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Published on CoinWeek!
https://coinweek.com/coin-road-trip-four-states-23-coins-shops/
Late last December [2023], I decided to take a road trip to visit all the coin shops I could while driving back home from California to Colorado. My goal was to find as many cool Dansco products and coins as I could. As well as meet other coin collectors.
Four states, 1500 miles, 23 coins shops, a disastrous hotel stay, and 10 days later, I arrived back home with:
Dozens of albums & pages, 15 lbs of world coins, 200 world current notes, and many stories to share.
I managed to snag up a bunch of awesome albums both for my collection and many to fulfill my ever-growing list of requests from collectors.
Some observations after visiting 23 coin shops across 4 states:
- 15% of shops were extremely welcoming. I was able to chat with the owners about my Dansco preservation project and they wanted to help out. They often suggested nearby shops to visit.
- 25% of shops were generally friendly and welcoming, but I was seen more as a customer rather than a fellow collector.
- 20% were outright hostile.
- The remaining 40% of shops were ambivalent.
- Some shops were extremely hostile when I said I was looking for Dansco albums. One shop owner looked at the Danscos I was trying to purchase, took them out back to look up eBay sold listings, then refused to sell half and overcharged the other half.
- The best shop owner experiences were the ones where I got to share my preservation project with the owner and we got to talk about the current state of Dansco and coin collecting. The best interactions were ones where shop owners were curious about my knowledge of Dansco products, rather than thinking I was just a reseller trying to make a quick buck.
- For fun, I ran an experiment where some days I dressed in casual clothes, and other days I dressed up a little more. When I was in casual baggy clothes, I was given worse service and experienced more hostile owners. When I was better dressed up, I received significantly better service and respect.
- As a young person of color, I always wonder if my age/race plays into how shop owners treat me. After this trip, my experience was that race and age did not impact me as much. But class and perceived social status played a significant part in how I was treated.
- The smallest coin shops tend to have the most personable owners.
- I saw all types of coin shops. From holes in the walls to boutique jewelry stores. It didn't matter how fancy the coin shops were, the key thing was how the owner saw and treated customers.
- The best shop experiences were ones where coin supplies and albums were not behind the counter. Where I could physically pull out albums and inspect them. And where price stickers were already on them.
- Every shop has complaints about how hard it is to get Dansco products
- Around 90% of shop owners & employees were men. 10% women.
- Around 30% of shop owners & employees were under the age of 45. 70% were over 45.
- Some shops have old coin supplies like Whitman albums in a free giveaway box!
- Negotiating deals is both an art and critical for coin collectors. Almost every shop was willing to negotiate the final price. The best tactic I’ve found is to purchase multiple items and offer to pay in cash if you can get a lower total price.
Overall this was a great experience. I got to meet many collectors and build out my collection. It was quite an experience seeing the range of coin shops around the southwest United States. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it again soon.
- Dansco Dude
I am happy to report that Dansco in the past few months has done a huge print of #7070 US Typeset albums and they are everywhere. You can find one on eBay for $45 by Wizard Coin Supply
Sadly it does not include the Page #5 Gold Type Page
Dansco is very much around after years of struggling to get set up in Sumas, Washington. They moved from California to Washington state during Covid. Had two floods in their plant. Had to add insulation to winterproof the building. And struggled to find workers. But they are now up and running and catching up. They are focusing on creating updated albums and pages. Most recently the Kennedy Half Dollar.
They post updates on their website from time to time.
Thanks for sharing your experience! That sounds EXHAUSTING having to think and consider all that.
I've been coin collecting since I was 15 and my first set of albums were Warman's folders. As I expanded the types of coins I wanted to collect, I found that Warman's didn't offer a lot of those album types. I searched online for great coin albums and kept coming across Dansco. I got a #7070 US Typeset and fell in love with how the album looked and felt.
I began researching Dansco and found that they had a rich history in the coin community. It was great reading posts from older collectors who have had the same album since the 1970s and their coins looked as good as the day they put them in. I started shifting my coins from Warman to Dansco.
Things ramped up during COVID-19 as I had a lot more time to put into coin collecting. I decided to move all my coins from Warmans to focus exclusively on Dansco albums. I watched eBay religiously and saw rare albums come up for great prices. That's when I began being an online dealer. I would find rare Danscos and help flip them. But as I was reselling them, I became curious about my some Dansco albums were different from others.
I noticed that older pages were made from a different material. I noticed that the fonts changed between the decades. I then began noticing albums that looked like Dansco albums but had different names or manufacturers. That's when I fell into the rabbit hole of the Continental Line series. It was baffling why these foreign albums from the 1960s were selling for hundreds of dollars. I've since done a lot of research on those red albums and discovered their rich history. Including the name of the man who created those albums and later sold the rights to Dansco. Who then adjusted the red albums to the current brown albums we know today. I've documented that in this Reddit post.
During all this, I decided my numismatic niche would be to collect one of every Dansco album ever made. It allowed me to fill a knowledge gap the community needed, especially since the passing of David Lange. It gave me a competitive edge in finding Dansco albums for reselling. But ultimately I want to help preserve every album because Dansco is a big part of this communities history. I joined Instagram two years ago and I've been documenting my research and journey. It's been fun answering questions and serving as a resource for the community.
