How much do 'Traveling' Gold Buyers pay for coins.
1630Boston
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How much do 'Traveling' Gold Buyers pay for coins.
Here are some results from an undercover 'sting' operation facilitated buy the news media and PNG.
During the investigations, PNG member-dealers provided Jordan with gold and silver coins valued at more than $43,000 to offer to traveling gold buying companies, and assisted the newspaper with expert opinions on what their own companies would actually pay for those items.
The newspaper’s stories reported that some traveling gold buyers lure people with ads promising they’ll pay collector premiums for better dates and better grades of coins, but news media personnel weren’t even offered the scrap value for many high-grade, rate-date certified gold coins. The offers they received on most gold jewelry were way below the melt value.
Full interesting story here from coinnews.net http://www.coinnews.net/2010/06/28/png-members-assist-news-media-probe-of-traveling-gold-buyers/
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I guess this shouldn't surprise anyone here. The unfortunate reason these scam artist road shows are still operating everywhere is that it's a successful business model. Good to see some public interest in exposing them.
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That's why it's good to leave selling instructions to any heirs about any sizable collection. Instruction #1 should be to never sell to the "we buy gold" sleazebags.
I've visited a couple of those places to ask about buying some coins from them. Each time i got a strange runaround, someone had to go to someone else to ask, then they had to go to another person, then finally came back to tell me no, the person that would know the prices was out. Yeah, right.
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A friend of mine took a Good 1792 half disme to one of these hotel buyers. At the time its market value was about $25K. He was told it was a foreign coin worth about $15.
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Not a surprise. They wouldn’t be doing it if they were successful.
Old article its dated 2010 but still relevant.
Not a surprise.
Not surprised. They probably turn around and flip it on eBay starting at 99c.
Maybe they travel to avoid the tar and feathers.
A fellow named H. Glen Carson once wrote a story about the "Traveling Coin Buyer".
Besides keeping a low profile for security reasons, the fellow (supposedly an acquaintance) that he wrote about never repeated the same route more than once in every five years, and his routes were not in the part of the nation where he personally resided. The Buyer supposedly had a very lucrative business.
The late Mr. Carson was a metal detecting and Hoard seeking guru. He was a prolific writer.
yes, but what would they have paid if they were PCGS?
Likey $2 more-$5 if PCGS/CAC!
I doubt they retail much.
Their big cost is advertising and set up. When they came to Rochester, they ate running full page ads for weeks and took over an entire hotel conference area for the better part of a week. It's a high overhead operation.
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It is a business that has been around a long time. When I was a kid, there was a guy who would go from house to house asking for 'old gold' items (always dressed below average, but not shabby)... as if the gold lost value when aged. He would pay for old rings, coins, jewelry...whatever gold items he could buy for very little... people would look through their jewelry boxes or whatever and pull out pieces that were 'old' and just sitting there for years....I recall when he died, and it was revealed that he was very wealthy (do nor recall a number)....He would go to all the villages and towns on a regular cycle (spring, summer, fall), and then, it was revealed, spend the winters in Florida. Now the 'buy gold' business has been elevated to a major level scam - not that is wasn't then, just not so big. Cheers, RickO
Back in 2009, I had my 1 and only experience with these so called "Fly by gold buyer out of a hotel conference room" . I was offered at 60% spot for my 1 oz bullion AGE. Needless to say I sold it on Ebay at spot plus $100 the following week.
Remember about 10 years ago when "WE BUY GOLD" kiosks popped up in a lot of shopping malls? After my first wife died in 2010 I took a heavy 14kt gold bracelet I had given her to two of those kiosks just out of curiosity. Each offered very close to 30% of melt. Of course when I melted all of her jewelry I did it through the coin shop where I worked.
Back in 1991 Jean and I were in Honolulu walking around and we came across an open air market with a variety of pushcarts set up in a temporarily vacant lot a few block back from Waikiki Beach. While she looked around I wandered up to a cart that had lots of gold jewelry and a big sign "EVERYTHING 50% OFF!" I looked at the display and pointed to a common 1/10th Panda in a diamond cut bezel like the ones we sold in the coin shop and innocently asked "How much is that?" The young Asiatic lady whipped out a calculator and spent 20 seconds or so punching buttons before announcing brightly "$495!" I said "That's odd, it looks like what we sell at our coin shop for about $100," and all of the sudden she could no longer speak English.
I've not heard of these traveling gold buyers before. What a scummy business. I wonder what fraction of their deals involve stolen goods.
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They have not come around this area in several years, but back when the gold/silver price was high, they were here quite often, they slammed a pile of people. Thier big 2 full page adds in every newspaper leading up to the event, just got people to come in. it showed off the wall high buying prices on common date coins to get them in the door. Many people just sold at their low ball offers, several people that came in to my shop after that realized how bad they had been takin.
One lady in particular had sold two 2x2 red single count boxes of CC Morgans at 10 bucks a piece, when her son realized what she had done, he went back down to retrieve them and was told they were gone and couldn't get them back. I knew his dad, he had been a member of the coin club way back when I was a young Num.
The Fedex guy that delivers in my area at home and shop(known him for years), told me that the motel buyers set up a system where as stuff comes in, they continually fill up boxes ,and as each fill, they seal them and ship them back to their HQ for processing. They keep a fed ex shipping guy on call during the event. I believe at the time it was ab ohio based company backing these operations at least in this area.
With the prices heading higher again, I can see where they might start popping back in??