Coins, Where are They ?

Fairlaneman

Oregon has a population of about 4 Million people. You go into a coin shop and maybe find a nice coin every tenth trip. Is this the way it is in local coin shops across the country ?

My other thought is that the dealers here are just not aggressive enough. Suppose that could be true or maybe the population base just plain does not warrant a local dealer in this area to have a good inventory of coins. Thoughts anyone.

What brought this up was another of my 200 mile trips today that produced not a thing. Not griping though as talking with a couple of dealers was fun also.

Ken

Russ

Ken,

That's certainly the way it is here in my little neck of the woods. Two dealers close by, and neither ever seems to have any new material. Most of the shows are the same. Same dealer faces, no fresh stuff.

Russ, NCNE

KlectorKid

Depends what you are looking for, I usually find something because I just started a circ merc set and I am not very far into my type set so there is a very large amount of coins need by me. But out here ther are a few shops that always have people selling and buying and selling so nothing every stays for to long.

FC57Coins

Ken:

I've found the same problem here in the hinterlands of Alabama as well. Sometimes you go for months in a dry spell and you wind up travelling all over the place on saturdays to see what's out there. Then sometimes there's so much stuff and you can't have it all - oh well

Frank

Fairlaneman

Russ:

I use to drive up to the Seattle area for every coin show and ran into the same thing you experienced today. Same people same coins. Now I go to only selected shows up there. Boeing in a couple of weeks is one I'll make. Usually some new faces show up. Hope so anyway.

Ken

stman

I have a local dealer that's been as far as I'm concerned one of the best in the business. Same problem though, hardly any fresh coins.
He has about given the coin business up after 40 years. With the internet and such he just can't compete. Nobody comes in to sell much with Ebay as a better way to get a better price than the local dealer.

Too bad these small Mom and Pop type dealers can't or will not try to stay in business. As they have always been the best to deal with.

tjkillian

It is not just you. In my little hamlet (Los Angeles) there is very little fresh stuff as well. I go to the Long Beach show whenever I want to look at/purchase new coins. The internet is a godsend in this regards. You can shop in coin shops all over the country and see what each have, although I'm starting to believe that all the good coins are sold before they reach any dealers. If you are not a great customer, you will never even see new/nice material.

Tom

epruyne

In my local area the coin dealers are not very great...there is really only one but I haven't traveled out of a 20 mile radius yet. When I do I will see...

Petescorner

All the dealers closed their shops, eliminated 95% of the overhead, and now sell on eBay.

lathmach

Closet coin shop to me is 40 miles away. The guy never has anything fresh, and last week when I stopped in he told me he was closing up. Seems to be the way things are.

Ray

Fairlaneman

Really sad to hear this is the way it is across the country. Part of the real pleasure of this hobby is just sitting or standing and talking coins with a dealer or collector. When the shops disappear a part of the hobby will disappear also. Maybe this trend will level out hopefully.

Ken

Bear

Rather sad, an age seems to be passing and a new electronic age is here.

Many will never know the joy of spending a few hours in a pleasent coin shop talking coins

with the owner and other collectors.

Fairlaneman

Bear we hit the button at exactly the same time. Could not agree more with you.

Ken

ARCO

seems to be the case for many people. I live in Salt Lake City, with a metro pop of about one million. Surprisingly, there are three strong dealers who get collections all the time. I have seen some very nice scarce circulated coins and they rotate in and out somewhat consistently.

Hope it continues.
Tyler

roadrunner

I am aware of several shops in my state that consistently get decent fresh material. Maybe every 3rd to 4th visit there will be something. However, most dealers will send in raw stuff for grading and unless you happen to stop in shortly after the coins return from grading, you'll get shut out. The fresh coins are never put out and sell behind the counter as quickly as they appear. At my local shops, dealers constantly wander in every day looking for fresh material. It is very hard for those who can only show up on a Saturday to be able to get anything. The dealers keep things picked clean. The one day you decide not to bother always seems to be the day that the "big deal" broke. I have 2 shops within 10 miles, and another 2 within 25 miles. There is one shop 45 miles away where deals constantly break and you wouldn't believe the hawking that occurs there waiting for morsels to fall from the table! Maybe it's time to move.

roadrunner

roadrunner

Coulport

When dealers complain of no fresh deals they aren't just making noise.
You know what is being offered? Junk.
Looked at three new purchases at the local shop today.
The first was worth high 3 figures. Proof sets, mint sets, partial modern sets and junk dollars.
The second was prestigage sets and silver eagles.
The third was junk silver.
This is the norm for them they said.

Questioned as to when the last key date walked through the door. They couldn't remember.
How do they restock? Dealer network, shows, auctions. And guess what? They all are looking for the same things.

stman

Bear, I agree with you that a lot of collectors will never know how nice it is to go to the local coin shop and talk coins with the dealer and also learn hands on rather than from scans on the internet.

I remember many years ago my wife (yes my wife) and I used to go to our local dealer, we were collecting Walkers and Franklins and he would give us boxes to look through and test our grading skills. Now that was fun. Now you have to learn to grade from a scan and hope when you get the coin it's close to what you hoped.

