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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;umtrr-author, post: 142253, member: 5719&quot;]I have to admit that I really envy Just Carl&#039;s experience.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I was thinking about starting a thread on this subject myself based on our experience from last weekend.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;s just a ripoff, etc.&nbsp; We were headed to my parents&#039; and I asked him to check out what shops might be open there.&nbsp; Turns out that most places were closed and the only one that would be open was, you guessed it, at a flea market.&nbsp; Just to tease I said, &quot;Well, we can get taken the old fashioned way.&quot;&nbsp; :smile </p><p><br /></p><p>We got there, and found the booth, and it didn&#039;t take long for me to discern that I would have been right.&nbsp; I have never been any better than an amateur grader, but even I know some basic standards.&nbsp; So pass on the stuff in 2x2s.&nbsp; I ask about foreign, look through a couple of small binders and find what to me seems pretty overpriced; I don&#039;t have the Krause book memorized but I did pick out a South Africa 5 Shillings that was not BU and didn&#039;t seem to be worth what was penciled on the holder.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Checking the Krause book now, I see I was right.&nbsp; More like &quot;Bullion Value&quot; for 0.45 ounce of silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>While this was going on, another customer was going through a box of Indian Cents and pulled about 20 or 25 out for purchase.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, my local dealer gives as &quot;special change&quot; better specimens than were left in the box.&nbsp; To be fair, it&#039;s possible that the previous customer had scooped all of the good ones, but I kind of don&#039;t think so.&nbsp; In any case, I don&#039;t think it&#039;s all that above board to charge 80 cents for a worn out little cent from 19-something... with a hole in it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>You may have seen my thread about the Canada Cents Thalia is working on there, so I tried that next.&nbsp; I must say that weather it&#039;s coins, model trains or anything else, I really <b>hate</b> unpriced items. :headbang:&nbsp; But for the most part, that&#039;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.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The final straw was the &quot;bargain box&quot; of foreign... yikes.&nbsp; I would have been embarrassed to sell coins as sad looking and worn as these were.&nbsp; Not quite washers, but not far away.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s funny that someone should mention the &quot;buy low&quot; part of the deal.&nbsp; A large sign proclaimed that silver dimes would get you 30 cents each!&nbsp; And so on for larger denominations.&nbsp; So much for hedging against the drop in silver prices.&nbsp; That would cover one down to $4.15 an ounce.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>After we got out of earshot, I remarked to my dad, &quot;See, the old fashioned way.&nbsp; No computer required.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>On balance, though, I&#039;m not really down on flea markets in general.&nbsp; In fact, I&#039;ve gotten some very good deals on model trains at some flea markets, and even at specialized train shows where what I&#039;m interested in is &quot;oddball&quot; compared to what a seller has and they just want to get rid of it.&nbsp; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>So... anyone up for a road trip to Just Carl&#039;s?&nbsp; :hail:&nbsp; Sounds like his flea markets are quite a bit better than the ones I know![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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