Why are LCS's/Coin dealers such jerks?

Drazzil

I live in the Portland/Metro area and I have quite a few shops near me (5-6) and all of them have some major service or sales issue with them.

I'm talking profiling, rudeness, horrible demeanor, over pricing, outright scams, taking me for granted, selling cleaned/cleaning coins... You name it, I've run into it. It's like people in this profession can't keep their human mask on long enough to complete a sale.

Its enough to permanently turn me off on the hobby. I think from now on I'm just gonna scratch my itch on ebay occasionally... ugh.

Stingray63

I have 7 LCS near me in NJ or at least within a 10-45 minute drive. Two shop owners are very pleasant and personable. I won't say anything negative about the other 5 LCS.
Check out https://www.coinshows-usa.com/ if you are not aware of it. I have had some pretty good luck at the small, monthly, local coins shows. There are 4 of those I go to. Some of the vendors know me now as I attend at least 1 to 2 shows each month for sure and some of the same vendors participate in the others. I have come across some nice finds and have done well at these due to being recognized as a returning customer. Always great conversations, feedback, tips and advice.

WilliamF

Hey, watch it... There's a lot of dealers on this forum

hfjacinto

When you have issues with the majority the issue may be you and not them.

Just saying. Maybe you are rude and they are treating you the same.

I live in NJ and have 6 shops near me, I won’t do business with 2 as they aren’t priced accordingly. They’ve been open for decades so maybe I’m not the right customer but they aren’t rude.

Stingray63

@hfjacinto Are you up in north NJ? Just curious if you've been to any of the monthly Garden State Coin & Currency Shows in Parsippany. Or either of the other two in Fairfield and Clifton? If so how are they. I'm down the Tpk between 8 & 8A. This weekend is the Old Bridge Show. It's small but easy to pop in for me.

hfjacinto

@Stingray63 neither really north nor as south as you but I have gone to Parsippany. How is Old Bridge? I collect more currency than coins (well now at least, it may change).

Stingray63

@hfjacinto Of the monthly shows been to the Burlington, Colts Neck, Old Bridge, and Tri-State Coin & Stamp Show (Langhorne PA). Old Bridge is closest so it's easy for me. There is one guy there who sells currency (maybe two) but I wouldn't recommend taking the drive if you are far. Colts Neck's space is slightly larger except 65% of the vendors sell sports cards, memorabilia & supplies. Burlington is the largest and best of these four. Tri-State Coin & Stamp Show (Langhorne, PA Sheraton) is the worst and I definitely don't recommend. Four times to it in one year and a disappointment every time. It advertises 65 dealers/tables and it seems more like only 12-18 vendors if that. There was definitely a currency guy there each time though. Ocean County has an annual show coming up next month in Pt Pleasant. Never been to it but may check it out this year. These are all small.

hfjacinto

Thanks @Stingray63 , I guess I'll stick with Baltimore and saving up to go. Old Bridge is about 30-35 minutes so not really far. Do you have a link to the show?

Drazzil

So back on topic. I've had a while to sit with this and yeah. I'm gonna have to stick to my original thesis.
I live in the Portland OR metro area and I have visited every shop within 30 miles of my location, and found exactly two suitable shops. One in Beaverton and one in Vancouver WA. All the rest of the shops had serious problems.

One shop had an owner who managed to turn everyone who walks in the door off, and has the ratings to prove it. Another cleans their coins. Most of the others have prices far in excess of what would be considered normal or reasonable.

And I just lost the shop in Beaverton because the owner brought in a partner who sells ALL the cool stuff on Instagram where it disappears 30 seconds after it's posted up. They even unapologetically sold stuff that was on my list that I had been trying to get from them for months.

Don't get me wrong. I wish them all the success in business. Its just not one I can patronize anymore. I don't get the IG notices till hours after they sell. So I'm stuck looking at what I missed, with the store selling the same sad stuff that I've seen for weeks/months at a time. Why even go down?

johnny010

Inflation and its a hard business to make money.

Drazzil

Yeah... I've just come to the conclusion that this isin't a good hobby to be in. Nothing against it or anyone else who chooses to participate. From my end its just seems an overpriced cruel hobby, one in which the speculators have ruined like many others.

I think it's just time I find something else.

Thanks for all the chat.

JBK

There are many niches within numismatics that are entirely off the speculators' radar. That's where you can pursue the hobby in a simpler form.

johnny010

@JBK said:
There are many niches within numismatics that are entirely off the speculators' radar. That's where you can pursue the hobby in a simpler form.

Example?

Oldhoopster

@johnny010 said:

@JBK said:
There are many niches within numismatics that are entirely off the speculators' radar. That's where you can pursue the hobby in a simpler form.

Example?

Early large Cents, civil war tokens, middle and !ate date large cents, HK so called dollars, seated coins, hard times tokens, exonumia, colonials, to name a few and that doesn't include foreign or ancient

JBK

@Oldhoopster said:

@johnny010 said:

@JBK said:
There are many niches within numismatics that are entirely off the speculators' radar. That's where you can pursue the hobby in a simpler form.

Example?

Early large Cents, civil war tokens, middle and !ate date large cents, HK so called dollars, seated coins, hard times tokens, exonumia, colonials, to name a few and that doesn't include foreign or ancient

Great list! I especially like the idea of CW and HT tokens.

