Have you ever bought one collection just to get the chance at the coin collection?
DNADave
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I’m looking at a stamp collection tomorrow which was started in 1965. I want to make a fair offer.in hopes of being considered when she gets to the coin collection. It may never be offered, but the family is not interested in the stamps.
Have you ever “paid dues” on one collection so you could see the rest? Did it work out.
I do like stamps and have a few books that often come with coin collections.
Let me add: I want to make a fair offer in any case. I’m hoping it leads to better things
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I have not done exactly the same thing, but I have paid higher on certain coins to earn a opportunity to be offered the entire collection.
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Yes. And it almost never works. I spent 50,000 over 3 years on piles of crap trying to get to the good stuff. The good stuff never arrived
Been there, done that.
Very similar here.Still did okay with buying the "lesser" material but the "goods" were not offered to me.
I've bought junk to get a few select pieces, but I have never done so with the hopes that someone might offer me something in the future. I would want to buy everything at one shot if I am going to buy some less desirable stuff too. I would not let a seller shop around and leave me with all junk while the good stuff has already been cherry picked and/or committed to someone else. The same principle applies here too. You can sell me the coin collection, and I'll also make an offer on the stamp collection. Make a lump sum offer for EVERYTHING, factor in the loss on the stamps/junk required to blow it out quickly, and adjust your offer accordingly. If not, pass and don't look back.
Nafzger did this once.
Life is short. Don't tie up a bunch of money unless you know you've got something you can do OK with. Otherwise is just a headache you don't need.
I chuckled out loud with this, the majority seem to go this way don't they?
My only "Cool" story along these lines is I met a local guy at a show who inherited his father's collection. 2 Army foot lockers worth of stuff he said, and he described nice stuff among a bunch of not so nice stuff. We agreed to meet every week or two at my work after hours, and he brought a large rubbermaid tote or two with him each time. The totes were filled with pill bottles, cigar boxes, sandwich baggies, tins, envelopes, and every odd container known to man. He only had 1-2 hours a visit, so he limited what he thought my partner and I could accurately catalog and price in that time. We met about 13 times in total. The 1st time he brought totes of mint and proof sets. Pretty sure he was testing how fair I was, so brought the crap the first load. Ended up with a few thousand in mint/proof sets paying more than I should have that trip. 2nd trip was a few thousand in wheat cents, next few trips were pretty much bullion 90% - after about 10 trips and about 40k into this adventure, I started wondering when the good stuff would come seeing as we had saved out about 5 true collector coins to this point. I was still paying to get to the good stuff, just enough under on the 90% to cover the hour drive to cash them in, but that was about it - I started thinking the good stuff was all in his imagination. About the same for a few more visits, then we hit visit 13 or so. He walked in with his totes and said this would be his last trip. I wondered if I had irritated him, but he said this was the last of it. 3 totes of type coins, Morgans and Peace dollars, gold sets, folders of currency, and what little bit of seated/bust stuff his Dad had. That visit alone was around $60k, but we finally made it to the good stuff. Weren't high grade or rare date things, but salable. Most stories like this end in a bank bag of worn circulated Washington quarters as the good stuff though. It's been about 2 years and my partner's antique mall booth has finally cycled the mint/proof sets out of inventory, and we sold the better coins at our show table and were happy in the end.
My ad on my work bulletin board brings in a few collections a year - and all I'll say is there has never been a pot of gold at the end of the collection rainbow worth paying more than I should have to get at. I got lucky on the above story meeting him at my small home-town coin club show and being the only one local for him to deal with.
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The average collector here is not representative of the average collector at large. Many collections consist of bulk common wheat cents, 90% "junk" silver, and statehood quarters. My gut instinct is that you will be stuck with a bunch of low value coins if you are offered the coin collection at all.
No, and I would not do that. I am not a dealer and have no inclination to acquire coins - or 'stuff' - that does not interest me. Cheers, RickO
This is how I acquired about a million baseball cards, 600 albums, 10 gallons worth of marbles, and a hodge podge coin collection....
The only goos stuff was the tuition learning experiences.
