WENT TO COIN SHOP AND

LUCKOFTHEIRISH · November 28, 2003 9:34AM

the owner wanted to charge me $5.00 to look his coins. Is this normal?

razorface1027 · November 28, 2003 9:35AM

NO!...But it is the "Luck of the Irish!"....

JMOORE · November 28, 2003 9:36AM

I hope you turned around and walked out the door......

XpipedreamR · November 28, 2003 9:37AM

Are you kidding? Is there more to the story?

ultradmpldollars · November 28, 2003 9:37AM

I sure hope he was being sarcastic..

Ogden · November 28, 2003 9:42AM

Are you a regular in his shop? Do you ever buy anything from him? Seems crazy if you are one of his regular customers.

Ogden

LUCKOFTHEIRISH · November 28, 2003 9:43AM

The few he had in the display I made him take out, and show me. The others he had put away he wanted to charge me $5.00 to look at.
My 8 year old boy was with me, and he said, "don't do it dad". I took his advice.

LUCKOFTHEIRISH · November 28, 2003 9:44AM

It was my first and last time I'll ever go there.

Dollars · November 28, 2003 9:45AM

I have never been asked for money to look his coins. Now I have be "buzzed" into a dealers shop. It took awhile for him to let me in.
(I am a long haired bearded biker type) But now is a dealer I would buy from. Took time to show me stuff and help me learn.

I would post the name of the dealer. But that would be me.

Dave
In Laurel MD

MadMarty · November 28, 2003 9:49AM

He didn't want you taking all his Pissing Minuteman Quarters anyway!

LUCKOFTHEIRISH · November 28, 2003 9:53AM

What are you talking about?

BSqr · November 28, 2003 10:05AM

the owner wanted to charge me $5.00 to look his coins. Is this normal?

Man, that's just bad business IMO. Not good ways to acquire new, and potentially repeat, customers.

Nic · November 28, 2003 10:26AM

Never go back. Stories like these make me remember why coins/numismatics have not gotten further mainstream yet. K

AmericanSilverEagleCoins · November 28, 2003 10:32AM

Did you charge him $10 for talking to you?

MSD61 · November 28, 2003 11:05AM

Hey that sounds like the shop I took my Morgans to today....

Skipper53 · November 28, 2003 11:24AM

The $5 cover charge probably helps pay for the bouncer at the front door !

coinkat · November 28, 2003 11:40AM

This concept makes no business sense at all... if you buy something, do you get a $5.00 credit? How about a $10.00 credit? Just when you thought you have heard and seen just about everything...

wingedliberty · November 28, 2003 11:45AM

Your son has more business sense than this ignoramus maximus.
This dealer is a moron of this highest order. I am surprised that he is still in business. Shame on him.

greghansen · November 28, 2003 12:18PM

Never heard of such a thing.

zenny · November 28, 2003 4:31PM

<< The $5 cover charge probably helps pay for the bouncer at the front door ! >>

i imagined that you had perhaps stumbled into the first topless coin shop, instead of slipping dollar bills into the g-string....

Conder101 · November 28, 2003 11:49PM

If I could do it safely I'd go back one more time with about $2000 in hundreds on me. When he said that it would cost $5, I'd pull out the hundreds, fan them out and flip through them. Then say "Drat, no fives.", put the bills back in my pocket and walk out.

Trooper · November 28, 2003 11:54PM

Conder
I like that one.

Tom

JoeHolt · November 29, 2003 12:07AM

What is the name of the dealer? and where is he? So we know where not to go. Or if we do go there we can ask him for $10.00 to look at his coins if he wants to try to sell us something

CarlWohlforth · November 29, 2003 12:29AM

I overheard someone at the Santa Clara show asking a dealer if he had a shop. The dealer said yes, but he was busy and his time was valuable. He would only let in people who already bought very expensive coins from him. I'm not sure how be became so busy, but I certainly won't contribute to his work

JoeHolt · November 29, 2003 12:49AM

I was at one of my 2 shops in the town im in yesterday and the guy would not let me go through his mint sets said he sells all of the to major dealers and the Home shopping network at very high profits and dont let people go through them. He did let me go through his proof sets only had about 15-20 of them in a box. The other dealer real close to me always has a sign up will reopen on Tuesday I have only cought him in his shop 1 time in about 7 months. I end up going to a shop durning my lunch hour about 30 miles away called The Coin Purse they may be a little higher but good people http://coinpurse.com/ they also had a 42 dd nickle that was in there junk box that they sold at the price of a few dollors (i was not the lucky buyer ) but they saw after the fact what it was and said they should of looked better.

XpipedreamR · November 29, 2003 1:27AM

I can't even fathom this type of situation. Maybe I've just been really lucky to have dealt with only class-act dealers.

If this happened to me, I would be too dumbstruck to offer any kind of clever response other than *@#&$%@!

Dog97 · November 29, 2003 3:13AM

$5 cover charge is acceptable if there is a live band & topless waitresses.

wingedliberty · November 29, 2003 3:22AM

and $2 Michelob Light .

