Discussion At Local Coin Store

To George8789,
There is no substitute for looking at and handling coins in person.
If you trust the coinshop and if your experiences have been pleasant, then by all means continue to do what you are doing.
You are fortunate, as others have said, to live in an area where you have access. Many collectors in more rural areas are forced to use Internet outlets.
But the bottom line is the same: there are good, bad and indifferent dealers everywhere. It is part of the learning process.

To everyone else,
There was a table at today's coin show which featured sports' cards, comics and a few coins. While dad was away getting a doughnut his young son took over like a pro:
"The comics are a dollar. I have read them all. Let me know if you need help."
Well, there IS a younger generation learning how to be a salesperson. It did my heart good.

WElll...

I came back to the hobby after many years out. you know what got me into collecting was the American Silver eagles. Sure I saw the dimes, nickels and what not. But they never caught with me. The Eagles did tho, and then gold eagles. Then as time progressed, I started into world bullion and proof gold and silver coins mainly from gov mints and now as I come back I am finding out the private mints.

I find theres just so many beautiful silver and gold proof coins such as the eagles, the pandas, Kooks, Libertads to name a few.

Now, for me, going to the coin shop,, I just dont have time for it. Trading from sun up to sun down, M-F, I dont have the Libertad (no pun intended) lol to go to the coin shop, shoot the breeze, look over the coins and take my time. I would LOVE too but I cant and so for me, zipping along the net is the best thing hunting down my coins.

Now, 6-8 months ago I did stop at my local coin shop and wanted some air-tites. Well, my dealer didnt have much of those which was pretty disappointing. So I felt I wasted a trip, and that was on the weekend.

So I think theres a lot of folks who are in the same boat, not so much the economy but a time factor. Furthermore, lets face it- coins arent as "cool" as the mainstream public would see it. In the day and age of social media instant communication, coins take a back seat.

There will always be a core group of coin hobbyists. Thats not going away. Coins are cool.. but they dont meet the definition of whats pushed in todays world. After all I havent seen a 2014 Samsung Galaxy Silver proof phone with COA and low mintage yet nor an iCoin table from aapl lol.

I decided to take a while to post just to see if my inclinations where what others were seeing. I have 2 LCS's in my town and one is mostly bullion but the owner prefers making money on coins. The other deals in coins exclusively. I thought that was odd but when I stopped in to talk to him about it, he told me that due to the deterioration of the town a large portion of the bullion walking in the door was stolen! So, he doesn't deal in it and he doesn't have the cops stopping by every other day to check for stolen property. He also said that with the slim profit margins that it was wasn't worth the effort in handling the quantities needed to make money. I still like going to a shop for coins but the more specialized my collecting becomes the more I have to turn to the Internet for things I want.

I also noted that a lot of people are concerned about attracting the young to the hobby. When I first joined my local club I thought it would be a priority for them too but it just wasn't the case. We discovered that our greatest source of new members is the middle-aged. Their kids are grown and they have the free time and money to indulge themselves. We get many more members from this segment of the community so we make them the focus of our recruiting efforts. Our club meets on a weekday and at noontime so it's convenient for our members and while we don't attract members in large numbers our club members tend to be around longer and are more involved than the youth we recruit.

One of the things that keeps me going to my local shop week after week is their bid board. I've learned a lot and seen many interesting things studying that board each week.

So if a brick and mortar shop doesn't wish to eat ebay fees and sell for pennies on the dollar they are close-minded? I'm confused. If anything, I would prefer to not sell on ebay. He may need to broaden his options, but ebay shouldn't be the only option, nor should he be mocked for not choosing it.

Was going to visit my LCS today but I got distracted. I like the guy there, he's in his 70's and does it mostly to get out of the house at this point. Not much up under the displays besides the usual selection of slabbed US and other US type coins, but if you know what you want he usually has something hiding out in his back room (I call it the cave). I collect Islamic and Indian so none of that really, but he does have some nice junk boxes which are good and solid as well as a good foriegn selection. Just gotta ask.
There's another shop I went to about 30 min. away, does the bullion thing, I walked out after he gave me a dirty look when I said I collect Islamic and Indian and did he have any coppers. Now if I see the big "WE BUY GOLD" sign it keeps me out. Been collecting 27 years and the gold/silver bugs are finally getting under my skin. The 1 grain silver ingots make me laugh. Oh and copper bars, seriously?
The gold/silver bugs will be all sad when the price goes down eventually. The only winners in the bullion game are the middle men who take a profit and keep the goods moving along.

All the silly people who have invested in gold/silver over the last 10 years when prices have increased more than fivefold sure look foolish.