Kudos to L&C Coins

Coppernicus

Bought a 1979-S Type 1 Lincoln proof (PCGS PR69 DCAM) from L&C on ebay. Got the coin and was disappointed (ding on cheek, carbon spot above date - NOT a 69!). Called L&C, they said replace or refund? I said replace. Sent it back, got the replacement in five days. (Nice note also.) Replacement was a true 69 DCAM.

Service doesn't get any better than this. Have bought from them many times, will gladly do so again. Nice to find a friendly, honest, speedy dealer!

Hope others have had similar dealings with L&C

LucyBop

ElectricEye

They only took 8 weeks to replace the brown spotted PR69DCAM Delaware Quarter (it was billed as "white, spotless, toneless") ~ also returned a mottled PCGS 1C advertised as spotless as well ~ it took over two months also

Coppernicus

Sorry to hear that EE - I may have just been lucky! I'm sure every dealer has a few bad situations over time. I just hope your's was the fluke and mine was the standard.

braddick

Reminds me of a quick story (different seller- this one is a featured "Dealer" that advertised in CoinAge): I bought a raw (this is before slabbing) Seated dollar in XF'ish or so. Coin was cleaned (so what's new!? Find one that isn't...) but was too shiny even for me. Back it goes. The "Dealer" offers refund or replacement. I take the replacement thinking he'd simply send me a different, common date, type back.

Sure enough, two weeks later guess what arrives on my doorstep? The SAME coin but now a light charcoal color. The coin had been "smoked" in a lame attempt to cover up the cleaning. It even smelled like smoke. ::Sheesh:: .
I ended up keeping it for fear I would get stuck with nothing upon its return. I did call him on it though and he denied it was even the same coin (detail and bag marks were the "tell"- it was the same dollar, no doubt).

To this day I'll see this Dealer's full page ads in the trades and kind of laugh.

Coppernicus

Whenever I see the big, two-page ads in CW or NN with almost every coin described as "BU" or "Superb BU" I just assume they're sliders. Never bought a raw coin sight unseen from a dealer (I've bought a few raw cheap Lincolns on ebay from non-dealers and got a few pleasant surprises).

I just assume the dealers have cherrypicked the great specimens for private clients or candidates for slabbing. The wheat is gone and we get the chaff!

dorkkarl

why didn't you call pcgs instead of l&c? now there's an overgraded coin floating around that someone will eventually get hosed on.

K S

itsnotjustme

Karl,
On an inexpensive item, going through the grade review is more trouble than the coin is worth. Also, his transaction was with the seller not PCGS.

wingedliberty

I have gotten a few good deals from them on Ebay, but found their catalog and advertised prices way too high in my opinion. Usually that tells alot about a dealer.


Brian.

dorkkarl

<< <i>On an inexpensive item, going through the grade review is more trouble than the coin is worth. Also, his transaction was with the seller not PCGS. >>

dudes, this is the type of plastic-babble that is very troubling. gee, somebody SOMEwhere PAID MONEY for a guarantee that is worhtless then? why is it that someone doesn't hold pcgs responsible for their mistakes? what coppercoins has just done is raise the price of a crappy coin by at least $15, when you consider that it has to be shipped back to L&C (5 bucks), someone has to be paid to restock it & repacakge a replacement (5 bucks) & then mail it back out (5 bucks).

sure, easy to pass it off as "more trouble than it's worth", but it is exactly the type of thing that makes it easy to bash plastic. when does this insanity end? if it's not "worth the trouble" because it's an inexpensive coin, then why not just keep the danged coin to begin with???

K S

Gerry

I'll give L&C at least an A+ in my dealings with them - they are one of the best dealers I've worked with!

Coppernicus

K S - I see your point but I do agree with an earlier post that noted my transaction was with L&C, not PCGS. Also, I'm not really sure how the grade guarantee works, and I must admit that I never really thought about it. If L&C is as good a dealer as they seem based on my experience, THEY should be in touch with PCGS and not pass the coin along to some less discriminating buyer.

