Best Of

Many (most?) folks here know I am a longtime advocate of wonderfully toned coinage, but in my experience the "average" toned coin has essentially neutral eye appeal, or perhaps slightly negative eye appeal, when compared to an untoned or "blast white" coin. Therefore, if we are writing about toned MS coinage, or unimpaired proof coins, I would suggest the "average" premium I would pay for the "average" coin is zero.

I appreciate the way that you own a mistake. Good luck.

@BillJones said:

@PerryHall said:

“You can’t afford that.” Is one of dumbest comments a dealer can make. There is no upside.

Agreed!
Fortunately I’ve only heard it, or had it implied, rarely.

What I really appreciate though is a dealer who has an interesting “big” coin, but lets you examine it w/o even asking.

I struggled with buying a very low barely four figures large cent a few years back but eventually pulled the trigger. The dealer was very polite all the way through. After I wrote the check, he pulled out a high grade mid-five figure 1793 wreath cent in an OGH from behind the case, saying that I realize it’s probably not in your budget, but since you like large cents, I thought you might enjoy to see this…which I most certainly did, and thanked him heartily for letting me study it.

I have two 3.0's.

@jfriedm56 said:
You’d have to be a dumb-ass if you accepted a dealer’s first offer. Never have I done that. I check prices on line, such as PCGS price guide and CAC price and pop.
It’s equivalent to purchasing a new car. Do I pay the dealer’s first quote? Absolutely not! I’m not one to lowball in a ridiculously low offer, but I expect to pay, what I believe to be a fair price. I don’t want to steal a coin, as it is usually a compromise. Sometimes I may pay price guide, sometimes more, sometimes less. We both have to feel comfortable about the sale.

Funny car story. I am handicapped and need an old school gunboat sedan for the leg room and for ease getting in and out. For this reason I have been driving a series of Mercury Grand Marquis since the late 1990's. Of course they discontinued them around 2011, but my third one was a nice low mileage used one that I got many years worth out of before it was damaged in a hailstorm. My insurance company totaled it out and wrote me a check but let me keep it, so I kept driving it for a while but started looking for another one.

One day back around 2020 I got a notice from CarFax that a dealer in my region had just gotten in a 2004 with about 42,000 miles on it. I called and asked if I could come and take a look at it and was told yes. Went there with my wife as a spare driver, took a test drive and said "How much," since they had not yet listed it with a price. The salesman I was working with said $9,000 and I said "I'll take it." They had previously told me that they would not take my old one as a trade-in since it had been totaled out.

I must have sounded too eager because the salesman said he had to go "Talk to the Manager," and he came back and said that he had given me "the wrong price" because it was the deluxe edition and the price was $11,000. I told him that he had quoted a price and that I had accepted it without making a counter offer (which I remembered from my course on Business Law in Business School) and that we had a contract. The bastiges spent half an hour trying to get me to pay more than 9, but I held my ground and bought it for 9 and then garaged it for two years till my damaged one gave up the ghost.

P.S.: It probably was worth the $11K, but because I knew NOT to dicker I got it for $9K.

One of the recent Cabbage Coin podcasts devoted significant time to discussing this topic. I found it informative. Here’s the YouTube link. The full episode it worth it, but the relevant portion starts at about minute 36:00.

https://youtu.be/syBsTeIRD4U?si=QdS2bADw2plrWL8I

@Walkerfan said:

I don’t sell a lot these days, but when I do, I like to sell to serious collectors and not other dealers. I’m not responsible for their bottom line. Especially, when they’re looking for a 50% to 100% profit margin.

The example that still bothers me is when I sold a nice duplicate tough date large cent to a major EAC dealer. He examined it multiple times with different magnifiers, checked several different guides, consulted his helper, and chiseled me down to the last nickel, taking nearly 15 minutes, to where I was not going to go any lower and was ready to leave. He finally pulled the trigger and wrote me a check.
I saw him again a few weeks later and he had the coin marked up >3x what he paid for it.