Coin Store Etiquette -Wwyd?

When and if you go to a coin show do the following:
1. Make sure you tell each dealer that you know nothing about coins.
2. Hold lots of hundred dollar bills in your hands.
3. Carry a Red Book, lots of papers with coin info on them.
4. Have a sign stating I am going to buy anything today.
5. Ask dealers if they are honest of crooks.
All just kidding you know.
Make sure you know what you want and the approximate prices of those. And no matter what anyone says, remember that a coin show is nothing but a specialized flea market. Haggling prices is normal. Look around before you buy. Check out the top of this page for the Search Tab and type in coin shows.

In this case I probably wouldn't have said anything. If its the difference between a rarity I may have said something.

But here is where your relationship with the coin shop makes a difference. At my local coin shop in Miami, unless your carrying a sack of silver/gold over your shoulder, no one pays attention to you. I go in asking about high grade gold coins and they ignore me. They're only interested in the low hanging fruit. So at my shop, I would try to bring the rarity to someones attention, but because I didn't come in with a sack of gold, no one will listen......so I would buy it at $1.00.

I remember when coin shops were fun to go to........

Honestly, I only read the first page. But here is my answer. There are two or three dealers I would alert each and every time. I have a great relationship with them, and would they have never jerked me around. Otherwise, all bets are off.

VACookey likes the SBAs. I ordered her a 79 Type 1. We got it and lo and behold, its a type 2. I surely did NOT email that dealer and say hey, you sent me the expensive one, let me pay you the extra. And I would not expect someone to do that if I did the same thing.

This might not be the way that everyone would do it, but it is what I would do. Depends on the relationship I have with the dealer. My local dealer is two people. The man that owns the shop is a ripoff artist, that only works Tuesday and Thursday. He deals primarily with the coins and paper money. The woman works Mon-Wed-Fri-Sat and is wonderful to deal with. Not really flexible with prices, but is extra friendly and goes out of her way to help people. She primarily deals with the jewelry and PM part of the business, but still has a better than basic knowledge of coins. Needless to say I don't deal with the guy at all! But I constantly go through the loose coin bins, and I am cherry picking; no denying it. Going through the Indian cents one day I came across an 08 that I flipped over. Sure enough, an S. $1.50 each for the Indians in this bin. I didn't hesitate pointing it out to her, as I have developed a great relationship with her, and I don't hesitate to consider her a friend. She said that the other guy has a bunch of high school kids working for him that have no idea what they are doing, and he frequently has them sorting through bulk purchases that come in to put them into the right bins. She said "serves him right for not being careful". She said it was mine for $1.50. Since that day, I have NO hesitation saying nothing when I find something good. The 1894-S dime I found in the junk silver bin a few weeks back is my latest big find there.

OOPS!

I meant a 1894-O! Sorry!

If I had found an 1894S I would have been running around like Daffy Duck just discovered Miami Beach!

In my local area, because of taxes, we only have one or two good coin shops. Fortunately, the dealers are honest, and treat you well, even if you're only spending a few dollars. One has a really big shop, but he's still polite to everyone. I found a burned 1940 quarter in his 25-cent junk box, and he let me buy it at face. Melt was about $5 at the time.

These are photos of it.





No complaints for $1.50.

Me I'd buy it and reap the benefits. I am on pretty good terms with my local coin guy buyt I know him well enough to know that he would do the same thing. He's in it for the money and he would probably figure that the dealer should be better aware of his inventory.