Have you ever had a dealer try to give you a 4K coin?
CoinKing1969
Posts: 350
I had a rather (older) dealer a few months back at a show try to give me a $4000.00 coin to take home and pay later. Both of us did not know each other; the coin was graded and was worth that much; he did not ask for any financial or personal info. The only question he asked if any other dealers at the show knew me. My answer was "Heritage is probally the only one." I thought it was kind, but did not accept the offer. I am not going to mention the show or dealer for respect. Has this happened to you before? Has any of these dealers been taken advantage of? 
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Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."
It was a gorgeous toner PR66 Seated half.
In the end, I decided I had no business buying a $4K coin, and returned it. I decided to use the funds (which I'd gotten from the sale of my small gold Registry type set) to go into business as a small dealer. I haven't regretted the decision.
Had I bought that Seated half, gorgeous though it was, I would've been "putting all my eggs in one basket". Not sure if that would've been good or bad, necessarily. But any collection I built around that coin would've been lopsided, since on my budget there is no way I could've afforded other coins of that caliber.
Though I returned the coin, Pinnacle made it onto my "classy good guys" list. I was very impressed that they would entrust such an approval to me, and as I recall, they paid the shipping both ways, too. It was flattering, because I am NOT a collector in that league at all.
I've been offered coins on approval in that range, and I've sent coins out in that range on approval, but never from or to individuals with whom I had no prior dealings.
You must look very trustworthy, and good for you.
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Suffice to say, even if he never offers me that option again, I will be doing business with him again in the future, as often as I can.
JH
Proof Buffalo Registry Set
Capped Bust Quarters Registry Set
Proof Walking Liberty Halves Registry Set
I've had some very expensive coins either sent to me or offered to send to me on approval. In most of those cases I had already done business with the dealer, but in smaller dollar amounts. But by communicating frequently during any transaction, you can develop a mutual level of trust that can greatly reduce the concern for monetary value.
I've also had one dealer at Baltimore refuse to take my check for a $4-5K coin, even with references from a couple of other prominent dealers at the show...and one national dealer in particular personally vouched for me to this other dealer to the point where the national dealer appeared to be insulted that his word wasn't good enough for the other dealer. At that point, I stepped in and thanked the national dealer for his efforts and told the other dealer I was no longer interested in his coin.
This situation is different from a dealer sending a coin with sale conditioned on approval. It's an offer to sell with payment due over time. If CoinKing had taken the coin home, he would have owed the money.
A great dealer friend once sent me a $3900 Morgans he knew I was looking for and would fall in love with -- but couldn't afford in one bite -- and let me to make installment payments over the course of a summer. I jumped all over it.
Another great dealer friend sends me home from shows with raw Morgans all the time that I pay to submit to PCGS, knowing I'm a buyer for anything that holders. So far, all of them have -- and I've bought every one. (Our deal is if a coin grades higher than we think, he gets it back and pays me for the grading fee. It's an arrangement that makes me feel both spoiled and proud to be one of his friends.)
It's not unusual if someone will vouch for you.
But then there are those .1% . . .
A simple solution would be to accept the check and then offer to ship the coin after the show. Typically the dealer would be happy to pay the shipping fees for a sizeable transaction. And the buyer doesn't have to risk traveling with an extra coin, esp if expensive.
I was in a similar situation where several national dealers vouched for the fine reputation of a national dealer who I entrusted some coins on approval to sell. To make a long story short, he ended up stiffing me for $11K. So much more reputations and vouchering for someone. That particular dealer had been a member of ICTA, NGC, FUN, ANA, PCGS, NSDR. Still was a crook in the end....and back in business today though not on the national level.
roadrunner
True story: In the early 1970's I had Steve Ivy Rare Coin send me a package of seated coins without any idea that they were coming.
The package was worth about $16,000 and included mint state examples of rare seated dimes and half dimes. A near gem 1865-s dime still sticks out as the best of that group. Considering I was spending $10-$100 on circ seated coins at that time, this was sort of a shock. I didn't even have the $15 postage to ship it back either so I asked for postage from SIR Coin before letting them go.
I probably had sent them a want list for better dates but this was far beyond what I had asked about.
roadrunner