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 Replies: 45 / Views: 6,409 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3843 Posts |
Describe The Brick & Mortar Coin Shop(s) In Your Area. Just wanted to start a topic discussing the small local coin shop(s) that members here at CCF patronize or live in close proximity to and their experiences at them. I'm sure there is a lot of variety from large stores that see a lot of volume and those that are smaller in scale. Some shops are likely geared towards the low end of the collecting spectrum with lots of inexpensive coins in popular series while other dealers might target more affluent collectors and maintain an inventory of high end coins. Of particular interest (for me at least) is the number of such shops in your area, the honesty of shop owner(s)/employees, any specialization, and the size of the inventory which they maintain. Feel free to be as specific as you desire. Looking forward to reading your comments about the B&Ms in your area! ------------------------------------------------------ In my area there are a number of coin shops (8-10 perhaps more) within a thirty mile radius. I have been to three of these and I'm a regular customer at one of the shops while I stop at another one a couple times a year. The main coin dealer that I patronize has a storefront in an older area that is adjacent to several affluent neighborhoods but which is also close to some less desirable areas. It seems to be fairly high volume shop with a considerable number of customers coming in constantly to sell mostly precious metals and small collections/accumulations likely inherited from relatives. There seems to be less interest in the collectable coins which the store has an extensive inventory of probably well in excess of a million dollars. The coins on display tend to be higher dollar items although they have type boxes and other coins in the back which they will bring out for you to inspect. The owner is very reserved but in my experience has been always extremely honest, quickly pointing out the flaws that a coin might have and fair when quoting me a price. As a younger collector I'm sure that I could have been easily been taken advantage of but this dealer has always been honest despite my inexperience. The second shop that I occasionally stop at is actually closer to my home than the primary dealer that I patronize. The owner is a middle age guy with a great personality that will spend hours talking about coins with you however his inventory is a fraction of the other shop and usually has slightly higher prices. I feel bad about not stopping in there more often but the owner of the other has treated me well and has more of the coins that I'm looking for. There is a third shop that is about 35 minutes away from where I live that has never really made me feel welcome there and they seem reluctant to show me their better items. From what I have heard this shop has had a lot of neat coins in the past although I wasn't really impressed with their offerings when I went there. Their prices quoted have been higher than I expected and I'm thinking they were trying to gouge me or they thought I wasn't a serious customer. I don't think I will be going back to that particular shop. Edited by Joe2007
11/28/2012 01:46 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1211 Posts |
The LCS closest to my house seems nice upon initial inspection. However, I stopped going there after this incident: I asked the owner/operator if he had any 1878-S Morgans. He pulled a roll out of the safe and let me look at 3 coins matching my request. I saw 1 coin that I was mildly interested in so I asked him for a price. He told me, I studied the coin a bit longer, and told him thanks but I'm gonna pass. I then looked around a bit more and he says to me "it doesn't matter to me if you buy these coins or not, I'm gonna sell them one way or another". I didn't try haggling with him or do anything to warrant this response. I thanked him, left, and never returned.
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Valued Member
United States
386 Posts |
I go to a small coin shop in Guilford, CT. The shop sells coins and buys lots of gold and silver. There are a lot of affluent people who buy and sell there. My first time in, I bought an ASE. I thought it was a big deal. The owner, though, put $300,000.00 worth of gold coins in my hand. I didn't know why. They were from an estate sale. That act made me feel inconsequential there. I know I am small potatoes. spending about $150.00 per month. But I continued to go back and the owner is nice, helpful. I have found a worker there who specializes in Morgans, which I collect. He treats me like gold. Teaches me. Turns out he and I worked side by side years ago in the soda and beer trade. He remembered me. He gives me prices that are below Numismedia FMV and buys back anything he sells me. I recently traded a few common-date Morgans and added some money to the transaction for my first CC Morgan. I couldn't be happier with the quality of the coins (Actually, I could, since I am always looking for an MS66 coin under that MS64 label!!), the prices, and the special attention I receive at the shop. The worker, Mike, typically displays seven or eight coins for me to decide among. He knows what I look for in Morgans and sets aside what I'd like--as well as those he likes. He knows his stuff and I feel privileged for the guidance and the kinship. Other than posting and reading here, I am alone in collecting. There are only two other coin shops in the greater New Haven area that I know of. One doesn't have quality and the other is overpriced. I feel very fortunate in having the shop I go to. There is also a lot of variety there and customers also sell coins privately through the shop. |
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Valued Member
United States
403 Posts |
Lower eastern shore of maryland
coin shops, non existent
pawn shop 30 miles away, pays 40% of silver value for a morgan then sells it for 3 to 4 times silver value
nearest shop 90 miles away, usually does not put a grade on morgans or anything else, tells you to grade it and the price is what it is
hardly ever go there
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1721 Posts |
The one by me is mostly brick with some mortar.
Just kidding.
