Allen's Coin Shop — Attraction in Westerville

Undoubtedly have a stellar collection of silver and gold coins BUT IT ENDS THERE. Now, for the in store experience.... This was horrible. I am sort of new to the coin collecting/investment game, and that's where I believe these guys fall sharply short of making it a positive experience. I had questions about items they sold in the shop, including some actual coins as well as questions about supplies like coin flips, display cases, etc. When I asked about supplies, I kindly inquired where I could find some coin protectors. The man nodded his head vaguely into the distance and said "Over there... by the coins (no kidding cap'n obvious).. Let me remind you, that we have all of this stuff online & you can just 'browse' on our website if you're here to just browse"... I was sort of taken back that he didn't even want to get off his behind to walk over and explain what things he had for sale in his shop. He had no sense of integrity or pride. It was extremely slow as well in the store so there really was no real reason for the disregard. A few moments later I asked the other man (hoping he was nicer), about some coins, and if he could give any pointers on what some good ones to invest would be. He sort of scoffed and said "I dunno. I ain't a coin collector so I couldn't tell ya". Talk about people that literally don't want business! At this point I picked up that the gentlemen inside had profiled me as someone that had little to no money. I will say I don't have the nicest clothes and I have an edgy appearance, but it doesn't change that I was ready to spend 500-1000 dollars on an initial investment that day. Silver prices are / were down, so it seemed like a good opportunity. I managed to get 6 oz. of silver bullion, and of the six 1 oz. bars, only 1 was in mint condition. The others were horribly dinged up and discolored/tarnished. Call me a snob, but bullion does look a lot nicer when it's immaculate, and when you're paying 3.00 over the melting price, it's not a lot to ask for bullion that doesn't look like it sat at the bottom of the ocean for 50 years. After feeling ripped off I went IMMEDIATELY over to Buckeye Gold in Pickerington; and the experience there was amazing. The woman greeted me very kindly, and went over the values of the Morgan Dollars vs Peace Dollars vs Half Dollars, etc...She even cut the spot price by HALF and gave me a deal on my initial silver investment which included silver Buffalo rounds & Silver American Eagles (uncirculated mind you, at half the same spot price as Allen's awful quality bullion). How awesome is that? Someone that actually cares about your security and well being. That simple act of hospitality is what made me pay them all the money in my pocket & keep them as my source for silver, gold and collectibles. I won't go to Allen's for anything but supplies, and honestly with their prices I may as well order off of Amazon instead. I now have been going to Buckeye Gold every payday and investing 25-50% of my earnings into precious metals, this business could have easily been had by Allen's instead. The saying is true, you only get one chance to leave a...

I have been to this establishment before many times and have either bought or sold silver products as I am part time investor. usually the staff is nice and knowledgeable, today that was far from the case. The employee on the buy counter was uninterested in my business and really through body language and lack of literal words spoken I could tell this was just a bother for him. I've sold before and was never treated with this lack luster customer service as I was treated to today. Besides that the environment has also changed since I was a kid shopping there. The buy for my lot of war nickels was atrociously low, I laughed literally out loud. I am no fool and when melt value is at $0.96 per coin they offered a meager $0.39...i understand a business needs to make money but I would expect maybe $0.80 or even $0.75 but not anything lower. I had no small lot with 482 coins at a little over 27 oz of silver(0.0563 asw per coin). Total offer was around $188, ngc melt places the lot at closer to $467, so I can see some wiggle room for a business but this is just robbery. That puts the silver content at a buy of about $6.96 per oz, I mean silver itself is at $17 at the moment. Huge disparity in price, but I can see a little haggle room as coins are not bullion or even. 900 purity. Regardless of that the silver content of these coins in bulk is nothing to sneeze at. What I don't get is if businesses that take these coins for melt are undervaluing to start with, why undercut them even more? The melt price is already a litmus for the "bottom" of the market. I am aware and understand these coins are inherently illiquid until silver is pricier due to the smelting process being more difficult because of added cost of separating unwanted content compared to bullion, Sterling and even 90% silver coins. Even with that in mind again the silver content of this bulk lot is definitely not worth a $6 buy, frankly that hasn't been the price of silver since 1996. each $1 dollar (20 coins) has an asw of 1.125oz of silver, that is not a meager amount and the lot itself retains way more value then offered. I chose this shop because it was local and I used to be able to get a fair offer for products, I will definitely reconsider for all future...

Allens does a lot of things right. They have a great inventory, large spacious store, well staffed, decent retail prices, and have been around for a long time.

However I can't recommend that anybody sells to them. My selling experience was horrible and it had nothing to do with the amount I was offered or what I was selling, but more about fundamental issues regarding the way they buy. Here's why.

The first red flag was the Greysheet that the buy counter guy was using. It was dated February 2020. I can't emphasize how insane it is to me that a top end coin shop in Columbus is using a 3 year old Greysheet with pre-COVID prices which are almost all lower than the prices of today. Using an older sheet im this case heavily favors the buyer unfairly, especially when you go back to the pre-COVID before the coin hobby saw a lot of growth.

The second red flag was that the guy claimed several of the coins were cleaned...this was surprising to me because I have heavily studied the type of coins I was selling and felt pretty confident about it. I didn't make a fuss though and just took them away. However I ran them by multiple other expert numiamatists in the area and the universal opinion was that they weren't cleaned, which I thought was obvious. I think the guy just didn't want to buy these particular coins which is fine, he should have just told me.

The third red flag is the mark-up. Anybody who has been around coin shops knows that coin shops need to make money. However Allen's pays 70-75% of greysheet and sells at high end retail. Sometimes this results in a hilariously absurd situation of them selling a coin for nearly 1000% markup. (Buying at $10, selling at $100) most coin shops are happy for anywhere from a 10-50% margin depending on the coin and how long it will sit on the shelf.

All in all, I'd recommend that if you have coins to sell, go elsewhere. Buckeye Gold Coin and Jewelry, the monthly Columbus Coin Show, and Appraisal Services - We Buy Coins are all better options...