Any of you live in the San Francisco Bay area? Also, a question for all.

mrpaseo

I just did a quick search of the San Fran Bay area and found that there are quite a few coin/bullion shops in the area. I will be moving to Fairfield next month.

My question:

When evaluating a shop (Good, bad or indifferent) what should I be looking for (I'll start with a few, please add to the list)?

1. Good selection of numismatics/bullion.

2. Answer questions.

3. Area (Security) in town.

Thanks for your input,
Ray

blu62vette

Wait for WTCG and Sanction to chime in. I am in Sacramento but rarely go to any shops. You are close to quite a few local shows.

mrpaseo

<< <i>Wait for WTCG and Sanction to chime in. I am in Sacramento but rarely go to any shops. You are close to quite a few local shows. >>



Awesome, is there a list of shows somewhere?

mrpaseo

<< <i>

<< <i>Wait for WTCG and Sanction to chime in. I am in Sacramento but rarely go to any shops. You are close to quite a few local shows. >>



Awesome, is there a list of shows somewhere? >>



Google is a wonderful thing:

2012

August 17-19. Santa Clara. Santa Clara Coin & Collectibles Show.

Summer. Alameda. Alameda Coin Club Annual Coin and Collectibles Show.

Summer. Bakersfield. Central California Coin & Jewelry Show.

Summer. Concord. 15th Annual Nor-Cal Invitational Coin Show.

Summer. Fairfield. FCC 23rd Annual Fairfield Coin & Collectibles Show.

Summer. Fremont. Fremont Coin Club 40th Annual Coin Show.

Summer. Merced. 40th Annual Coin Expo.

Summer. Modesto. Modesto Coin, Stamp & Collectible Expo.

Summer. San Francisco. San Francisco Coin Show.

Summer. Vallejo. 40th Annual Vallejo Coin Show.

Fall. Capitola. Santa Cruz Coin Club Coin Show.

Fall. Chico. 30th Annual Chico Coin Club Coin & Stamp Show.

Fall. Concord. DNS 16th Annual Contra Costa Coin Show.

Fall. Fresno. FNS 66th Anniversary Coin Show.

Fall. Sacramento. 55th Anniversary Sacramento Coin Show.

Fall. Sacramento. Sacramento Coin Show.

Fall. Sacramento. SVCC Annual Fall Coin Show.

Fall, San Francisco. Old San Francisco Mint Coin Show.

Fall. San Jose. Peninsula Coin Club 33rd Annual Coin & Collectibles Show.

Fall. Stockton. Delta Coin Club 48th Annual Coin Show.

blu62vette

There are also a few more shows in Sac put on by McIntosh coins.

Are you headed to Travis AFB?

Bochiman

When I evaluate a shop, I not only look at their selection, but I also try to get an idea of the owner/workers.....
* Are they knowledgeable?
* Do they seem to be honest and/or easy to work with?
* Are they grumpy/short-tempered?
* Does the shop seem to only buy, and at very low prices, or do they sell as well (ie....what they buy also sells at the shop)? One of the stores, no longer here, would buy and then sell through ebay. All the storefront had for selling were problem raws, modern USMint items (proof sets, eagles, mint sets), and supplies.
* Do they talk down coins or can you have an intelligent conversation about what any particular is graded? Ie....if you are selling a PCGS/NGC MS66 something, do they call it an XF or something? I actually had a dealer do that, locally at a show, and all I had done was tell him I was selling and if he was interested in taking a look. I didn't take offense, I just remembered it and vowed to never sell him any good coins...and never have since.

mrpaseo

<< <i>There are also a few more shows in Sac put on by McIntosh coins.

Are you headed to Travis AFB? >>



Actually, I have two more days on active duty I will be retired as of 1 AUG 12 with 20 years, 3 months and 8 days. I accepted a General Manager job in Benicia and will be living in Fairfield.

pursuitofliberty

Ray,

Not sure about shops in the area, but you'll be in a good central location in a lot of ways. Fairfield is within an hour and a half of almost every population center in Northern CA. Heck, it's only a couple hours from us rednecks down here in the Central Valley.

Congratulations on your retirement (I hope), and thanks again for your service.

Oh and if you've never been in CA as a collector, be ready for the silly tax game.

Good Luck with the move!

mrpaseo

<< <i>Ray,

Not sure about shops in the area, but you'll be in a good central location in a lot of ways. Fairfield is within an hour and a half of almost every population center in Northern CA. Heck, it's only a couple hours from us rednecks down here in the Central Valley.

