Because melt price was too nice to pass up...

I submit to you three recent purchases that I picked up for silver melt price. (Sometimes, you just can't pass coins like these up!)

1946 S Washington Quarter



1956 "Type B" Proof Reverse Washington Quarter
(very happy to find this, as I kind of regretted selling my only other
BU 1956 Type B)



1959 D Franklin Half​

(Feel free to share your own recent melt pickups)

 

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To this day I've never been able to get silver coins at melt.

 

Same here, but I've also never had the pleasure of working in a pawn shop, coin store, or other type of place where this would be possible.

 

Should I not mention that I bought 8 1945 Micro S Mercury Dimes for slightly more than melt at the flea market this month?

 

That depends on whether you believe bragging is an admirable exercise.

 

Haha I appreciate that...

Maybe it's just a combination of reading, good eyes and patience?

What's funny is that usually, on the days that I think "it's not worth even checking because this person hasn't had anything worth buying in months..." - that's the day I buy a 6FS Jefferson nickel for a dollar. Or find a pile of micro S mercs in the junk box.

I have been feeling like I'm going to run across another big score soon. Just got it lodged in my brain it's gonna be a 1961 proof Franklin DDR...

 

Are you one of them conmen taking advantage of sweet old ladies?

 

That's because, when it's offered to you at melt (plus shipping), you try to get it for $1-$2 less per ounce, with free shipping.

Oh, and I generally don't agree with the idea of these "look what I got for melt" threads, unless it's something really esoteric. If you're getting MS-65 1940s-1950s quarters and halves for melt, that's not actually cool, and seems you're under paying your customers.

 

I disagree The premiums that folks are paying on silver because the sellers bought at $35-$40+ and are trying to make up for their loses and refuse to lose a little as possible is not the fault of the buyer.

 

for melt?

how can you lose

 

that 56' type B is a hard coin to find

 

I couldn't agree more. Since I've been that customer a time or two in my life, I think it's poor form to gloat about getting the better of people who generally don't know better. Taking advantage of others should not generally be something we as a society applaud.

 

So, cherry-picking is unethical? No exceptions?

If I understood the posts that you and @NorthKorea are commenting on, these were purchases of stuff offered for sale at melt. To my mind, cherry-picking something at its listed price is different in kind from telling people their coins have a low value, then buying at that low value. If a seller doesn't have the time or ambition to search the stuff he puts in the junk bin, I don't have an obligation to do his work for him.

So, I do have problems with the "cash for gold" places and dealers who lowball the general public, but I don't have a problem with flea-market finds or eBay auction wins. Maybe I'm just a hypocritical chiseler, but so far, it's not costing me any sleep.

 

Come on people... can anyone ever get a good deal without the high-brow, turned up nose ethics people throwing turd grenades? This isn't a "dear old lady" situation. He paid the asking price, likely from a shop or someone that has some experience selling coins
I agree it's wrong to offer some clueless person lowball money. But to pay the asking price when there is a reasonable expectation that they should know what they are selling, or winning an auction... not the same thing.

Excuse my attitude. I don't usually go that way, but this gets really annoying when it gets injected into threads all the time even when it's unwarranted.

 

Nothing at all wrong with your take on it--I agree with it--as long as you accept the corollary that that dealer has no obligation to tell a collector who walks into his shop and says that he wants to sell his "junk silver" that the collection is actually worth far more.

Way too many people who have no problem at all scoring off dealers and then coming to different forums and bragging about it are the same collectors who immediately reach for the tar and feathers if a dealer should ever dare to cherry a collector by simply paying the amount the collector asked.

 

Balance of power, and knowledge. A dealer is presumed to have done his due diligence, to have spent the time and attention he considers appropriate prior to selling his goods. Someone buying from a dealer has no duty to do the dealer's job for him. One may sometimes help the dealer out, either out of the goodness of one's heart, or to further the relationship.

On the other hand, if a dealer is buying from a walk-in, many here expect the dealer to make a fair offer based on the dealer's knowledge and experience, and incorporating a fair profit as compensation for that knowledge and experience. I see that as reasonable, and consistent with the previous point.

If someone struts into a shop with the attitude that he knows exactly what he's got and what it's worth, I'd rarely fault the dealer for taking him at his word. I think most dealers will agree, though, that such customers rarely err on the side of under-valuing their items.

I'm interested in discussing this further, partly because I'm not 100% sure I'm being self-consistent, but it might better be done in a separate thread...?

 

There is a dealer that I've gotten a few coins from that always stated " there is no money made in selling, the money is made in buying." He is correct if you look at his perspective. Selling usually has a set price, where buying doesn't. The amout of profit he makes depends on what he gave for it, the same as a collector. I've picked up a lot of silver at face through the years, was it worth more than I gave, sure or I wouldn't have kept it. If a person takes their coins to a coin shop, pawn shop, flee market, gold buyer, ect.... they do so because they know that what they have is worth more than face value before they walk in the door. If they know that much, they owe it to themselves to find out what they should get for it. It's a two-way street, if a guy gives to much for a coin, it's his fault, when he sells it for less than he gave for it, is it the dealer's fault?

 

I do believe the word "generally" allows for exceptions. And I'm not trying to go down the rabbit hole on what is or is not ethical, I'm simply stating that bragging about getting one over on someone else doesn't excite me. I will say that it's up to the seller to learn about the coins, but wouldn't you want to be able to trust the expert to be honest with you? I've all too often heard stories of dealers ripping off customers who simply didn't know any better. I generally (again, allowing for exceptions) imagine a scenario where someone has some coins they don't know what they are and brings them to a dealer and gets melt value for a 1916-D mercury dime. Is that ethical? I vote no, but I'm one man with an opinion and everyone is welcome to their own.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you completely, I'll just say there is a reason I've never really cared for salesmen (cars, insurance, etc)