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Have any members suffered from "instant expert" syndrome?
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
"Instant expert" syndrome occurs when a person steps behind the counter (or bourse table), thus moving from customer to seller positions? The moment that happens, customers assume the person is an expert in that field.
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I've never had that condition because I've known a few dealers who were as dumb a bag of hammers. Most of them didn't last in the business for that long, but there have been a few who have survived.
Anyone can be an "instant" coin dealer with slabs.
Not "coin dealer." "Instant expert."
I see it all the time in the firearms trade....'Instant Expert' on the range or in the gun shop... and their ignorance is worn proudly. I have not witnessed it with coins, but have no doubt it exists. Cheers, RickO
Everyone is an "expert" with a slab. However, I think I know what you are getting at. When I was stationed in CA, I went to D'land every weekend and was dating a tour guide who worked there. I got to know the park inside and out. There were many occasions when I waited for her to get off that folks who saw me standing around thought I worked there and I was happy to help them. LOL.
Only once
did I send an obnoxious woman and her family the very longgest way to get to the attraction she asked about. I'm probably going to H. for that one.
I knew a woman who worked in an insurance company if I remember right during one of the better than usual business spurts in numismatics, who made good money on some old holder PCGS coins and wanted to quit her day job. I'm not sure how that lasted as I try to discourage collectors who want to "ride" the coin circuit for a while and try their luck making money doing that.
I thought you had to be 50 miles from home to be an expert. BillJones will appreciate...here we call them "the pros from Dover" as that's about how far Dover, DE is from here.
Does this happen with writing a book or getting a degree in numismatics? Instantly, people perceive you differently?
I knew a couple of dealers who tried to make that work ... It didn't, but they were trying to do it at the shows.
Perhaps if you had a superior advertising campaign that emphasized "the product" and not what is in the slab, you could work that angle. Lord knows we see enough dumb people on eBay who flock to bid on screaming counterfeits so perhaps marketing the real thing without the ability to grade could work ...
Still it not be a company at which I would be willing to bet my investment dollars.
I saw this in the law. Students would graduate fro..law school, take and pass the bar examine to get their license to practice, get their first job as a lawyer and immediately think the were an expert on everything.
In reality they were an expert in nothing. Once these baby lawyers realized that they were only at the beginning of a long process of becoming an experienced lawyer, some decided to leave the profession. Some stuck to it and became very good. Some stuck with it and after years and decades are still very inexperienced and not very good.
Probably this happens in every field of human endeavor.
Yes, my dad hired one of those idiots when he was doing his estate planning. He gave the papers to me to read over thinking that I would be pleased with what he had done. When I started poking holes in it because the tax part of it was all screwed up, he got angry at me.
“Are you a lawyer?” he asked me.
“No, but I have had 12 credit hours of business law in college, 9 more in taxation, and an MBA,” I told him. “I do know enough to ask some good questions.” He went ahead anyway.
When he wanted to sell his farm and retire to a senior facility with my mother, he found out that the effective tax rate on the gains from sale of his real estate would be over 50%. The stupid lawyer had set it up a regular corporation instead of a Sub Chapter S which it should have been if, a corporation was required at all to minimize the taxes. The bottom line was they couldn’t afford to move because of the taxes.
After he passed on, I got the clock started to fix things, but the estate still had to pay an additional $100k because of what the lawyer had screwed up.
My father went to this guy because his rates were the lowest. As I told my mother, he was a “luxury lawyer” because he cost them more than anyone else in the end.
My mentor Ed Fleischmann said that an expert was anybody who traveled more than 50 miles to be there and brought slides, but that was back in the 70’s.......
RE: "Does this happen with writing a book or getting a degree in numismatics? Instantly, people perceive you differently?"
Yes, provided anyone reads the book...
