For the veterans-- was a dealer's physical location ever relevant to purchases and sales?

Longacre

I know that the internet has been the great equalizer in numismatics, with its world-wide presence and ability to transact business without ever speaking to a live person. For example, my preferred dealer, Doug Winter, somewhat recently left his old firm and reopened his own practice. For all I know, he can be sitting in front of his computer in his pajamas blogging about Southern gold. Similarly, I heard that QDB recently had a fall and broke his leg. With the internet, however, as I continually press the refresh button on the ANR site througout the day like a trained monkey, I am delighted that new content and a new Dave's Notes pops up occasionally.

However, was a dealer's physical location ever relevant? I read the Abe Kosoff book, and it seems that even in the 50's and 60's, dealers were traveling and flying all over the world to deal in coins. Although I would not be born for several decades, I assume that most coin transactions were done over the phone, and a collector did not have that hard a time connecting with a dealer who could provide the choice coins he was looking for. Therefore, as I look today at a firm like Stack's, with their high priced real estate in midtown, or even Smythe, with their digs in the financial district, I wonder whether physical presence ever had any relevance whatsoever. What do you think?

RYK

More than the phone, I actually think that many transactions were done by mail up until the late 20th century. Remember, long distance calls were expensive and coin collectors were always (and are) tightwads.

I distinctly remember an old time collection offered by Heritage (? Anderson) in the last couple years in which photographs of correspondence with various coin firms were included in the catalog. It was really cool reading them, and you got a feel for both the collector and his tastes and how dealers operated at the time. Hopefully, I can dig this up when I get home.

Longacre

<< <i>I distinctly remember an old time collection offered by Heritage (? Anderson) in the last couple years in which photographs of correspondence with various coin firms were included in the catalog. It was really cool reading them, and you got a feel for both the collector and his tastes and how dealers operated at the time. Hopefully, I can dig this up when I get home. >>




You should get the Kopald catalog that I referred to in another post. The consignor rants and rants about how big auction firms are only interested in the bottom line and throw out all of the "paperwork" related to a coin's history, previous owners, etc. It's interesting reading.

coindeuce

Absotively posalutely!!! The shop I work for is located at the junction of N.Y. I-90 & I-87, in a fairly densely populated metropolitan area. We're so freakin' busy buying over the counter, I don't even get a lunch break!! And it's not all crapola eother.

WTCG

If a dealer has a physical shop then actual location is very important. I have noticed that shops that are in high foot traffic areas tend to do more retail business and have more coins "walk in through the door" than shops that are located in dangerous areas or in hard to find places.