson Nickels from the 30's and 40's in AU-50 19-Jefferson Nickels from the 70's all Proofs 1- 3" black 3 ringed binder 20-plastic pages for holding 20 - 2x2's All in all more than 300 coins for a really cheap price.
Thats something I miss dont realy have many down here in London Use to visit some great one in Nottingham and the surrounding areas, sounds like you got yourself a real bargin there JC hope you get the chance to pick up the rest from him at some stage :thumb: De Orc
I'm not gonna say it doesn't happen - but I will say it doesn't happen often. Just so those with less experience don't get the wrong idea - as a general rule the coins offered for sale at flea markets, swap meets and the like are problem coins. They run the gamut of being harshly cleaned, altered, damaged or down right fakes. Unless you really know what you are doing, you would be best advised to not purchase coins in such a venue.
Sorry to completely disagree with that. However, it really depends on where in the world you are I guess. Some of the flea markets have legitamate coin dealers. There was a flea market near here recently that had a regular 5 coin dealers in there with permanent spots. They were there all the time and had less cleaned coins than I've seen at coin shows. Thier prices were also very, very low compared to coin shows. I go to at least 2 or more coin shows a month and NONE of them could ever compare with the dealers at the flea market. And absolutely more trustworthy than ebay. Unfortunately that flea market just moved excessively far from me. The one I went to last sunday usually has well over a thousand sellers. There is one coin dealer there that I've know for many years and he has never had a cleaned coin for sale. He is always in the same location and will always take back any coin you are not pleased with. I've found the lighting is so much better at the outdoor flea markets that you can see a coin much better than at most of the coin shows I've gone to in this area. I've noticed at one particular coin show a certain dealer always seams to find a dark place where it's difficult to actually make out the finer details of coins. Not to dribble on but I have never had a bad experience at flea markets around here with coin purchases. Like I said it really depends on the location.
Once again I agree with GD. For fun, I took some Silver to the flea market to see what they offer would be. had 75.00 in face 90% silver. Offered 5.5 times face. (kitco was buying at the time at 8.1 times) PCGS 1935 MS65 Peace. $35.00. Was told "This is grossly overgraded, should be an MS60". I said wow, SGS would grade it a 70. He didnt get it. Indian cents and flying eagles, all vg-vf range. FACE VALUE. (they are "slow sellers") I told the guy I would just spend them then.. : ) Kennedy proofs, Ike proofs, all.. FACE VALUE. Needless to say, I didnt sell anything, once again confirmed earlier visits though. I have yet to find any "dealers" that pay an even decent price for coins. From what I have seen they are waiting for the guy that needs some extra cash or the coins that have been stolen and they get them cheap. just my opinion from personal expierences. Takes me back to the Bozo slab I posted here in another thread, Lightly whizzed. UH HUH
A local coin shop near me sometimes sets up a booth at a local flea market. Instead of treating this as an opportunity to attract potential new customers, they seem to use it to dump low valued coins their regular customers don't want at inflated prices. However, I have found an occasional good deal at antique shops where coins are sometimes offered by nonprofessionals at bargain prices. Mostly, it just takes luck and a willingness to walk away from 99 out of 100 offerings to find the one that is a decent purchase.
Around here there aren't many coins in Flea Markets....I've gotten some but for the most parts they are cleaned/overpriced....and such.... I did find an amlost complete set of President Medals from the mint marked $45 and it just happened that the guy that was selling was there to check on his items (around here you get a booth and mark and leave your things...you don't sit there and sell it) so I asked if he would take less....he marked it down I think about $15 so I got a pretty good deal. Speedy
The flea market in my couty is really lame and has no coins whatsoever...and I'm not that interested in moldy stamps lol
I think it may depend on the flea market. At some you can get really good deals, at others they try to rip you off. You've got to use good judgement and common sense. I've spent decent money at flea markets, but I will say this, never buy raw from a flea market.
I have to admit that I really envy Just Carl's experience. I was thinking about starting a thread on this subject myself based on our experience from last weekend. My dad, who does not own a computer, has told me many times since my interest in coins was revived about how bad a deal eBay is, and it's just a ripoff, etc. We were headed to my parents' and I asked him to check out what shops might be open there. Turns out that most places were closed and the only one that would be open was, you guessed it, at a flea market. Just to tease I said, "Well, we can get taken the old fashioned way." :smile We got there, and found the booth, and it didn't take long for me to discern that I would have been right. I have never been any better than an amateur grader, but even I know some basic standards. So pass on the stuff in 2x2s. I ask about foreign, look through a couple of small binders and find what to me seems pretty overpriced; I don't have the Krause book memorized but I did pick out a South Africa 5 Shillings that was not BU and didn't seem to be worth what was penciled on the holder. I had just paid $7.00 for a 1953 5Shillings a couple of weeks ago... Queen Elizabeth, you know... so I suspected that $20 for a beat up 1958 was a little out of line. Checking the Krause book now, I see I was right. More like "Bullion Value" for 0.45 ounce of silver. While this was going on, another customer was going through a box of Indian Cents and pulled about 20 or 25 out for purchase. Thalia is working on the last 30 years of them (they get quite costly before that!) and I thought I would find at least something. Well, my local dealer gives as "special change" better specimens than were left in the box. To be fair, it's possible that the previous customer had scooped all of the good ones, but I kind of don't think so. In any case, I don't think it's all that above board to charge 80 cents for a worn out little cent from 19-something... with a hole in it. You may have seen my thread about the Canada Cents Thalia is working on there, so I tried that next. I must say that weather it's coins, model trains or anything else, I really hate unpriced items. :headbang: But for the most part, that's what I saw; with the exception of the key dates which I knew were overpriced and suspect were overgraded based on my other observations. The final straw was the "bargain box" of foreign... yikes. I would have been embarrassed to sell coins as sad looking and worn as these were. Not quite washers, but not far away. It's funny that someone should mention the "buy low" part of the deal. A large sign proclaimed that silver dimes would get you 30 cents each! And so on for larger denominations. So much for hedging against the drop in silver prices. That would cover one down to $4.15 an ounce. After we got out of earshot, I remarked to my dad, "See, the old fashioned way. No computer required." On balance, though, I'm not really down on flea markets in general. In fact, I've gotten some very good deals on model trains at some flea markets, and even at specialized train shows where what I'm interested in is "oddball" compared to what a seller has and they just want to get rid of it. It helps that I mentally carry around the going rate for the trains in which I am interested; I need to get to that same level for the coins that are on our shopping list. So... anyone up for a road trip to Just Carl's? :hail: Sounds like his flea markets are quite a bit better than the ones I know!
