My son came over with an average Morgan dollar and wanted gas money. Since I was broke and the wife with the car, I had no cash on me. He suggested the local coin dealer, who has a reputation of being a miser when it comes to buying silver. I called him and asked the price he was willing to pay for a junk silver Morgan. He said on an average, he buys Morgans for $28, but he would not commit to a price. With silver being as high as it is, I explained this was a common Morgan and I was only expecting junk prices. The dealer said he could not tell me on the phone because if the coin was damaged in any way, it would be worth a lot less. I asked what he meant by damaged. He gave an example...a cleaned coin. I asked him if a cleaned silver coin was was worth less than it's silver weight. He said absolutely, regardless of what silver is going for, a damaged silver coin would be considerably less than what it's silver weight is worth. This doesn't sound right to me. A cleaned silver coin is worth less than it's silver weight? Sounds fishy to me. BTW. I looked at coinflation and a silver Morgan was worth $35 dollars. I told him not to take less than $28, which I thought was fair. The dealer gave him $29.
That makes no sense, why would cleaning a coin affect it's metal value rather than numismatic value? I say cleaned or not, it should go for junk silver price. Hey, a cleaned coin and a dirty coin are both silver, right? They are both the same coin, so what brings the metal value down?
I imagine that's probably his line he says to all the poor scmucks who go in there to sell their silver.
I have a dealer in my area that has limited his daily purchases in order to minimize his exposure. With gas and all, he has to drive to the smelter daily because of it's price volatility. Because of this, he does not buy on Friday or Saturday. He will sell on those days however. Just a guess on my part, but I would think he could simply flip a limited number of the ASE's into the next days selling business.
Nope.....it doesn't sound right at all. The melt value is the melt value. Now a holed coin would be less, but a cleaned one? Nope.
Is this dealer a member of any of the Dealer associations such as ANA ? I would look for a dealer who has some credentials. This one, evidently does not.
So, now that you have had a good consensus regarding your concern about this dealer , how to you want to proceed , if at all ?
Have you had any kind of problems buying from him? Silver or anything in general? I can understand wanting to make more profit off of silver with the price it is now, plus if someone has a coin they know nuthing about they may be inclined to believe him if he says its worth less. He may say that with the idea that the person, or general public doesn't know any better.
I don't buy and sell coins from him. His prices are inflated. I go in there for supplies from time to time. I've seen him rip off a customer once. This young guy came in with a coin to sell. The dealer looked at it and asked what he wanted for it. The customer said $60. The dealer gave him the sixty bucks. He then took it over to his partner where they started whispering and giggling. I don't know what the coin was, and commented that it must be a heck of a coin. The one dealer said he asked for sixty and he got sixty for it. Then the other guy commented that he probably stole it anyway.
It sounds like a dealer with limited cashflow not limited exposure. In this business... especially lately... you MUST have cash at all times... We have had several 5 figure deals walk in lately without even calling first. It's very cash intensive these days. Not buying while you are open is kinda strange. If you know the right folks all you need to do is make a phone call and lock in your profits.
Sounds like a dealer to not do business with even on coin supplies. Eventually they will realize they can't treat people like second or third class citizens, especially if they expect the business to grow.
This guy has been in business for 45 years. Everybody in the place is related. They own the building. They rent the apartment out upstairs. The store is small, but it's crammed with stuff. I guess they can afford to lose customers because they have no overhead. I bet they make more than they lose.
He wasn't a dealer. He was a crook. Surely you can find another dealer nearby between South Bend & Chicago. Chris
