Describe The Brick & Mortar Coin Shop(S) In Your Area.

I have been going to one shop weekly for about 2 years. The owner moved a few suburbs a couple months ago but is still within 20 minutes drive of my house. From the very first time I set foot in that shop I have received friendly, honest, informative advice and havent looked back. Prices are fair, or a little below what others charge.

There is another shop in the city I live in which is about 20 minutes from my house also but the parking is a nightmare and not once have I been given the time of day. I a pretty young and I figure they assume I dont have any money to spend. Their loss I suppose. I drop by one every couple of months but their stuff is always overpriced, overgraded and the service is shocking.

The things I appreciate most in a shop is friendliness, good advice and good prices. Luckily I feel as if I have found all of those in one place. The hobby wouldnt be the same otherwise. BM shops are integral to the hobby. Buying something on the internet just isn't the same as buying it in a shop.

The coin shop in my town operates in what used to be a bank. It sounds like it would be a really cool set-up, but it's not really. The owner has a huge bank vault for all of his coins, but he does not take care of his store at all. It is basically a bunch of collapsible tables and a few display cases. I don't know if there is an actual floor underneath the dirt but I assume there has to be right? He seems very disgruntled and acts like he doesn't want you in his store every time I go in there, but he sells me ASEs for $3 over spot, so I don't care if he slaps me in the face when I walk in. I'll take that deal all day.
I was in once when he took a phone call, all he said was "we don't price over the phone and he slammed the phone down". I felt bad for the caller, but he probably gets a thousand of those calls a day.

In the Fort Worth, Texas area there are a couple of nice places. Arlington Coins has a "treasure box" filled with lots of non-valuable world coins for 10 cents each. CR Coins has a nice selection of US coins. Even though I can't spend as much as I'd like, both places are always welcoming.
Does anyone know of a good place in the Concord, CA area? (Concord, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, etc.)?

There are probably 8 or 10 good coin dealers in Sydney.
The two that I have maintained a very friendly personal acquaintance with for more than four decades are:

Noble Numismatics, and
I.S Wright.

BOTH conduct two or more international auctions annually.
BOTH would have inventories that would be valued in the $ millions.

Both deal in modern mint products and bullion coins, but not by any means, do they provide the main cash flow of their businesses; they leave that to others.

The first would have a reference library that would rival that of the ANS in size and scope. I knew the CEO of this business before he started into commercial numismatics, through a mutual friend.
The second has four branches of their business in four major Australian cities.

I have two coin shops next to me in south Denver, one is a second Rocky Mountain Coin (the larger main Rocky Mountain is more central Denver), they are pretty cool. The owner is an older guy who seems tired of punk kids coming in to sell off their grandparents coins for cigarettes... there is a younger guy there that's pretty cool to talk to and he shows me anything I want to see. The only qualm I have is they seem to be constantly busy with bullion folks and sometimes seem a little annoyed that ALL I want to do is look through wheat cents. Also they won't let me pick through junk and they keep all of it and their mint/proof sets in the back. But eh, I go in once a month and see if they have anything new. They have plenty of slabbed and raw and a pretty sweet selection of all types of US coins under the glass but it's not my thing... yet.

Second shop is literally across the street in another strip mall. Super cool cool guy who openly admits that he loves coins but has to do the bullion thing just to stay around. He does stuff on ebay but also has plenty of good stock to browse. All of his 2x2s are in a vertical rolling display case and it's fun to look through. I usually browse it and then write down all the dates or items I want to see and he sets them all out on a little jewlers pad for the inspect. I figure it's better than asking over and again to pick something out and then put them back. Only thing that I've found there is a lot of his 2x2 inventory has verdigris on the back. Last time I was there I looked at over twenty wheats and only ended up with one because of the verdigris... He did tell me once I got a Dansco for my Mercs I could pick through his container and plug holes so that's cool.

The third place, and my favorite, is off Alameda and I-225. It's a comic/sports/coin shop and everyone there is just a nerd at heart in their own created playground. They are just really easy to talk to and get along with. They have several vertical rolling cases with a TON of US coins and they are just really eager to pull things out and let you inspect and pick and choose. Some item's seem a little overpriced and I'm better at deciding if it's worth waiting for the right ebay deal or just go local. It's my current favorite.

There used to be a little coin shop on Broadway run by a little old couple and they were my favorite a long time ago but they passed away and the store went out. They were down the street from the Main Rocky Mountain Coin and, truthfully, my only recollection of Rocky Mountain was more of a high end jewelery shop with some fairly closed off and stiff people working there. Asked some question and it just seemed very unimportant to them. I haven't been in there since about 2000 so not a fair assessment so I should pay them another visit soon just to check it out.

Denver has probably over 100 pawn shops too but I don't get out to those much. There's also another comic/sports/coin shop up in Arvada that I've heard good things about on Wadsworth. Cool thread though!

Aside from the pawn shops, there are only a couple within half hour from where I live. Both deal with buying/selling gold silver, but one has a sizable stock of US coins. First isn't anything of note but the guy with the large inventory is nice (a bit overpriced on most stuff but I figure the guy has to run a business) and I used to go there several times when I was into US coins. Now that I only collect ancients/medieval, I mainly just buy online (with the only time I get to see in person what I collect is at the local coin show).

In Liverpool New York (near Syracuse) is a great coin shop named Central NY coin and silver.
Super nice guy named Mark runs it, he also organizes a monthly coin show in a nearby hotel.
Honest, personable, coin collector. Sure he buys gold and silver to stay afloat but he's a dyed
in the wool coin guy. Sells coins very reasonable, can always beat ebay, can't say enough for the place and it's gracious owner.

I had posted a response on page two a while back. I have since found another that I'm a "regular" at. His main business is jewelry, but also sells metal detectors and buys gold and silver. Frequently he buys coins. Mostly in bulk. He'll go through them and keep the silver he wants and sells the rest. He rarely gets the time to research any of them, so bargains are plenty. Nice guy, nice business, and only a mile and a half down the road.