BigE

Our local dealer closed up shop here and moved to the big city--Eugene,Oregon--------BigE

Baley

the coins are on the internet. I personally haven't bought a single coin in a coin shop since logging in to eBay. why should I have to choose from their inventory (and pay full retail) when i've got the whole country on my desktop at home, and I can bid my max and not a penny more? shows might be a different story, but for the same reason: you can search many many dealer's inventories in one place at one time, to find what you want. of course, you can negotiate a bit, but the seller sets the price in the end.

by the same token, once you can order up any movie ever made to your television through your computer, will you ever rent a videocassette ever again? i wont either.

it's funny, the internet really will change everything, just as the automobile, airplane, and television did before them. kind of sad, yes, but overall better for everyone in the agregate.

Mrpawn

I am not trying to be controversial here, but how many of you let your dealers know your wants and/or what you are looking for? I live in realtively small population area. There are 3 coin shops within 1/2 hr drive and 3 more within 50 miles. The main dealer that I deal with always shows me new items and will call me if he gets something he is sure that I want ( I visit every 1 or 2 weeks ). One of the others will never get me across his threshold and the others I get to rarely so they always have something new, to me anyway.

SarasotaFrank

there is a pretty fertiel supply here. We have a couple of shops, one a pretty high line outfit. I see the reasons as people retiring here from all over the country and bringing their collections with them. They end up dying here, the family sells the collections locally. Also, I have seen a lot of older folks selling their collections as they get up in years as they are hesitant to leave them to family who do not understand the value.

I usually come across something of interest to me on a weekly basis - less as my want list shrinks, but there always seems to be some supply.

LucyBop

I also found the coin shopping very dismal in the Portland area for the 11 months I lived and then again on a recent trip.....

I did find some nice Gems in Arizona in the Phoenix area and also in New Mexico. Alot of it is simply timing.... Being at the right place at the right time.....

Fairlaneman

BigE who was it that went to the Eugene area ? The guy I was talking to at Al's Coins today I recognize but I do not think it is the same person I saw there last time I was in the shop.

MrPawn:

Yes, I have let it be known to a couple of dealers what is needed. One guy is really quite active in his show schedule in this area but has still not really came up with much. Either the coins are just not here or collectors in this region will not let them go. Basically a Dry State IMO.

Ken

cladking

Shops in this area of the country do much better. There does to be a broader
collector base with more divergent interests than in many areas. Brick and mor-
tar coin shops are changing to keep up with the changing nature of the hobby.
There is more specialization and niche dealing and collecting so shops have ex-
panded their product line and gotten on the net. Much of he value of a shop is
now to purchase coins from the public and these coins are often sold on the net
since the specialists in the particular coin may not ever show up in the shop.

There is actually a new shop around here and nothing has closed up in a couple
of years now. There are dozens of shops within an hour. The hobby looks very
healthy around here but coin shops are no longer the best place to find key dates
or esoteric material.

MacCoin

sorry to hear about the coin shortage out west. here in Maine there isn't alot of shops but the ones we do have are always getting new coins. I can go to the shop closest to me 25 miles from home but only 3 miles from my work and get about anything I can find on ebay for about the same price. the good thing is I can put it on layaway and pay weekly if I want. if it wasn't for that I would have never been able own the 1877 ihc.

jimtre

Ken

I always thought it was Al's fishing and coin shop. Anyway the last time I was in there Al had sold out and another guy in there I can't recall who but he was from the coast so I assume it is who Big E is referring to.

He does do mail order too but do know to what extent.

Tulving or something? He did say he had a large inventory but I didn't check it out!

Jim

BigE

The name of the store here was Tipsico, they were in North Bend------BigE

relayer

It was a trade-off. The Pacific northwest could either have beautiful scenary or beautiful coins.

Maybe you should start collecting trees?

Bear

Trees tend to be very hard to slab.

jdimmick

Same thing down in here in the carolina's. Fresh material is rarely seen, especially at any local shops. Even the medium range shows are not getting the new material in like they use too. Stuff is drying up all over the place. This effects key-dates especially, and good eye-appeal type material as well.

You have to attend one of the major shows such as Charlotte, or the Raleigh state show to even come close to finding what you need, and then, Several times, I have drove several hours to these shows looking for key-dates, only to walk away empty handed.

The demand on nice coins is the most intense I have ever seen since I have been collecting. And its going to get worse, I have seen so many people start collecting coins in the last year or so, and there ready to purchase.

At a show last weekend, one large dealer from SC came through and purchased every single 1914-d lincoln and 1912-s Liberty nickel that was available, and payed strong money to get them.

Flash

I can think of 6 coins shops right off the top of my head that are within a 15-mile radius from my home. With the expeption of perhaps one, none of them carry anything that I would be interested in purchasing. The one that does occassionally have something I'm interested in generally charges way more than I would end up paying at a coin show. Another that I frequent occassionly has had the exact same coins on display for the past two years. I can't figure out how the owner manages to stay in business.

BigE

relayer and bear, I have a type collection of trees, they are raw of course------------------------BigE

jimtre

Big E

Yes Tipsico it was! Tulving in my dreams huh!

How is Kim Chickering (sp) in Reedsport. Don't know the name of the shop. They used to be in Eugene in the 70's.

Jim

BigE

Chick at The Little Mint in Reedsport is doing great last time I talked to him-about a year ago. -------BigE