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A new twist on the "Coin Buyers in the Hotel" scam....................

keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
So I'm at the shop today and as I'm leaving I tell my pal that I'll come back on Saturday to pick some stuff up and look at any new arrivals. He tells me he might not be around and explains why.

Evidentally there's a group in town that'll be doing that hotel set-up where they have the huge newspaper ad and hype how much they'll pay for this-that-the other items on the premise that they'll suck in everything for miles around, the twist being that they "steal" from the unknowing and generally pay pennies on the dollar. My pal got wind of it and decided to try to trump the game by setting up any paying better, taking advantage of the free publicity and reaping the rewards!!!! He rented space in the same hotel but was summarily given the boot when the original group discovered what was up and used their clout to have the hotel cancel his reservation. Unfortunately for them, they chose an area with several hotels, one located directly across the street and now the new location of the second group.

From what I was told the plan is to use people with those sandwich type plaques parading on the sidewalk in front of the hotel to entice the customers over to the second location where the prices paid will be higher and more realistic, probably based close to what you'd expect at a show when selling to a dealer. He asked me to help but I'm on schedule at work this week and can't sit in on things. I imagine the entertainment value would be great, especially when the first group comes over and tries something, anything, everything to disrupt the competition.image

Can anyone say Bruhaha??!!??image

Al H.

Comments

  • DUIGUYDUIGUY Posts: 7,252 ✭✭✭
    America , Land of the free !! image This could get interesting !
    “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly."



    - Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
  • BarndogBarndog Posts: 20,515 ✭✭✭✭✭
    make sure your buddy has quality security...the other guys will have it and, well, you never know.
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ironically he had done the "Hotel Buyer Comes to Town" thing himself about 2-3 years ago and i was supposed to help, being one of the buyers in a room handing out tickets for a ride on the lowball express. a combination of conscience and not wanting to burn all my vacation time convinced me to bow out.
  • pf70collectorpf70collector Posts: 6,737 ✭✭✭
    Hope they don't have mob connections or part of one
  • krankykranky Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
    Brilliant! They have the perfect setup, being right across the street. Maybe they could rent a big truck and hang a banner on it while parked in a prime spot in the hotel lot near the main road. If people see that on their way to the hotel guys, they might stop there first. I think it has the potential to be very entertaining! I can think of a number of ways to have fun with that.

    Those hotel guys just were here a couple weeks ago, running their multiple full-page ads in the paper. They were at the same hotel you stayed at for the Pittsburgh ANA.

    Silver Dollars before 1921...We pay up to $10,000! (and I'll bet "up to" is the operative phrase)

    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.

  • RegulatedRegulated Posts: 2,994 ✭✭✭✭✭
    When I worked for Richard Nachbar, one of those companies came to town. He sent me and another employee to the hotel with a bunch of Saints, including a Gem Proof High Relief and told us to play dumb. It made for an entertaining morning.

    What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
  • planetsteveplanetsteve Posts: 1,425 ✭✭✭✭
    Tell us more David. image

    My first thought is wondering how the second hotel would tolerate advertising displays being set up on their property (whether that be guys with sandwich boards or signs on box trucks in their parking lot). Would they be okay with that?
  • Anyone hear of hccincorporated on ebay imageHere
    *JE RENAIS DE MES CENDRES*
    .
    "Always Do Right, This Will Gratify Some And Astonish The Others" - Mark Twain
  • zennyzenny Posts: 1,547 ✭✭


    << <i>ironically he had done the "Hotel Buyer Comes to Town" thing himself about 2-3 years ago and i was supposed to help, being one of the buyers in a room handing out tickets for a ride on the lowball express. a combination of conscience and not wanting to burn all my vacation time convinced me to bow out. >>




    So, in two or three years he got a conscience?


    Or, he's just riding on the free advertising express.....


    Either way, sorry, but not too impressed with your pal.
  • FullStrikeFullStrike Posts: 4,353 ✭✭✭
    Oh those Hotel buyers aren't so bad. I hear they pay up to $6 Million for a genuine 1913 Liberty Nickel.

    image
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    and zenny, would i care if you cared if i cared that you don't care???image

    i simply related what i thought was a funny story about what sometimes transpires in the BigBadCoinWorld. for what it's worth, he probably does things that you'd think are scurrilous as well as things you'd consider commendable. it's all in the makeup of an average person, some good in the worst of us and some bad in the best of us. i don't judge him too harshly on the things he does that i personally don't agree with, mainly because i've seen enough of the other side, helping new collectors and YN's and for the most part, sailing an honorable ship. if the worst of us all was held up as the benchmark, the place would be empty-----period.
  • RegulatedRegulated Posts: 2,994 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Tell us more David.

