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Recently a new coin shop opened and they guy running it is a clown. Hes nice guy, created the the local coin club. Hes a collector and knows about coins but he is very in-experienced in owning a shop and buying coins. He always leaves some foreign silver in his bins, does not know about 1968 Canada silver and will open the book for anything foreign to make sure its not a key date and will charge more in premiums than 90% (like 50% British junk) on stuff he knows as silver.

I have been able to buy British pounds and Aussie dollars in the 3 for $1 box for currency and just going to the bank with them. He cannot buy large purchases for example if you walk in with a Krugerrand hes tapped out and will have give you a check. I asked him a quote for a buy price for 1 K-rand and 'it going to be about $100 behind spot and you will have to give me a day or two notice'.

He has also bought what looked like cleaned morgans and paid a pretty penny for them.

But the real story is that today I saw him buy some 'scrap' from a customer and when that customer left I asked to see what he bought. He had some 1/20 12k stuff, which as we know as goldfilled, and I asked him what is this, he said ' its 12k gold, I dont find that often'. I tried to explain that thats not solid gold and what not but he did not believe me- I urged him to review this after i left.

Luckily he has a chart- looks like he printed it out- of markings and said '18k HGE I dont know what that means' scans the list and figures out its heavy gold-electroplate. I thought every coins dealer knew this stuff?

Anybody have a clown like this near them? Hes not a fly by night operation or one of those 'we buy gold places' cashing in on the craze, but a local guy active in the community.

stock up while you can. he won't be in business long

Worth a roadtrip?

OneBiteAtATime wrote:Worth a roadtrip?

good idea where is the shop?

Robarons wrote:Recently a new coin shop opened and they guy running it is a clown. Hes nice guy, created the the local coin club. Hes a collector and knows about coins but he is very in-experienced in owning a shop and buying coins. He always leaves some foreign silver in his bins, does not know about 1968 Canada silver and will open the book for anything foreign to make sure its not a key date and will charge more in premiums than 90% (like 50% British junk) on stuff he knows as silver.

I have been able to buy British pounds and Aussie dollars in the 3 for $1 box for currency and just going to the bank with them. He cannot buy large purchases for example if you walk in with a Krugerrand hes tapped out and will have give you a check. I asked him a quote for a buy price for 1 K-rand and 'it going to be about $100 behind spot and you will have to give me a day or two notice'.

He has also bought what looked like cleaned morgans and paid a pretty penny for them.

But the real story is that today I saw him buy some 'scrap' from a customer and when that customer left I asked to see what he bought. He had some 1/20 12k stuff, which as we know as goldfilled, and I asked him what is this, he said ' its 12k gold, I dont find that often'. I tried to explain that thats not solid gold and what not but he did not believe me- I urged him to review this after i left.

Luckily he has a chart- looks like he printed it out- of markings and said '18k HGE I dont know what that means' scans the list and figures out its heavy gold-electroplate. I thought every coins dealer knew this stuff?

Anybody have a clown like this near them? Hes not a fly by night operation or one of those 'we buy gold places' cashing in on the craze, but a local guy active in the community.

Perhaps some of my local cusomters would care to chime in?

I have a LCS near me that is not very well run. Bought some 90% junk from him once. Had to go through it BEFORE i bought it to get the clad out. It was only about $2-$3 face. His place is small. When I say small, i mean if the front door opened in it would hit the back wall. Seriously this place is about 120-150 sq feet. I stop in every once in a while if I am in the area. He is a nice guy, he just seems clueless.

Your new LCS dealer is definitely on a learning curve. Maybe he will survive long enough to learn the trade, maybe not.

My LCS is - for better or worse - a major operation that actually services other dealers, and pawn shops. He says 95% of his volume is bascially wholesale. I believe it. The walk-in crowd is small, but he's got 4-5 people working there, it's locked down tight. I've seen the back room through the door, and there are floor to ceiling shelves loaded with coins... There is no pulling a fast one on this guy.