Mike

tjkillian

L&C Coins is by far the closest coin shop to my house, less then a five minute drive. Everytime I go there I feel like I'm imposing on them. You knock on the door, rarely do they let you in the shop. No browsing at all. You have to look at their catalog to even ask to see any coin. To me, they seem like a mail order only business. Everyone talks about the importance of sight-seen, but to actually see coins there is a bigger hassle than I'd like. When my little boy won the YN contest, he recieved a Whitman Lincoln cent album for 1909-1940. I only had a few extra coins to fill in that book. Most of my extra Lincolns are from 1941-1958, so I went to L&C coins and they said they did not even carry those folders, only the more expensive Dansco.

Tom

MadMarty

I really like L&C, I was on a trip to CA and stopped by the store! Very nice people and I have always been very happy with the service!

Barry

I've had mixed experiences with L&C. First time, they sent me junk which I returned. As they came highly recommended by a well-respected dealer, I gave them a second chance (which I probably would not have done otherwise). This time, when I called, I specifically said I wanted "original, nice coins for the grade, nothing cleaned, etc." That's exactly what I got, so I'm 1 for 2 now. I just ordered a couple of more coins from them a few days ago, also specifically saying I only wanted nice original coins. We'll see what happens...

STEWARTBLAYNUMIS

Pete at L&C is one of the most knowledgeable guys concerning double dies.PCGS also uses him for advice.David Hall told me they tried to hire him. L&C is a VERY GOOD company.

Stewart Blay

dorkkarl

<< <i>my transaction was with L&C, not PCGS >>

if you buy a sony radio from sears & it breaks during warranty coverage, do you send it back to sears for replacement? he11 no, you send it back to sony! why? because YOU PAID for warranty coverage from sony when you bought it. it is the exact same analogy here.

you did not return the coin due to a problem w/ the COIN, but w/ the GRADING. therefore, the party who warrants the GRADE should be held responsible. PCGS, WHO SCREWED UP (according to you) is let off scot-free on this 1 (again), while the coin-dealer gets nailed w/ the overhead costs of what i descrived before.

does this really seem fair to you? in that case, why buy a certifed coin? why not just buy a "gem" as described by L&C? YOU are regrading the coin anyhow, so certification does not matter.

K S

dorkkarl

this situation is a microcosm of exactly why coin prices are through the roof. dealers must necessarily crank up the prices on coins in order to cover the overhead costs of dealing in plastic.

K S

NumisEd

My experience with L&C??? TERRIBLE. They push overgraded raw coins and the slabbed coins that they sell, imo, are PROBLEM slabs. By problem slabs, I mean the ones that are WAY overgraded, which is just about every other slab these days.

Conclusion: L&C sucks and PCGS sucks and all of the slabbing companies suck. They are at the root of all evil in our hobby today. If you don't think so, then you suck too!

edited to say: I am getting sick and tired of all of the games being played and I am angry at those of you fools that propogate the evils of the slabbing industry by constantly feeding them money in exchange for worthless plastic.

mercurynut

L & C are a class act I have started to buy a lot from them.....

cherrypickincoin

Never had a problem with L&C. Thankfully they're about 15 minutes from my house and I can go bang on there door if I ever need to. I've only ever purchased moderns from them anyway, nothing expensive or high-end.

09sVDB

Wow the opinions really seemed to be mixed here. I have bought from them, but not for a while and have good luck. I emailed them a couple of days ago about a coin. Although the coin had been sold, I did get a quick reply from Lee.

Russ

Interesting discussion. I've purchased in excess of three dozen coins from L&C. I had to return several, but all were promptly replaced with examples of the quality I keep. I'd note also that I've returned coins to every dealer including several on this forum, and the king of cameo himself R&I. Thus, the fact that I've had to return to L&C is not unusual.

Russ, NCNE

291fifth

Seems to me that you were initially sent a "throw it out and see if it sticks" coin. I see no reason to congratulate a dealer for sending you a nice coin on the second try. They should have sent you a nice coin on the first try!

