Coin Shop Problem

That's what I would do as well. Your last sentence though I would make a recommendation to NEVER let a store employee know you found a valuable date, even after the transaction is complete and the coin is safely at home. It could come across as gloating, which could lead to hard feelings and ruin the business relationship. It could also lead to them spending alot of extra effort to check over coins, thereby greatly decreasing your chance of finding a hidden gem or worse yet them cutting you off from cherrypicking altogether.

I think I have told the story before but I cherrypicked a couple of nice VAM Peace dollars when I could get them for $15-$16 (I miss those days...lol). The owner of the shop questioned why I was looking through the bin so thoroughly and made an arrogant statement to the effect that there wasnt a chance in Hades that I would find anything good in there since they checked everything over carefully. I said that was fine, but that I was picking out 5 or 10 coins to add to my collection. Long story short, I found two VAM's that were sent off to NGC and attributed, which I then sold for somewhere around $650. To this day, I have not told the dealer. I just feel like there's no need or point in telling him what he missed out on. Hope that makes sense....

I frequent a coin shop in my area at least a couple of times a week. On one particular day, I found a BU 1950-D nickel in the discount bin, labeled as a 1953-D. I had a moment of doubt about what to do, but ended up bringing it to the owner's attention. He took the coin, added $12.00 to the price on the flip and tossed it back in the bin without so much as a "thank you" to me. As I left the store, I couldn't help but wonder if I should have just bought the coin for the first price and never even mentioned it to him. However, it was mislabeled and I took solace in the fact that I felt like I'd done the right thing.

A couple of weeks later, I was looking at a nice, later date large cent he had on display. The coin had some light porosity that didn't seem to be reflected in the price and I pointed it out to him. He ended up giving me the coin for 1/2 off the listed amount, which was a huge savings (especially considering the minor impact that it had on the look of the coin). Call it coincidence if you want, but I'd like to think that it was his way of thanking me for my display of honesty weeks before.

It doesn't always work this way, but oftentimes working to build a positive, trusting releationship with a dealer has it's ways of paying off.

See what you started. If I remember correctly all you wanted was feedback on YOUR letter and this could well end up with the cost of sending people to the moon. Still waiting for your decision on what your going to do or did.

Help me understand this quote.




I wouldn't send the letter. I would talk man to man to the owner. If you do send it you will forever be know always "as the guy who sent the letter" to the owner and all the employees.

Actually what it means, for the most part, is that the market will only bear what it will bear. That's somewhat fixed in a lot of areas of business. So if you want to make more, you must buy cheaper.

Well Put - Thanks

Cool nod. For him to send that to you, I'm assuming that it's in response to the letter you had sent? I'm too lazy to go re-read this to see if you sent the letter or not ;)