You never know WHAT is gonna go through that door...

9 times out of 10 when I go to the pawn shop I see the usual stuff. It is that 1 time in 10 that matters. I bought a bunch of O mint Barber coinage at spot about a year and a half ago, including the '09. Other than looking for CC MMs on Morgans the people in the shop really don't look or care what comes through.

 

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Yup.

I'm normally eager to educate newcomers about the hobby, but these are not the students I choose. (Now, if I thought it would affect what they pay people bringing stuff in, I might have to make a different decision...)

 

There are a few places I check and when I ask to see something from the case, they act as if they've never seen it before or say "I haven't had a chance to price that yet." Always makes me wonder how they decided what to pay for it. Probably melt -20% or for copper, $1 each.

 

I hate when shops do this. Oh , now u see that someone else thinks it may be valuable!!!! I usually walk out. Very aggravating.

 

I phrased that incorrectly. I don't think they are acting. I think they genuinely don't know what it is or what it's worth but somehow they bought it and put it in the case.

 

Cool finds at a pawn shop for that price! I haven't had any luck with pawn shops in my area. They are always way over priced on Coins. I've had good luck in the buy gold and silver shops though.

 

Any more scores?

 

I shop the pawn shops all the time, I would have let the other three go until they lowered their price. SNAG on the 95 O!

 

Nope. All on a par with or below the three cheaper ones. Didn't look like anyone else had been through them, either.

 

Great find!

 

On the topic of "pricing the expensive stuff", when I stopped in today, there was a new arrival in the gold display -- an 1855 $3 gold, in a bezel. Worn down to G-VG at best, harshly cleaned.

The attached tag said "RARE COIN" in large letters. There was even something like XRAREX in the code on the tag.

$899.

I had a little chat with the salesguy about why the $3 golds were made (when they already had $2.50 and $5 pieces), why they were rare, and why they weren't going to see anywhere near that money for this coin. He was quite surprised at the news that cleaning a coin, or putting it in a bezel, decreased its value.

I sure wonder what they paid for it...

 

@-jeffB I stopped in at a pawn shop to see if there was anything good, and found a nice 1880 Morgan, in a nice AU for $22. Also had a T2 gold dollar that had the date side made into a love token, it was $50 but I passed on that since "B" means nothing to me.

 

They teach them to be drones. Give a percentage of the lowest price on ebay then sell for the highest and have 0 idea how to grade. I would rather not, see coins sometimes,
As a collector, I try to do my best to teach the folks that I buy from.
It does work, especially when it doesn't sell, then they have to get melt for it.

 

I hit up my local pawn shop often as ive gotten great deals lately such as 4.25 fv 90% for 11x!

 

Unless they actually shaved gold off instead of just pushing it around, that's $60 worth of gold. I'd snatch that right up; you'd probably still get well over melt on eBay, even after fees.

 

Okay so much is the 1895-O?

Without posting how much ahead you came out it makes hard to get too excited for non-Morgan collectors.

 

Zilch, so far, as I haven't sold it.

I think it's certain to bring more than I paid for all four coins. I'm hoping it might go as high as $150 or so if I put it up on eBay. Not a huge deal, but a good shot of the brain chemicals that keep me going back to the shop more than I probably should.