Coin Show VS. EBay

[Clad2Silver]

I just bought these two coins at a coin show on Sunday. The Flying Eagle cost me $30 and the Shield Nickel cost me $17. For nice evenly worn, problem free coins with no cuts, scratches, gouges, or discoloration, prices on eBay are a lot more for the same grade. Similar coins in the same price range were absolute junk. I never buy coins on eBay even though a few of the offers are realistic.

 

[Megalodon]

I agree 100%. Nothing like a coin show to really see a coin for what it is. And of course, cherry-picking. Nice coins!

 

[Clad2Silver]

I agree 100%. Nothing like a coin show to really see a coin for what it is. And of course, cherry-picking. Nice coins!

Thank you.....

 

[CorgiDoom1881]

I've noticed that a lot. I like picking through coins at coin shows for coins I think are under graded or priced low and see them going for more online. I much prefer seeing coins in person to get a good look at them.

 

[Clad2Silver]

I've noticed that a lot. I like picking through coins at coin shows for coins I think are under graded or priced low and see them going for more online. I much prefer seeing coins in person to get a good look at them.

Looking trough coins at a show is part of the fun, especially when you find something nice for a reasonable price.

 

[Arthur-Dent]

I cherry pick both for errors and varieties.
If I spot a hard to spot die variety online..ty.
I'm not under any obligation to tell the seller that they severely under valued their coin.
I love doing the same at coin shows and a few various LCS's who don't have an eagle eye like me.

 

[Megalodon]

Looking trough coins at a show is part of the fun, especially when you find something nice for a reasonable price.

Seeing the coin in person is the best way to consider the overall attractiveness - and appeal, of the piece. I'm less concerned about getting the highest technical grade as I am in how appealing is the coin. Some coins are so poorly struck that despite a technically high grade, they do nothing for me. The best example (other than colonials) might be $1 gold - notorious for poor strikes. I'd rather have an attractive and well-struck EF-45 or AU-58 than a mushy MS-63.

 

[Clad2Silver]

I cherry pick both for errors and varieties.
If I spot a hard to spot die variety online..ty.
I'm not under any obligation to tell the seller that they severely under valued their coin.
I love doing the same at coin shows and a few various LCS's who don't have an eagle eye like me.

Cherry picking a dealer's stock is a good way to sometimes find a REAL bargain because not all "dealers" are all that knowledgeable. Granted, most of the time these guys will OVERgrade their coins but once in a while it goes the other way. And YES, absolutely, I'd NEVER tell them that their coin was under valued. That's my reward for taking the time to do research, study the market and make the effort to seek out those mistakes others make.

Seeing the coin in person is the best way to consider the overall attractiveness - and appeal, of the piece. I'm less concerned about getting the highest technical grade as I am in how appealing is the coin. Some coins are so poorly struck that despite a technically high grade, they do nothing for me. The best example (other than colonials) might be $1 gold - notorious for poor strikes. I'd rather have an attractive and well-struck EF-45 or AU-58 than a mushy MS-63.

Totally agree with you on all points. Most of the coins I buy are mid range....Fine, Very Fine, Extra Fine. At these grades the coins look nice but are priced at a level that my budget allows. Coins that grade high but are poorly struck or are "mushy" do nothing for me either. I'm also not too crazy about toned BU coins....some aren't bad but I've seen some that to me look absolutely horrible.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Two very nice coins! IMHO: Coin shows are the place to get good deals, but they are not as popular these days where I live.

 

[Clad2Silver]

Two very nice coins! IMHO: Coin shows are the place to get good deals, but they are not as popular these days where I live.

Thanks POE.....I totally agree that coin shows are where you can get the best deals but aren't as popular these days. The show that I bought these coins at was in Auburn Mass. They used to have the show on a monthly basis but due to declining attendance the show is now only put on every other month. I enjoy looking for coins I want and then negotiating a final sale price with the dealer. You can't do that when you buy online or through the mail. In Connecticut, in the 1980's and 90's there used to be a coin show somewhere virtually every Sunday but a lot of those shows are no longer in existence.