I will make out in the end, but forced me to draw the line.
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Once.
VERY STUPID GAMBLE!
People are clever and devious.
I haven’t but I have paid premiums for some pieces I want to get access to other prices I want.
Yup, I did !!!
Don't buy unless there are keys.....otherwise, you'll end up with a storage problem.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
<<< stamp collection tomorrow which was started in 1965 >>>
Yea, the stamp collection more than likely filled with worthless cancelled stamps from the first half of the 20th century, near worthless mint stamps from the 1960's on up, lots of foreign junk, etc.
I agree with others here, tell them to lump the stamps and coins together, or just pass on the stamps and tell them to contact you when they're ready to sell the coins.
Buying stamps to possibly get coins seems silly to me.
Not with items other than coins, but used to buy the junk to get a shot at the good stuff, which almost always never happens. I bought a bunch of stuff , ancients, world, and some minor us stuff, to get a chance to buy the really good early pre 1934 stuff, only to find out they consigned it to heritage. that was the last time.
about 2 years ago, I was being offered some nice copper, had to pay more than it was worth, spent like 150k over 5-6 months, I think I made 3-4k on the whole deal after expenses and time. They kept telling me, step up, the early silver and gold is coming 1796 halves and 1795 dollars, early 1820-30's gold, etc. never materialized.
I don’t think I would have done that for more than a time or two unless some of the good stuff was included in the lots they were selling. It sounds like they were playing you.
I’ve heard the opposite thing to occur. It’s hearsay, but all of the parties are now dead.
A Boston dealer told me about a widow whose husband had a $100,000 collection, which would have been a million dollar collection at the time of the story. The collection was in 10 double row boxes. A dealer, who had a regular column in a well-known coin magazine, took the collection, made up one box, and paid her $10,000. The trouble is the box he build had all of the good stuff. He returned nine boxes common stuff to the widow.
I bought a group of 20 tokens just to get the two beavers in the group I didn’t have
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
This!
I would not recommend buying the stamps to maybe get the coins.
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Also hearsay and a story told to me years ago by a dealer I had worked with and bought from for years.
He told me he knew of a transaction that took place long ago (now about 45-50 years ago) involving an elderly widow whose deceased husband had left her with a collection. The collection had a value (retail or wholesale I do not know) in the 7 figure range. The dealer ended up acquiring the collection from the widow for about 3% of the value.
If this is a true story, that is horrible.
If it happened today the dealer would be opening a can of worms that could involve civil and/or criminal claims of financial elder abuse.
For dealers out in forumland, when dealing with non collectors who have inherited a collection from a collecting spouse or parent who has passed away, do you have any standard business practices in place which are designed to protect yourfrom potential claims of wrongdoing on your part by sellers who after the fact have "Seller's Remorse"?
I am sure that these types of sellers can and do experience "Seller's Remorse", warranted or not.
Be honest and tell them you'll take both or none.
So... what's the rest of the story?
I hate unfinished threads... lol
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I think I went against the trend here. I bought the stamp collection last night for a “good-for-me” price. I can sell them from my case and keep a few too.
I even told the seller not to accept my offer and to get a couple more before deciding.
My offer was 40 percent of face. If the coins come to me, I’ll be happy. I left my card and left on good terms.
I can see buying a whole collection to get a few pieces I like and move the rest, but buying a collection hoping it tethered me to a future deal, prob not.
There's all kinds of things you can try. But, in the end, you can sue anyone for anything. Whether you'd win or not is a different story.
The fact is, most estates are piles of widgets and it is really unusual for an heir to come back claiming that their bag of corroded indian cents was really worth a million. Most of the coins are not traceable and an heir would have a hard time coming back at you.
I think the bigger liability problem is stolen material. There is NOTHING you can do to prevent the police from seizing stolen goods. You do the best you can to ferret out the suspicious, but sooner or later you will accidentally buy something stolen and have to eat it.
Reminds me of a guy who went to a strip club, paid for a lap dance, and married her a week later. They got divorced and she ended up with the home. He said "next time , I'm just going to find a girl who hates me and buy her a house"
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