    We pretended that the coins had belonged to my grandfather, and that I had no idea of their relative values - I just said I knew that one or two were pretty valuable. They wouldn't say what they would pay and kept pressuring me to tell them how much I wanted for the coins. Eventually, I got up and walked with the coins. They chased me out into the parking lot, waving their arms. It was amusing.

    What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
  • zennyzenny Posts: 1,547 ✭✭


    << <i>and zenny, would i care if you cared if i cared that you don't care???image

    i simply related what i thought was a funny story about what sometimes transpires in the BigBadCoinWorld. for what it's worth, he probably does things that you'd think are scurrilous as well as things you'd consider commendable. it's all in the makeup of an average person, some good in the worst of us and some bad in the best of us. i don't judge him too harshly on the things he does that i personally don't agree with, mainly because i've seen enough of the other side, helping new collectors and YN's and for the most part, sailing an honorable ship. if the worst of us all was held up as the benchmark, the place would be empty-----period. >>




    touche....


    and no, i'm quite certain that you don't care that i care that you care that i don't care that i care.
  • SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,572 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I went to one of these "Hotel Coin Buyer's" events with some nice stuff. I was curious just how I would be treated. I played the part of being unknowledgable about the coins, saying they were my fathers, who recently passed away.

    I was offered $3,200.00 for it. I declined and went to a local shop I frequent and told the shop owner about it. He does not pay high prices when he buys (though his sell prices are low, which is good for buyers like me). He looked at my stuff and said he would pay triple what I was offered at the hotel.

    He also thought it would be neat to set up just off the hotel property and offer to buy at prices higher than those offered in the hotel.
  • airplanenutairplanenut Posts: 22,382 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Some of those buyers are near my house this coming weekend... if I weren't going to be at school, I'd have some fun. Anyway, I hope this video gets on YouTube image
    JK Coin Photography - eBay Consignments | High Quality Photos | LOW Prices | 20% of Consignment Proceeds Go to Pancreatic Cancer Research
  • jmski52jmski52 Posts: 23,225 ✭✭✭✭✭
    We pretended that the coins had belonged to my grandfather, and that I had no idea of their relative values - I just said I knew that one or two were pretty valuable. They wouldn't say what they would pay and kept pressuring me to tell them how much I wanted for the coins. Eventually, I got up and walked with the coins. They chased me out into the parking lot, waving their arms. It was amusing.


    I love it!
    Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally

    I knew it would happen.
  • I wouldn't want to spend all day weeding through other peoples junk.

    And hearing them whine about how they heard it is worth such and such.

    For some reason, unknowledgeable sellers always start out by saying "The coin dealer offered me $100 each for these (1921 AG-G Morgans) Silver Dollars, and that was 40 years ago, they must be worth a fortune now". And they hold them near their heart, and present them to you as if they are he Crown jewels.

    My mother in law has 4 storage containers, and a house full of stuff she won't tthrow away because it "will be worth a fortune", and I've seen a few of her valuable coins...yes those 1962 silver quarters.

    I would go absolutly nuts listening to that BS all day. Betcha your friend doesn't do it again! There are plenty of resources for those folks to figure out what their stuff is worth. They just seem to enjpy making the values up in their head. Cmon, we all see those crazy eBay listings!

    If they don't want to bother educating themselves, then I don't feel sorry for them.

  • lathmachlathmach Posts: 4,720


    << <i>Anyone hear of hccincorporated on ebay imageHere >>



    As a matter of fact I have.
    I've bought from them and have been very satisfied with my dealings with them.

    Ray
  • SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,572 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The one time I went to a "Hotel Coin Buyers" event was interesting.

    The place was doing a very brisk business. Lots and lots of people showing up with bags, boxes, briefcases and suitcases in tow filled with coins.

    The demographics of the "sellers" was interesting also. The age ran from the 20's to the 70's-80's. Men and women, husband and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, parents and children, whole families. Racial background was also diverse. White, black, latin, asian, middle eastern, etc. The interesting thing was the the white folks were primarily the people in their 60's-80's, usually a husband and a wife, or a man. People were very well dressed, driving very nice cars; other people looked like they lived out of their cars and were down at the heels; and others were everywhere in between the two extremes.

    I guess it goes to show that "Everyone" has valuableimage old coins.
  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
    They do very well. At least they did when I had the shop. In fact, the local shops get a huge overflow from those ads in that the few who have brains think to look up "Coins" in the yellow pages when the big ads remind them to.
    We got bunches of nice stuff during those brief competitive episodes.
    Nothing like THEY got, but still good.

    I ran a full pager in the paper for the shop once and it drew for YEARS! People can't overlook those huge ads. I kept getting collections with that ad folded up in them.

    It wasn't economically feasible to CONTINUE in one town with big ads (I'm speculating) but an occasional one draws a lot.

    A lot of people ...TRUST.... someone who is so important as to be TRAVELING NATIONWIDE PAYING HIGH PRICES !!! image

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