A Trip tothe World's Worst Coin Shop

[JamminJ]

Hello everyone,

 

Greg and I went to the worst coin shop in the entire world yesterday and the experiance was so surreal that I wanted to share the journey here. It's out in the sticks about 60 miles from my house and was advertised as having a big bid board.

 

The entire region was quite rural and smelled strongly of horse dung. The first sign of trouble was a stolen saw horse (once used to direct cars in construction zones) out front which had a small, crooked, rusty sign which said "coins." The store had one of those man traps so you had to be buzzed in. Or so I thought. While waiting for the buzzer I noticed the thing was broken and used the knob instead.

 

There was a huge bid/buy board with maybe 1500 lots hanging. Many had dust on them and looked as if they were there since the great depression. Some had prices changed with whiteout circa 1987. Usually I hate to see things like low grade MS statehood quarters on the wall but here they would have been an vast improvement. Some choice lots: an XF 1972-D Lincoln cent offered for twelve cents (no joke). Many bags of one dollar face junk silver for $5. The behind the glass good stuff included a black ANACS MS63 1932-P quarter. The only thing even remotely attractive was a 1947 Phillipines Peso for $8, but there was no way I'm driving back out there when the board closes!

 

On the way out I noticed a total of 12 of the 2000 lots had sold the prior week. I guess all the trips can't be winners.

 

-JamminJ

 

[jom]

OK, well, where was this bastion of the coin collecting world anyway? You mention "horse dung". Does that mean it was located somewhere near PCGS?

 

Just curious.

 

jom

[gmarguli]

It was in Riverside. Very few shops that I go to that I think I'll never come back to no matter what. This was one of them. Scary how bad it was.

[truthteller]

Wait a minute. So you both spent Valentine's Day together, without your wives? In Riverside, no less.

 

 

 

The world's worst coin shop for me was one in Culver City, CA, back in the 1970's. The shop was on Sepulveda Blvd near Culver Blvd. The owner had a similar bid board, but he usually sold coins off it rather than people bid on it. In fact, I inquired one day if it were really necessary to bid. He said, just pull the coin off the board and buy it, even if there was a bid on it already. In addition, the place was musty, smoky, stinky, and just unclean. He had mounds and mounds of plastic 2X2 pages of coins on his desk, but was always to lazy to bring them over to me for a look. He had four showcases, chocked full of 2X2s, but never neatly stacked, so the customer could never view the coins properly, and, again, he was too lazy to bring them out and let you sort through them.

 

 

 

 

TRUTH

[Leothelion]

This reminds me of a coin shop I've stopped frequenting years ago. But they had this long large bulletin board that had 100's of little bags with assorted coins attached to it. Also included with each bag of coin(s) was a brief description and the ongoing price or bid of each. Most of the coins I saw looked crappy and made me wonder why anyone would want them!

The owners were always asking too much for their stuff until one day I pointed out, that the neat little stack of 15-20 or so 1970-S Lincoln cents were not small date coins. The guy laughed at me while saying, "they look small to me," placing them right back in the coin display case.

And when I see these clowns at the local coin shows, it's good to see very little action at their table. There are many dealers out there like that, that I'm aware of. Why they never figure out why no-one buys from them, is beyond me? Because they're nothing but rip-off dealers. It doesn't take long to tell the carnival dealers from the honest dealers. Look at them right in their faces and I can tell right away if I want to deal with them.

 

Probably

 

Leo

[JamminJ]

Wait a minute. So you both spent Valentine's Day together, without your wives? In Riverside, no less.

TRUTH

 

My wife was too busy at home cooking for us to drive us to the shop. Ribs!

 

-JamminJ

[gmarguli]

Wait a minute. So you both spent Valentine's Day together, without your wives? In Riverside, no less.

TRUTH

 

My wife was too busy at home cooking for us to drive us to the shop. Ribs!

 

-JamminJ

 

 

Truth just doesn't know what it's like to have a foreign woman who doesn't give a damn about greeting card holidays.

 

Oh and don't forget about the pecan pie with fresh made whip cream that she also made!

[JamminJ]

The pie was excellent.

 

She also managed to get some laundry done and some coins photographed while we were out and about. Once you date a foreign born chick you never go back!

 

-JamminJ

[gmarguli]

The world's worst coin shop for me was one in Culver City, CA, back in the 1970's. The shop was on Sepulveda Blvd near Culver Blvd. The owner had a similar bid board, but he usually sold coins off it rather than people bid on it. In fact, I inquired one day if it were really necessary to bid. He said, just pull the coin off the board and buy it, even if there was a bid on it already. In addition, the place was musty, smoky, stinky, and just unclean.

