Good Deals At Garage Sales!

I'm going to have to go to your place for garage sales...Nice finds..

we have something simular called a carboot and I buy mine at about 20pence each if not less

there always is thankfully as I have many collections and it helps keep them going

Silver at those prices is a STEAL. In fact, it should be considered illegal - it surely is unethical to accept such price offers.

In fact, I often advise the seller in cases just like this that they are selling too low and offer to give them a FAIR wholesale price based on actual value. That usually shocks the individuals but in my opinion it amounts to good business. A fair wholesale buy price includes a fair compensation for the effort of resale. Profit is not objectionable but profiteering is unethical. I always put myself in the other guy's shoes and try to think how I would want to be treated.

We recognize a coin as rare or valuable because we have been "in the business" for decades but that does NOT justify taking advantage of other individuals ignorance.

Perhaps I am being unrealistic in this individualistic society but I was taught that no good will result from ill gotten gains.

I apply the same philosophy to the sellers of counterfeits and that is why I spend my time to try to educate the collecting public to the existence of forgeries and how to detect them.

Selling counterfeits is considered by most people to be FRAUD that steals from the buyer. Honest buyers do not expect to be defrauded when they buy. Why should sellers feel differently?

Under-price buying actually defrauds the seller in the same way as dealing in counterfeits. In fact, this tendency of most people to want to buy coins for TOO LITTLE is how the "Kid" scam works in the first place. Here is how it works. A seller of counterfeits hires a cute looking kid or sometimes a pitiful old guy to approach a mark (the tourist) holding ONE COIN. The passer says he found it and offers to sell it to the tourist for $1. The counterfeit is actually worthless but the mark thinks it is an old silver dollar worth 25 times the offering price so he shells out a buck to "Take advantage of the Kid".

This is how greed can be taken advantage of. It would not work at all if everyone were ethical.

It is also why I check under-priced coins very closely - they are often fakes - especially in overseas markets.

So if a seller of counterfeits KNOWS what he is doing it is considered illegal AND unethical. In cases like that I try to help the buyer. I have even done that at shows and other sales (provided it is a safe environment).

But if a seller does not know his coin is a fake or a rare original I try to educate them. For me the ethics are identical.

I do not always apply this same practice to "Professional" coin dealers who claim to know what they are doing but only to novices who do not understand. If a dealer has a reputation for cheating his customers, I would buy the coin as offered. I would cheat him but then TELL HIM. If the dealer is honest I would TELL HIM FIRST and then negotiate a fair price. I have done this MANY TIMES.

The average "coin dealer" is often viewed as a shark or worse. I never want to be included with those dealers. I treat everyone I trade with buyers or seller the same - whether the transaction is their first or 1,000,000th.

Paying a fair price may not make me rich but it has done well for me.

At 14 I probably felt pretty much the same way that you do. Back then I cut fire wood for 50 cents a day with an axe and hand saw and most of the "good" coins cost a few dollars each but always more than I had. I remember the 1799 Dollar that sold for $12.50 at my local coin shop in 1957. Too rich for me at the time.

That was over 50 years ago and perhaps with age comes more of a sense of the need to pass on knowledge to others. We all figure we have plenty of time - yet we rarely do. I have known many collectors who NEVER shared the information they had. They new rarity figures - or had a handle on variations not published anywhere. When they died it is gone. I see that as a pity. You may be right in that I perhaps share too much when buying. But I always let people know what they have before I buy and disclose defects before I sell.

But my opinion may also be different because I am looking at life from a different standpoint than you are. I was given 5 years to live 14 years ago (just about when you were born and just in time for my 50th birthday - what a great present that was) - so I figure I am well into overtime now and any information I can impart or any impact I can make while I am still here may be appreciated by someone.

Your view is certainly not wrong - actually it is the "Let the buyer beware" approach in reverse. "Let the seller be informed" and that is an acceptable philosophy in a perfect world where everyone has equal access to factual information. But we all come to the bargaining table with differing abilities and different knowledge bases. I may be just rooting for the underdog - but I have never liked "sharp" dealers who take advantage of widows of coin collectors.

Survivors can NOT be expected to know what anything is really worth. I sell estate materials and collections for people like that all the time and often do it gratis or for expenses. I don't want to see them "defraud" themselves. I charge on an ability to pay.

This problem first came to my attention when a close personal friend and collector died suddenly and totally unexpectedly (12 years ago) leaving a widow who didn't have a clue as to what his collection was really worth. She was virtually penniless - yet the dealers offered her NOTHING but a tiny fraction of actual value. So I assisted alsong with another friend and we got her THOUSANDS more than she otherwise would have had. Since then I have done the same thing dozens and dozens of times.

I hope someone will help my wife when the time comes.

Coin dealers and collectors have a collective bad reputation because in large measure we deserve it.

Bob, if there is any karma in this world at all, people will line up to help your wife.