Second Chance Doubts

Gazes

Here is the scenario. You see a coin posted that immediately grabs your interest to purchase. You begin to do your homework and then then soon thereafter it disappears or is marked sold. You kick yourself for moving to slow and vow to not let it happen again. Then a week or two later the same coin reappears on the same site. Now you have a second chance to buy the coin but you begin to wonder---well why did it get returned? what is wrong with the coin? And you pass on it again----has this ever happened to you?

grip

No, never happened to me.I would have bought it the second time around.
Than used the return option if needed.

No Headlights

I agree. The first buyer's taste may not be yours.

illini420

Returns happen for many reasons.

Sometimes it is an issue with the coin. Sometimes it is an issue with the buyer.

FranklinHalfAddict

It may have been returned because the coin did not aesthetically appeal to the buyer. The coin may have had a different look in hand than the sellers photos showed. It may not have been an issue with the coins surfaces, for example an old cleaning or hidden contact marks.
That happened to me with a coin I purchased off David Lawrence's website a couple years ago. Their images showed a very attractive Franklin Half with vibrant, colorful toning. The coin ended up being an ugly, dull grey. The coin was accurately graded at 66, just the color was way off from the photos and it was not a coin I wanted to keep in my collection.

ricko

No.... Unlikely I would have missed the first time, however, I definitely would have snagged it the second. When I see a coin that I want, I act fast. Cheers, RickO

Boosibri

Yes, depends on the dealer and the series though.

I am more inclined to be skeptical on a specialist dealers site as the MUST buy coins within a series to keep sales turning. As such the quality spectrum is wider in inventory.

For a type dealer they can buy whatever suits their interest and have much less reason to compromise on quality. In this example the range of offerings is more broad and the quality more consistent. For certain dealers I work with in this area my trust in their tastes and eye is quite high.

TomB

I think this is a real issue.

I have spoken with several well-respected, well-liked, knowledgeable dealers about this and I use the term "tainted" or "taint" for the coin. They have had similar experiences to my own. In my experience, very few coins are returned to me and I attribute this low return rate to the images, my descriptions and the fact that I can afford to be more of a generalist, if need be, than a specialist. This was pointed out very well by Boosibri in a post above mine. The low return rate may also be attributed to the fact that I have a high percentage, in my opinion, of folks who buy multiple coins over time and so they may know my tastes better and/or know how I write about coins or image them.

However, it is not unusual to have multiple requests be put in for the same coin when I send out an advance notice email and, on rare occasions, the coin in question is returned. I attempt to always let folks know if a requested coin is returned, but in these instances I find a remarkably high resistance rate to accepting the second chance opportunity to acquire the piece. This is unfortunate for a number of reasons and these include that the coin would invariably be quite nice, but just didn't hit the mark for that collector and that a large portion of the folks who view my site are also the same folks who receive my email list and so the coin has lost its chance go be acquired by that pool.

The most extreme example I can think of was for a much better date classic silver coin in a really meaty circulated grade that had a terrific look. Generic pieces with inferior eye appeal might have been about $500 and I may have had the coin out at $600 because it was just stunning for what it was. I had four requests within a few hours for the coin and committed it to the first client who requested it. The coin was shipped and the client received it perhaps two days later. He let me know that it was everything I described it as, but that it really wasn't his collecting focus and he found something else, somewhere else, that fit his collection better and he would return the coin. I thanked him and offered the coin to the next client, who then asked why the first client was returning the coin before letting me know that he had essentially spent his coin money for the month. I then sent a message to the third client who had a similar email exchange with me before telling me that if it were returned once then he may return it, too. The fourth client then had his/her turn and, after another similar email exchange, let me know that they should think about the coin for a while before committing to an in-hand examination. None of those clients purchased the coin and it sat in inventory for much longer than I expected before I sold it at a show to someone who had not seen it listed, had not asked for it only to find out it was shipped to someone else and who did not know it had been immediately returned.

I realize the above is just a single incident, but I couldn't help but think that if the first client hadn't asked for the coin that the subsequent three clients would have been happy with it had they seen it in-hand. I also apologize for the rambling and hope that my post made sense and had internal logic.