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Fascinating observations from hanging around a coin shop and helping a dealer friend/watching transa
wingedliberty
Posts: 4,805 ✭✭
I went to visit my favorite local coin shop yesterday and picked up alot of bargains and had a blast. Have you ever visited a coin shop so often and for so long, that you and the dealer inevitably become the best of friends? This is a process that happens to all of us, particularly in large metro areas, where we weed out the bad dealers from the good. I know this is not possible georgraphically for alot of folks, and its one of the reasons that I am sharing this.
The dealer in question is about my age, in his mid to late thirtees. Very sharp and has his hand on the pulse of the market at all times. The shop is located on the outskirts of a large city in a suburb of about 50,000 people. It has a great reputation among the local dealer community and he also advertises in the local yellow pages. His busiest day is Saturday by far (This is when I was there). He fields alot of questions from the public over the phone and from casual as well as serious and loyal collectors. He attends all of the local and regional shows as well. I first came into this shop about seven years ago and he and I hit it off right away. He knew that I was a serious collector, he let me cherrypick his stock, and was not offended when I cherried a nice variety. It was a 1936 S/S Buffalo nickel RPM-1 in VF, and very nice coin indeed. I was very impressed by that, since alot of dealers take great offense when you do that and they get very curious and take it personally. I liked this guy right away, I offered him a little tutorial on the variety and he enjoyed it and listened, He then offered me some coffee and we let each other know about our background's and how we got started in collecting and what I collect and how he got started as a retail shop.
So every now and then, he will call me and I will help him out. In return he gives me first dibs on great wholesale buys and estates, particularly on toned coins , etc. I also like to spend a few hours in a coin shop. It really relaxes me and I find his interactions with the public fascinating. Here are some interesting examples of the types of occurances that are commonplace in a retail coin shop environment. I hope everyone enjoys them and can relate as both collectors and dealers.
1. The inevitable call from someone who is reading the ad from the yellow pages and says "I have some really old and valuable silver dollars that my grandmother left me"
The inevitable response from the dealer asking what year they are and how many?.
The inevitable response from the caller saying that they are from the 70's .
. The response from the dealer saying that they are clad, explaining what clad is and asking the caller to spend them or keep them. (Same thing for common $2 notes ).(These are also walkins).
2.The walkin from the public asking the dealer if they have such and such state quarters and how come they can't get any from the bank or in circulation.
3.The casual collector who comes in to buy supplies and spends +-$10 (If you get enough of these, you can actually pay the rent on the place).
4. The serious and loyal collector who comes in for a key date on his wantlist and the dealer inevitably telling him that he had an 1877 Indian cent, but just sold it, and appologizing profusely!! and saying that he forgot that "Joe" had it on his wantlist, and promising that he will put the next one away in Joes want list envelope in the safe. What the dealer doesn't say is that the last time he put another key date in Joe's envelope want list, Joe took six months to pay for it, and this time the dealer prefered to sell it to a local dealer who came in with $$$$. LOL
5. The inevitable and scarce walkin of a senior citizen who comes in with a 1936 original proof set. This person is not a collector and knows nothing about coins, and know I can see the battle going on in the dealer's head based on his body language and facial expression.
It goes something like this.
"Well I can offer her 30% of gray sheet, but then I am a Christian and might go to hell!, Just how much can I get away with paying her and not go to hell? What's ethical? Well?, " John Smith" rare coins down the street pays 25% of gray sheet, but then again he sells ACG/NTC garbage, so he is going to hell already!, Well, I 'll give her 40% of gray sheet, since I am going to slab it anyway, I can justify it by telling myself that I'll have to wait two months to turn over any money, time is money, and God will understand that I have a little kid to feed and a mortgage to pay." LOL
6. The 15 minute explanation on why a coin's age has little to do with its value and the resistance from the argumentative person who insists that his corroded VG Constantine I copper has to be worth $1500 since its 1500 years old!!!!