Russ

<< <i>Seems to me that you were initially sent a "throw it out and see if it sticks" coin. I see no reason to congratulate a dealer for sending you a nice coin on the second try. >>



291fifth,

With a lot of dealers, I'd agree with that. Not with L&C, though. In their case, I don't think there was any deliberate throwing looking for sticking. They submit and sell in enormous volume, many thousands of coins per month. The vast majority of these are modern "commodity" coins. I doubt they even pay any attention to them, just pack them up as fast as they can and ship them out.

Russ, NCNE

Geoman

I have had only good experiences with L&C Coins. I have only bought 4 coins from them, all through eBay. I have noticed though that their prices in Numismatic News are a lot higher than on eBay. For example, they regularly sell PCGS PR69DCAM Ikes, for around $30 on eBay. But in NN the same dates will be $80; all for basically the same coin.

It is interesting, as I do not think they are selling all those on eBay at a loss. So it just shows me what the profit margin is when they (and maybe other dealers) list items in NN.

jonesy

I purchased a 1983 PR69 Lincoln cent. No problems from them.

Oldtrader3

I used to go to L&C when they had a shop in Hawthorne, CA, right up the street from the old Mattel plant. I bought many raw Buff and Jeff Unc Nickels from them (this was before slabs). Since then, I have not had occasion to be near their Long Beach store, but have bought several slabbed Kennedy Proofs and Silver Roosevelt Dimes dime from them. Communication has been good and they have always sent me decent coins. Even following through on back-orders thoroughly. I have absolutely no conditions about giving them a very good seller rating.

DMWJR

They are huge submitters to PCGS, and sell tons of coins. I have bought some from them with good experiences.

I agree with whoever commented on their prices and also doubled dies. They have several desirable Washington Quarter doubled dies, and apparently someone in the shop has a good eye for attribution on quarters. Their pricing on them however keeps me from buying as many as I would like.

tgilliams

I phoned L&C once about some problem coins I had received. The young "Lady" was extremely rude. I then called Lee, the owner and asked why I deserved such unprofessional treatment. Lee stated that Ebay customers cause him and assistant's many problems, therefore, he said he could understand why I received such cold and unprofessional treatment. I then asked Lee why he does not stop selling on Ebay, if we're such a problem for him and his staff. Lee had no answer and hung up the phone. I had spent over $750 with them, since that time I have NEVER bid on an L&C auction.

Dave99B

I've been a customer for almost 20 years.

I've purchased a fair number of Indian cents, Large cents, and Barber material over the years. Maybe 5K to 10K total. I'd say about 5 years ago they began going down hill. During the past five years, I've had to return at least 50% of my purchases due to light/medium cleaning. So I kind of gave up. They do carry a lot of material, especially tougher dates, but the quality seems to be lagging.

Maybe I'll give them another try down the road.

Dave

koynekwest

Prices on many of the error-variety stuff is WAY too high.

Barry

Addendum on L & C.

Today I received 2 coins ordered from L&C last week, a VF Bust Dime and VF Seated Dime. I specifically said I wanted problem-free, original coins, and was assured they were.

Bust Dime was a VF, a few minor scratches, looks original. I'm satisfied.
Seated Dime is a piece of garbage. Corroded, pitted surfaces, scratches everywhere. It's going back.

This was my third purchase from L&C. First one was returned for cleaned garbage. Second one was OK. Third one, 1 for 2.

I'm finished with L&C. Guess I got lucky the second time, but they simply ignore this customer's request and send whatever garnage they have, hoping the hassle-factor of a return makes it a keeper. You've been warned!

DCAMFranklin

<< <i>I phoned L&C once about some problem coins I had received. The young "Lady" was extremely rude. I then called Lee, the owner and asked why I deserved such unprofessional treatment. Lee stated that Ebay customers cause him and assistant's many problems, therefore, he said he could understand why I received such cold and unprofessional treatment. I then asked Lee why he does not stop selling on Ebay, if we're such a problem for him and his staff. Lee had no answer and hung up the phone. I had spent over $750 with them, since that time I have NEVER bid on an L&C auction. >>



Judging from his brisk sales and large volumn, he doesn't miss the business one little bit. Business owners are funny that way. They don't feel they need to explain their business plan to their customers.