One day we may wake up to find the company has gone under, and soon all that history will be lost. I want to help preserve that history. Here is a Reddit post documenting all the albums I've collected. It's 9 months out of date. Currently, I am now sitting on 600 albums and will make an update post in a few months.
I don't know about their finances, but I know that they are up and running after a few years of difficulty. They just did a big run of #7070 US Typeset albums
One of the best shops around! Ken and Tom Hallenbeck drop by the Colorado Springs Coin Club from time to time to share their wisdom and insights.
I've already gone and left reviews on Google for shops I enjoyed and had a good experience with.
For the ones I didn't have a good experience with, I didn't leave a review since I believe that would invite negative karma into my life and it's not my style.
I highly recommend Hallenbeck Coin Gallery in Colorado Springs. Great selection of coins and supplies. The employees are very welcoming and Tom Hallenbeck [owner] is a second-generation coin collector and actively works on the floor most days. He's a fountain of knowledge and was willing to take the time to answer a bunch of questions I had about grading, even though it was a very busy day. I drop by whenever I get the chance.
The other bigish shop I recommend is J&J Coins and Vintage in Pueblo. Good selection of coins and supplies. I would only recommend you visit if you just happen to be driving through. Hallenbeck's is more worth going out of your way for.
Copied from two comments I just made
" I highly recommend Hallenbeck Coin Gallery in Colorado Springs. Great selection of coins and supplies. The employees are very welcoming and Tom Hallenbeck [owner] is a second-generation coin collector and actively works on the floor most days. He's a fountain of knowledge and was willing to take the time to answer a bunch of questions I had about grading, even though it was a very busy day. I drop by whenever I get the chance."
"One of the best shops around! Ken and Tom Hallenbeck drop by the Colorado Springs Coin Club from time to time to share their wisdom and insights. "
None actually. The pinpoints on the map were ones I saved on Google Maps and wanted to visit. But because of the hotel situation, I ended up driving to Colorado early. Most of the coin shops I visited were in California and Arizona.
I did read the Google reviews for all the shops I went to. Generally, I found reviews skewed bimodally with mostly either 5 stars or 1 star.
There was one shop in Phoenix, Arizona where it had exceptionally bad reviews and the common theme was that the shop owner was rude, inattentive, or hostile. I did not experience that at all! lol. The guy was quite friendly. I left a positive review.
I am not sure tbh. But I would suspect no, they have not updated for 21st century types. They only updated the bicentennial page to include a modern U.S. Coinage section a while back. It looks like this.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I wonder if my experience with cash haggling has been effective since I mostly get coin supplies rather than bullion, and I suspect most people use credit cards to pay for them?
I also found it effective for me when I try to negotiate the final price rather than per item. And usually just asking for a 5-10% discount.
Definitely Hallenbeck Coin Gallery in Colorado Springs
I'm working to create an update post showing off the 600 albums I now have. It's quite an undertaking since it's 300 more than when I last posted 9 months ago.
The albums I know I for sure need is the elusive Cuba Typeset Album. I'm also always looking for the odd one-off custom albums that Dansco has made for coin clubs and shops
Was it a Canada Small Cent album by chance?
Here is a list of what I still need. All custom albums. Around 40!
https://www.reddit.com/r/everything/comments/1av4ctx/wtb_abscure_dansco_custom_albums/
Currently at 600 now! I am working to document everything for a new post sometime in the next few months.
I was only in the Los Angeles and the Pasadena area while in California. San Diego is on my list for the future!
From another comment
"Let's just say that it wasn't fun waking up to hear teenagers trying to break into cars in a hotel parking lot in Albuquerque when you have a few thousand dollars worth of coin supplies in your car.
Ended up checking out the hotel at 2 am and sleeping on the road."
Coin Corner was sadly closed for the holidays
The Liberty Coin store in Huntington Beach was much more friendly than their Signal Hill location in my experience
Some I visited include
Liberty Coin
Brosius Stamps & Coins
Fullerton Coins & Stamps
Glenn's Coin Shop
That would be immensely appreciated :)
I did not drive by Vegas sadly. But thanks for the tip!
I love that idea. I know it's mostly a small family operation, and they only work with wholesalers. But I'm open if the opportunity ever arises.
It truly is wild how bad service can be at some shops. It's especially concerning as the hobby needs new blood, but many get turned away because shops think they can't make as much money. Ignoring the fact that the young get older and tend to earn more money later in life.
I enjoyed it! The owner was approachable and friendly. I did not feel judged. I got to enjoy some banter about Dansco and left with a great deal on some albums.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll make sure to check them out if/when I drive through!
I'm not sure then what album you're referring to. Do you know the albums title and or #?
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Let's just say that it wasn't fun waking up to hear teenagers trying to break into cars in a hotel parking lot in Albuquerque when you have a few thousand dollars worth of coin supplies in your car.
Ended up checking out the hotel at 2 am and sleeping on the road.