Back in the 2000s I used to buy silver / gold coins in P2P meetups. I would meet in busy coffee shops. Never had a problem.
Like you said you can quickly meet dedicated sellers and then your job is much easier because trust gets built.
For new purchases, I would bring a "Fisch Scale" (https://www.thefisch.com/) to check the coin was legit....never had a problem getting fake coins...but once I knew someone I wouldn't bring it in to coffee shop as I trusted them.
The seller I bought the most from would scavenge estate sales looking for old coin collections. The other guy I bought from was actually a police officer (almost spit my coffee out when he told me that), had no idea where he was getting gold coins from and didn't want to ask...
Good write up.
Back in the 2000s I used to buy silver / gold coins in P2P meetups. I would meet in busy coffee shops. Never had a problem.
Like you said you can quickly meet dedicated sellers and then your job is much easier because trust gets built.
For new purchases, I would bring a "Fisch Scale" (https://www.thefisch.com/) to check the coin was legit....never had a problem getting fake coins...but once I knew someone I wouldn't bring it in to coffee shop as I trusted them.
The seller I bought the most from would scavenge estate sales looking for old coin collections. The other guy I bought from was actually a police officer (almost spit my coffee out when he told me that), had no idea where he was getting gold coins from and didn't want to ask...