Before you go: prepare like a buyer
Arrive with a target list and rough price expectations for the coins you want; shows reward focus and punish impulse. Check the show schedule — early hours have the best selection, late hours the most flexible prices, and big shows often have days that are quieter for negotiating.
Bring cash for smaller purchases (many dealers price with cash in mind), plus your loupe and your want list. Comfortable shoes are not a joke at a convention-center show.
Bourse etiquette that earns respect
Dealers do business with people they trust around their inventory. The etiquette is simple and buys you goodwill that shows up in prices.
- Ask before handling any coin, and handle by the edges over the case
- One coin out of the case at a time; hand it back, don’t set it down
- Don’t announce another dealer’s price while negotiating — dealers talk
- Don’t block a busy table while browsing idly; step back if others are buying
- If a dealer is mid-deal, wait — interrupting a negotiation is the cardinal sin
- Carrying coins to sell? Say so upfront; don’t shop them table to table after refusing an offer without saying you are comparing
Negotiating without being a jerk
Most bourse prices have some room, and the polite opener — what’s your best on this one? — invites a better number without insulting anyone. Discounts of five to fifteen percent are common; demanding half price marks you as a time-waster.
Bundles create real leverage: two or three coins from one case justify a sharper price than any single piece. And a relationship beats any single negotiation — a dealer who knows what you collect will pull coins aside for you all year.
Bring live prices to the table with CoinVault Pro
The dealer knows the market; with CoinVault Pro, you do too. A discreet scan or lookup shows real eBay sold prices and Numista-backed values for the coin under glass, plus an AI grade estimate to sanity-check the label on a raw coin.
Your in-app wishlist doubles as the want list you hand dealers, and anything you buy goes straight into the collection manager before you even leave the show.