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Ever get angry at a dealer who won't sell you a coin from his personal collection?

Would you rather that they don't even show the the coin?

Local guy won't part with a beautifully toned 1878-CC Morgan. I know I've offered way more than what it is worth, but he just won't let it go. Alwayshe says, let me think about it, maybe next time, blah, blah. Great strategy to sell coins, right? Every time I leave his shop, I mutter to myself, I gonna get that coin. And you know what, the coin really isn't that great, just I can't have it, makes me want it more.

I got an idea, maybe I should bring in 10 nice coins from my collection that I want to sell and just present them to the dealer and say under no circumstances are these coins for sale! Maybe we can swap coins that aren't for sale?image


Seth
Collecting since 1976.

Comments

  • I have wanted to buy a 1872-CC quarter from a dealer's private collection, but he wasn't
    displaying it in his case, so I wasn't angry. (He mentioned he had one when I asked him
    if he had one of the coins I was looking for) If a dealer is displaying it, it would be more
    annoying if it wasn't for sale.
    Robert Getty - Lifetime project to complete the finest collection of 1872 dated coins.
  • coinlieutenantcoinlieutenant Posts: 9,310 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I knew a guy once that had this awesome 1895 quarter eagle...Proof too... super awesome. He was holding it hostage with some absurd price....what an ass... image

  • nwcsnwcs Posts: 13,386 ✭✭✭
    Doesn't bother me. I like it when they show them to me.
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 11,952 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Seth:

    That dealer should have told you that the coins in his personal collection came from his great grand ma' ma' and that her ghost would spook any future owner if they did not stay in his family. That would spook you and anyone else out of any anger! image

    All the best (Dave Bower's favorite sign off)!
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Any dealer with a lick of sense keeps "not for sale" stuff to himself.

  • PTVETTERPTVETTER Posts: 5,936 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If I show some one a coin from my personal collection it is my personal coin and not for sale. If it's in the case with a price on the coin its for sale. If you offer me enough for my personal coin I just may sell like my 1945 mercury dime ms66 offer me 2 times ask i will pass but offer me $1000.00 cash and we just may have a deal.

    In fact it just happened at the ANA I had a CC doller not for sale not in a case just behind the table to show what a fire can do to a GSA case and the money just keep comming I didn't want to rip off the person and I did enjoy owning the dollar but chose to let it go when I saw he really wanted the dollar and I didn't really need it but again if it was one of my registry set dimes NO ONE would offer enough to get me to part with my dimes and that's that case closed.
    Pat Vetter,Mercury Dime registry set,1938 Proof set registry,Pat & BJ Coins:724-325-7211


  • BearBear Posts: 18,953 ✭✭✭
    Most dealers do not collect the regular tpe of coins personally.

    As one dealer told me, I would be in competition with my own clients.

    What they usually collect, are unusual items such as Civil War trading tokens,

    campaign buttons ect, ect. Nothing wrong with a dealer collecting Barbers, seated Liberties

    ect, except when it comes to light, it tends to anger more clients then it delights.
    There once was a place called
    Camelotimage
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Laura has this fantastic 1877 IHC - best one I've ever seen. Also, a couple of stunning key date Barber dimes. I just can't get her to sell me them! image



    heh, heh, heh - made you think, Stewart! image
  • GooberGoober Posts: 980 ✭✭✭
    My dealer has sold me material from his personal collection, and tantalized me with some. I'm working on him to part with a few more, but his hands are tighter than mine.image
    Prost!

    Why step over the dollar to get to the cent? Because it's a 55DDO.
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 11,952 ✭✭✭✭✭
    By the way, this is similar to a real estate broker owning a house of his own.

    Oh my, should I be angry I can't get his house on 5 acres? Or his farm of 150 acres that everyone salivates over to build all kinds of homes?
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,378 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yah.....Rick Kay........image

    imageimage
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose.
  • RKKayRKKay Posts: 3,015 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Yah.....Rick Kay........ >>



    imageimage
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,625 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think the problem is that dealers who do this are perceived like little kids who are saying something to the effect of, look what I've got, and you can't have it.

