"Want list" coin brokers

Yorkshireman

Does anyone here have experience with dealers who seem to operate on a "Want list" only basis and help in the hunt as opposed to having their own inventory?



At least one or two nationally known individuals come to mind but I hesitate to mention names. Are they helpful if you know the players in the space in which you want to buy?



Please post your thoughts on the issue. PM me if you have specific names with pros or cons.

Moldnut

I suspect there are quite a few on the BST that do this.

roadrunner

If you already know the players in your space, these other guys might only end up costing you more money. I've only sent a dealer to find a coin for me a few times. And in those cases they got it cheaper than I probably could have. Can't even think of a single dealer I've ever worked with that had no inventory and only did want lists. In a sense Dave Akers may have worked that way for part of his career as the ultimate collector's advisor. Bill Nagle did something like that for Gene Gardner. But Bill certainly has had inventory while Akers I'm not sure about. Sometimes it's hard to separate dealer's inventory from their personal collections. Doug Winter seems to have a small number of coins on the web site. I suspect he does a lot of want list searches.



Most of the time I sent out want lists

Cougar1978

I know of one vest pocket trader who was a $2.50 Indian Specialist who could locate any date (and usually grade you wanted) in the series if he did not already have in stock. He also did National Banknotes especially in grades AU and above. I once bought a really nice $10 1882 Brown AU (later graded AU58) from him.

ricko

There was a VP dealer (I always called them 'walk-around dealers') that used to frequent the shows in the Seattle area....he always asked me what I was looking for and did I want him to get it ... claimed he could find all sorts of stuff. I never used him... Cheers, RickO