Is it wrong to rip off a coin dealer, when he is not at store.

I have been going to antique malls, where coin dealer has booths. Their prices are ussually spot on or high. But I notice they seem always forget about random items. Such as silver proof set and various other silver sets.

Today i got a set of a 40% ike, 90% kennedy, 90% quarter, 90% mercury, war nickel and a steel penny. his price was 22.00 the kid working the store said he will go 10% off, so I got it for 19.80.

I also got 5 silver proof quarter set for 22.00 each at a differnt mall. the dealers are not there to catch these things.

 

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You "cherried" these guys BK. It's their loss and no foul on you. BTW, welcome to the forum......

 

It sounds OK, even with what you paid I am sure they made a profit. However, remember you do have to answer to God on judgement day.

 

If the dealer priced them as such, then he/she is making a profit due to what they paid for it. Sure silver rises, but they're still making a profit.

Dealer makes a profit, buyer gets a good deal. I don't see a problem.

 

Buy really low, sell low. An item that doesn't sell isn't making any money, so sometimes you can find things priced to move - coins, cars, houses, etc etc!

 

the price was prob 122.00 but the 1 got covered with a $ sign....j/k

Antique malls are usually IMO high......

sounds like you got around $33.00 silver for $20 bucks.....
The dealer prob priced them several months ago when silver was at $25 a ounce .

A antique mall around here is ran like this,,,, A seller pays 25$ a month for a glass case 2 feet wide by 4 feet long.... Everything has a price on it the clerk rings up the item
and writes down who the items sold belongs to , the seller usually comes in every few months or when ever to update the case with more item and get their money from the sold items

I bet thats prob what happend the prices were marked many months ago and the sell prob dose not want to rush to the mall to update the case very often with gas at nearly 4$ a gallon
in alot of places...

As far as ripping anyone off... You paid full sales price it was the clerks idea to give you 10$ off...

 

As others have said, he priced his coins so that he made a profit. He probably bought them when silver was much lower priced, so you got a great deal. Both of you win.

 

Paying a marked price for something isn't stealing . If a person is selling silver in this changing market and doesn't change the price every day , it's not your fault . I'm sure they made some money too . Now if you see a $2000 coin mismarked to $200 then it's wrong . Welcome to CT .

 

As a Dealer, I say if the person selling it doesn't state that prices are subject to change & does not check/adjust the prices it is what it is. Either they didn't care ,had made enough $,or just missed, or dont have a clue (none of those would happen to me ) . I'm sure the person selling the item had it marked at a price where they were making money.

The best thing is if you wanted to feel good about it & actually pointed out the mistake /miss / variety / whatever , You would get a VERY nice deal on the item from me. I've dicussed finds with people who have pointed things out & still at the end gave it to them at the original price, I've cut the price in half,I've thrown in a few extra coins. Different situations for different coins.

While you can't be an expert on every type of coin ,you can be an expert on how you conduct yourself.

Now if you are another Dealer & try to majorly rip me it's a whole 'nother ball game. It's been about 5 years since it was tried (& I found out ) The guy is still a vest pocket but since that day takes a wide berth around my table & a few others.

Same situation, but from all of my experiances there have been many dealers who have pointed out things on a peice that I/we did not attribute ,notice,ect.. & paid an adjust price or just told me to be helpful.

 

I don't see anything wrong with that, the dealer isn't going to let anything go without a profit, so I assume he made a decent profit. As stated above, everyone's happy when the dealer makes his profit and the buyer is happy that he got a good deal.


Forgot to add, Welcome to the forum!

 

"Is it wrong to rip off a coin dealer...?"

To answer the question as asked, Yes it's morally wrong to "rip off" a dealer, or anyone else. I suspect that since you phrased the question that way, that you do feel it might have been wrong.

As others have pointed out here, and in other posts, if you pay what the dealer is asking, then you've done nothing wrong - although in your case the dealer didn't knock off 10% so your implied angst might be justified.)

A simple way to answer questions of this type is to just imagine your reaction and feelings if your positions were reversed. If someone "ripped you off" would you simply shrug it off, or would you resent having been taken advantage of?

 

I fail to see how paying somebody the price he set, especially when he purports to "deal" in the items in question, could be construed as a "rip off".

 

Exactly. Nobody's getting ripped off. It's up to the dealer/seller to do his homework.

 

Read the OP - he didn't pay the set price.

 

He paid the price agreed upon by the dealer(or his hired help). This was not a rip off.

 

It's wrong to rip off anybody at anytime. To me that means cheating someone out of something or just outright stealing it from them. Paying the price a store is asking for its goods is not ripping off anybody.

 

First of all the amount of money involved is negligible. He has probably been sitting on these sets for quit some time and is glad they are finally out of his inventory. If I owned a coin store, I wouldn't waste my time readjusting prices every time silver goes up or down on small items. If he was concerned, he would have left the price off the item requiring his sales help to look the price up for current value. Was the 10% discount store wide? If it was on the item only, then that owner new enough about his margin to offer it. He isn't going to go broke and your not going to get rich on the deal. I would even go back in there and ask him if he had anymore like it. And even tell him what a great deal you feel he is offering. You will then find out whether it was a mistake or not, rather quickly. If it was, I'll bet he doesn't ask you for the money difference nor the coins back. It's just to little an amount to loose sleep over.

 

I bought a '64 mint set from a book store that has a small coin section a few weeks back. I picked it up for under melt and the owner knew it. He had bought them when silver was cheaper and didn't mind not making top dollar. He just doesn't bother changing prices ever day to keep up with silver.
Same thing could have happened in the case of th op.

 

If I walk into a shop and Rick isn't there and Chumlee decides to sell at a discount, yeehaa for me...

 

For those who believe the dealer made a profit are mistaken. Profit should be computed on replacement value not original acquisition cost.

Example

You have an inventory of 100 widgets that you paid $1.00 per widget. Original acquisition cost would be $100.00. At this point in time your net worth is 100 widgets. You price these widgets @ $1.50. and sell them all for $150.00 an amount greater than your original acquisition cost. During this time the value of widgets have doubled. You go to replace your inventory but now they cost $2.00 a piece and you can only buy 75 widgets. You have a realized net loss of 25 widgets.

Now let’s look at this in a different way – with the value of widgets going down.

You have the same inventory of 100 widgets with original acquisition cost of $100.00. The value of widgets goes down by half to 50 cents. Your net worth is still 100 widgets. You lower your selling price to 90 cents and sell all your inventory for at total of $90.00 - $10.00 below your original acquisition cost. You replace your 100 widget inventory at a cost of $50.00. Now your net worth is 100 widgets plus $40.00 cash. You have a realized net profit equal to 80 widgets.