 

[Arthur-Dent]

The 70's and 80's are going to be known as the heyday for many hobbies.. IMHO anyways.
I remember those days well. Coin shows at the local VFW Hall every other weekend.
Those events are long gone.
I remember detecting the late 70's up through the late 80's..if you came home without silver in your pocket, you must have been using a RadioShack tector..lol.
But yeah, cherry picking is the cream of the crop!
If I put the research and effort into learning everything that I can about the coins, I should benefit!
Hard work equals big rewards!
I had this conversation with a friend who owns a LCS, he's like, you don't cherry pick me, do you ?
Loose lips, sink ships!

 

[Clad2Silver]

The 70's and 80's are going to be known as the heyday for many hobbies.. IMHO anyways.
I remember those days well. Coin shows at the local VFW Hall every other weekend.
Those events are long gone.
I remember detecting the late 70's up through the late 80's..if you came home without silver in your pocket, you must have been using a RadioShack tector..lol.
But yeah, cherry picking is the cream of the crop!
If I put the research and effort into learning everything that I can about the coins, I should benefit!
Hard work equals big rewards!
I had this conversation with a friend who owns a LCS, he's like, you don't cherry pick me, do you ?
Loose lips, sink ships!

Hobbies like coin collecting and stamp collecting are dying a slow death. The local stamp dealer went out of business recently because sales were rock bottom. I belong to a coin club and the vast majority of members are senior citizens like me. The same goes for the people who attend coin shows. There's virtually no young people coming into these hobbies which doesn't bode well for their future.

 

[Arthur-Dent]

Hard to "like" that post!
True though.
I've seen so many ads recently for wanting to trade rare stamps for coins.
Good luck I say!
The lack of interest from young people has one benefit, silver dumps are becoming more common again.
Several times this year already, I had seen young people selling off grandpa's coin collection and didn't know about silver coins...at all!
I watched a dealer who I trusted offer one kid face value on Peace Dollars.
I lost a friend in that!
Told the kid that I'd pay him 8x face.. still a good deal for me!
Not a nice thing to do inside someone else's business.

Another thing about the younger generation, they toss grandma's antiques on the curb like it is modern Chinese plastic junk!

Sorry, I rant sometimes!

 

[Clad2Silver]

Hard to "like" that post!
True though.
I've seen so many ads recently for wanting to trade rare stamps for coins.
Good luck I say!
The lack of interest from young people has one benefit, silver dumps are becoming more common again.
Several times this year already, I had seen young people selling off grandpa's coin collection and didn't know about silver coins...at all!
I watched a dealer who I trusted offer one kid face value on Peace Dollars.
I lost a friend in that!
Told the kid that I'd pay him 8x face.. still a good deal for me!
Not a nice thing to do inside someone else's business.

Another thing about the younger generation, they toss grandma's antiques on the curb like it is modern Chinese plastic junk!

Sorry, I rant sometimes!

Not only do today's kids have no knowledge of what a silver coin is, they don't even know about some of the clad. One time back in the early 70's when the IKE dollars came out I took a few to spend and when I handed them to the cashier I was told "Sorry, we don't accept foreign coins" !!! Even passing Kennedy half dollars will sometimes get you the "skunk eye". Like you said...there is a silver lining to all this. Those of us in the know can take advantage sometimes of other people's lack of knowledge whether it's coins, antiques or anything else of value.

 

[Megalodon]

Hobbies like coin collecting and stamp collecting are dying a slow death. The local stamp dealer went out of business recently because sales were rock bottom. I belong to a coin club and the vast majority of members are senior citizens like me. The same goes for the people who attend coin shows. There's virtually no young people coming into these hobbies which doesn't bode well for their future.

I don't know how dealers operating in the so-called brick-and-mortar shops can stay in business with the outrageous leases being charged. Turns out the way to make money is not to provide a service or sell a product but to buy commercial property and then really stick it to some poor dreamer (or another dollar store...) trying to make a go of it. Friends of mine who run a very nice used book shop are finally calling it quits after 28 years in business because they can't make enough to pay the rent.