When I first moved here there were two. The small 'hole-in-the-wall' B&M that was about 400 square feet in size. Then there was the larger dealer in the big strip mall. The small shop had a very nice older guy whose specialty was bank notes. He'd talk your head off but he was NEVER boring. He died about 15 years ago. The larger shop was relocated closer to me but he is WAY overpriced. He gets a lot of the serious collectors who have deep pockets and shallow minds. He is cherry pick-able but you have to find other things to get like watches, jewelry or love tokens. He's not an Internet guy so he can be picked. I've talked to people who have sold him stuff and they complain he pays very little for things. He offered a customer of mine 75 dollars for a 1/4 Eagle. The sad thing is he buys stuff like this everyday. He's the only coin dealer in the phone book and ALL the old ladies bring him their deceased husbands coins. If I had to guess, I'd say his shop has about 500,000 in inventory. And that's just what is visible. He has file cabinets packed with coins too. He does have some very high dollar coins and a ton of gold. He's been around for a long time and he'll retire very soon or end up dying in his shop.
There's a new dealer one town over that moved out from the flea market to a B&M. I wish him the best of luck but he's another one that is overpriced and pays little to nothing for what he gets. A lot of the newcomers are surviving by becoming a gold buyer. These days, everybody and their mother is a scrap gold buyer.
Edited by mds308
11/28/2012 09:22 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1211 Posts |
I hear that. Even the local "pack and ship" store buys gold around here.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
They are all over the area by me. Many also attend all the ocin shows in the area. We have 4 coin shows a Month within about 15 miles of me, every Month, all year long regardless of Holidays or weather. This is good and also bad. If you don't see something at a coin show, many dealers will say I do have that at my store so why not stop in. Or I'll bring that at the next show, next week. That is the good part. The bad comes from with a store, dealers are not as easily haggled or chewed down in prices since they think they can just sell it at the store or another show.
One store is in the center of the City so gets lots of transient buisness so they don't care to make steady customers. They also sell stamps, antiques and sporting stuff so coins are just minor which makes the people in the store just not care. And the people in the store only work there so if you buy or not, they just don't care.
I couldn't possibly know how many stores in this area sell coins since there are coin stores, hobby stores, flea markets, coin shows, pawn shops, etc that all sell coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1195 Posts |
The better one, which I patronize: Chico Coin and Jewelry. Owner and three employees, two of which I like. Buys and sells PMs, has "bargain bins" of barber through modern silver coinage. has an asortment of curency, raw-in-2x2, graded coins, and second hand jewelry on hand as well as coin supplies. Sells ASE at $4 over, other government minted bulion at 3.50 over, random bullion at $1.75 over. Despite a rough start when he refused to let me buy anything with my horded $40 in pennies, nickles, bicentennial quarters and a few halves and dollars, I like they way he and his employees run the place. I recomend this place.  The Coin shark in Chico: Sells coins and sports cards & memorabilia. My aunt doesn't like him because he pays too little and charges too much. After paying 75 cents for a steel cent that should have cost 20 and getting stiffed $10 additional dollars in a deal where I expected to simply trade 600 junk cards for 200 junk cards with some better players, I now believe her. 5 months back, he bough a Peace dollar from a lady I know for $15 when Chico Coin would have paid $20. Flea market: Table run by a stocky Yugoslav immigrant who calls himself Smile, he charges RedBook prices and also has an assortment of foreign currency and coins, also likely overpriced. Despite that, I did buy a 1967 UK penny from him a few months back for two verdegris Ikes and am happy with the deal. Another guy there might be selling Carr replicas. Bought two Mercs for $5 in July from another guy there that looked to be just holding a yard sale there. Prepper Store: I know of one with two branches nearby that sells silver in addition to Prepper foods and supplies. Stopped in one of them, making a mental note. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
BlackJack - the town your local coinshop is situated in is named after my town! Unfortunately, we have no coin shops to speak of in England, so I've never been to one. I hope to go to one soonish.
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Valued Member
United States
386 Posts |
BenByfield, glad to meet you. Yes, I'm in New England. We have many towns named after yours. I live in Branford; Guilford is one town over, on Long Island Sound. It's quaint New England, lots of grand trees and rocks and, yes, descendants of settlers. I wish you had a coin shop near you. I am, in fact, thinking all day today of the trip I will make to mine on Friday. I don't have lots of money for the hobby, but I will make my second trip for this month and pick up another Morgan. It will be my tenth MS64. What do you collect? (P.S. My father's family emigrated from Ireland to Scotland, where they worked in the coal mines. My father came to the US as a boy, when my grandfather sent for the family.)
Edited by blackjack
11/28/2012 12:55 pm
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Valued Member
United States
386 Posts |
And, too, there's the old world, the world that is past and passing, surrounding one in a coin shop. For me, it's a fantasyland and a ghostland, where the visible and the invisible worlds meet. Where history settles in. Nothing like it.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1054 Posts |
@woodcr If you can make it up to Dover, the First State Coin shop is a great place to visit. The guys are nice in there and they have a phenomenal inventory.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1653 Posts |
Only pawn shops here in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts that I know of.