    Collectors do it too - like walking around to every show with the same box of primo material "for sale" who are just tire kicking and not really interested in selling.

    But it is a little bit worse when a dealer does it, because when you go to a show, you have an expectation that everything in the case is for sale, unless clearly marked otherwise.

    A certain dealer of specialty material showed me a very, very, very primo box of stuff awhile back, that he had been putting away for a long time, and then told me when I was done salivating that it wasn't for sale. I was not pleased image
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 31,082 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why would you necessarily expect that a dealer would sell from his private collection?
    theknowitalltroll;
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,625 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I wouldn't expect a dealer to sell their private collection. But, it might be nice if they mentioned that before getting me all worked up image
  • Well, I don't have a problem with it myself.
    It sort of irks me, when I show someone my coins and the first thing they want to do is cherry pick it and buy my best coins
    from my collection. Then they get pissed off at me when i won't sell them the coins.
    Then they go off and start bad mouthing about me in public.
    So now i am all pissed off.
    I am a collector not a dealer. Every now and then i sell off coins i don't want or after upgrading something.
    Just because I would like to show off something I have doesn't mean I am going to sell it right off the bat.
    i want to enjoy it for a while, maybe a very mong while.

    image
  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Just after 911 I was able to pick up a choice chain Large Cent that had been a part of a dealer's personal collection. (Most of you would recognize the name as he also heads a major grading service.) It was during that lull when all the auctions were being cancelled and no one kinew if the coin collecting market was going to evaporate. I have wondered if it would have been for sale but for the uncertainty of the time.
  • FullStepJeffsFullStepJeffs Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭
    Seth,

    I agree with you... don't show me a coin that you wouldn't accept crazy money for...

    One dealer once showed a U.S. Mint 1938 First Day of Release Jefferson Nickel in a blue card stock. The coin was nice with, IMHO, full 1938 steps on the reverse. The only "problem" (yes, there is sarcasm there) with the coin was that the mint had put the coin in the pristine holder with a small tab on the obverse which was still sealed (which gave the coin a tab toning effect) and I couldn't tell if it was a P or D mint coin on the reverse. I offered him crazy money for it... and still dream about it. Have you ever seen a Jefferson Nickel with Tab Toning?

    BTW... anyone with a card like this, pm me!

    Another dealer recently showed me a raw 1940 Proof Cameo Jefferson in his personal collection that rivals the look of the 42 next to my name on the left... I'm still trying to get that coin.

    Happy Hunting!

    Steve

    U.S. Air Force Security Forces Retired

    In memory of the USAF Security Forces lost: A1C Elizabeth N. Jacobson, 9/28/05; SSgt Brian McElroy, 1/22/06; TSgt Jason Norton, 1/22/06; A1C Lee Chavis, 10/14/06; SSgt John Self, 5/14/07; A1C Jason Nathan, 6/23/07; SSgt Travis Griffin, 4/3/08; 1Lt Joseph Helton, 9/8/09; SrA Nicholas J. Alden, 3/3/2011. God Bless them and all those who have lost loved ones in this war. I will never forget their loss.
  • No, not at all... back in February, I met up with Bill Jones at a show, and he had brought along a few Bust coins from his personal collection for me to salivate over. A guy had walked up, and asked if they were for sale, and got mad when Bill said "No, you can look at them, but they are from my personal collection." *shrug* I understand perfectly... and I really don't mind a Dealer showing off their personal coins... I mean, collectors do it... why can't a dealer? They're collectors too... image
    -George
    42/92
  • jonathanbjonathanb Posts: 3,579 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No, but by the time a second example showed up for auction 18 years later, I'd saved up enough to snag it.

    jonathan

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