Post Your annoying Collector Stories!!!

ANACONDA

So, "annoying", eh. I met a guy in Baltimore. Colonial collector. Zipper half down, unshaven, was in his 47th year of collecting coins.

He thought it was cute to pronounce "slabs" as "slobs". Said it over and over and over and over.

He also said "If you sell a coin to me, you'll be making a mistake because I only buy from people when they make a mistake."

This guy had his PhD in "Annoying".

He had about 7 commems he was trying to sell at Greysheet. Every single coin was below average.

I was nice to the guy (Yes, I know you don't believe me.) but I did leave shortly thereafter to go and break something.

(Now, my prediction is that not one dealer or part time dealer will come in here and share a good story. "Might lose a sale!" Come on, don't hold back. We're all collectors at heart.)

adrian

MastaHanky

We tried this thread yesterday and it only had six or so responses. I posted how my dealer said he has a customer or two who will put like $1000-$2000 worth of merchandise on layaway, and then only make a payment once or twice a year of $100 or so.

My dealer is too nice like that.

ANACONDA

I had a customer put a coin into layaway and he didn't make a payment on it for two years. But to be fair to him, I really like the guy
and he has bought and paid for some $75,000 worth of coins in the past two years. His brother also bought over 50K worth of coins. He really is a cool guy. He just has a passion for coins.....like me!

What I really enjoy is the guy who takes several months to pay a coin off and then when he finally gets the item paid off,
he wants to know why you have waited two days to get it in the mail to him. But, I actually sometimes feel the same way.
"What do you mean you have to take your wife to the hospital to have a baby? You are still gonna be able to get that in the mail to me,
aren't you?")

adrian

(Hey, I have made some major gains on Russ' count. I think I posted like 10 times today.
Of course, I haven't gotton much else accomplished! Geeze, I need to get a life!)

DMWJR

I've got one as a voyeur. I was in a Memphis shop when these two old black gentlemen came in and wanted to see the dealer's box of circulated morgans. They started picking throught the box, and then one pulls a stick out of his jacket. I got nervous. The dealer gave me the calm down sign, so I watched. These two guys would pick out a coin and slide it into a slot on the end of a stick and move it around the dealer's cabinet. One would say "uh, uh" so they took it off and put another one on. This went on for about 15 minutes, coin after coin until they put one on the stick and both of them started jumping up and down saying "this one has the mojo!" They paid $8 for it and left the store in a hurry. I asked the dealer what all of that was about, and he told me that they are "divining" for money. They think they can take that dollar on the stick and waive it around all over the place and they will locate money with it.

It was a fascinating event.

ANACONDA

Hey Doug! Man, that one is gonna be hard to top!

DCAMFranklin

Here is my favorite collector story:

LINK

Can't believe a seller was treated that way!

DMWJR

Maybe I can dig these guys up and take them down to the FUN show and plant them at Dave Weinstein's table!!!!!!

Coin Finder

Oh My G%%^^^

Laughing mt a$$ off at Dougs post.


I needed that today

Thanks

DMWJR

Absolutely 100% story. I thought of embellishing a little, but decided that the story was already almost unbelievable. Glad you enjoyed it!

RLinn

How about a dealer story instead? At a show in Shreveport, LA, I looked on as a dealer friend of mine spoke to another dealer at the adjacent table. The other dealer was complaining about how slow the show was and the fact that there were too many "kids" getting in the way of serious buyers. About that time a young man I knew approached this dealer's table and asked to look at a raw $500 coin in the dealer's case. This young man looked to be about 18 years old although in reality he was 30. The dealer, misreading his customer, said: "Window shopping is free, but it'll cost $1 if I actually have to pull the coin out of the case for you." The young man pulled a roll of cash out of his pocket that would choke a horse and peeled off a dollar, laid it on the dealer's case and gently smoothed it out with his hands. He then looked at the dealer and said: "I don't need to see the coin. You've probably mis-graded it as well, but why don't you keep this dollar as it may be the only chance you get to cover your show costs."

DMWJR

There already is a "post your annoying Dealer Stories" running simultaneous with this one, and it is a good one.

shirohniichan

He also said "If you sell a coin to me, you'll be making a mistake because I only buy from people when they make a mistake."

I'd tell him, "Thanks for the warning. Judging by the price you want for your commems, I'd say every coin you've tried to sell has been a mistake, too."

shirohniichan

I went into the Irvine Gold Mine a couple years back to get a necklace for my wife. A guy came in and asked to see their box of BU Morgans offered at $20 each. The guy sat down and put his hands over every coin-- he wasn't holding them by the edges, he was flipping them over and over while leaving fingerprints on all of them. I left before he was finished, so I don't know if he ever bought one. The next time I went in their, all their common date BU silver dollars were in clear 2x2's.

TRADERBOBZ

i bought this pcgs firefighters new york coin to help women and children from the trade center nightmare it was to be 1 out of 100 limited edition coins then 1 week later pcgs mass produces the same holder and gives thousands of them away as bait to join collectors universe
go figure.................marketing at its finest.

lathmach

I ran coin shows for about a dozen years.
One dealer told me once how he'd had a big bowl of circulated indian cents at a pretty reasonable price set for people to pick through . One guy sat for a couple hours in front of the dealers case, picking out the very best coins.
Then he had the gall to try to beat the dealer down. The guy told me just took the coins the guy had picked out and dumped them back in the bowl, and put them in his case and ignored the fellow when he wanted the bowl back.

Ray

Mrpawn

Had a gentleman come into the store and ask to look at the Morgans. We examined every one, discussed grades, compared raw coins to PCGS slabs to verify certain grades for him, we both looked up many in Greysheet. Spent about 30 minutes with this person. All of this OK with me because I am more collector than dealer when it comes to Morgans. When he is done he looks at me and says "you know that all of those are overpriced - the price of silver is down today"

!?!?!

I might have expected something like that from the average Joe but not from someone as knowledgeable as he seemed to be.

I just slowly shook my head as he left.

Jr