7. The look of happiness on the dealer's face when someone nice comes in and he gets a break from reality and can actually go to the bathroom in the back. I love to do this, but could never own a retail shop and have the patience to put up with what he puts up with. My sympathy for you retail shop dealers. I am glad I am a collector, (but an astute one.).
Happy collecting,
Brian.
The dealer in question is about my age, in his mid to late thirtees. Very sharp and has his hand on the pulse of the market at all times. The shop is located on the outskirts of a large city in a suburb of about 50,000 people. It has a great reputation among the local dealer community and he also advertises in the local yellow pages. His busiest day is Saturday by far (This is when I was there). He fields alot of questions from the public over the phone and from casual as well as serious and loyal collectors. He attends all of the local and regional shows as well. I first came into this shop about seven years ago and he and I hit it off right away. He knew that I was a serious collector, he let me cherrypick his stock, and was not offended when I cherried a nice variety. It was a 1936 S/S Buffalo nickel RPM-1 in VF, and very nice coin indeed. I was very impressed by that, since alot of dealers take great offense when you do that and they get very curious and take it personally. I liked this guy right away, I offered him a little tutorial on the variety and he enjoyed it and listened, He then offered me some coffee and we let each other know about our background's and how we got started in collecting and what I collect and how he got started as a retail shop.
So every now and then, he will call me and I will help him out. In return he gives me first dibs on great wholesale buys and estates, particularly on toned coins , etc. I also like to spend a few hours in a coin shop. It really relaxes me and I find his interactions with the public fascinating. Here are some interesting examples of the types of occurances that are commonplace in a retail coin shop environment. I hope everyone enjoys them and can relate as both collectors and dealers.
1. The inevitable call from someone who is reading the ad from the yellow pages and says "I have some really old and valuable silver dollars that my grandmother left me"
The inevitable response from the dealer asking what year they are and how many?.
The inevitable response from the caller saying that they are from the 70's .
. The response from the dealer saying that they are clad, explaining what clad is and asking the caller to spend them or keep them. (Same thing for common $2 notes ).(These are also walkins).
2.The walkin from the public asking the dealer if they have such and such state quarters and how come they can't get any from the bank or in circulation.
3.The casual collector who comes in to buy supplies and spends +-$10 (If you get enough of these, you can actually pay the rent on the place).
4. The serious and loyal collector who comes in for a key date on his wantlist and the dealer inevitably telling him that he had an 1877 Indian cent, but just sold it, and appologizing profusely!! and saying that he forgot that "Joe" had it on his wantlist, and promising that he will put the next one away in Joes want list envelope in the safe. What the dealer doesn't say is that the last time he put another key date in Joe's envelope want list, Joe took six months to pay for it, and this time the dealer prefered to sell it to a local dealer who came in with $$$$. LOL
5. The inevitable and scarce walkin of a senior citizen who comes in with a 1936 original proof set. This person is not a collector and knows nothing about coins, and know I can see the battle going on in the dealer's head based on his body language and facial expression.
It goes something like this.
"Well I can offer her 30% of gray sheet, but then I am a Christian and might go to hell!, Just how much can I get away with paying her and not go to hell? What's ethical? Well?, " John Smith" rare coins down the street pays 25% of gray sheet, but then again he sells ACG/NTC garbage, so he is going to hell already!, Well, I 'll give her 40% of gray sheet, since I am going to slab it anyway, I can justify it by telling myself that I'll have to wait two months to turn over any money, time is money, and God will understand that I have a little kid to feed and a mortgage to pay." LOL
6. The 15 minute explanation on why a coin's age has little to do with its value and the resistance from the argumentative person who insists that his corroded VG Constantine I copper has to be worth $1500 since its 1500 years old!!!!
7. The look of happiness on the dealer's face when someone nice comes in and he gets a break from reality and can actually go to the bathroom in the back. I love to do this, but could never own a retail shop and have the patience to put up with what he puts up with. My sympathy for you retail shop dealers. I am glad I am a collector, (but an astute one.).
Happy collecting,
Brian.
