coin dealers; do you think brick and mortar coin shops are going to die out because of the internet
barberlover
Posts: 2,228 ✭✭
I really miss the number of local coin shops i remember from when i was a kid. Going into the shop, shooting the breeze with the owner, spinning the revolving display case and sometimes finding a new piece in it that i liked and making a deal to pay it off over a number of months from my allowance money.
Is this kind of experience dying off for todays young collectors because of the internet and ebay ? Les
It would be a shame if it is, like never going to an open air pro baseball game because your team plays in a dome.
Is this kind of experience dying off for todays young collectors because of the internet and ebay ? Les
It would be a shame if it is, like never going to an open air pro baseball game because your team plays in a dome.
The President claims he didn't lie about taxes for those earning less then $250,000 a year with public mandated health insurance yet his own justice department has said they will use the right of the government to tax when the states appeals go to court.
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Greg
Its been about two years now since I worked for HUD, but, I used to travel the entire united states every week. When-ever I was in a particular place such as Phoenix, AZ, Denver, Co, Salem, OR or Harrisburg, PA I would always look up and see what shops were local and go visit. Sometimes, I would buy and sometimes just talked coins with whoever was running the shop.
During the 5 years that I traveled, with many times visiting the same areas about two to three times a year. I would go back to find that the shop I just visited last year or 6 months ago, was now closed up. I saw many shops close during that time frame, lot of them due to increased Internet sales. Many of the dealers told me it was so much easier and cheaper and they made better profits dealing on line from less overhaead and by reaching so many customers.
Collectibles are hobbies and collectors need to enjoy their hobbies. They have to enjoy looking at their collections. The key is that numismatists always will want to enjoy seeing their coins and being able to evaluate them for their collections, before purchasing. Unless coin collectors become strictly slab and # collectors, we will survive.
Collectors need to be able to go look at coins somewhere. Coin shows are one venue, but they are not frequent enough in any one area to satisfy the constant hunger of a collector.
The public also needs a local place to be able to sell their unwanted/excess numismatic properties.
The internet certainly has made shops less necessary, but I believe that there will always be some coin shops. I am going to do my very best to remain in a shop, in addition to my other presences.
I firmly believe in numismatics as the world's greatest hobby, but recognize that this is a luxury and without collectors, we can all spend/melt our collections/inventories.
eBaystore
A lot of people think they get the best deals at Ebay auctions. They don't. A lot of the cheap stuff on Ebay is the stuff dealers could not sell elsewhere. Good coins bring good prices.
I also a agree that collectors who will only pay Gray Sheet or worse yet Blue Sheet prices are shooting themselves and ultimately the hobby in the foot. One of the reasons why I think grading as gotten so lose is that Gray Sheet collector-buers are forcing down the quality of coins that they get. Something has to give. If you dont' pay the price for a nice coin in a certain grade, the nice coin will end up in a higher grade holder.
Some dealers have slammed me for disagreeing with their pricing on certain items. I have equal time for criticism of those who run around with Blue Sheet and think that is their pricing "bible." Cheepskate collectors are almost as bad as crooked dealers.
With the notable exceptions of eBay and Amazon (which is still pretty iffy), the graveyard is littered with internet businesses, and the traditional stores are still around.
The only dealers that will vanish are those who were either too stubborn or too stupid to adjust to changing times.
Russ, NCNE
You couldnt have said it better about good coins. I have told several people that are new and just starting out, be careful on E-bay.
One new guy in particular started putting together a low grade Lincoln cent collection. He showed me some of the purchases from e-bay and I informed him most of it was junk, cleaned, sub-par stuff.
Good Coins will always sell them-selves!!!!!
IMO there is only really one shop in my area (a half hour from here) that caters to collectors and as I have difficulty finding material in general, often they in particular don't have much that interests me. I really don't do much business with coin shops per se.
Most of my purchases are made either at the Long Beach Show or at auctions done in conjunction with big shows. When I can't physically inspect the coins, I rely on people I trust who can view them to give me an honest opinion.
Dealers who know me know what 'works' for me and what doesn't. The only times I purchased a sub-par coin was on a sight-seen basis when I in retrospect, I did not use good judgement.
Based on what I have seen on E-Bay, I have never seriously considered using it as a venue to purchase coins. If I need a 20 year old camera body to canibalize for parts, yes, I think E-Bay is good for that. But the idea of looking for say, a PQ Liberty Nickel in MS 66 on E-Bay, well, I don't think so.
When looking for a particular coin, I'll check out specific dealer websites, or make inquiries on forums like these.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
i also think as a person becomes more and more experienced with coins, the less he wants to buy from ebay. ebay is great for things where there is little variation in quality - proof sets, SAEs, GAEs etc. i've reached the point where i basically only buy slabbed coins from ebay, and that's only because my dealers don't really have slabbed coins. the local dealers get most of my business.
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
Savvy business have used the internet to augment their traditional presence. This is a good evolution (most of the time), because smaller shops can inexpensively expand their customer base.
I don't have a real coin shop near me. eBay, dealer friends, and board members are it for me. But if there were a good local shop, I'd go there from time to time (then you can do the "real" Buy It Now!)
JMVHO
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Internet brings new competition. That inevitably changes the business landscape. Yes local shops will be reduced in number. I don't think I'm noble enough to sell my coins cheaper, and buy at higher prices, just so someone else can have more money.
The NUMBERS of shops will decline as will the selection of NUMISMATIC material. Just the difference between what came into the shop when we opened in 79 compared to last year is astounding.
Bullion has such a thin spread that it won't support a shop. It is capital INTENSIVE. If a shop can't deliver 100+ 1oz gold coins immediately from stock or afford to buy several hundred ounces, it will not survive in a city of any size.
Our bullion deals were fewer and fewer and larger and larger. But had we not been able to make a market, we would have been dead ducks.
Cast my vote for the end of the "coin" shop as it has existed for the past 25 years.
It will return to old geezers like it used to be, piddling with coins and stamps and very low key.....OR....
huge mail order places. But the varied coin dealer is soon to be a thing of the past.
IMHO
the internet is NO substitute for seeing coins in person. it's like the whole bogus theory in the mid 80's that predicted virtually paperless business by the 1990's. in fact, paper consumption has increased dramaticaly since the advent of the computer
K S