My mind is exploding.

So the other day, my dad's friend bought a Sterling Silver serving tray at a garage sale along with some miscellaneous items all for $50. He was going to take it to one of those hotel scam businesses until my dad said he'll take it to our coin club today.
We took it and used a Postal scale saying 35.8oz, about 32.23 troy oz of Sterling.
This amounts to nearly $825 in silver.

So my dad's friend told my dad he would love to get as much as he can out of it and would be happy with $500.
Well, we took it to our coin club, my dad shows it to the dealer. The dealer really likes it and asks what he is looking for. My dad had me do the math for them and show them the exact price and weights.

Lets change the subject for a second. A dealer near us will buy at 80% of melt and send it in for melting and gets paid 90% of melt getting 10% profit. With those numbers, they would be paying $660 and make $82.50 in profit if silver stays steady.

This is my dad's friend we are talking about, so you would think my dad would love to get him the biggest bang for the buck, right?

Well, he tells the dealer that he'll sell it for $500 flat. Leaving the dealer with almost $250 profit. The dealer obviously took it (Who wouldn't?) and paid cash. My dad thought it was a big success, but I just couldn't stand his antics.

I know it is a Win-Win-Win situation for the friend, who made $450; the dealer getting $250; and the smelter getting their prifit. But I see it as a Win(ish)-Win(more)-Win situation without my dad even trying to get the friend some more bang for his buck.
I was scolding his logic on the ride home, but it still really ticks me off that he didn't even start with some haggling.

Rant over.

In other news, I got a proof Franklin (1963) for perfect attendance in our Coin Club. Not complaining about that.

 

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So your dad picks up a $825 dollar tray for $50 and the "Hotel businesses" are the "Scam"?


I"m not trying to pick on you, but don't throw stones if you live in a glass house.

And I don't think your dad did anything wrong buying it at $50 or selling it at $500. Cash is king and turning it over made him money fast.

 

My dad's friend bought it not knowing it was sterling. It was originally going to be polished up and given. He then found the marking of 925 under it. I guess it was a steal. I'm just not happy with how my dad has been lately with things such as this. His coin shop/show etiquette has been well...loud and obnoxious. I guess he doesn't have as much buying/selling experience because he rarely haggles.

I am totally fine with the numbers, but I guess this has been bugging me for a few hours now.

 

Maybe it's just me but this is what I find wrong with the youth of this generation. I would never come into a public forum and proceed to trash my dad over something this trivial, let alone anything. He got his friend a 500% profit when his friend would have probably got half that at the hotel scam set-up you speak of.

My Dad is in his early 70's now, in relatively good health but does have his minor issues such as high cholesterol and such. I cherish everyday he's around as some day that will be nomore. You may well try considering the things that really get under your skin about your Dad in the future as "Dads" will not be around forever.

I'm really not trying to judge you as I don't know you at all. I just think this is a terrible place to "vent" your frustrations ober something this minor.

 

I guess I came on a bit strong here. I don't mean to bash my dad, but to just point a simple thing out. An auction company tries to get the most out of what they are selling because they are on consignment, but what I am seeing is that there is no motive to get the most you can without some sort of consignment.

If I were there while my dad was making the transaction, I would have asked to talk to him privately and tell him straight forward his mistake here and told him to tell the friend to take it to this shop that pays top notch, but I was gone.

Bashing? I didn't mean to emphasize that, for I respect and love my father, but I fret on the small things.

 

The way I look at it the friend made $450 which is a very nice profit. True, it could have been more, but your Dad decided to let the dealer get a slightly larger profit. Not sure how this dealer operates, but that action may have just helped your Dad get a deal from the dealer for himself or you at some later time. I am not trying to justify what he did to side with you but just shed some light on the potential thought process involved.

FWIW: I am glad to hear that you questioned your Dad. You would likely have done things differently and that is Ok. You are not a cloned copy of him but your own person. It sounds to me like you have a really good relationship with him such that you can disagree and talk about things. My son is only 10 but I like when he now questions things. I enjoy seeing him mature into his own person and develop his own way of doing things. I am guessing your Dad feels the same way.

TC

 

What's the problem here? Everyone got what they wanted. Sometimes relationships are more important than squeezing out the last dollar.

 

Caz and his Father have a very special relationship where he's able to openly communicate and express opinions and opposing views. I detected no disrespect toward Dad in the OP.

Well written and interesting piece as well........

 

I agree with Green.

Besides, some people are hagglers and some aren't. My dad could haggle his way down in buying a 50 cent candy bar, whereas I could care less and have always paid sticker price for cars. Different people have different dynamics.
Guy

 

Yup, people are more important than money.

 

I think it would have been fun to return to the people from the garage sale and share some of the proceeds with them. Give them a $100 bill and tell them the tray was solid silver, that it made his friend and his dealer a tidy profit and that he thought sharing the wealth was only fair.

 

I really need to hit up garage sales more often.

 

1. It was NOT SOLID Silver but Sterling.
2. Do you go to your boss at work and tell him you don't want the raise as you are making enough?

I think what bothers me most is that "sharing the wealth" comment. They offered it for sale and set their price and accepted it. Why would you go back and give them more?
It's not like Wal-Mart had miss charged you and it was to be a higher price. That I can see going back to fix but this was just fair business that all parties were in agreement with.

 

These people likely also won, perhaps they bought the silver when it was only $10, 30 or 40 years ago. Perhaps it was given to them. I'm sure they were happy with their $50 they set the price at. There's no obligation to go back and give them more money. I mean, when I bought silver 20 years go, I'm not going back to the dealer I bought it from to give him a piece of the pie because it's worth more now.

 

You bring up a good point. I assume that neither the seller nor buyer was aware of the value at the time of sale, so no harm done at that point. But what do you want to bet that if someone went back to the seller and told them the story, the $100 would not be appreciated, and the result would more likely be anger [and a trip to small claims court] than gratitude.

 

Sadly, that's certainly possible, but I don't think there's any civil liability there. Especially if the content was not known at the time of the sale. If the buyer bought the platter soley for any possible silver content, he was taking a risk that it was only silver plated.

It might be a different story if he did what some of those travelling PM buyers do and knowingly defraud the seller by telling them the PM content is different than it actually is. In which case I highly doubt the buyer would offer to share the proceeds of the subsequent sale with the original seller.

 

Most states have laws prohibiting this, stating that all sales made between parties at yard sales are final and as-is. Neither one would have a claim.
Guy

 

I don't think it has anything to do with the OP's youth. If he believes he could have gotten $660 for it then his dad should have let him try first. Why throw the extra $160 away when with slightly more effort, you could have that money in your pocket. Makes no sense to to sell it for 500 if you can get 660. And the comment about "squeezing" extra money? A dollar or two I would agree but not a $160. That's a lot. I think the OP practiced good business sense.

I also don't believe you should go back and give the sellers from the garage sale any money. That is the whole point of garage sales to buy stuff cheap. It's the sellers responsibility to know what he/her has before it's sold. I am a believer in karma and am regularly a good samaritan but this is different.

 

Sadly, that does sound like something that would happen in today's society.

 

Just because there's no case, doesn't mean they couldn't still take you to small claims. Sure it'd get thrown out, but you'd still have to take time off work and go down to the courthouse.