What is your opinion of a dealer who steers you to a coin where he makes LESS profit?

Longacre · April 28, 2005 11:29PM

Several months ago I bought a gold coin from a well known dealer on the west coast in Washington state. He happened to have two of the same date and mintmark coins in inventory, both in AU-58. I called and talked to him about both of them because I was not sure which I was intersted in. He said (I will closely paraphrase), "I could sell you Coin A and make more of a profit, because actually it was in a AU-55 holder and I resubmitted it and it got upgraded to AU-58. However, I really like Coin B better, even though I am making less on it, and I think Coin B is the better coin to buy."

I almost fell off my chair when he said that, and I was really impressed with his honesty. Perhaps the cynics are saying "no big deal; so he made less on this deal, but he will make it up on the next deal". However, this dealer at the time did not know me from Adam, and could have very easily steered me to the more profitable coin.

Does anyone else have similar stories?

kryptonitecomics · April 28, 2005 11:33PM

Don't have a similar story....but that a great story and I would certainly be doing more business with this dealer in the future

razorface1027 · April 28, 2005 11:42PM

I almost fell off my chair when he said that, and I was really impressed with his honesty

That's what it's all about. However, those types are few and far in between.

Tom

RYK · April 28, 2005 11:46PM

I have had the same experience with the same dealer, originally in Dallas and now in the Pac Northwest. In fact, I have had nothing but good experiences with that dealer.

Edited to add: No reason to be cryptic. We are talking about Doug Winter at Pinnacle.

Longacre · April 28, 2005 11:53PM

RYK-- thanks. It was Doug Winter at Pinnacle. I guess I should not be so cryptic when someone is a good guy.

MrEureka · April 29, 2005 12:19AM

"no big deal; so he made less on this deal, but he will make it up on the next deal".

That is 100% correct. Not only that, but he increased the probability that there will be a "next deal". It's just good long term business. Unfortunately, dealers with a long term perspective are hard to find. Most are out for the quick buck and don't care about tomorrow.

LeeG · April 29, 2005 12:27AM

Or the "Good Guy's" who steer you clear of a coin that isn't a "Fit" for your collection. This has happened twice to me. My thanks to Mark Feld and Michael Printz at Larry Whitlow

Edited to clarify my statement

UncleJoe · April 29, 2005 12:29AM

However, I really like Coin B better, even though I am making less on it, and I think Coin B is the better coin to buy."

With no disrespect to Doug Winter, yes I have heard this before personally and from others. However, in most of those cases we knew for a fact that the dealer was lying. The point being, just because a dealer says this is reality doesn't make it so. You either have to have intimate knowledge of the transaction or have built a level of trust with a certain dealer before I would accept any dealer's statements at face value.

Sorry, don't mean to be a downer but I have personally watched and heard many a dealer lie (or do you prefer embellish/omit/twist etc) that it is almost a joke. How do you know a coin dealer is lying? ...

Present company exempted of course.

Joe.

LucyBop · April 29, 2005 12:29AM

This cat is a non-wannnnnnnnabe..........................

Barry · April 29, 2005 12:30AM

Being the cynic that I am, I'd call it salesmanship.

If you were a new customer, who does he save the "not better coins" for? Established customers?

mrearlygold · April 29, 2005 12:30AM

It's a good pitch,

And how do you know that's not exactly what it was?

Tom

coinguy1 · April 29, 2005 12:34AM

<< <i>If you were a new customer, who does he save the "not better coins" for? Established customers? >>

Or he might save the other "not better coin" for a wholesale transaction to another dealer. Having previously worked at Pinnacle for 6 years, I can vouch for that practice.

UncleJoe · April 29, 2005 1:00AM

Again, with all due respect, I think a dealer mentioning what he will "make" is disingenuous. Frankly, IMO, it is not any of the buyers business what the dealer will 'make' and that should not be a reason for buying or not buying.

I would much prefer the dealer to explain to me why he liked one AU58 over another by pointing out the differences in the coins. That is much more valuable to me than how much profit the dealer will make. When a dealer starts talking to me about how much he's into a coin, I usually become deaf and more often than not I move on.

Joe.

RYK · April 29, 2005 1:05AM

If I had a nickel for every time DW talked me out of a coin that he could have profited on, I would have a helluva large nickel collection. No question that DW takes the long term view when working with his retail clients. There is good reason why he has such a loyal following.

Longacre · April 29, 2005 1:23AM

I was just trying to point out that I was impressed with the dealer's honesty (and I do not doubt his honesty). I reality, we did talk a lot more about Coin A vs. Coin B and the coin's attributes, surface characteristics, originality, look, etc., rather than profit. The mention of the "upgrade" was secondary and quite minor in our discussion. So I don't want to mislead anyone about the content of our conversation.

jdsinva · April 29, 2005 1:37AM

This is an interesting thread and has made me think about my own circumstance. There are two local coin dealers in our fair city, one who has better inventory but will do and say anything to try and make a buck, and another who will take a little time to try and learn about the buyer, try to steer them in the right direction and even suggest the buyer to read/inform themselves better before making a purchase. I think it's obvious to see where 99%+ of all my local business goes. And as a regular customer, I often get first chance of the good stuff when it does come in.

RYK · April 29, 2005 2:20AM

I cannot praise the good folks at Pinnacle enough. Todd Imhoff is also a super guy that I have also had occasion to work with recently.

What is your opinion of a dealer who steers you to a coin where he makes LESS profit?

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