Within exonumia there are counterstamps and tokens galore.

It seems that speculators/flippers are especially active with new/hot issues from the mint. The farther you get from that stuff the calmer the hobby can be.

Fraz

@JBK said:
Within exonumia there are counterstamps and tokens galore.

Careful @JBK, I not sure, but some of those words landed me here.

OP, a couple hundred pennies aren’t expensive and every one you examine improves your skill.
The elders have left ample beautiful mutant coins for us to seek.
I’m taking a break from sorting pennies, though, to start a new collection; all the circulating rupees between Eli Whitney and Pixley that I can wrangle.
Be Creative!

@hfjacinto said:
When you have issues with the majority the issue may be you and not them.

You mean, that I may be the common denominator of my peeves, too? That deserves condideration.

JBK

@Fraz said:
Be Creative!

Good advice. There are multitudes of options for those who want to be creative in what or how they collect.

Drazzil

Thanks for the suggestion. What I ultimately decided is to plan/schedule the specific coins I want for the next six months and just buy em on e bay. No muss no fuss no LCS to mess me around.

Drazzil

And I now consider this question answered. Thanks so much for everyone who parcipated. How do I lock this?

MetroD

@Drazzil said:
And I now consider this question answered. Thanks so much for everyone who parcipated. How do I lock this?

You can't. Members, even the OP of a thread, cannot close a thread.

Drazzil

Oh,

Dove73

Not all shop dealers are jerks. If you worked in a coin shop for a a day or two you would understand why some may seem a tad annoyed or short with folks. Its usually with people wanting to sell thier coins or want to know the value of a coin.
We would have dozens of people a day coming in with damaged coins they want to sell for thousands. Worn wheat cents ( no key dates), parking lot coins, cleaned coins, fake coins. Then when told the bad news, they argue and show listings of a similar coin on etsy,ebay, etc.
Alot of people dont take the time to learn about the minting process in general. If the dealers spent all day teaching them why their coin is a "spender", they would be out of business. Same goes for the phone calls. They claim to have a rare silver penny. Its over the phone and you already know before they tell you the date. Yep, a 1943 steel cent. Its not silver, and in poor condition not worth much over face value. Then they argue. Its really non stop.
I say all this not to be rude, but give a little perspective.

CentSearcher

I definitely know what you're saying, I have several friends who have had a lot of those bad experiences with coin dealers. Luckily for me, almost everyone I've done business with has been very pleasant to work with, even when I was a new to the hobby. If you've already tried all the coin shops in your area, I recommend giving them another try. Maybe you got off the wrong foot and they're not as bad as you think.

PeakRarities

I know you consider the question answered op, but I just saw this thread and I’d like to add my .02

I feel your pain. Unfortunately the good B&M shops are few and far in between these days. I’ve sent want lists out to many local dealers, of pretty basic coins in certain grades, and not once has that produced anything for me yet. Someone else on here said that sending out a want list is an invitation for overpriced offerings, which may be the case.

There are some very solid dealers with B&M shops, but many times like you said, the premium items are usually posted online. If you had a premium coin, you’d probably want as much visibility as possible when you’re selling it, right? I’m sure there might be some old school dealers that have no website and have a list of clients that they call when they get something nice in, but these type of relationships are not easy to cultivate.

A lot of us do our shopping at shows, online auctions (heritage, GC, stacks, DLRC, etc), and then have a shortcuts to our favorite dealer websites. Collectors corner is nice too, if you haven’t already, check that one out when you can. It has a lot of dealers inventory consolidated in one place, without having to visit each individual website. Hope this helps

rsei0120

Im learning, not all dealers are bad, there are good and bad on all, you just have to weed them out, like anything else, most don't like to talk to me because Im new, yes I sometimes ask the same questions on groups, they will tell me They already answered, I will ask how far back do I need to go to find the answer, sometimes I will show a coin and they tell me it won't even grade don't waste my money, so I did one, a 1964 1c just because it was pretty, it ended up a MS66, I was happy, so it is now part of my registry, first one ever....., when I showed it, there were crickets...lol

morgandollar1878

@rsei0120 said:
Im learning, not all dealers are bad, there are good and bad on all, you just have to weed them out, like anything else, most don't like to talk to me because Im new, yes I sometimes ask the same questions on groups, they will tell me They already answered, I will ask how far back do I need to go to find the answer, sometimes I will show a coin and they tell me it won't even grade don't waste my money, so I did one, a 1964 1c just because it was pretty, it ended up a MS66, I was happy, so it is now part of my registry, first one ever....., when I showed it, there were crickets...lol

The dealers that you are showing coins to are also likely telling you to save your money not because it won't grade at all, but because it won't grade high enough to be worth the grading fees and shipping the coin to and from the grading company. The 1964 1c that you speak of is really only worth the fees and shipping if it grades MS66+ or higher preferably as an MS67. Congrats on the grade but you probably could have got one cheaper already graded off of Ebay. Unless you do a bulk submission, coins like this are usually not worth the grading and shipping fees. You showed the said coin to the dealer or dealers after it graded, what are they supposed to say? I and many here would have told you the same thing that the dealers told you.

rsei0120

Thank you so much for the input

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