What Would You Do?

What would you do if you thought the coin dealer was a little dim? I was recently in a coin shop in Germany and wanted to buy the 1950s saarland coins. He offered me the 50 frank for about half price and then the 100 franc for a little over the price I thought it was worth, so I took the coins, paid for the two coins what the one coin was worth, then found out at home that the 100 franc coin had a filed edge, but not really bothered. Most of the guys coins were overvalued, I ignored most of it and will only go back if I see a stupid mistake he is making!!

Jim1953 said it all.
In a perfect world what some think is rightious would be the norm. However, this is not a perfect world. If you found a coin dealer that is honest, that is like saying you found a used car salesperson that is honest. It is possible, however, few and far between.
I have noticed that the smaller the town or city, the more honest people appear to be. However, here in Chicago, doors are never left open, many places windows have bars, not many walk down streets at night alone. So far I've met a few coin dealers that I wouldn't say are dishonest, but as a general rule, they all take what they can from whoever.

At that garage sale, what if it's a coin, a baseball card, or an antique, and you know it's worth much more?

If someone posts or states a price, I accept that they are more knowledgeable than I about their possessions.

If I am the 'professional' I work backwards from my sell position and make them the most reasonable offer I can.

Yeah, I gave up on real estate.

I think we are all missing an important factor in this scenario. What kind of dealer is it? Does this dealer have 5 million dollars in inventory? Or does he have a small shop with not much to lean on? My local dealer in Minot, *** Staff Edit ***! He has literally millions of dollars in inventory and I have personally watched him deliberately try messing with several young card collectors and old ladies with old coins and paper money. Like $40 for a Woodchopper $2 bill. Or $100 for a - ounce gold piece and $600 for an ounce. Doesn't make sense. The last person I saw getting screwed by him, I chased after her down the street to show her "the light".

If a dealer is well off and has the resources, yes he should be informative and generous. I don't think well off dealers should offer stuff prices for mediocre type coins just because they already have hundreds of nice shiny ones.

However, if a dealer is just starting off or doesn't have the resources to be 100% upfront, he still should be informative and offer AT LEAST 50% of retail. I would personally feel bad if I stole some ones coins from them by offering too low of prices. Also, if you try and rip them off, and they get a second opinion (by someone honest), you will sure look like an idiot.
Ty

I haven't read all post "in toto" but there seems to be another element missing that should influence a dealer's buying price; and that is - how fast can the dealer turn the inventory? If the dealer can pick up the phone and fill someones want list with a coin within minutes of the purchase he can afford to pay a little more for a coin versus one he may have to put in inventory for a year before a buyer comes by.

that being said, in both cases the dealer is ethically bound to make the best offer possible for his business, explain the basis of the offer and let the seller take it or go elsewhere. In "A" the seller should have known what he had but apparently didn't (or maybe he was testing the honesty of the dealer for future business); at any rate he would not be obligated to sell the coins to the dealer once the dealer told him what he would pay. But once the dealer tells the seller what he would pay and why he is forever marked as an honest or dishonest dealer in the mind of the seller (and to whomever the seller relates the story to which may be many). The only possible exception for "A" would be if the seller represented himself as a knowledgeable person in the area and specified an exact sum he wanted for the coins.

Aside from that, the buyer (dealer) in both scenarios is obligated to make a full disclosure and a fair price based on his market area and market conditions including how fast he could turn the merchandise to realize a reasonable profit. IMHO

I had the second exact situation happen to me yesterday. A customer of mine called me. Since he runs an antique shop, he gets people coming in wanting to sell old stuff. He had a widow come in and ask him if he bought old coins. He knew I did, and put me in touch with her. I met her and she had a bag full of old tokens and foreign aluminum, but she also had a card deck box full of IHC's.

It was sure fun looking through them and although there were no keys, the coins were in good to xf condition. There were 87 of them. There were also 6 very nice Lincolns 1917-1926 range. It would have been easy to take advantage of her.

I first asked her twice if she was sure she wanted to part with them, and if she may have children or grandchildren who may want them. She said no. So I offered her what the coins were bringing on e-bay, which is about $ 1.00 per coin for the IHC's.

Now, I will not make any money off of these, but I did get about 6 coins that were upgrades to my Lincoln and IHC sets, and I feel good about myself.

It would have been so easy to just offer her 20 bux or so, since her son-in-law had told her they weren't worth anything.

MM