Business Q&A: Specialty Rarities

From currency to shoes to G.I. Joe action figures, everyone collects something. And where there’s a market for collectibles, you know there’s someone out there buying and selling them for a living.

Specialty Rarities is one such business, located in Suite 4001 of the office building at 2116 Merrick Avenue for the past 10 years.

Owner Jeff Berkoff recently spoke to Patch about buying and selling Merrick’s valuables during both good economic times and bad.

Tell us about what you do there at Specialty Rarities.

We specialize in coins and currency. We buy and sell coins from colonial times all the way up through 20 dollar gold U.S. pieces. We do copper, silver, and gold, as well as platinum.

What else do you deal in?

We also deal with foreign coins. We also buy any kind of silver, gold and platinum jewelry, as well as collectibles such as diamonds, paintings, autographs, things like that.

Tell us about how you go involved in the buying and selling of coins and collectibles.

I’ve been doing this for 19 years. I had sold a business and needed a job. I wound up working for a coin company. The only thing I cared about was working for a legitimate company. I worked for one for a few years, was hired away to another and eventually decided to go into business on my own.

With the hard times the economy has been going through, how has the collectible industry been weathering the storm, so to speak?

If you’re talking about collectibles such as autographs and baseball cards, things that don’t have any intrinsic value, those are pretty soft right now. The things that have done well and have managed to still have a good amount of activity are the coins.

Tell us about your approach to business and the customers who walk through your door.

I have an excellent reputation in the business. I travel to just about every show in the country and my motto is that I like to treat people how I like to be treated. I don’t like to be fast-talked or steamrolled. It’s a different type of experience when people come into my office – they’re treated consistently much differently then they are when they walk into other places. There’s no pressure. I treat people fairly and that’s really the bottom line. I tell you the straight deal and that’s what it is.

What do you like about owning and operating a business in the Merrick area?

It’s a nice community and it’s a nice place to do business in.