 

Do you remember the one on Washington Blvd. near McLaughlin? The place hadn't been dusted in a decade and his parrots relieved themselves all around the place. You couldn't see the coins in the cases since the glass was so dirty. It was across the street from Chet's Coins.

[JamminJ]

Do you remember the one on Washington Blvd. near McLaughlin? The place hadn't been dusted in a decade and his parrots relieved themselves all around the place. You couldn't see the coins in the cases since the glass was so dirty. It was across the street from Chet's Coins.

 

I understand you could feed the parrots if you bought food from the owner.

 

-JamminJ

[truthteller]

Wow! I used to pass that store all the time but it looked so gloomy from the outside, I never went in. I never went into Chet's store either. Funny how a nice storefront appearance makes all the difference. There used to be a store called US Coins on Centinela near Washington in the 1980's. Owned by Don Kaufold who used to work for Jonathon in Inglewood. I would stop in his store often. Bought some interesting coins. Don would buy cheap and sell cheap. Kinda cool. I think he died in the early 1990's.

 

 

TRUTH

[gmarguli]

I remember that place. It was one of the first coin shops I ever went to. I remember buying wheat cent rolls from him for 75c. One day I asked for a few rolls and he didn't have any. However he had a coffee can full of "unsearched wheats" that he just bought. I took them. It had a bunch of Indian cents in it and a Flying Eagle.

 

I actually purchased my 1893 Columbian commem from him. It was the one that graded PO-01. First time I asked for it he refused to sell it to me because it was worth so little he wouldn't feel right charging me for it. The next time he said $5 and I snapped it up. Braddick lusted after it for over a year before I finally gave in and sold it to him. It's in the Higashiyama collection.

 

The parrot shop guy told me he did most of his business selling to Littleton. Chet was a very nice guy. He'd like you pick thru his stuff all you wanted and he was very friendly to talk to. I don't know what happened to him, but I know he had health problems and one day I noticed his shop was closed. A few weeks later it was a martial arts studio.

[Bruceswar]

I think one of the worst experience I had was... that I was getting ready to buy a coin from a man's shop.... Just as I was getting ready to buy it... he looks really quick in his grey sheet .. then decided to jack the coin up like $100.00 more.... I walked on it...

[BillJones]

The worst shop I've even been to was on the buying side. When I was strictly a collector I went to this shop to sell a coin. It was "bid" at $100, but I would ahve taken $80. When I showed it to this guy, he gets out these strero viewer head pieces, which to me is always a bad sign, and takes a look. "$25" was his offer. All this crook needed was gun. In conversations with other collectors I found out that extreme low ball offers for the norm for him. Makes you wonder what he did to the widows that came through the door with their late husband's collections.

[Oldtrader3]

Johnathon's in Inglewood, CA! I haven't thought about him since I moved from LA in 1983. I still have the "MS65" (HA!), 1926-S Peace Dollar that he sold me in the 1970's. I never sent it in to the TPG's (why throw good money after bad!). I did sell him some junk silver at $48/oz though.

 

[Wihlborg]

I did sell him some junk silver at $48/oz though.

 

AAH, the good old days.....

 

Personally, I have not had any bad experiences at 'coin shops'...yet, but I have run into a few rude and or obnoxious coin dealers at coin shows and on eBay.

 

You know the type, too busy reading the paper to be bothered asking if you would like to see one of the coins in his case. Or if you ask a seller on eBay for more info about a coin, he replies back with an e-mail saying that the info in his listing should be enough or how you can't expect a coin to be perfect. Then there is the guy who when you ask to see an expensive coin tells you that it is an expensive coin, even though the price is on it and he is looking at you as if there were no way you could possibly be able to afford it, when in fact you have enough cash in your pocket to buy two or three of them.

 

I could go on, but I think we all know of the type of dealer I am referring to.

 

John

 

[Dry]

"I did sell him some junk silver at $48/oz though."

 

 

You need to add this to your signature: I used to sell silver for $48/oz.

 

 

 

[jom]

She also managed to get some laundry done and some coins photographed while we were out and about. Once you date a foreign born chick you never go back!

 

Wait...uh...minute. I'm married to a foreign born woman but yet I do the laundry. How the hell did that happen?

 

 

jom

[JamminJ]

She also managed to get some laundry done and some coins photographed while we were out and about. Once you date a foreign born chick you never go back!

 

Wait...uh...minute. I'm married to a foreign born woman but yet I do the laundry. How the hell did that happen?

 

 

jom

 

Too late now, she's acclimated to her new environment.

 

-JamminJ