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Saw this sucker coming a mile away!!

jdimmickjdimmick Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is what the shop owner said after he made this sale. Get this!

The other day I was at a shop (Will withhold name, and location for several reasons, so please dont ask who!) and a gentleman was buying assorted coins. He told the dealer that he had herd that rare coins were doing extremely well, and asked him what would be the best to buy for investment. He wanted coins that he could put away for a few years. Based on what I overherd, the gentleman did not have much knowledge at all about coins in general. Here is what the dealer loaded him up with:

Tons of Ms-63/64 common date morgans (graded by PCGS, NGC as well as NTC and PCI)
Several losse certified commems, and a roll of raw assorted. commems. mostly like BTW, and stone mountains, etc. from what I saw.
Several pieces of gold type, such as $5 and $10 and $20 lib's mostly raw.
Several rolls of 1921 Morgans, Franklin halves and other odds and end circ type stuff

When he finished totaling it up, it came to just under $9,000.00. This was price at typical retail levels. The guy reached in his bag and counted out 90 One Hundred dollar bills and thanked the dealer and said he would be back as he had about 100,000 to spend over the next few months.

I was about sick to my stomach, but thier was nothing I could do, but sit and watch. I had never seen this gentleman before so I had no idea who he was, also it was over in another part of the state.

Comments

  • airplanenutairplanenut Posts: 21,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That's a case where both parties are guilty.

    The dealer sounds like a scum bag, but not unlike many other dealers.

    The buyer is a moron for having no clue and spending thousands of dollars. That's like asking a Honda dealer (no offense to Hondas) if the Civic is the best sports car you can buy, and then paying $75k for it, having no knowledge of other cars.

    Jeremy
    JK Coin Photography - eBay Consignments | High Quality Photos | LOW Prices | 20% of Consignment Proceeds Go to Pancreatic Cancer Research
  • I would've left the store at the same time and talked to him.
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,515 ✭✭✭
    Yet, the same guy probably did extensive research before buying his last TV or car. I'll never understand people who are prepared to plunk down that kind of money before investing some time in education. That doesn't excuse the dealer for his actions, but the buyer shares culpability.

    Russ, NCNE
  • DHeathDHeath Posts: 8,472 ✭✭✭
    Man, that's ugly.
    Developing theory is what we are meant to do as academic researchers
    and it sets us apart from practitioners and consultants. Gregor
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 30,977 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Who is the dealer? Screw City Stu?
  • ddbirdddbird Posts: 3,168 ✭✭✭
    I was in my local shop the other day...Someone came in and asked about coins as investments. He sat down and talked with them for a good 30 minutes, about it being only a good investment if it brought the guy joy. Eventually, the guy realized he didnt like coins and left. That dealer could have made alot more money had kept his mouth shut, but he got good brownie points...
  • Sounds like money laundering to me. Why does this guy have all this cash???
    The Accumulator - Dark Lloyd of the Sith

    image
  • jdimmickjdimmick Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Again, no names or location. I just felt that I had to post this, it has bothered me since it happened. As far as the comment about going out behind this guy, I thought about it, but decided against it out of respect for the dealer and his business, even though he was a dirt bag IMO.

    My only reason for posting:
    If only one of our newest members here that are just beginning to collect and have limited knoweldge can learn by reading this, then it was worth posting.


  • << <i>I was in my local shop the other day...Someone came in and asked about coins as investments. He sat down and talked with them for a good 30 minutes, about it being only a good investment if it brought the guy joy. Eventually, the guy realized he didnt like coins and left. That dealer could have made alot more money had kept his mouth shut, but he got good brownie points... >>



    There we go...honest dealer vs. scumbag dealer in the same scenario:

    Honest dealer A doesn't make a dime
    Smug-bag dealer B ends up with $9,000.00

    At the end of the day who's the greater sucess? Sadly, outside of coin collectors, dealer B is in most people's eyes (IMO). image
  • jdimmickjdimmick Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lloydmincy,