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"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
Tony
President, Racine Numismatic Society 2013-2014; Variety Resource Dimes; See 6/8/12 CDN for my article on Winged Liberty Dimes; Ebay
ROFLMAO.....yeah, that sounds right.
and it sets us apart from practitioners and consultants. Gregor
Got quoins?
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
BTW........i'm not saying the dealer is not entiltled to make some dough. But 30 or 40% of greysheet is a no-brainer swindle of someone not in tune with the value of their coins. Had the dealer at least informed the seller the sheet value, said i can pay you maybe 70 or 75% of sheet.......i wouldn't have a problem with it. Sounds like he kept the sheet price a secret intending to rip this guy. All too familiar with the bad rap coin dealers get frequently......and in this case deservidly so! How would the PNG code of back this conduct? Think about it........
quote: "5. The inevitable and scarce walkin of a senior citizen who comes in with a 1936 original proof set. This person is not a collector and knows nothing about coins, and know I can see the battle going on in the dealer's head based on his body language and facial expression.
It goes something like this.
"Well I can offer her 30% of gray sheet, but then I am a Christian and might go to hell!, Just how much can I get away with paying her and not go to hell? What's ethical? Well?, " John Smith" rare coins down the street pays 25% of gray sheet, but then again he sells ACG/NTC garbage, so he is going to hell already!, Well, I 'll give her 40% of gray sheet, since I am going to slab it anyway, I can justify it by telling myself that I'll have to wait two months to turn over any money, time is money, and God will understand that I have a little kid to feed and a mortgage to pay." LOL"
Once again resides with Legend, the original purchaser "raw" at live Eliasberg auction. Laura and i "love" the same lady!
Brian.
in his pocket change and wants to know if he can retire now. There's the occasional guy
who bought some great investment coins from TV and needs to raise some cash for an
emergency. He'll be distraught when he learns the great assaortment of mint sets he
bought three years ago for only $15 per set contains no sets worth $15, despite the fact
that many of the sets have doubled in price. There's the quiet older couple who just want
to sell some gold or silver coins and seem to already know exactly what will be paid.
My favorite though are always the older collectors who come in to buy or sell something
one rarely sees. This isn't so common now days since this material tends to go straight
to specialists or e-bay but occasionally one still sees the impossible like a huge collection
of unc conder tokens, or some neat colonials. There's no telling what's going to be in the
next estate and these are often sold locally if the owner didn't make prior arrangements
with the family.
Coin shops are fun, especially when people are pleasantly surprised, such as when some-
thing notable is found in a bucket of junk. ...or one of those '36 proofs appears to be flaw-
less.
whenever you see me refer to "the local dealer" you'll know that i'm talking about a set-up similar to what you have. my advantage is that my pal is located about 1 mile away and i have a very liberal work schedule which puts me in his shop a lot!! we even have what we call Dessert Thursday for very obvious reasons----last week was my treat, cherry pie ala-mode. he's let me re-arrange his showcases, standby when there have been emergencies that he needs to attend to, work a few shows when i'm off work and we are currently doing most of the footwork for a coin show sponsored by 3 area clubs. the upside is that he allows me to get first look at much of what he buys, provided i get there in time.
sad to say at the end of August he'll be moving to a location some 30 miles distant. my bank account will no doubt be a bit enriched and i can only hope to get into his new place a few times a week. i'm sure we could swap several near identical stories, collectors being the peculiar animals that we are!!
al h.
that kind of relationship with a dealer. Maybe when I'm retired. 15 yrs.
Been there,done that,it's cool.
Nice story,Thanks.
wingedliberty & joejeweler - fair points about #5.
Anyone here from Minnesota do buisiness with Northwest Territories gold & Silver Exchange in Down Town Minneapolis in the 60's & 70's ?
Im still angry at the people that did that to them.
Most of the coin shops have diaapeared in the twin cities the last 20 years, allthough I was told about 1 down town I want to check out soon.
I haven't spun a display case in over 20 years
Les