Question About Buying Coins At Coin Shows

I've on occasion (and actually quite recently) found amazing buys at the local, smaller, club sponsored coins shows in my area, at least with regard to world coinage, which some vendors obviously simply want to unload. So your experience may well depend on what you're shopping for.

Luck for me, even at major coin shows, can be very patchy.

Using many decades of experience, I cherry pick across the whole of numismatics, ancients to modern, mostly looking for best value for money, excluding anything after about 1950.
Modern collector coins do not interest me.

I have a set cash budget of perhaps $200 or more. If an item exceeds the budget, I will give a cash deposit and send the rest of the money later. I already have the satisfaction of already closely examining the item carefully, in hand.

My strategy has always been to take lots of time (sometimes hours), and closely anything that may interest me. I note down those items, then go back to make a decision to buy or not. That way, I can make good decisions about the best coins to buy from my short list.

Like I said, the results for a show can be patchy. Sometimes, I can come away without buying a single item, and sometimes, I can come home with a dozen or more items.
At least, I know that I am buying well.

Over a period of 40 years or more, perhaps about 15% of my collection has been acquired at coin shows.

I am able to catch up with a lot of well known acquaintances, both dealers and other collectors, and share a lunch time, or perhaps a coffee with them, when the discussion is mainly coins, just like it is here in the CCF.

I've found plenty of good prices on things that are common (and thus difficult to get rid of) and obscure (and thus difficult to get rid of) at local shows. I've seen some pretty bad prices too though. Try and go to different shows and see how they go, and keep track so you don't keep seeing the same people over and over again.

You have to learn which dealers will work with you.

You will probably not get very good deals this way. You are looking to spend $200 and you want to examine coins for hours. Dealers probably dread you coming to their tables. If you are able to look through dealer's stock, say yes or no quickly, make quick and decisive counter-offers when appropriate, you will get the best deals.

Yes and Yes. Coin shows have been my primary source for almost twenty years.

When and if I run into a Lincoln Memorial cent die variety dealer the sparks are gonna fly off the wheeling grindstone. I checked all the dealers at the Salem OR. December coin show and none fiddled with LMC's I couldn't even find a 1960 proof F'S-102 nor any swabbed doubled dies.Im in the minority and have to get most my coins at internet auction. The dealers I met don't fiddle with the minnows LOL. Hey how about that L and C? now isn't that an outfit :)