Advice, please: Craigslist gold

Found someone offering two double eagles and an eagle for gold spot on Craigslist. Someone else beat me to them, but the seller is now offering me three double eagles for $4200 -- a raw 1905, a raw 1924, and an ANACS MS60 1895.

APMEX buy prices range from $1377 for cleaned examples to $1462 for AU raw. Their sell prices run about $130 higher. If these coins are legit, I think $1400 each is a good price. I'd likely want to resell at least two of them very soon.

I plan to meet the guy in a branch of my bank, weigh and measure the raw coins, peer closely at the ANACS slab, and draw the cash right there if things look good.

So, a call for advice:

1) What should I look out for on the coins? I think I can detect cleaning, although at this price it might not be a show-stopper. I'll go in with the expected weights and dimensions, and my scale is accurate to 10 mg.

2) How do I establish proof of my cost basis in the coins without alienating the seller? I always assume that a cash seller wants the income to remain unreported, but I generally like to follow the letter of the law for my own reporting. What's the minimum documentation I need if I'm audited? If I've got a canceled check made out to cash, with a note that it was for these three coins, does that get me anywhere at all? (I've seen people claim that it does, but I find that hard to swallow.)

3) Am I nuts? I figure I'm minimizing my risk of assault by doing this in a bank branch, and minimizing my risk of fraud by simply weighing and measuring -- I don't think density-accurate counterfeits are very common at this point. If I'm missing something important, please point it out to me.

Thanks!

 

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The middle east counterfeit gold from the 1950's and 60's were density accurate because they actually used the proper weight and fineness of gold. But if they are middle east fakes they are still gold so if you are buying them for melt you're not likely to get hurt.

 

Am I like the only one on this forum that doesn't have 3 or 4 grand laying to purchase gold? LOL...

 

No I don't either, but if I did I'd be using it to buy old copper. As a matter of fact that's WHY I don't have a couple grand laying around. I just dropped $600 on some conder tokens and the dealer is holding another $900 worth for me when I get some more capital.

 

*raises hand*

Well, I guess I do now, but I was raised to be frugal, and it's still an ingrained habit -- I'll probably wake up with the sweats thinking about this tonight. I'm better off than my parents ever were, and better off than I've ever been, but $4K is still a big chunk. I'm willing to risk losing a few hundred if gold starts to plummet the day after tomorrow, but I wouldn't want to risk the whole wad. That's why I tend to buy things close to the bullion-value floor -- it protects me somewhat against errors in judgement.

 

That's what I'm thinking, and I'm buying them at least pretty darn close to melt ($25 per coin above melt). I should've picked up the counterfeit guide at the last coin show -- probably better check against it before I try selling the things.

 

I think I would pass....if you do buy put them in a SDB before you leave the bank and be sure the seller sees you do it

 

Bank? they are going to do the deal in a dark alley behind a dumpster!

 

I imagine a lot of people here don't have that kind of money. I know I'm not even close, 20 dollars is a lot for me to put towards coins. But the super active members on this site are more obsessed with coins than the common collector, and probably put more of their income towards the coins.

I'm generalizing, I know. Just a thought.

 

Oh well that's much better, that's the best place to do a deal

 

It's not my home branch, alas. But I'm not really worried about being mugged in the bank parking lot, nor in my employer's parking lot, nor in the lot of my home branch. And I don't expect to be run off a busy highway and mugged there. Maybe I'm insufficiently paranoid.

 

For me, the extra $130 to buy them from APMEX would be well worth the peace of mind.

 

Well, that would remove the possibility of the bank employees reporting my SDB contents to the black-helicopter crowd...

 

See? There's an upside to everything?

 

You are not nuts but I would go a bit further prior to meeting the dude like asking him questions which are coin related like is he a coin club member or an ANA member, see if he's the real deal and not just an intelligent buyer and seller of stolen coins. As far as your "reporting for taxes" purposes, that's mighty American of you but if I was the seller I would say forget it buddy. good luck

Oh, I forgot to mention that I have bought coins and music equipment on craigs without any problem and I've met some really good ppl as a result. That said, I would leave my cash in the trunk until I see what the real deal is if you catch my drift. Meeting at a bank is cool if you don't have an account there or at minimum, don't let the seller know you have an account there. The less info shared about yourself the better, period.

 

I'm with Race. Doesn't seem like good enough of a deal to add that risk. If it was $50 below melt maybe I guess but if not Apmex or someone would be better.

 

I see the value of that, but $130 per coin is most of the margin I'd expect to make reselling these (absent big moves in the price of gold). If I were just looking to lay in gold for long-term asset protection, I might turn to APMEX instead.

My peace of mind becomes more secure as I make and avoid more deals, successful and unsuccessful, and think hard about what I've done right and wrong. Sometimes, like now, I do get a little ahead of the curve.

 

+1

That's a large risk you're taking for a relitively small gain.

There's more that can go wrong than can go right...even if the coins are legit, think of how easy it would be for him or a non-involved third party in another car to find out where you live by either license plate, color, make, model, what you look like and which subdivision you drive into...get their coins back AND clean out everything else you have. Afterall someone buying $4k in gold coins probably has more high dollar items at their home. This could be their racket...I mean why didn't he advertise the coins you're buying at the same time he advertised/sold the others, he conveniently came up with more.

I know it's paranoid, but hard times bring out ingenuity and desparation in people...it's in human nature.

-LTB

 

Weighing gold good idea, but not foolproof. I would learn how to do a ring test on raw gold and inspect the coin (particularly the rim) very carefully.

The way I see it, you are taking a significant risk. Why wouldn't the dude just go to a local jewelry store or do 20 minutes of online searching for a better sell price? I can think of several reasons, none of them good. Be careful.

 

What is this "Ring Test" you speak of?