I have been going to our local coin shop a few times a week for a few months. Lately however, it has been very depressing. Just about everything has been sold and hardly anyone is selling to them. All junk silver is gone except for Washington quarters and Roosevelt dimes. I won't buy either of those. They did have a roll of Walker half-dollars a week ago I picked up for $13.20 per dollar. IMO, this is too cheap because they hardly have any product. I get not gouging with what they have left, but I think APMEX is about $14 for walkers and you have to pay shipping. They have no bars, and only 1/4 and 1/10 ounce rounds They have very little gold as they think the price will continue to drop. When I started a few months ago, the LCS had plenty of everything to choose from and was like a candy store. I asked the owner if he hedges with the derivative markets and he said no. How do they make any money in this market if they don't hedge? Today, I left with about 10 merc (all they had) dimes and a 2008 ASE for my Dansco album. They tell me nobody is selling and they are too nervous to get inventories (wherever coin shops buy silver from) elsewhere. This bums me out so much because I don't see how they are making enough to cover expenses. What is happening at your LCS? What is the mood of the owners? Is mine the exception are inventories low at most shops. Online, it seems like business at usual.
My lcs is very resonable 1.40 over spot and buys at .40 under. I don't buy very often though because their silver kinda sucks, just tarnished beat up generic rounds
Same thing happened with the local hardware stores (some of which sold all sorts of useful things that didn't really fall under the "tool" and "hardware" categories) around here when they just could no longer compete with the big box stores stores and the Lowes and the Home Depot's. Move over mom and pop LCS....Provident, JMBullion, APMEX and the like don't care that you've been providing personal service to collectors and stackers for 50 years. .
There is more to a Local Coin Shop than bullion and they should have some better margins selling albums, pages, capsules, 2x2's, yearly price guides, books etc. Most of the albums I get are sent over from Germany because there is nowhere around here I can get them. I can get them posted from a store in Australia but they buy them from the same place overseas that I do and it works out to be more expensive. I would rather spend money on coins or supplies than postage and I would rather walk in off the street and get a feel for the accessories (different sizes of banknote sleeves etc.) before trusting to a description on the internet, I would rather pick up the items I want when I need them, not anticipate future needs or wait a week or two for them to be delivered. All these things can be provided by a coin shop. Just about everything else can be provided by the internet, there is a wider range of items, better prices and I can shop all through the week from my living room, rather than the few free hours at the weekend. My LCS packed up, sold his remaining stock on eBay and disappeared. I spent more on supplies than I ever did on his coins, I used to tell him his pre-dec was below spot but he didn't seem to want to change the price tags on them so I used to clear them all up if I had a bit of cash on me. He was quite talkative and friendly but although he had a few display cabinets I don't think he had any really old numis, just the Perth Mint latest releases and a cabinet full of Kangaroos, which at $35 a pop I wasn't interested in (Spot was $15) If we can get the supplies into the big box retailers then it would make life easier, not so much the subjective grades or volatile priced stuff but the packets of pages and albums would be useful, they already do collecting supplies for trade cards, I guess there just isn't a big enough market for these items.
I dont feel sorry at all, they dont feel sorry for profiting from you either. Its kinda like hobby shops, but the fact is that online has what I want/need vs me going to the hobby shop and having them order it online to their address and upcharging me in the process. The fact is people are still making money selling what we want, its just not in the traditional store.
Shipping companies are making all the money when it comes to physical trades online- one roll of silver coins may be shipped 10+ times over the years. I hear of people cherrypicking what apmex sends them and they send the rest back for free. In the end the shipping is more expensive than the silver. My 20 lunars arrived witha 33 euro shipping label, thats huge...
When I was visiting my local shop, there was a guy that bought the rest of his quarters and dimes for around $3,500. I do know that it was around several hundred dollars face. It goes to show that people are still buying even when prices are lowering
Here in Sydney, with the massive realestate boom, I imagine the cost of the lease would be enormous in any retail location with a reasonable amount of shoppers. The smaller coin shops would struggle to stay profitable, especially when competing against online-only stores. It's a pity really because the displays of coins in the window are usually interesting and these small stores would no doubt be a factor in attracting new people when kids or others see the displays and get curious.
I love this forum because of the different perspectives. I wonder for some areas if a click-and-mortar concept would ever work. For example, Disney products has moved primarily online. However, some stores still exist. Would a model ever work to have a few say, APMEX outlets around. They could focus more on numis and supplies. The main benefit I see is generating interest in coins either as a hobby or investment. Do any of the major online stores have outlets at their headquarters? Do any have retail stores? I would have never got into coins without visiting our local coin shop a few months ago. However, I am fine with online now, although I still enjoy our LCS
Believe me, it's not gone or sold out...most of the LCS have plenty of silver in the back locked up that they are just not bringing out for sale with spot so low. When the spot price goes back up, like a miracle...the items for sale in the display cases goes up dramatically.
Exactly! Just wait though....if spot drags down more or for longer they will be forced to sell items at long last near spot for cash flow reasons. intrestingly today, I saw that Apmex has an ebay "deal" where if you buy 2 ten ounce bars (for $6.00 per oz over spot) they will give you $1.50 off each ounce....so still $4.50 over spot. some "sale!" But the longer it's suppressed the closer to spot you will get when cash flow dries up.
More recently, I was informed of an eBay sale APMEX had on 5 oz silver bars (if i remember correctly) for about $2 USD and change over spot. So looks like there's plenty of supply of silver blobs that these dealers have...there seems to be no sign of a shortage of silver bullion with premiums like that. I don't buy from APMEX because I get charged high sales tax....buying through ebay from APMEX doesn't bypass that sales tax either. .
i only bought from a coin shop once, then discovered this site. More variety and cheaper...thanks silver stackers
Some of us local coin shops do Silver Stacker special prices. You just need to know the secret handshake. (or bring me a can of sugar free V) :lol:
