Went to a buy this morning...
scotty1419
Posts: 928 ✭✭✭
...and walked away empty.
Drove to meet a seller this morning who had a small collection from a recently deceased relative - 100 coins in all.
First I see are a pile of about 20 Walkers... 40s circ, some damage, some cleaned, some 17/18 dates with a barely readable year AG, couple circ Franklins, then about 4 Peace/Morgans heavily cleaned circ commons.
I offered 11.5x face for the silver and $13 per for the dollars. Was ready to drop about $200 before looking at some other common stuff he had (indian heads/wheats, etc)
Guy hemmed and hawed and then said no thanks, so I went back home to pack up Christmas ornaments for the morning.
Would you have handled any differently?
I was just looking to just add it to my silver pile, no flip. No collector coins.
I dabble in a few other hobbies and it seems that for all the money around numis material, people are the least willing to work out a deal, the most suspicious, and the most fearful. Is it precisely because coins have such an aura of wealth and value that people are so hesitant to sell for $1 less, or to think they're getting taken advantage of?
Comments
No Counter offer no nothing?
What was your conversation like before you drove over to meet?
What did the seller want for the pile?
Sellers with no Numismatic experience think their stuff is special and worth more than Gold.
100% Positive BST transactions
Cordial - seller stated he was looking to sell father's collection before leaving town and just looking to get a reasonable rate. I explained I was a private collector just looking for my personal collection.
Obviously expectations were not met.
When he balked I explained along the lines of "Look, silver spot is currently around 13x face, a dealer might want 13-14x face, and likely buy at 11-12x face."
No counter on his part, he just turned me down. This led me to think he hadn't really done any research at all about what he wanted. In these cases, I probably could have offered 20x face or 10x face and might have gotten the same reaction.
I dont think he had a clue. My biggest mistake was probably not starting there.
A guy called me yesterday, he and his poor wife had lost their home and were renting, desperate straits they were clearly in. Yet he had five common-date Morgan and Peace silver dollars, and somehow, due to something he saw on TV or YouTube, he thought they would be able to buy a new house. All I could do was tell him the truth, as gently and compassionately as I possibly could.
Agree. Would have been a better starting point and to find out ahead of time how much he valued the coins. Probably included a lot of sentimental value that does not translate well into $$.
Wow that's rough. Wouldn't want to break that news...
If you are talking Morgan or Peace dollars, $13 is sub wholesale even for culls. While your offers aren't ridiculously low, he might well have gotten a similar or higher offer from a shop.
It's typical that people who aren't into coins think every one is worth a small fortune. Put some really rare stamps in their hands and they'll conclude their near worthless. All you can do is try.
The seller had nothing but junk bullion. Let him waste his time and money trying to get the last possible dollar out of it. You were smart to walk away.
Your offer was very fair. I certainly would not have offered more. Let him shop his junk around.
Many of these people have an unrealistic idea on selling and can be a waste of time.
Most likely any good stuff liquidated years ago by the deceased. What you saw resembles many estates I have looked at.
Now you can take the $200 and buy a nice PCGS coin vs a bunch of junk hassle to liquidate. Don’t let them dump on you.
Perhaps he was picking your brain to establish a baseline. He will probably shop around.
You handled it just fine.
The offer was fair and reasonable. The seller may of tried to sell these a few years ago and not aware there is no silver shortage and prices have stabilized. I had a small silver buy I made an offer on and even showed him what spot was. He declined saying he wanted more then double my offer. I passed a year later I get a call from the seller and made a lower offer showing the seller spot is lower now. I only wanted the lot because of a common crusty Morgan for one of my sets. I would bet you will hear from your seller again I doubt he will do better at a brick and mortar buyer.
Wonder if there were any errors/varieties in the mix.
Key might have been the recently deceased relative. Probably had second thoughts about selling of the heirlooms, particularly as it wasn't much of a windfall.
No harm. It happens.
All to often non collector's view any gathering of older coins as being worth a fortune. In your situation there are far to many variables going into this situation to even begin to tell you how to make an offer that is realistic.
As for how you handled it I would say you did fine. It's never easy to tell someone that what they have is really of little value to anyone except themselves.
Fighting the Fight for 11 Years with the big "C" - Never Ever Give Up!
Member PCGS Open Forum board 2002 - 2006 (closed end of 2006) Current board since 2006 Successful trades with many members, over the past two decades, never a bad deal.
