Bait And Switch?

Thanks for the feedback. Generally, of course, I would not expect to pay $15.50 for Morgans or Peace dollars. I know that they are worth more than that. But, I have seen stranger things, and that is how I read the ad, and that is the impression I was left with after our first conversation. I also don't know from a craigslist ad with no photos what the person really has. Although stated as uncirculated, that could be a very optimistic grading on the sellers part, so that I was taking with a large grain of salt.

Truthfully, I am not generally one that looks at junk silver purchases. I do not have a lot of experience with that, so perhaps I am missing some assumptions on the sellers part. That is fair enough. Silver dollars are .900 silver, which is 90%, regardless of the actual mass. I did not realize though that people consider the $1 face value of a dollar coin differently that $1 face value made up of other denominations. I learned something today and that is always good:)

I can say that I certainly would word the ad differently, and be sure on an initial phone conversation to clarify those differences if it seemed like something was not understood correctly.

Please do not get me wrong - I am not sitting here angry and huffing and puffing, nor am I one to demand that someone sell something to me under its value. Mostly I was just curious about others opinions on the situation.

Grammatically speaking, the way the sentence is structured; the Morgans and Peace dollars refer back to the 90% Silver. It is reasonable to assume that is what he meant.

And while it is correctly pointed out that Dollars contain more Silver than the other coins; most dealers, myself included, include Silver Dollars in the term 90%.

Not trying to start an argument here but this is exactly the opposite of my experience. In my experience "90% silver" is not used to describe silver dollars; It refers to dimes, quarters, and halves only.

When the Craigslist seller posted "$15.50 per face dollar 90%", most experienced buyers would have immediately known that did not include the silver dollars (some of which were described as uncirculated).

The original poster of the ad actually called me back today and we had a long conversation. It turns out that he does have a genuine coin shop. In any case, we are now clear. I do not think that that there was a bait and switch. I did suggest, and he agreed, that the ad could be worded somewhat differently to clearly separate the apples and oranges.

basebal21 - no, you are not missing anything. For this type of transaction, it is too far unless I can purchase a large volume at a good price. It may also be worthwhile if I can gain a reasonably significant improvement in my collection at a reasonable cost. The persons location was not clear to me in my first conversation, particularly given a local area code and local (for me) Craigslist ad. The initial conversation also included a possible closer meeting place, though I think that the volume of respondents to his ad forced the decision for all meetings to be at his coin shop, which is considerably farther for me.

There are a couple things that I can get out of this whole episode and comments here on CCF:

When writing a brief online ad, be sure that it is clear and items are separated into defined categories. Do not assume that a reader, experienced or not, can sort out what you mean to say.

Based on the comments, there is a difference of opinion on what might constitute 90% junk silver. Most dealers would not include dollars, but some would. Perhaps this varies around the country. Back to point one, a clearly worded ad would get around potential misunderstandings on this and everybody would be happier (hopefully)

I contacted a seller on CraigsList about something coin related (I don't remember what) and I have not gotten a reply since.

We're talking about junk silver which by definition has no numismatic premium. Junk means bullion. I've bought and sold thousands of dollars of junk silver over the years and never encountered your method. Different strokes for different folks. If your customers pay more for 90% junk silver Barbers then more power to you. They won't get any more when they sell them because they are non-numismatic "junk". Also, I always buy at multiples of FV, not by weight. Every major bullion distributor sells by multiples of FV and Barbers are often included. Silver dollars never are.

I'm not trying to start an argument here and won't post to this thread further. This is an educational forum and I want to help people "buy smart".

Yes, I did and I addressed that question above.




I do not know what they looked like as I did not travel to buy anything. I did not know he was a dealer in our first phone conversations - his voicemail indicated that he sold cable TV equipment. I would point out that my suggestion of the bait and switch was based on a very pointed question after which I suspected something strange was going on. This is buyer beware. However, please note from above that I have rescinded my suggestion of bait and switch.