And of course, the cultural change away from coins, stamps, books (heck, reading itself...).

 

[Clad2Silver]

I don't know how dealers operating in the so-called brick-and-mortar shops can stay in business with the outrageous leases being charged. Turns out the way to make money is not to provide a service or sell a product but to buy commercial property and then really stick it to some poor dreamer (or another dollar store...) trying to make a go of it. Friends of mine who run a very nice used book shop are finally calling it quits after 28 years in business because they can't make enough to pay the rent.

And of course, the cultural change away from coins, stamps, books (heck, reading itself...).

Small businesses and downtowns are (sadly) a thing of the past. And those dollar stores are going up everywhere you look. Just recently in my hometown a service station went out of business, the building was demolished and now they're putting up a "Dollar General" in its place......just what we need.

 

[Megalodon]

Small businesses and downtowns are (sadly) a thing of the past. And those dollar stores are going up everywhere you look. Just recently in my hometown a service station went out of business, the building was demolished and now they're putting up a "Dollar General" in its place......just what we need.

I've never stepped foot in one! My assumption is they just sell cheap chinese made ticky-tacky junk that is really not needed anyway. We've got them all over too.

 

[Megalodon]

Small businesses and downtowns are (sadly) a thing of the past. And those dollar stores are going up everywhere you look. Just recently in my hometown a service station went out of business, the building was demolished and now they're putting up a "Dollar General" in its place......just what we need.

Those small family businesses served generations of customers and were a wonderful link to the past. When I struggled to find decent emeralds (even in NYC) for an engagement ring in 1979, my mother suggested a tiny jewelry store in her home town of Fall River MA. We went together. The jeweler remembered my mom from when she was little and told us how her father, my grandfather, came to the shop in 1922 to have an engagement ring made for my grandmother. He even remembered taking out a selection of garnets from which to choose to make that ring way back then. We were talking to the man who made the ring 57 years earlier. So this ancient jeweler trudged off and reappeared with a selection of emeralds and explained that no customer had asked about them since 1958, so the prices would be reasonable. He made the ring in white gold, did a beautiful job and charged me about $100 total. So much more special than buying a ring at the mall...

 

[fistfulladirt]

I also agree that once us Boomers are gone, coin values, shows, classic car values, antiques etc...are going to fall like a rock.

 

[Clad2Silver]

Those small family businesses served generations of customers and were a wonderful link to the past. When I struggled to find decent emeralds (even in NYC) for an engagement ring in 1979, my mother suggested a tiny jewelry store in her home town of Fall River MA. We went together. The jeweler remembered my mom from when she was little and told us how her father, my grandfather, came to the shop in 1922 to have an engagement ring made for my grandmother. He even remembered taking out a selection of garnets from which to choose to make that ring way back then. We were talking to the man who made the ring 57 years earlier. So this ancient jeweler trudged off and reappeared with a selection of emeralds and explained that no customer had asked about them since 1958, so the prices would be reasonable. He made the ring in white gold, did a beautiful job and charged me about $100 total. So much more special than buying a ring at the mall...

That's a wonderful and heartwarming story. That's the way business was done by past generations. Back in the 1980's I was a salesman and made deliveries to various stores. One of my customers was an older man who ran Thatcher's Drug Store in the town of Easthampton, Ct. He'd owned the store for so long that he was able to sell liquor in it because he was grandfathered in to a time when it was legal in Conn. to do that. He was definitely "old school". One day I was making a delivery and the girl who worked the front of the store was checking the order I brought in to make sure that everything I charged them for was in fact there. Mr. Thatcher, who'd only known me for a week or so came from the back of the store and told the girl that she didn't have to check the order....just sign for it and pay me because to check an order would imply that I may be a thief. He then told her that he sensed that I was an honest man so there'd be no need to ever check my deliveries. A few years later Mr. Thatcher passed away and the drug store came under new ownership and of course all deliveries were checked.

I also agree that once us Boomers are gone, coin values, shows, classic car values, antiques etc...are going to fall like a rock.

They most certainly will because there'll be no one around to buy those things. Everybody will be robotic with their heads in a smart phone or other device.