Your offer sounds fair....without actually seeing the coins, I would say you were right to walk when turned down. From your description, any offer I would have made, would have been melt value.....you may get a call from him again after he shops around.... Or he will get frustrated and just sell at the third or fourth offer...Cheers, RickO
This is a problem with some sellers on the BST Forum.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Been there, done that, don't lose any sleep over it. Part of the game.
Your offer was fair in my opinion. He may have thought in his heart the offer was low due to the attachment to his deceased relative. I watch people come through the doors of our local B&M coin shop every day. Two types... some that want to sell with absolutely not desire to hang on to items. I see others shuffle their feet around and decline offers not much different than yours and walk out. Depending on your area, he won't get much more, if anything, any place else. I guess the dealers on this site will be able to speak louder than I can. Sounds like it was no great loss to you.
A similar situation happened to me where I work, co worker mentions that he has a bag of coins that he wants to sell. I'm thinking that it must be my lucky day for him to say that because he doesn't know that I collect coins. The next day he brings in a plastic sandwich bag about half full of coins and lays it on my desk asking how much I would give for them.
He had five Eisenhower dollars, a silver round and the rest where worn common dates. I made him an offer of $75 which is more than I would have normally done because I work with this guy every day. He didn't accept my offer and never mentioned it again. My offer must have insulted him.
Sometimes I think that animals are smarter than humans, animals would never allow the dumbest one to lead the pack
A price. So he could either tell his grandkids what it was "worth" or a work buddy who told him he'd pay what a dealer offered.
Ahh... good point/possibility.
This is a mystery to me. In todays day and age, quick googles/ebays/etc... when looking at similar coins selling for reasonable prices on ebay?
--> one girl I dated long ago reached out to me and asked what her grandpas 1924 peace dollar was worth. It was nice.. for a pocket piece. I bet ~xf45 range. So, I told her .... she told me I was mad at how she broke it off and trying to get back at her. What? She thought it was worth $25,000.
Seems I made a good decision in letting that one leave [pun intended]!
Minor Variety Trade dollar's with chop marks set:
More Than It's Chopped Up To Be
Not to derail this thread, but I had a similar experience today.
Met a guy last week at an auction that wanted to sell his accumulation.
No problem, after a few emails(No smart phone for him) we arrange to meet at the local library in his home town. 2.5 hours plus drive for me each way
He gets a room for the viewing at the local library and brings 6 giant tomato boxes of coins and mail order madness in. Start me off with a fishing box with rolls of wheat cents, Jefferson nickels, modern proof sets and a couple of rolls of Mercury Dimes and others. He asked me what I pay for wheat cents merc Dimes ect... I quoted him a price of spot on the silver and $1 a roll of wheat cents and face value for the 1950’s rolls of Jefferson nickels(all well circulated)
Guy turns BEET RED...... and pulls of a Redbook from 2013 and starts quoting prices of $8 AU .... I had a feeling this might happen from the initial meeting, but I was off today so what the heck.
He did have a lot of nice stuff, Some graded most not. Everything had a price tag on the flip or slab of what he paid and it was really killing him that he way overpaid initially and that a lot of his stuff has lost even more value since.
For instance 1909s 1c NGC F12, he paid $280 In 2012.. I scanned the slab for him and Full NGC retail came up as $110. Guy couldn’t face it
He had a lot of UNC Morgan’s and Peace dollars that were polished.
1928 peace dollar amazing detail he paid $550 at auction for, polished.
He also made a face at every price I quoted and pretty much jerked around in his chair. quite comical but I didn’t laugh... maybe a little on the inside
Ended up going through all the boxes with him and bought $200 worth of stuff. Guy didn’t want to sell anything for less than what he paid
Was a really nice drive out and saw a few neat things.
And also a statue of President William McKinley
So your buy could of turned into this ordeal.
Definitely dont feel bad anymore
Just following up - appreciate all the feedback! I live for the possible coin collection buy. I've had 2-3 really big larger ones in my experience, but times like these make you just want to wait for the local coin show or the local reliable dealer.
It seems it's always the guy that doesn't have much that can't pull the trigger.
When someone would come in with 2 silver dollars, there was no way I was going to be able to buy them. No matter the price. Then the guy that would come in, "Do you buy silver dollars ?" Yes, and I would give them a base price. "You have to help me bring them in from the car"......
As many others have already stated... your offer was fair and you were right to walk. Managing expectations is most of what I do these days... coin collecting is no different.
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.