The Future Of Local Coin Shops

It's a much larger trend. There are a lot of reasons for the decline. Here are a few observations.
There has been a sharp decline in the number of collectors, forcing dealers to serve much larger areas to reach the same size customer base. The internet provides that opportunity.
The rise of slabbed coins has made sight-unseen investing more common.
Investing and speculating have replaced date-and-mint collecting for many people.
Circulating coinage is boring, and doesn't spur new collector interest. The days of filling a coin board from pocket change are largely over.
Crime rates have made brick-and-mortar stores too dangerous to operate, even in relatively safe communities.
Overhead costs are too high to compete with internet sellers, national coin superstores, and large shows.
Mint market saturation with never-ending NCLT offerings has drained the supply of funds for classical coin series.
The flood of Chinese counterfeits has undermined confidence in raw coins.
Sharp declines in coin prices in the 1980s and early 2000s soured a lot of people on collecting and put quite a few dealers out of business.
Margins are too small to sustain career coin dealers. Many dealers have retired from careers and are the business equivalent of hobby farmers.
Pre-Wayfair taxes generally affected brick-and-mortar stores, while giving a free pass to internet sales. This hastened the demise of local shops in states that tax coin sales.

Just a few thoughts. I'm sure others will add many more ideas.

All of that said, I've been a vest pocket dealer for decades, and never have owned a brick-and-mortar store, for many of the reasons I just listed.

JMHO.

1) The internet has put a lot of shops out of business Due to people being lazy and it's cheaper. Shops are selling to high to try to keep with the internet. If they sell low to keep up they cant pay rent.

2) Coin shops only have a small variety to pick from. The internet you can buy from all over the world. If you can't find it at a shop >>> THE INTERNET WILL find it for you.

3) Rent for the shop. No sales no shop.

4) Location. If ya open up a shop in a town and there are not a lot of collectors ya make no money.

5) Lack of interest from the new kids on the block. They would rather text all day and play video games.

I just found out one of my local coin shops closed down several months ago. Not due to health or inventory or online competition, but because of the local government.

The government had changed some policies and were starting to treat this coin shop like a pawn shop. The biggest change was if he bought coins from a customer, he had to hold onto them for several months, report the purchase to the local police, and get detailed personal information from the seller (address, phone#, and SSN#).

I think the gentleman had retired from another industry and was only using it to add to his retirement income. The rules and government involvement got large enough for him to just call it quits.

basebal21 hit most of the points I wanted to make.

I feel like the hobby is evolving, not dying.

Two of the three LCSs I use to frequent 20+ years ago closed when the owners passed and the heirs liquidated.

The remaining LCS is still open, but I seldom go there as I prefer the selection variety of the coin shows and online venues.

There are a few other LCSs around, but they are more the "we buy your gold" type places.

The one local shop I had been to a few times just relocated, from a tiny space on the 14th floor of an old building downtown in the Financial District, to what used to be an IHOP with a big open lot in the touristy part of town. I can't tell if that's a step up or a step down -- it's clearly a change in some direction, probably just following their clientele. Used to be that people who worked in the Financial District were older and had money, now they're younger and getting by, and most have never even seen a Kennedy half dollar.

I stopped going to this particular shop because their inventory kept getting pricier, dealing in higher and higher value coins (maybe to keep up with their rent in the old space) while I was still ramping up my own collection. Last time I was in, they blew me off for wanting something slabbed and questions about reholdering. If I had first asked about early copper (i.e. actually spending real money, the other reason I went in), I might have gotten better attention. They're still mostly out of my price range so I'm just not looking there anymore.

There are still about a half dozen coin shops in my city of about 2.5 million in the metro area. These shops are largely focused on buying collections/bullion rather than selling coins to collectors. The lack of large inventories, quality, and higher than average pricing are what is driving me away from my local coin shops and to shows. Many of these shops will be sold or go under when the owner reaches retirement age or passes on. My favorite local dealer sold his brick and mortar shop but still organizes several shows and sets up as a dealer with several well stocked tables. He says he enjoys this much more in his retirement and says that cutting the overhead was key and he still has sources for quality collections to sell at shows.