How Do You Buy 'Most' Of Your Ancient Coins?

Uncertain split between brick-and-mortar (...usually actually rooms in a mall) and coin fairs (which are kind of like coin shows but smaller and more frequent). Both of these are often the same sellers and often (different parts of) the same mall.
I suspect that most of my ancients had been bought from Vasya (a brick-and-mortar-ish dealer whose store had been found by me in at least four different locations) - he had some ridiculous bargain bins, and I often bought as much as 20-30 coins from him at once - but maybe some of my other purchases account for at least that much combined. I really miss Vasya's store...

...Um, silly question, what's up with the poll?

For me, split between US-based and EU-based on-line auctions (often found initially via vcoins, and ma-shops, respectively). So pretty much the exact opposite of @sap.

Another option: I have one purchased with time. Found paying attention to the ground sometimes pays.

A common roman copper. Lest some bureaucrat reads this and starts trying to locate me to confiscate it.

My last years' purchases (medievals to slightly later):
90% European auction houses
5% U.S. auction houses
5% European online retail

If I go back farther I pick up a few ebay purchases

Floyd;

If an ebay seller is top rated plus their business matters to them. If you buy from a top rated plus seller you can get your money back even if you are just bored with the coin in 30 days or less. I have no control over that, I just see a buyer has requested a refund and ebay will take the money out of my account as they have access to my bank account. So if you buy from a VCOINS seller, you trust their word and they are great guys who will do right. If you buy from a top rated seller on ebay I have nothing to do with the matter and ebay just removes the money from my account. You don't even have to talk to me about it. I get that after selling on ebay for 20 years people still don't trust us, as there are bad sellers who appear and disappear all the time. But there are a lot of us who are constant. Also, ancient coins is a finite community. It is hard to get new people. But I can't tell you how many times a person who was searching for some owl knickknack stumbles on an ancient coin and I get the question, how can such an ancient item cost so little. I tell them they were not melted down etc but the point is a year or so later the person is writing to me saying I have a mintmark wrong as the legion did not travel in that area. So ebay actually expands the base of people who simply don't know they have the 1 in 1000 chance gene to like ancient coins. In ten years will people still say ebay is not a great place to buy? Of course. But that is unfortunate.

I'm not sure that's relevant. I buy the coin, not the seller.

Even large auction houses & TPGs make mistakes.

You should be able to trust in your own experience & education... especially if dealing with anonymous online marketplaces.

Floyd:

There is a not a rule that works for if someone has like 200 sales and 98% etc. They could have had friends bid and that won't work. And a good seller of ancients can be way overpriced. He buys a coin for $10, puts $800 make offer with a bunch of Wikipedia information and an unsuspecting person says $50 and they take it right away. It is sad what you can do with real coins and still make a wrong profit. If I wanted a specific coin, as a collector, VCOINS has people willing to hold coins for years and keep track of them. Have a house full of coins waiting for a collector who needs them. E Bay, on the other hand, is great for if you wanted a bargain from a dealer who starts coins at $1 and just has enough of a reputation that can expect to make a profit. Such a dealer never knows what they will have as they buy lots available from auction houses etc. Like this guy below, not me, is beyond reproach. As well as the one below him, again not me. Fun places to buy and that is where E Bay is best. Shop for nothing in particular. Just what can be a great deal they happen to have that week. The market going priced is established in a no reserve auction. (And these guys may have coins they are not willing to just give away, at reserve price to start. That is a different type of sale, which I am not speaking of now. That is more like a VCOINS dealer setup. I finally stopped teaching high school this spring and am going to just be an Emeritus professor of chemistry at my regular university I have been at for 28 years. I hope to get back to the days I was selling a ton in the above way but I am just way too shell shocked from my high school experience to think about anything but just keeping to shop open selling maybe a few things a week. And I need to fix up my deck etc. These guy s below are serious.)

https://www.ebay.com/str/frascatiusancientcoins

https://www.ebay.com/str/tatersrelics