Congratulations on your retirement (I hope), and thanks again for your service.

Oh and if you've never been in CA as a collector, be ready for the silly tax game.

Good Luck with the move! >>



Ahhhh what tax game?

CoinMiner1

Hi, You will live within an easy 1.5 hour drive of many dealers and coin shows.

A coin show is going on NOW just an hour south of you in Fremont.

Fairfield show in just a couple weeks; Vallejo just a couple months back.

http://solanocoinclub.com/coinshows.htm

Off the top of my head there are 15-20 brick and mortar storefront coin stores within an hour from Fairfield, add an extra 30 minutes and you can include the San Francisco/San Jose dealers.

You might consider going to a coin show first and interacting with the dealers that set up there and see which ones have the inventory you are interested in, which ones you feel comfortable with, etc. Maybe use the coins show like a smorgasboard - figure out which dealer you want to go back for seconds; saves you the time/gas of driving to each store.

There are some great dealers in the area…many coins shows....historic mint…gold story...= great numismatic country

welcome.

blu62vette

The tax game is under 1500 is taxable, over 1500 is not.

SanctionII

Coin dealers in California are located everywhere, from big cities to small out of the way places you may have never heard of.

Over the past 30 years I have traveled all over California for court cases I handle. During these travels I have stopped by numerous shops.

You can find a list of California based coin dealers by going to Coininfo.com and doing a search (by state, or zip code).

A large number of shops are located within a close drive of Fairfield, including those in the SF Bay Area (No. Bay. East Bay, So. Bay, Peninsula, SF, Marin); those along the 1-80 corridor going from SF to Sacramento; those in the Sacramento area; those in the Sacramento Valley; those in the San Joaquin Valley; those in the gold country; those in the high Sierra; and even those in Reno/Sparks/CC/VC. As earlier stated there are also a large number of coin shows.

You never know what a given shop will have unless you stop by and look. You can size up the shop, the shop owner and the employees fairly quickly by stopping by, looking at what is in the display cases and by engaging in conversation. Telling the owner what you collect, what you are looking for and what pricing you are willing to pay; and asking the owner what his inventory consists of (both on display and in the back), what his specialty is, what his buy pricing is (i.e. some percentage back of bid) and what his sale pricing is (bid, ask, full retail or retail plus) will quickly clue you into whether you will want to do business with the person or not. Sometimes though the dealer will not warm up to you immediately. You can get him to warm up to you only after repeat visits so that he can evaluate you and decide if you will be a customer he will like dealing with or whether you will be a pain to him.

Good luck and stop by some of the local shows.

19Lyds

Unless you "LOVE" to drive, you might want to reconsider Bakersfield and Chico. Bakersfield is about 5 hours and Chico would be about 2.5 hours from you.

SanctionII

Do not even get me started on So. Cal. coin shops (Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, LA County, Orange County, San Diego County, Imperial county the Inland Empire and the high desert).

There are also coin shops along US 395 on the Eastern side of the Sierras. Probably a bunch in far north eastern California and in the towns in the Cascades and along the far north coast.

LanLord

It'll be a bit of a drive, but Witter Coins in downtown SF (Hobart building) is well worth your time to drop by.
Fremont coins is also a good one to drop into, however, the current owner is looking to retire so I'm not sure how long they will be around.
There are a number of good shows, anything with Macitosh involved is a good thing, I highly recommend them.

WTCG

Fairfield and Solano County is an interesting location. Technically it's considered to be in the San Francisco Bay Area but on the outer fringe. Located about half way between San Francisco and Sacramento, the demographic is different from most of the Bay Area and you are basically on the dividing line between the coastal area and the inland area of Northern California. The world headquarters of Jelly Belly is in Fairfield and you are no more than a half hour away from the excellent wines of Napa Valley.

You would evaluate Bay Area coin shops the same way you would coin shops anywhere else in the country. If you are mostly a buyer of bullion then you would naturally gravitate towards a bullion shop and if you are a buyer of numismatic coins then you would head in that direction. Although there are many shops listed in the Bay Area, I have been to most and the majority of them are of little use to me. Once in a while here and there a few nice coins will show up but don't expect that to happen on a daily basis. Some shops are assets to the community while others you wonder how they stay in business. The area shops run the complete gammut.

The area also hosts a surplus of coin shows. There are numerous coin shows in the Sacramento area and even more in the Bay Area.

SkyMan

Here is Beedon's CA. show list. It updates regularly.


Beedon