Official ethical guidelines?

dan1ecu

I’m curious: are there ethical guidelines for those involved in buying and selling coins? Perhaps the ANA has issued official statements regarding what is proper behavior for both buyer and seller? If not, would this be a good thing to do? Some members of this board have talked about purchases they’ve made where the coin was blatantly misrepresented (altered pictures, false descriptions, etc.). It would be nice if these occurrence could be reported, and something done to stop this sometimes criminal activity. I would even consider selling ACG slabbed coins to be dishonest unless the seller makes it clear that the company gets no respect from the collecting community and that ACG routinely overgrades coins. I personally bought an overgraded Morgan dollar in an ACG holder before I knew better. Fortunately, it was an inexpensive one, and I only overpaid by $20 or so. Anyway, how big of a problem is dishonesty in the coin business, and what do you think should be done about it?

Dan

IrishMike

PNG,ANA and others all have ethical standards. Spend some time on their sites and you will find them.

jtryka

Well, I don't think we need an ANA guideline, just "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." There is a lot of dishonesty in this hobby, but it's not much worse that any other business in my opinion. But whenever you let greed and situational ethics prevail, someone's gonna get screwed.

Russ

<< <i>just "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." >>



Ditto.

Russ, NCNE

jhar

Become educated, read books, do whatever it takes for you to know what you're getting into. Don't get caught up in the hype that surrounds coins today. Remeber, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." That may be a worn out cliche but it's still good to understand. On of the reasons a lot of collectors drop out , is because they don't realize that some people will try to rip them off. The majority of coin collectors and coin dealers are honest people. It's the minority that give our good hobby a bad name.

presleyh

My first coin blunder was an ms 70 pci sae. what a dog! I still have it so i wont forget. I think there are two sets of ethics at work. There is the "do unto others...." as mentioned above, and the "I have got to make a living off these coins" ethics. I think collectors and board members will generally fall into the first catagory and professional coin dealers will fall into the latter. As is the case for catagories there will be crossovers. This does not mean that either catagory is wrong or evil. Sad but true, if a dealer buys a coin his goal in life is to sell it for more than he paid for it. I think in general a collector will just say to heck with it and throw it in the drawer rather than burn the next guy. The line is crossed when either group hides the truth in order to recoup their loss.