My "Coin Shop" Experience

My opinion is .... this is a good learning experience for you.

You went to three coin shops and they did not offer you anywhere near
what you think your coins are worth and you were offended. For the coin
dealers, there is no easy way to tell you what you don't want to hear.

Coin shops that deal in large volumes of coins can easily buy and sell
100 thousand wheat cents a year. With less than 20 year/mint wheats
being better than common. And only 5 to 7 having good value in all grades.

Many dealers are only going to offer you 2 cents each for wheats.
They dump them in bin and try to get 5 cents each.

I once bought a collection that had 16,000 wheats cents, and was happy to
sell them to a dealer at 1 1/2 cents each.

Large dealers will end up with rolls of pre 1916 wheats with mint marks .
and not many collectors coming in the door to buy them.

You posted that you bought $400 worth of coins from a dealer that treated
you well. But you did not say what those coins were ... date mint marks..
If they were all wheats .. and you paid $2.00 per coin ... good reason that
dealer treated you better ... good chance he paid someone 2 cents each
for them.

It can take decades to really learn how to buy coins at good prices .. even
harder to learn how to sell them at a good price. Most album/set collectors
will pay far more for the common ..even semi key coins, than they will get back
If they try to sell them down the road. That is the hobby part of coin collecting,
not the investing part.

There are many younger people today, even younger people in my day,
that don't have good communication skills. They might not even realize
things they say can irritate older people.

I have heard similar complaints over the years about coin dealers I deal with,
even when I was younger. But I have always found ways to develop good
relationships with the majority of coin dealers I have come in contact with.

I looked at your links, and would agree that many of the
coins are worth more than the Two Cent common price.

For me ... I would not agree with many of the grades written
on the 2x2's.

I help out at local coin shops, and enjoy looking through and
sorting collection that come in. At first I would look for
wheat cents like you posted, thinking some of them have a
better than common value. But after putting hundreds of them
to the side to 2x2 it became overwhelming. I will put away
the semi keys, like 10, 11 and 13 "S" mints and the 22 D's.
But they will pile up.

What I am saying is ...

Coin dealers will see volumes of common and semi common coins.
More selling these type coins than buyers. If you owned a
coin shop, at what point would you stop paying better prices
for coins that you already have and are not selling. And when
the coins have problems like cleaned or damaged they are much
harder to sell. If you already have rolls of 1909 vdb cents,
how excited would you be to buy more .. just a example.

Once you try and look at the coin dealers side of the table,
you might understand why he offers the lower prices for your
coins.

Another example - I really don't try and purchase wheat cents
anymore. But I will buy whole collections when offered to me.
Here is a older picture, maybe two years ago, of just my
U.S. cents. (I have a lot more now)



If I took these to a dealer, I know they would do the same
to me .. offer Two Cents each for the wheat's.

If I was going to sell, I would sort out the semi keys and
better grade early wheat's and try to sell them on ebay.
Even then the fee's and shipping would eat into most of the
selling prices.

There are collectors that acquire coins for the joy of collecting.

There are many that are doing it with the idea that they are
making good investments.

Buying common .. problem coins is not a good investment.

I would say that some of your purchases were a good deal.

If your trying to put a complete set of wheat cents together some of those
coins you got at a good price.

If you walked into a coin shop to buy some of those semi key dates, I am
sure you would end up paying more than you did for them.

In my previous post ... just trying to offer the coin shops point of view.

That is one more than I have!

I believe as you get older, you will realize the folly of this statement.
EVERYTHING you spend your own money on that is not a life necessity, is an investment of sorts.
Even the necessities are an 'investment', in yourself. You have a future that is not yet clear because youth limits your options in many ways. If you buy good food and eat well, you are investing in your future health. If you dine on fast food all the time, your 'investment' may not pan out so well in the future after you have gained weight and heart problems.
You get the idea. Cash you spend on coins as a hobby required an investment of your time and energy, two of the most precious assets you will ever have. Those are not the unlimited resources that seem to be available to those under ~30. You will *not* appreciate this truth until you are 50 or older.
It may also take awhile for you to appreciate just how difficult it can be to be able to acquire enough funds to truly enjoy the coin (or any other) hobby by being able to afford the higher end items that ARE a good investment.
So spend wisely, and keep in mind the uncertainties of life that can easily surprise you with an unwelcome setback requiring the disposal of discretionary possessions.

GR58 really nailed the basic truths of the coin hobby.
Those grumpy dealers probably once were enthusiastic, idealistic beginners like you, now worn down by the harsh realities of life and the passing of time like mortgage payments, health problems, divorce, taxes... we are all struggling in our own way, with our own karma to deal with.

Apologies for the tl;dr.

I hear everything you're saying mysilveryears. There are many extra things in life that we don't need. I choose to spend my extra money on coins. Some people spend it on nice clothes, others on drugs. Out of those three things, coins seem like the smartest option to me. Even if I do lose money on my "investment" I certainly saved a lot more than someone who used drugs or bought insanely expensive clothes. All three things have something in common. They made the buyer happy. If someone spends $500 on clothes in ten years it will most likely be in the trash or donation pile and their money is gone. If I spend $500 on coins I may see $400 of it back again because one day I'll sell it someone else to make them happy. In the end I got the better deal because I only spent $100 to make myself happy whereas the other person spent $500.
So yeah I guess you could call coin collecting an investment. It's a very smart one if it makes you happy. In 30 years if it doesn't make me happy anymore, I just sell it. and make back some money that I spent 30 years ago.

Does anyone know LWC coin dealer on Long Island?

It's never a good idea to walk into a shop with a huge collection. I've seen it many times at my LCS as I've spent a lot of time hanging out there over the years.

They will quickly look through it for key dates and exceptional coins that catch their eye. The rest is "junk", i.e. low value coins that are more trouble than they're worth to the dealer unless he can steal them (for like 2-3 cents each). The average brown wheats end-up in a bag at the shop, these bags are usually sold wholesale to other dealers or the public (5000 ct bag).

The process of searching customer wheats at a shop is time consuming - it's like cleaning the toilets at a shop for the worker. LOL But sometimes they hit the jackpot and one of those average coins turns out to be a $100+ coin.

Anyhow, dealers try to avoid the bulk common stuff because it's labor intensive, yields almost no profit margin and is a pain to deal with (dead inventory, space waste). What they told you is what you'll hear from the majority of dealers.

If you truly want to liquidate a collection, you must break it into pieces. Take just 2 or 3 coins to a dealer at once and have a bottom sell price in mind. I recommend using the Gray Sheets, it's the same tool they all use.

GOOD LUCK