• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Local Coin Shop Was BOOMING Yesterday & I Guess I Made Somone's Day

Started by TomB,

12 posts in this topic

TomB

TomB

Posted
Posted

Yesterday afternoon I visited one of the local coin shops in my neck of the woods and while there the place became suddenly flooded with customers. As I spoke with the shop owner and his assistant, in came a couple with their two young sons followed by another man with his two young sons, a woman selling three large bags that constituted a collection, a man looking to fill out his State Quarter set, a couple wanting to buy bullion gold, an elderly gentleman looking to obtain a mix of bullion and numismatic gold, one man requesting a gold ring be resized and another man who wanted to look through the silver jewelry. All these folks entered the shop within ten minutes of one another and we were crammed from wall-to-wall.

 

The shop owner has had an extended run on his bullion pieces and had essentially nothing to sell to those folks who requested bullion. However, he was able to help the couple with the two young sons as the boys are nascent collectors putting together type set albums. This couple also had some pocket watches that they did not want to sell, but that they did want some information about in terms of date of manufacture and approximate value. Although he sold some coins to this couple and their sons, he talked the other father and his sons out of purchasing some pieces because the sons were truly novice collectors and could not give any reason for why they wanted to spend their (father's) money. For these folks he strongly recommended buying a Red Book and to think about the collection as a family before simply buying whatever looked odd without any thought.

 

Even with these interactions, he spent nearly all of the three hours I was in the shop with the woman who brought in her collection. The collection appeared to be from her late husband and was the typical array of modern US Mint proof sets and commemoratives that individually do not have that much value, but as a group can add up quite a bit. She had one more expensive piece and it was the Jackie Robinson gold coin in proof. The owner took his Greysheet out and went through everything several times while writing the bid prices down and then paid her the total, which was really quite generous for material that he may have a tough time selling in his shop.

 

I made myself useful by helping folks buy individual coins since his assistant does not know as much about coinage as I do and also since I have a bit of experience selling coins. The man putting together the State Quarter set had a handwritten list of quite a few P and D mint coins that he still needed. I asked the assitant for the boxes of rolls for these issues and the assistant opened up a roll and handed me a single coin to sell to the man. Immediately I noticed that while the coin was roll-fresh, it had a severe gouge on the reverse. I handed the coin back to the assistant and asked if he would give me all the rolls so I could go through the coins. The man collecting the quarters was ready to accept the first piece handed toward him, but I looked at him and asked if he minded if I went through each roll to make certain he received nice coins. He was quite happy to allow me to do that. After a bit, he had his coins, which came to approximately one-half of the set. He paid, turned to leave and then came over to me to thank me repeatedly for finding him such nice coins out of each roll. He was genuinely surprised that someone would take the time to find nice pieces for him even with this relatively small purchase in a busy store. I was delighted that he noticed the quality and appreciated it, but was somewhat saddened that folks may have such a low expectation of service.

 

I spent three hours there and bought nothing, but had a great time helping someone build a State Quarter set, noticed that every scrap of bullion material has been bought off the shelves and was quite happy to see the shop owner pay so well for the inherited collection that he will have a difficult time selling.

 

Please note that I attempted to post this thread last night, but the NGC server was not responding to me so I posted it on the PCGS boards instead. However, this morning I have obviously had access to the NGC site.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dcoin

Dcoin

Posted
Posted

This is the first B and M shop report I’ve read and it was a great read. Amazing how a little friendly help can go such a long way.

 

I haven't been to the local shops in years. Reading your reports makes me think of giving them another try.

 

Good work here!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
James_OldeTowne

James_OldeTowne

Posted
Posted

B&M shops are frequently being touted as miserable places to go, driven to nefarious schemes due to internet competition. However, I know that the several bigger shops here in town (St. Louis) are doing extremely well, and have been regardless of economic factors.

 

Terrific post, and I agree with others that we could use more B&M reports!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
physics-fan3.14

physics-fan3.14

Posted
Posted

Well, I'll post my own B&M report from yesterday as well then. I took my roommate in there because he wants to buy some gold and silver, and I figured it would be a good place to start looking. Anyways, the dealer said that they were completely sold out with a waiting list. Friday he said 45 eagles and 30 Kookaburras came in, and they were gone by the next morning - he can't keep gold in stock. He had a few numismatic pieces, and some smaller or foreign stuff (including an 1897 Tunisian 20 francs that I was looking at), but none of the standard 1 ounce bullion. During the half hour we were there, at least two other people came in looking to buy gold.

 

The dealer is also a pretty avid Bust half collector. He said that at one time, he had over 200 Overton's. As we were talking, he pulled out an 1839O in PCGS VF-25, with exactly that original circulated look that I love. It was a very nice coin, although quite a bit out of my price range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
EZ_E

EZ_E

Posted
Posted

What a great story, Tom. It is so refreshing to see such unselfish good in this world. I reckon that you ain't such a bad fella for a yankee. :insane:

 

Respect to you, brother!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing