For all of the dealers here...
laxmaster92
Posts: 777
Do you have any funny, interesting, ridiculous or unbelievable stories from any of the shows you've been at?
Maybe a story of a unruly customer or did you ever see or hear anything that just made you wonder?
PLEASE SHARE!
Maybe a story of a unruly customer or did you ever see or hear anything that just made you wonder?
PLEASE SHARE!
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At one Massachusetts show a collector spotted a silver dollar in my case that would have cost him $475. He said, "Okay, I'll take it."
Before he paid me he asked, "Am I paying sales tax on this?"
In all honesty I answered "Yes."
With that he exploded.
"I shouldn't be paying sales tax. I'm from Connecticut, and we don’t have sales tax on coins in Connecticut!”
“I know that Connecticut does not have a sales tax on coins,” I answered, “but this show is being held in Massachusetts, and given that the Massachusetts tax laws apply here.”
“That doesn’t matter, I’m from Connecticut!” he fumed.
With that he threw up the deal. The price had been okay so long as he thought he was not paying sales tax, but as soon as he knew that an extra $25 (in round numbers) had been added he was out.
It so happened that this was a period with the price of Morgan dollars was going up. A few weeks later, I sold the some coin in New Hampshire, where there was no sales tax, for a higher price. So in the end I was better off losing that sale.
<< <i>When I lived in Massachusetts there was a 5% sales tax (It's higher now.) that went to zero if your total purchase of U.S. coins was $1,000 or more. The tax made life hard on some sales.
At one Massachusetts show a collector spotted a silver dollar in my case that would have cost him $475. He said, "Okay, I'll take it."
Before he paid me he asked, "Am I paying sales tax on this?"
In all honesty I answered "Yes."
With that he exploded.
"I shouldn't be paying sales tax. I'm from Connecticut, and we don’t have sales tax on coins in Connecticut!”
“I know that Connecticut does not have a sales tax on coins,” I answered, “but this show is being held in Massachusetts, and given that the Massachusetts tax laws apply here.”
“That doesn’t matter, I’m from Connecticut!” he fumed.
With that he threw up the deal. The price had been okay so long as he thought he was not paying sales tax, but as soon as he knew that an extra $25 (in round numbers) had been added he was out.
It so happened that this was a period with the price of Morgan dollars was going up. A few weeks later, I sold the some coin in New Hampshire, where there was no sales tax, for a higher price. So in the end I was better off losing that sale. >>
that rocked
Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
<< <i>When I lived in Massachusetts there was a 5% sales tax (It's higher now.) that went to zero if your total purchase of U.S. coins was $1,000 or more. The tax made life hard on some sales.
At one Massachusetts show a collector spotted a silver dollar in my case that would have cost him $475. He said, "Okay, I'll take it."
Before he paid me he asked, "Am I paying sales tax on this?"
In all honesty I answered "Yes."
With that he exploded.
"I shouldn't be paying sales tax. I'm from Connecticut, and we don’t have sales tax on coins in Connecticut!”
“I know that Connecticut does not have a sales tax on coins,” I answered, “but this show is being held in Massachusetts, and given that the Massachusetts tax laws apply here.”
“That doesn’t matter, I’m from Connecticut!” he fumed.
With that he threw up the deal. The price had been okay so long as he thought he was not paying sales tax, but as soon as he knew that an extra $25 (in round numbers) had been added he was out.
It so happened that this was a period with the price of Morgan dollars was going up. A few weeks later, I sold the some coin in New Hampshire, where there was no sales tax, for a higher price. So in the end I was better off losing that sale. >>
I wouldn't have held it again YOU, but I too would have passed on the coin. Then again, I would have never attend a coin show in a state that taxes the purchase of us coins.
Let me begin with a little historical background. Mr. Impatient had bought some coins from me over the past couple years with no issues at all. Then one day I happened to win a coin he was selling on an Ebay auction. I promptly sent my PayPal payment, received the coin a short time later, no problem. A couple days after I received the coin, Mr. Impatient sent me a message through Ebay asking me to leave feedback. I responded that I would be happy to do so, however, I explained that it was my practice to leave feedback in bulk a couple times a month and that it might take a week or two, but I would get to it.
Two days later out of the blue, he sent me another message informing me that, since I wouldn’t leave him immediate feedback, he had “blocked” me as a bidder on his future auctions. “Wow,” I thought, “this guy was pretty impatient and in my opinion was ‘cutting off his nose to spite his face.’” I could understand blocking a bidder because they didn’t send payment, or took too long to send payment, but I’d never heard of someone blocking a bidder just because they wouldn’t leave prompt feedback. “Oh well,” I said to myself, “he’s not the kind of guy I’d want to continue doing business with any way if that’s all it took to get him peeved.”
Ok, fast forward a year later. Mr. Impatient saw a coin on my website he wanted to buy and emailed me asking for my best price. Well, I am taken aback to hear from this guy. If it was me, and I felt strongly enough to actually bar someone from bidding on my coins, you can bet I wouldn’t want to do any kind of business with that person. But I thought, hey, let bygones be bygones, and decided to forget about the past incident and I gave him a reduced price for the coin.
He agreed to buy it, but then began asking for “extras” like wanting a larger photo of the coin, could I send the coin to Rick Snow to Photo Seal, and a couple other “requests.” I emailed him that he could enlarge and copy the photo off my website, and I also offered as a friendly courtesy, that since I would be seeing Rick at an upcoming show, I could hand the coin to Rick at the show, thereby saving Mr. Impatient the to/from shipping costs, however, he’d still have to pay Rick’s $15 Photo Seal fee. He said ok and mailed a check.
In the meantime, since Mr. Impatient knew who had taken the picture of my coin (I’ll call him “Mr. Photo Guy”), Mr. Impatient contacted him directly and asked Mr. Photo Guy to send him a larger image (even though Mr. Photo Guy did accommodate Mr. Impatient, I personally thought this was out of line since Mr. Impatient was asking Mr. Photo Guy (behind my back) to spend his time editing the photo to suit Mr. Impatient without even offering to compensate Mr. Photo Guy). “Hmmm,” I thought, as a little warning bell began to ring and I started to feel I should have declined to deal with this guy from the beginning.
Shortly after that, Mr. Impatient decided he didn’t want to wait for me to take the coin to Rick but instead requested that I mail it directly to him. Well, Mr. Photo Guy still had the coin in his possession and was going to bring it to the same show Rick and I were attending, so now I had to ask Mr. Photo Guy if he would ship the coin to Mr. Impatient for me and I would reimburse him. “No problem,” Mr. Photo Guy said so I gave him the address and he shipped the coin by insured first class to Mr. Impatient for me. I then contacted Mr. Impatient to advise him that Mr. Photo Guy would be shipping the coin to him directly.
A week later (on a Friday), Mr. Impatient (who lived across the country) emailed me that he had not yet received the coin. I was in my car driving to a coin show at the time I received his message on my Blackberry (my son read it to me), so I had to contact Mr. Photo Guy and ask him if he would respond to Mr. Impatient’s email with the shipping date and tracking information, which he promptly did letting Mr. Impatient know that no tracking information was available at that time.
The next day (Saturday) while I’m at the show, I got a very rude and condescending email from Mr. Impatient questioning my professional reputation, asking why I did not respond to him personally about the coin’s whereabouts, that even though Mr. Photo Guy contacted him, why didn’t I care enough about his concerns to reply myself, etc.
“Wow,” I thought, “This guy really did have some issues.” Ok, I’ll admit that I probably could have replied directly to Mr. Impatient letting him know Mr. Photo Guy would follow up with shipping status, but since I was driving at the time I thought asking Mr. Photo Guy to respond was the most expeditious way of handling his request.
So I bit my tongue, swallowed the unlady-like words I wanted to type, and responded professionally explaining to him that I was driving at the time I received his message, Mr. Photo Guy had the information, that the post office was pretty slow lately, that I was sure the coin would arrive within a couple days, but that the coin was insured and he should try and be a little patient. He replied the next day, without any apology for his nasty email, stating that he would wait and be hopeful. I was later informed the coin finally arrived two days later on Monday.
The icing on the cake of this story is that I later learned (not from Mr. Impatient, but from a third party) that on the SAME day Mr. Impatient sent me his ranting email (Saturday), he had received a pink slip from the post office letting him know they tried to deliver the coin but that no one was home, and they would try again on Monday! “OMG!” is all I could say when I learned this. After all the hubbub trying to track the coin -- the emails, my phone calls with Mr. Photo Guy, all of the worrying about the coin, etc. -- why didn’t Mr. Impatient send me (and Mr. Photo Guy) a message letting us know that the coin was waiting for him at HIS post office – not to mention an kind apology would have been appreciated!
And the story doesn’t quite end here. After Mr. Impatient got the coin, he sent me an email letting me know he was quite pleased with it but also wanted his $15 Photo Seal fee returned. (I had planned to use it to reimburse Mr. Photo Guy for the shipping fee.) Again, I was shaking my head that, after all this guy put me and Mr. Photo Guy through, he wasn’t through “badgering” me.
Of course, I could have simply just refunded him the $15 and avoided all further conflict and put an end to the whole deal, but I was finished bending over backwards and couldn’t let this pass. So I sent him an email reminding him that I had to reimburse Mr. Photo Guy for shipping the coin to him. He respondede saying that he didn’t feel he had to pay any shipping fee since he felt the original (reduced) price I quoted him for the coin should have included the shipping fee. I reminded him that my website clearly states the buyer pays for all shipping costs, and besides, we had never even gotten to the point of discussing the amount of the shipping since I had (graciously I thought) offered to hand carry the coin to Rick. He said that I should do whatever I felt was fair, so I did! After paying Mr. Photo Guy what I owed him, I refunded Mr. Impatient a few dollars and, for my own sanity, I promptly ceased all further communication with him.
The Penny Lady®
I'm not a Dealer, and this didn't happen at a show, but it certainly qualifys as unusual.
I get a ealy call the day before yesterday from a previous person I purchased scrap gold from. She has her neighbor in her home that wants to sell 1430 oz of silver coins right away. I spoke to him, and he wanted me to come over right now with Cash. I explained I had another appt I was on my way to, but I'd get their at 11am. He said OK, but it has to be today.
I arrive at his home, he warns me that he's been a bachelor since his wife passed away more than 20yrs ago. I walk in, and there are papers of every sort on the floor, with single Silver Dollars spaced out about every 3 feet. I reach down to pick one up in front of me, and he says put it back, it's part of the spirits web. He shows me the Spirit's picture on the wall. He's held these 2 $1000 bags of coins for years now, but the Spirit woke him up at 2am, telling him to sell. However, since I didn't arrive first thing that morning, the Spirit spoke to him again and said don't sell. I said that's fine, just give me a call any time you're ready. I then asked him how much he was expecting to get for them. He had called two coin Dealers in town, one told him 2x face less than I can turn them over for, the other about 1x face less. He said if I could match the higherst price, he'd sell to me eventually.
Let's do the math ....... I'd profit about $1800 for about a $48000 cash out of pocket. Have to give up 48k now by pre-arranging with my bank to have that many hundreds, having to fill out the IRS Cash paperwork, package the stuff up registered (which is no small feat to do correctly), Pay $100 postage or so, Wait about 2 wks for the check, while I'm still out 48k that I could use on other deals, have to explain to the IRS this extra $50k check I recieve isn't all income, and only make about 3.5% for my troubles. The moral of the story is, Some Dealers are crazier than this Seller is. I'm not about to outlay 48k cash for $1800 and all the hassle. I just don't get it, some Dealers are Nuts.
It sounds like you were dealing with a guy who has issues with women. What an arshat!
While helping at a show a few years back, two guys in their 30's came up to the table and asked if we had any bicentennial quarters. We didn't, and I told them that. One guy says, "We're going to corner the market on them."
Now I had no idea if they knew what they were doing or not, so I diplomatically said, "Well, there were many hundreds of millions of them minted, so that might be hard to do."
The guy shoots back with a knowing grin, "Well, YOU don't have any, do you?" And they walked off, triumphant that they proved their point to me.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
<< <i>Charmy,
It sounds like you were dealing with a guy who has issues with women. What an arshat! >>
I disagree. I'm sure he treats all dealers with the same discourteous rudeness.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Amazingly, no lawsuit. And these guys truly thought each other was the Anti-Christ.
Of course I can name names. Ya hadda be there !
I've seen three of them over the years. One between two dealers/brothers at a NYC show, one between two dealers at a Bay State show, and a third where a dealer hit another dealer over the head with a chair. Seems like there should have been a lot more than that...
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>Have any of you witnessed any fistfights between a dealer and a collector or between two dealers at a coin show? >>
just missed one a while back at a Southfield, Mi. show involving a baseball bat and a Brighton B&M guy.
Barrytrot(2),Stupid,Savoyspecial,docq,ecoinquest, halfhunter,snman,Coll3ctor.
wondercoin. Blue594. internetjunky.
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<< <i>Have any of you witnessed any fistfights between a dealer and a collector or between two dealers at a coin show?
I've seen three of them over the years. One between two dealers/brothers at a NYC show, one between two dealers at a Bay State show, and a third where a dealer hit another dealer over the head with a chair. Seems like there should have been a lot more than that... >>
One of the brothers felt his Accugrade grades weren't high enough.
Hint....
.
BOOM.
.
Fortunately it was pointed down. Went through the table, hit the floor, and came back up through the table, by which time it was pretty well spent. Everybody looks over and sees the guy with the gun in his hand and a real dumb-sheep expression on his face. He tries to hand it back to the dealer, who won't take it, so he puts it on the floor and kicks it under the table towards the dealer. By this time the show security guard, an off-duty Milwaukee cop, come up and hauls both of them away.
Who we don't know is Mr. Impatient and I'm anxious to add him to my blocked bidder list. If you won't "out him" here can you PM me?
I have a lot of patience for customers. My business is service-related. But sometimes you have to fire the customer. I'll have to remember what a softy you are. LOL. Don't be offended...it's a very endearing trait.
Lance.
We were so busy there were people waiting to be waited on. I took the next customer, and was showing him some gold coins out on the counter when the first guy came back and started throwing questions at me about one of the pieces he had looked at. I gave him a quick answer to the first question, then said that I was busy right now (as was everybody else) and would help him when I was finished. He explodes and starts screaming to see the Store Manager (who was also with a customer).
<< <i>
<< <i>Have any of you witnessed any fistfights between a dealer and a collector or between two dealers at a coin show? >>
just missed one a while back at a Southfield, Mi. show involving a baseball bat and a Brighton B&M guy. >>
LOL I was going to say that, I was there and that was ridiculous