*rrrinnng* Hello, are you the coin guy? I have some rare coins from my grandmother I would like to
lordmarcovan
Posts: 44,018 ✭✭✭✭✭
*rrriiiing*
Me: Hello?
Lady on phone: Hi, are you the coin guy from the antique mall? They gave me one of your wooden nickels that you use for a business card. I have some rare coins my grandmother left me.
Me: What sort of coins are they?
Lady: They're from all different countries. I don't really know what they are. But they're rare.
Me (out loud): Well, that shouldn't be a problem. I deal in world coins, as you probably noticed. I'm sure I can identify them for you.
Me (privately, in my head): You people slay me. If you don't even know what it IS, howinthehell do you know it is RARE?
They'll do it every time. You see this phenomenon a lot on eBay.
Her coins? Modern Great Britain decimal minors in circulated condition, a modern nonsilver Canadian quarter or two, and a modern Mexican coin or two. Maybe 15-20 pieces total. Which I drove 30 miles or so roundtrip, downtown, to see. In my large gasgulping van. S'OK, though, I had to go to the antique mall anyway.
All of her stuff was the sort of thing I sell in my 3/$1 bin after I have put them in 2x2s and attributed them. Loose, as-is, they were ten-cent coins. The most interesting thing she had was a Mauritius piece from 1950 (a 75c coin by Krause retail), and a 1982 (nonsilver) Mexican peso in EF, worth about two bucks. Oh, and a 1996 Jamaican $5 coin worth about $2.50 in UNC, but hers wasn't quite UNC.
I told her this and tried to break it to her gently that the best I could offer on such an assortment was four or five bucks for the lot. I'll give her credit- she took her dose of reality well. I do try to be diplomatic, 'cause you never know what delusions of grandeur were in some people's heads.
She probably would've sold them but I used my most charitable, "maybe you should hang on to these for a while" line. After all, I have a 12.5 lb sack of this kind of stuff (actually, with better stuff) that I haven't even looked at yet, after bringing it home from the Charlotte show. And I just this morning agreed to buy a 35-lb lot from a trusted source, that I know will be good at the price- with stuff from the 1800s in it and who knows what else.
I'm sure you dealers with a full time storefront deal with this sort of call all the time. Lots of bicentennial quarters and damaged clad coins that folks thought were "errors", eh? And Franklin Mint "Tractors Of America" collections and National Collectors Mint reproductions with "certificates of authenticity" and Chinese fakes. (I just saw eight or ten Chinese-made 1800 Bust dollars when I drove out the last time somebody called me.)
But I guess it's worth it, for those days when something cool comes in the door, huh. I do regret that aspect of my absentee seller status: I don't get much facetime with my customers or with folks who have coins for sale, unless they call me, and only one or two a month do. I do manage to see some mildly interesting things from time to time, and I think folks are often happy to find that I (the only thing vaguely resembling a brick and mortar coin dealer in probably a 50-75 mile radius) am a buyer of foreign coins, too.
Me: Hello?
Lady on phone: Hi, are you the coin guy from the antique mall? They gave me one of your wooden nickels that you use for a business card. I have some rare coins my grandmother left me.
Me: What sort of coins are they?
Lady: They're from all different countries. I don't really know what they are. But they're rare.
Me (out loud): Well, that shouldn't be a problem. I deal in world coins, as you probably noticed. I'm sure I can identify them for you.
Me (privately, in my head): You people slay me. If you don't even know what it IS, howinthehell do you know it is RARE?
They'll do it every time. You see this phenomenon a lot on eBay.
Her coins? Modern Great Britain decimal minors in circulated condition, a modern nonsilver Canadian quarter or two, and a modern Mexican coin or two. Maybe 15-20 pieces total. Which I drove 30 miles or so roundtrip, downtown, to see. In my large gasgulping van. S'OK, though, I had to go to the antique mall anyway.
All of her stuff was the sort of thing I sell in my 3/$1 bin after I have put them in 2x2s and attributed them. Loose, as-is, they were ten-cent coins. The most interesting thing she had was a Mauritius piece from 1950 (a 75c coin by Krause retail), and a 1982 (nonsilver) Mexican peso in EF, worth about two bucks. Oh, and a 1996 Jamaican $5 coin worth about $2.50 in UNC, but hers wasn't quite UNC.
I told her this and tried to break it to her gently that the best I could offer on such an assortment was four or five bucks for the lot. I'll give her credit- she took her dose of reality well. I do try to be diplomatic, 'cause you never know what delusions of grandeur were in some people's heads.
She probably would've sold them but I used my most charitable, "maybe you should hang on to these for a while" line. After all, I have a 12.5 lb sack of this kind of stuff (actually, with better stuff) that I haven't even looked at yet, after bringing it home from the Charlotte show. And I just this morning agreed to buy a 35-lb lot from a trusted source, that I know will be good at the price- with stuff from the 1800s in it and who knows what else.
I'm sure you dealers with a full time storefront deal with this sort of call all the time. Lots of bicentennial quarters and damaged clad coins that folks thought were "errors", eh? And Franklin Mint "Tractors Of America" collections and National Collectors Mint reproductions with "certificates of authenticity" and Chinese fakes. (I just saw eight or ten Chinese-made 1800 Bust dollars when I drove out the last time somebody called me.)
But I guess it's worth it, for those days when something cool comes in the door, huh. I do regret that aspect of my absentee seller status: I don't get much facetime with my customers or with folks who have coins for sale, unless they call me, and only one or two a month do. I do manage to see some mildly interesting things from time to time, and I think folks are often happy to find that I (the only thing vaguely resembling a brick and mortar coin dealer in probably a 50-75 mile radius) am a buyer of foreign coins, too.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
0
Comments
<< <i> And I just this morning agreed to buy a 35-lb lot from a trusted source, that I know will be good at the price- with stuff from the 1800s in it and who knows what else. >>
It is the
<< <i>who knows what else >>
you need to worry about.
DPOTD-3
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Don
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<< <i>It is the
<< who knows what else >>
you need to worry about. >>
Oh, crap. The Shroomdude himself, my bulk Darkside source, is haunting the Liteside. Who'd've thunk it. Now who knows what else I am gonna get in that 35-pound bulk box. Leftover Chinese food? A deceased hamster? Yikes.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.