CHARLOTTE -- Hyatt Coin Shop in Charlotte says its customers are really investors. Until Tuesday, it didn't make much sense to invest in North Carolina. "Oh, goodness,” Hyatt Coin Shop manager Mitchell Hyatt said. “Imagine being a small business owner and telling your customers, 'Don't shop here.'" He sells investment coins, metal bullion, and collector currency. “That people invest in just like stocks and bonds,” Mitchell said. Until this past Tuesday, all purchases of those items came with a 7.25 percent sales tax. “And other states we're just robbing our business blind,” Mitchell said. Most states already had tax exemptions for bullion-type products, including South Carolina. "So frustrating,” Hyatt Coin & Gun Shop owner Larry Hyatt said. “'Well could you tell me where in South Carolina I could buy it?' Those were questions we were getting." Hyatt Coin Shop estimates it lost 10 to 20 percent of its potential customers to South Carolina because of sales tax. As customers moved south of the border, businesses like Hyatt considered doing the same. “We were already looking at real estate," Larry said. “We had two customers in the store at the moment the governor signed the bill into law,” Mitchell said. “One customer doubled her purchase. The other customer went from being on the fence on spending a few hundred dollars, to spending over $2,000." The shop believes the exemption will lead to spin off business like safes and collectors items, attract conventions and trade shows, while increasing overall sales in the state. “Asking the government to essentially write off an incoming revenue stream in favor of the larger picture,” Mitchell said.