MrEureka · November 29, 2003 3:25AM

The dealer's position is reasonable, especially when compared to my policy of charging $10 to read one of my Forum posts.

Now that you have already read my post, please do the honorable thing and send your check or money order for $10 to:

Andy Lustig
PO Box 4
Tappan NY 10983

Thank you for your continued patronage.

wingedliberty · November 29, 2003 3:29AM

Andy:
My fee is $15, you owe me $5.

XpipedreamR · November 29, 2003 3:37AM

<< Michelob Light >>

SDCollector · November 29, 2003 6:04AM

<< Now that you have already read my post, please do the honorable thing and send your check or money order for $10 >>

Dang! Check is in the mail.

SeattleSlammer · November 30, 2003 3:12PM

...were you wearing your deodorant?

the owner wanted to charge me $5.00 to look his coins. Is this normal?

HavanaJoe · November 30, 2003 4:31PM

I'm going to TRY to play "Devils Advocate". MAYBE the guy has been ripped off before by people distracting him and then swiping a coin when he's not looking, so he figures if he charges a cover only people who are "real" customers will look. It's a stretch, and I pulled it out of thin air. Another option would be that business or profits are down and the dealer figures charging a cover will add to the bottom line.

That being said, I would have a HARD time paying $5.00 just to look. I can't imagine paying a cover when I am the customer, my feeling is that as the customer I should not pay for the privilege of possibly buying a coin. It's just bad business. Customers are to be treated with respect and presented with a good product at a reasonable price, and if they choose to buy from you then you make a reasonable profit for your time, product, and service. Paying a cover is as if the customer is "imposing" on your time. I would have no problem paying a fee to enter a coin show or the like, since that is an event. But I would not expect to pay each dealer I talk to.

If I had just travelled far to the store with the thought of buying a particular coin I *MAY* pay the cover if the dealer has what I want. But rest assured, it would be my first and last time doing business with that dealer.

One question- would the $5 be returned if you BOUGHT a coin? Or does the dealer keep the $5 regardless of whether or not a purchase is made?

hamiltonjh · November 30, 2003 7:27PM

Put a complaint out to the Better Business Bureau. Thats crazy.

Bochiman · November 30, 2003 8:25PM

Andy,

I will be glad to send you the $10 for reading your post, but, first you have to pay me the S&H (and optional insurance if you so desire).
Shipping and handling for my time, equipment, gas, etc will be $20. Insurance, if you so desire will be another $5 (I will self-insure).

So, once you send me the $25 (I will only accept cash or money orders), then I will send you the $10 for reading your post.
It did take me ~20 minutes to read your post, so I used 1/3 of my hourly rate for the charge. Lucky for you, the post office isn't too far away or my mileage and gas charges would have been more

WingedMercury.....same goes for you as well, but it took me an additional 20 minutes to read your post. Please add another $18 to make it a total of $43.

<< The dealer's position is reasonable, especially when compared to my policy of charging $10 to read one of my Forum posts.

Now that you have already read my post, please do the honorable thing and send your check or money order for $10 to:

Andy Lustig
PO Box 4
Tappan NY 10983

Thank you for your continued patronage. >>

Outhaul · November 30, 2003 8:38PM

I don't usually call anyone on a post, but this sounds like a porkie...and I KNOW that there are more people responding to this that think so too...they just don't say it. Not only have I never in my entire coin collecting life seen anything like this, I've never even heard of it! Could this be just another story to incite dealer bashing?

Just my eversohumble opinion.

Cheers,

Bob

fivecents · November 30, 2003 9:30PM

<< the owner wanted to charge me $5.00 to look his coins. Is this normal? >>

Yes, that is normal. Do you want to look at my coins.

Seriously.... That either that dealer is a big jerk or you did something to really upset him.

JasonRox · November 30, 2003 11:09PM

Instead of saying "I'll see you later.", like you say to all the good dealers.

You should say "I'll see you never.", and give him the finger on your way out.

A cover charge to the coin show is worth it.

I just can't believe you all have really bad experiences with dealers. There is a "big" dealer in my city, but I never go there because they do try to rip you off, but I'm afraid to mention to "real" price.

The bottom line is...

Good dealers have good prices.

JoyofCollecting · November 30, 2003 11:15PM

I just have to believe there is more to the story than this.

Outhaul · November 30, 2003 11:20PM

JoyofCollecting:

My point exactly

mintluster · November 30, 2003 11:25PM

<< I just have to believe there is more to the story than this. >>

I agree. Sounds fishy.

mintluster · November 30, 2003 11:27PM

In my experiences (15 years) there are very few "good" dealers in this market. There are some, but not many.

mintluster · November 30, 2003 11:29PM

The key is, when you find one (a good dealer), stay with him, and go to him for everything.
But always, always, attend the shows.
That is where the most selection is and the great experience of this wonderful hobby.

WENT TO COIN SHOP AND

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