numismatic rip off !

A horrible story...
A collector dies. Happens. His wife, totally unaware of her hubby's freetime, finds tho albums, loaded with first and second century Roman silver coins. In her eyes, just a pile of little shiny things. Old money. So she calls a guy who's ad she found in a local newspaper 'collector is looking to buy bulk lots and collections'. The creep spends two hours at the lady's house, counting and wheighing (!!!) all denarii, presenting her to buy over 300 denarii at the price of the silver. Something like 1000$...
Lucky she didn't take his offer... In her hubby's collection : high grade denarii : Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius...
Maybe something to think about : always inform your family what you got. Make a list or an inventory. Write down prices you paid... When you die, at least they will feel happy to find a treasure in da house, instead of 800 grams of old silver !

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Sounds like the husband was buying these coins on the side without the wife's knowledge...

 

Well at least she had the savvy to wait for a second opinion.

 

it happens on a daily basis with all types of coins. just on this site alone there is someone every week stating they received coins from and estate or from a family member that has passed away

 

Yeah, its a sad tale but luckily she was smart enough to not get taken.

I have a list of dealers I ask my wife to send things to if I pass. Hopefully in the future a son or daughter will want them, but for now she has a list. Three dealers, one for ancients and world coins, one for coin books, and a third for US coins. Not really sure which check would be larger, the one for ancient and world coins, or for the coin books.

 

That is not rare behaviour

 

Speaking personally, my wife has no clue as to what I've paid for my coins or what they might be worth. Luckily, my youngest son knows.

 

check PM please...

 

Coin-grifters are not uncommon. Many in the biz (perhaps most) are little more than pawn-shop fronts it seems.
That's a very simple, very shrewd business model. CASH4STUFF, no negotiating.

I suspect books (good quality, 1st ed but not highly collectible famous works) have plummeted far lower than average coins (non PMs.) For example, a used book you might've gotten ~$5. for back in 1992 is now worth ~$0.25. A famous (natl tv) local used bookseller is notorious for now offering pennies on the dollar for massive & valuable academic collections: he'll basically remove a fine European-book library (+$) for what the owner would PAY in salvage cost (-$) with no import or collectible premium given at all. If this is Boston/Cambridge, imagine its even worse in most of the USA. (I may be wrong on this.)

The internet is the best alternative, and market price (i.e. eBay) is readily ascertained. Wife and heirs should be able to use GoogleSearch and do abit of math to figure that.

 

Best advice - leave instructions as to what to do with it. The collector surely knows reputable folks who would pay a reasonable price.

Keeping records as to what was paid is a good idea, but of little use if the coins are sold 50 years after purchase.

 

i have a book of mormon 1908 that was 70 3 years ago and now is 250 that im about to sell to a mormon for 200. that a paid $1 for 5 years ago some books can be expencive to the right person luckly the guy randomly showed upat my door and i showd him the book i uess he collects them

 

Well, obviously my hot wife knows that I'm collecting coins ...

... ummmm, and although she occasionally nags me that I'm wasting a bit of our home renovation money, etc, etc, I know for a fact that she doesn't "really" know how much money I am spending on coins!!

=> and sadly, if and when that day does arrive =>man, it's gonna be one nasty, epic scrap!!! => yah, I should probably ease her into that whole discovery, before it explodes in my face, right? ... right (maybe tomorrow?) ...

... anyway ...

For each of my coins, I have my original purchase-price listed ... plus, for my modern coins, I also have the most recent price-catalogue estimate listed (I keep all of these records in my safe along with the coins themselves) ...

... but just in case I blow a gasket (example, I have a heart-attack), I told my hot wife where she could find the combination ... and yes, this is where I'm mighty glad that my hot wife isn't a super-snoop ... for if she was, I'd already be getting "severely beaten" for the cash-flow that currently goes towards "our loving, yet mutual" coin-collection!!

NOTE => it really would be an awesome idea if I included a list of one, or two of you "honest dudes and/or trusted dealers", so just in case there is an unforeseen stevex6-tragedy, she could try to get some advice from you guys before calling "Sly Jimmy, the Coin Expert" from the Yellow Pages?

:high5:

 

good idea from ur hot wife (pic ???) to add a list of thrustworthy dealers or fella collectors in da hood...

 

ahahaha => ummm Rudi, did you mean to write "thrustworthy", instead of trustworthy? ... yah, it made me laugh out loud ... ummm, but then I kinda got jealous?

:rollureyes:

 

Or you can do what I'm trying to do and slowly dispose of the collection before that happens. Of course, I can't help myself if I see an under appreciated coin I can afford. My taste does not reflect the market.

 

thrustworthy yes... english is only my 3rd language... some grammar error every now n then is allowed, yes ?

 

=> You're 100% correct, Marshall (good strategy)

Ummm, I guess if I knew when I was gonna die, then I could try to aim at getting rid of all of my coins ... if so, then I could give all of the coin-cash to my hot wife ... but life expectancy has a few "random" variables (hopefully, right?) ... I don't want somebody giving me a best-before-date (that would be worst case scenario) ...

=> ummm, and hopefully my hot wife will out-live me by several years, so trying to sell-off my coins may actually get her interested in my collection? (I have a dream!!)

 

Lemme see...

1. Smoke'n Hot Wife
2. High valued coin collection to which she has access

...I hate to tell you this, Friend...you don't need a "trustworthy dealer", you need a "food taster"! :eating:

 

he only says he has a hot wife, bcoz she's reading his posts too...
___STRIKE___

 

That's what happened here a few weeks ago. That's why I'm busted and in time out.