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Valued Member
United States
397 Posts |
Here in the greater Sacramento Area, I have roughly ten places I have found and visited. 7 of them I wouldn't call coin shops, as they are only interested in melt value when buying, and are very uninterested in having me look through their stock to buy. Won't be revisiting these stores ever. One place advertises as a coin shop online, but is more of an antique shop with more odds and ends than actual coins. I went there once and after looking through his small bin of coins I left my card with an offer to have him call me if he gets more in and I'd be happy to come down and take a look. He hasn't called. If he did I'd go take a look just to maintain the network relationship, but doubt he'd get in anything I'd be interested in. Won't be going back unless he calls me. Another one is right down the street from my work. While it is an interesting place and the people are nice, it is not a place to go for casual looking. They set up shop in an old house, with bed rooms converted into offices. I say they are not a place for casual looking only because their stock seems very disorganized, and because they are set up in a house instead of a store, they don't have display counters, bins, or other things that you can rummage through. However, if you go with a list of coins that you are looking for, they are more than happy to look through their stock for the items. I'd go back if I was looking for a particular coin and they had it at the right value. The last place in my area I have real mixed feelings about. It is located in a strip mall and I almost didn't find the place (was referred by the owner of the antiques store I mentioned earlier). Pros: - It is the only place I can find that carries supplies like flips and new albums in stock (rather than only carrying supplies sold second hand when people sell them off).
- They actually have bins for people to look through of a ton of different items that are stored properly, labeled, and a display case with items.
- And while I feel like most of their business is buying gold and silver items from people (they had a whole rack in the display case devoted to rings of all kinds), I feel like they actually know a thing or two about coin collecting.
Cons: If Valkenvania from the 1991 movie "Nothing But Trouble" had a coin shop, this would be it (and rent the movie if you haven't. Horribly bad, but worth it). - The front windows and doors all have heavy security bars on the inside of them, and an employee has to "buzz" a customer into the store and out of the store. There is no bell to ring on the front door, and no sign telling people to wait a moment, a pet peeve of mine if a store is set up that way. I don't mind that you've taken steps to protect your store, but take the extra step and put up a sign telling people to wait, or when they leave your store say something like "Hold on a second and I will buzz you out," rather than have the customer reach the door before you reach the buzzer and have them yank on the door a few times and look like an idiot.
- The door also doesn't close behind you when you enter, which means it stays unlatched unless someone pulls the door closed behind them as they enter. After I had stepped into the store I was chastised for not closing the door behind me. Again, if you are going to set up your store like that, I'd be making sure the door shut behind someone.
- Which brings me to the customer service. I didn't receive any polite customer service until after I had picked out some coin flips and made it apparent I was a paying customer and not just a curious individual who wanted to only look.
- After I closed their door, I asked where their coin flips where, and an employee pointed to a shelf on a wall, and then I still had a hard time finding anything because of how crowded every thing was, and the shelf was pretty close to the ground. I don't think it needs to be more organized or have them limit their on hand stock, but I certainly think that the 2 unoccupied employees of store could have come out from behind the counter and showed me where they were, and asked a bit more in depth questions about what I needed rather than leaving me standing there for several minutes while I tried to decipher what flips were what sizes.
- The store also doesn't take cards for any transactions, they are a cash only shop. I was lucky had some cash on hand to pay for what I picked out.
- My last huge complaint was the fact that the store was too dark! The only light came from through the glass windows and doors at the front of the shop, which is not enough light on a sunny day, let alone an overcast day like it was when I visited. The store was equipped with lights in the ceiling, but none of them were on or working. I know the store had power because there was a computer on in the back office and a desk lamp was on a back counter for employees to use to write out receipts. I think a universal tip for most stores is if your employees need to use a desk lamp to see as they write out receipts for customers, you need more light in your store for people to see your wares.
I will most likely be going back, as I said they are the only place I can find that sells supplies and their prices save me the shipping fees from buying online. I don't know if I would be comfortable buying coins from them... will have to spend some time in the shop and see if I can find a loq risk coin priced right and see how the experience turns out. The only other store isn't near me, it is down in the California Bay Area where my parents live. My dad visits there because he collects stamps, and it is a great place for stamps. They also sell coins as well, but they tend to stay in the higher value coins for what they keep. I've been a couple of times and asked about a few lower end coins (Franklins mostly) and they never have any. But their store is clean and organized, very professional and friendly staff, and I always stop in when I am in town just to see what they have. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1195 Posts |
MadMortician, your shop sounds a lot like mine.
All their stock is either in a waist high display or the walls behind the employees. Differences: They use their lights, their door closes after you open it, and the customer service I find pretty good.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
Mine is easy...none.. zippo... nada. Closest is 125 miles east of here.
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Replies: 45 / Views: 6,409 |
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Posted 11/28/2012 08:14 am
