Sell a coin for less than what you paid?

Mad scientists are not balanced....god help us all.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Hello

Ah - Jim is Jim. I see.

Amanda

 

That is another issue! But for sure, yes.

Ruben

 

For what it's worth, I know of no other person more balanced and on target than you Jim......

 

Who, may I ask, is Jim, and where is Peter?

Ruben

 

Medora, while I usually agree whole heartedly with what you say on the forums this time my views quite differ from yours.

A sheet does not dictate a items value. A item is worth what someone will pay for it. This point comes up most often in the truly rare and unique items that people collect, the items that are not seen very often for sale.

For instance lets say I have a coin that various sheets and priceguides estimate its value at 1000 dollars. However theres not many out there and as far as I can tell not a single one has been up for sale in many years. Well in that kind of circumstance I might try to get 2000 for said coin, heck I may try and get 100000 for it if I felt its worth that to somebody.

Just because some piece of paper says thats what the item is worth does not mean I must sell it for that price. The item is worth what someone wants to pay for it. Sheets and previous prices are a guideline to check what others have paid for said item in the past, that is all.

 

BTW - you've never seen Jim stir up the survivalist contingent in the Bullion section for fun and pleasure. BJ Honeycutt would be very proud.

Ruben

 

Desertgem.....

 

Yes I have and I take it with a grain........as I pat my trusty side arm.......

 

On this post I just said a coin was "worth" $1000, I didn't say that came from any sheet or pricelist. Check my prior post where I made that exact same point. My theoretical $1000 worth would be what the market has been selling them for. The market is the market, any price list or guide is simply an historical estimation of the market.

I am usually the first one to tell everyone to never rely on price guides, so I think you just misunderstood my post.

Edit: Btw, in ancients I face the exact problem you describe frequently. I searched over a year and a half once scouring the world for a coin simply listed as "scarce", and I have a number of coins I have been looking for for years now. Availability is very much a major issue in ancients, unlike most US coins which you can buy at any time if you have the money.

 

Apparently I did, I must have assumed you where refering to sheets and price guides since many before you were.

On a similar note the thing that first got me into dealing bullion/ collectables, was I had bought 6 1 ozsilver coins made in 1987 for the star wars anniversary. I paid 200 was originally going to sell them for spot which was about 250 at the time. Then I realized just how uncommon they were and how a full set only sells at best once a year for the past 10 years or so. So i put them up on ebay for a price they never had been recorded selling for, $800. Few weeks went by waiting and waiting, but eventually I was right someone else felt they were worth 800 too and they sold .

Ever since I have loved to buy and sell to expand my collection more and more

 

sometimes when you overpay for something you have to bite the bullet, but sometimes you can just hold it back and wait for prices to rise, they may fall first but generally prices rise

 

Bottom line is, if the price is higher than you want to pay, walk away. Not a big deal. I've probably done it hundreds of times.

 

You need to consider the financial situation of the dealer in question. If he does not have a cash flow problem and has the ability to wait an extremely long time for a buyer to show up and pay his high retail price, why shouldn't he wait for someone to pay his price and guarantee a profit. If he has a cash flow problem, the dealer is jeopardizing future profits because he does not have the cash on hand to purchase new inventory. I think he would be foolish to attempt to make a profit on a coin in which he was buried under this circumstance. It appears you either ran into a dealer without a cash flow problem or a fool. Either way, if the quoted price is too high and he won't budge, just move on.

 

Not sure if anyone has ever noticed that when the PM spot price of silver increases, online dealers' stock for bullion product either decreases (products become unavailable) or the premium they charge over spot increases. Then, miraculously, when the spot price increases, that same bullion product becomes more plentiful. As Lehigh (Paul) notes, some big dealers can just wait it out especially with bullion. TC

 

Yup, cause that's when I respond with, "I don't care what you paid for it, that's irrelevant now at this time for this potential sale!"

 

The price of a coin is dictated only by what a buyer is willing to pay for it. The notion that is has to be sold at a price puiblished as a GUIDE is just as fallacious as the dealer's assertion that it's influenced by what he paid for it. Does anyone believe that the dealer who buy an entire collection from a recent widow for a ridiculous low ball price passes on the savings? Of course not and that's why I don't need to hear about a dealers problems if he paid too much for a coin..

Coin dealers provide a service to collectors and in return they get to keep the profit they make, less anything confiscated by the government. I don't work for free and don't expect them to do so either. If they can't bring new items to the market at a realistic but profitable price they are in the wrong business.

I would love to be a coin dealer, it would be my ideal job. However, I'm too lazy, uninformed, opinionated, undisciplined and short tempered so I leave it to those better suited.

 

Part of my "counteroffer" was to show what "ask" was and offer it. I did not berate him or belittle him after he told me why he needed to sell high.

 

I don't agree with this. We both ended up where we wanted, with myself not overpaying, and him holding the coin. Had I wanted to overpay I would have done so, but decided that there will be other coins.

I'm trying to figure out how common it is to specificly not sell for less than the bought price, even if the dealer made a mistake or prices went down.

For example, if last year a dealer got a deal on ASE's for $50 each, would he hold onto them to try to sell for more than what he paid?

 

I agree with this as well. Last time I went to a show, I bought a coin at 50% above sheet, as the dealer convinced me of the virtues of the coin. Had this dealer done so as well, perhaps I would own it.