TreasurePirate,
If I had more cash with me today I would have bought more of the halves. I wasn't expecting anything really good but was very happy when I left.
I have to agree 100% about the nasty personalities you mention. Out of the dealers I use, only one has a decent attitude most of the time. The rest treat me well because I know how to deal with them without hitting their "buttons" so to speak, but are capable of becoming super a-holes at the drop of a dime. Many times in the past when I was learning how things worked I wanted to tell them to go to he!!, but had enough sense to not make enemies with them. One thing to keep in mind is they are like that with pretty much everyone and not to take it personal.
As far as getting great deals, it helps to appeal to their business sense. If they are going to refine or wholesale something, most should prefer to make more selling to a customer for cash instead of shipping it. But you can't be picky when you try this angle. You can't do anything that would make your transaction with the coin dealer any more stressful, difficult, etc, than the transaction would be if the coin dealer just shipped the stuff off somewhere.
Some coin dealers might not be willing to do this because they might fear once you buy something from them at wholesale you'll never buy anything retail if you are already a steady customer. That is a false fear because there are times I buy at retail prices from my coin dealers even though I have picked up stuff wholesale at different times in the past.
Jim