Brick And Mortar Rant...

Collect ancient coins.
THEY love to be handled!

Imagine: a token of history that may be more than 2,000 years old, sitting in the palm of your hand. No mirror proofs to worry about here!

Actually, I really like to see every coin purchase in hand before deciding to buy, ancient OR modern. Don't have to bother about slabs or ebay. That makes bricks and mortar establishments essential.

Fortunately, I have access to two B&M business that have an international reputation for ancients, plus three other B&M establishments that know ancients fairly well. The two were within walking distance of my workplace, until I retired. Now, they are all within an hour's travel on public transport, with a concessional travel ticket price of $2.50. Same applies with coin shows. Don't have to worry about parking, either!

Numisamtically, not quite the same as living in London, but not that much different, either.

I have my own rant haha. I bought 10 .25 tokens when I went in one of the stores I don't like as much. I asked the guy if you got a discount for 10 and he said yes. He ended up charging me $3 after tax :(. We have 7% tax so he overcharge me by like .20 cents and no discount. I even mentioned that was too high and asked the tax percent and asked for him to recalculate it. He said 7% and told me the amount was right at $3. I know it was a small amount but it annoyed me to death that first he lied about getting me a bulk discount and then overcharged me for the taxes. I just paid it in cash and went.

I just won't go to that one for any big purchases anymore. The other dealers build in their taxes in to the price and are usually 2/3 the price. It makes me sorry that my friend and I probally spent over $150 in that shop this year. My friend is tired enough of the place he just stays in the car now.

Bertensgrad: When I read your comment, my first thought was "where do they tax coins?"...
but I realized you said "tokens". So I guess that was a taxable item.

That's another reason I buy online. No taxes on anything, coin or not.
True that you have to be careful though. I haven't ever been cheated,
per se, but I have made a couple purchases online that I realized I shouldn't have
once the coins came in. Mainly due to bad pictures, or just haste on my part.

Another place I like to buy, that I can dodge taxes and deal with people from far
off is coin shows. I can buy in person, but from people from all over, and no
real paper trail. I like it like that.

I have lived in many places, and you'd think I could have found a decent, honest,
and professional coin shop, but I am here to tell you, they are few and far between.
Most I have been to, either try and cheat you, or they seem like total newbs and do
things like finger your coins or just show a total lack of knowledge in general.

jbuck: What is sad is this is the BEST coin shop in my town. This shop is generally
honest in my experience, and I have never felt like I was cheated or overpaid at this
shop. This is just a case of people that either don't think, or don't really care.
I guess I'd rather spend my money at an honest, but careless shop, than a shop that is
out to overcharge/rip me off.

Indiana charges sale tax on coins, and I think bullion too :(. The thing is only one place surcharges at the end. Everyone else builds it in to the price according to the owners. They pay based on total sales and just build it in the price to keep everything nicely rounded to the dollar. The thing is that place has a lot better selection. They try to keep every date and mint mark of all the common dates.

You just pay out the nose for that convience. Even their junk silver is a $1 more than their competitors on halves even before tax. They also never seem to buy anything back at a decent price and don't do trades. It's super sad since it's a mile from my house and was my childhood coin shop.

I don't even consider them to be a high end dealership too since their coins are considently lower grade raw coins. No slabs ever but they have a lot of wealty customers who order through them that they tend to ignore you if you aren't ordering a lot of bullion.

There are lots of problems with coin stores.
If fairly successful, they begin hiring people, not coin people, just people. And that is when things start getting bad.
Two is coin stores have tons of expenses so must overcharge for most items to help pay for all that. Doesn't mean they should be rude, crude or ignorant though
Not all people that open a coin store are Numismatically smart. There are some that people that just open stores that appear to be booming at the present time. Owners may have recently been Beanie Baby sellers. Or had a place that sold sporting cards. Now trying coins.
And then there are those that just don't care about what they are selling, only how much they can make.
I know of one so called coin store that fell into all of the above.
It may take time and patience but if you look long enough, you should find a decent place.

This has been my only purchasing venue for the last twelve years now.

It is a bit sad to read about 'some' of the dealers in this thread.
Of the 'two' B&M dealers that I mentioned in my earlier post, I have maintained a strong numismatic friendship with for over 30 years, and we have greeted each other by our first names for almost all of that time.

My first coin shop experience was a very good one.
I don't even remember the name of the shop, in the basement
of a blue collar, neighborhood building, on Leeds Ave, in
Baltimore. It's gone now.

The guy must have been a saint. He put up with a 10-12 year
old kid hanging out all summer and only spending pocket change.