For lawyers, some states continue to permit an apprentice program working with an approved attorney, prior to standing for the bar. In Virginia, after passing there's a 5 year probationary period where the former apprentice has to get certain kinds of materials reviewed - depending on specialty, if any.
all you have to do is stay at a holiday inn express
Psychologists have a name for this: Dunning-Kruger effect
Wikipedia has a short definition that I like:
In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is.
Unfortunately, I see this effect more and more in the digital age. People have exchanged "thinking" and "knowledge" with looking things up with a Google search. This makes them an instant expert, but in reality they have no clue. Ask them a question or two and you get the "deer in the headlights" look. Love doing this to the youngsters.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
Parts of this thread remind me of when Ron Swanson was in a Home Depot
I'm an expert in my own mind.
I came up the ranks of sales and endured many indignities in the process; the worst involving newly minted "managers" relying only upon their title and imputed authority to command respect. Managing salespeople, I've learned over the decades, is at best like herding cats...
The metaphorical "moving around the table", deftly done, can be an effective tool - but only if there's something more, like knowledge and ability, behind it.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
Although interesting of itself, I was not referring to the Dunning-Kruger effect in the opening post. Rather to a perception by "customers" that any person on the "selling side" of a counter is automatically an expert.
Here's a real life example.
Long ago and far away in a distant galaxy I owned a camera store and studio. People who came in the store (what few there were at times) perceived that any photographic/film/camera/photo defect question could be accurately answered by anyone behind the counter. When I hired an employee, they rarely had more than a cursory background in real photography, so I did a lot of real-time training/mentoring whenever they interacted with a customer. It was clear that anyone - regardless of experience - on the "selling" side of the counter was considered expert by virtually all customers - even very advanced photographers and amateur astronomers. (We were the only Questar and Celestron dealer for a couple of light years....)
Also, when I sign books at a coin show I am usually on the business side of the table. I get as many questions about inventory and "do you have any MS-67 gold dollars," as about the book sitting right in front of me.
PS: Dunning-Kruger infects a very large proportion of politicians - especially those elected to higher offices.
If your new behind the table at a show it’s the slick moves from vest pocket traders and other dealers you should be wary of.
In terms of customers never let them leave table without paying for an item (get another dealers opinion), snow you with fast pace multiple items on table, or let them talk you down below your minimum sell. If pressed u can just say “that’s the lowest the consignor will go.”
Many will lie to u on what a coin is trading for to rip u.
On items in your case u need to know MV, Bid, and cost in order to make quick decisions.
I know some people who are instant experts in their own minds in numerous fields.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
This is why books are imperative. I slammed a coin weenie between covers, once.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
The only thing I've experienced similar to this is when people who are showing me coins start asking questions about stamps. I have to break it to them that if it's MONEY (coin or paper), I can tell them something about it, ancient to modern, but stamps fall too far outside my field to be of any help.
Ahhh...That'll make the mustard fly!
I’ve been in my position 22 years and before had vast knowledge and experience but in general and not in the very specific field. I had been working for about 6 months and all at once one day I had what I call an AHA moment. At the moment everything clicked. I guess I became an instant expert at that moment. Of course 22 years later and I learn something new every day. So I suppose you are never really finished becoming an expert.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
instant expert is not the word I have for it ( just add water) jmo to
I noticed something interesting as I made my way through medical training.
A top cardiothoracic surgeon at Washington University, the chief of orthopedics at New England Baptist, and the chief of vascular surgery at Dartmouth were powerfully intelligent, but also humble and approachable. They were also easy to engage in meaningful conversation and actually listened to what this lowly student was saying.
On the other hand, the closer a doc is to the bottom of the totem pole, the more emphatically he/she will insist on being referred to as "doctor." They also more frequently insist on being right and are more hesitant to being questioned or challenged. I see this over and over.
Those who actually are experts sometimes don't realize it, nor do they really care.
Many authentic experts got there by listening, then thinking about what they heard.
Ex (has been) spurt (drip under pressure). Spelled expert ?