    Actually from a cash standpoint, thats nothing compared to what you see folks carrying at a typical large convention. In fact a funny story, One of the first big coins I bought for myself, I walked into a shop with a bit more than that (<10k for your Irs folks) and bought a coin. Although, after the sale, the dealer mentioned that he preferred I pay with a check nextime?
  • LindeDadLindeDad Posts: 18,766 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wonder what kind of copier that guy used to make those hundreds.
  • So you guys are telling me I wasted 9 grand!!! So what should I spend the $100000 I have left on????
  • Coin FinderCoin Finder Posts: 6,944 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was just thinking the 90% silver is not that bad as Silver continues to rise on the weakening dollar. When Euros were released they we 84 cents US each. Now it takes $1.34 to buy one roughly. A 1000 dollar face value 90% silver bag could grant good returns if silver goes over 20 bucks an ounce. That was probably what the 1921 morgans were if they were sold a 5.5 times face the going rate for"melt"


    Just a thought, please disagree.....
    Tbig


  • << <i>So you guys are telling me I wasted 9 grand!!! So what should I spend the $100000 I have left on???? >>



    Chicks, cars, and maybe a boat!

    BTW - Wasn't "eminem" against George Bush? His video sure seemed that way.
  • ddbirdddbird Posts: 3,168 ✭✭✭
    My local dealer is a self made millionaire from the stock market....hes in it for the thrill. Hes given me $100 dollar coins before....Hes a great guy...and will win in the end.
  • Jeremy, count yourself lucky to be getting your coin education young -- and cheap! Imagine how many times you would have shot yourself in the foot if you had a couple of hundred to blow when you were starting out....
    Salute the automobile: The greatest anti-pollution device in human history!
    (Just think of city streets clogged with a hundred thousand horses each generating 15 lbs of manure every day...)


  • << <i>So you guys are telling me I wasted 9 grand!!! So what should I spend the $100000 I have left on???? >>



    Hmmm some nice land in Florida near water (I think they call the Lake it's near the "Everglades") or if you don't like water maybe some land in Arizona near the California Border - LOTS of Sunshine there - someplace near the Mojave "Sand Dunes" image PM me if you're interested! image
    Collecting eye-appealing Proof and MS Indian Head Cents, 1858 Flying Eagle and IHC patterns and beautiful toned coins.

    “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” Mark Twain
    Newmismatist


  • << <i>Sounds like money laundering to me. Why does this guy have all this cash??? >>


    That's what I'm wondering. You note he stopped at $9,000 which would not be reportable, but he said he would be buying more over the next few months. The dealer had better go ahead and report the 9K even though he doesn't have to, because the IRS may just decide that this and the future purchases are "related transactions totalling over 10K" and hit the dealer with a money laundering charge. That's why Silvertowne got in trouble and Leon spent time in prison. He reported the money he took in from a deal using one of the two methods the law said he could use (totaled the transactions and made one report), and the IRS decided after the fact that he should have used the other method (Report each transaction seperately). He didn't try to hide anything and he did report all the money, yet was still charged with money laundering. (He was just trying to save on paperwork making one report instead of thirteen.)

  • What's the purpose of this money laundering if the guy is not getting his face value back ? I buy 9000 $ worth of coins and get back 3000 when I sell them what do I gain using this scheme ?

  • BochimanBochiman Posts: 25,285 ✭✭✭✭✭
    HA!
    That would actually be ironic then!

    Scumbag dealer "takes advantage" of novice with money.....
    Novice comes back, buys another $9000 or something within a week or so. Dealer "rips" him again.

    IRS nails dealer for laundering! Novice is still out the money (curious where he got the money.......does sound like potential laundering on part of the buyer as well though :HMMMMMimage but dealer gets karma attack back image

    JDimmick...normally I can understand confidentiality, but you have stated that you heard this (so, not heard from a friend hearing from a friend), you disagree with what happened, and yet you are "protecting" the dealer.
    I wonder......are you the dealer's "friend"?
    Do you get great rips there?

    If it were me, and it was something borderline, I wouldn't say who/where either. But, it is was as apparently blatant as you say, then I would have NO qualms about saying who/when/where. Just me though.

    I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment

  • photogphotog Posts: 242 ✭✭
    The real tragedy ensues when down the line this buyer wants to see and when is told what his stuff is really worth he'll accuse whomever tells him of lying and trying to cheat him.

    Jenna

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