Coinweek Article On Difficulties Finding Good Coins To Buy At Coin Shows

What an interesting article!

I think that this subject could be debated/ discussed for hours.

I am in Canada and I have been slowly losing interest in the coin shows. I am mostly interested in foreign. I thought that it was partly because of my expanding collection and changing tastes, but I also think that less new material has been showing up.

A dealer who I am friendly with mentioned that he was having trouble finding new stuff.

In the context of dealers flipping over and over again, eventually if it doesn't get to the collector there won't be a market, as that comic book example showed.

In the context of dealers buying from other dealers at special 'dealers' prices, I was once privy to a conversation between two dealers. Dealer 2 wanted a "dealer" price on a certain banknote from Dealer 1. Dealer 1 said that nobody gave him a "dealer" price and stuck to his guns. Dealer 2 eventually paid more. So the "dealer" price may be a ploy in some cases.

I find that I have better luck maintaining a good relationship with my local coin shops, who sometimes tell me when new material comes in.

What is quite clear is that it is a different collecting world now than 20-40 years ago.

Either we adapt and take advantage of the new world or we have to move on.

@sel_69l

100% that knowledge is required when collecting..

I just posted a reply on why I chose my Avatar, & it explains my Numismatic history..

I recently found a group of ancient & medieval coins that have not seen the light of day in over 10 years, and needs to be Identified..

Well, if auctions are draining all the material from shows, we will just have to start using auctions instead. I have not done this but I am thinking of starting.

I know some in our coin club you use them extensively, as the material they want is not seen otherwise.

Interesting article. I have been to coin shows and have picked up some nice coins but it's a lot of work if you are looking for specific coins. So, for example, when I was looking for multiple coins for my 7070 Type Set or my 7100 Lincoln set, I could peruse each dealer's display and maybe find something, But looking for specific coins now - for example, a 15-S Lincoln Cent in the MS63RB range - is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. One, even if you do find one, no one seems to want to actually sell it at a market price and two, you probably are not even going to find anything worth looking at 90% of the time. One thing I like about auctions is that it tends to force market pricing.

Ultimately, it makes sense to me at least to use all the avenues available - coin shows, coin stores, ebay and auction sites like Heritage. And CCF of course if possible.

My LCS always questions me, why do I bother with the shows. I will pay way more there than I would at his store, and he is correct. Shows are great to look around and see interesting items that are way out of my range, but not so great for buying.

It is quite true that a dealer will pay more attention to a "high roller" rather than the 10 year old there with a parent.

But the better dealer should not ignore the 10 year old, since you need a good supply of 10 year olds today to grow a single "high roller" of tomorrow.

There will always be a place, though, for the "low roller" in small or regional shows. There are quite a few small dealers who do this as a hobby and are prepared to give the time of day to small buyers (and small sellers for that matter).

Our RCNA convention gives a lot of attention to the young collector. Better shows can also do this.

At coin shows around my area I see coins priced way over book price.

What's a coin show? Is it like a coin market that only meets once a year?

Random jokery aside (though I really had never been at a numismatic event with a lesser frequency than weekly... okay, a few book shows I've visited had a tiny numismatic section), much of the above is oriented on people with a much higher budget than me.
For me (under modern exchange rates), a $5 coin must be very good indeed to justify such a high price, and I'm unlikely to buy a $10 coin unless it's very rare and/or silver; most of my purchases fall in the $0.1 to $2 price range, and only very few are higher (a few are lower).


One big area of my collecting is old (or otherwise uncommon) coins in cull grades (though I typically stay away from holed or otherwise obviously heavily damaged coins), for cull prices. (Not really sure why - maybe I like the idea of having an uncommon coin so cheaply, maybe I just like the history.)
There's a lot of them at coin markets, in dealers' junk bins (some dealers are very surprised when I'm able to identify a cull-grade coin). I doubt that a typical coin show would have especially many; it's far too low-end!

One place, when noticing what I'm looking for in junk bins, gave me the option of looking through their cull box for especially low prices (less than $0.02 per coin). I found a few very nice (by my opinion) coins in there, came again for that box two more times.
Then one time, after I looked through and left, they call me two hours later (I was passing by their place, going to another dealer) and say that another guy left and bought all the other coins in that cull box sadly, there still were no new culls for me when I went there a month later.