This applies to everyone: The ANA has one code of ethics for collectors and another for dealers. The theory is easy to understand: dealers are professionals who are in a superior position. The MSNS has a different view: we are all collectors; we are all dealers. In fact, collectors have the upper hand because they can specialize and "cherrypick" dealers, whereas dealers are forced to be generalists who cannot know the deep details of every series, type, and variety. So, MSNS assumes a level playing field and asks that everyone abide by it. Sure, if the price of something is nominally close to your expectations, and is a bargain, fine. But if the price of something is "common" and you know the item to be "rare" then you have an obligation to share your numismatic expertise with another member of the fraternity. Obviously, much gray colors the place where buyer and seller meet. This applies also to the purchase and sale of counterfeits and copies, including altered (cleaned; toned; whizzed; bleached; starched...).
Ohhhhh........What a wonderful world. I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank You for that inspirational reply. If only the coin collecting world could really be like that.
Ethics. Yes, I like conversations about the ethics in this hobby. It seems that there actually are some ethical people in coining. Remember that guy who sold that Ansei Trade Dollar for a few hundred bucks (you know, the Mexican silver dollar with Japanese chopmarks?) and how the buyer contacted him to give him his cut of the 20-grand profit from the coin's later sale at Heritage? That was quite ethical. However, the gray area exists, doesn't it? I've cherrypicked before, and I think the profits that I derived on those occasions fit within the above definition of ethical behavior. But it seems that I'm finding more and more that nice guys finish last...
Yeah, but it's the nice guys who can wake up in the morning, brush their teeth and look in the bathroom mirror and say, 'I like this guy'...........
I would like some attention paid to grading and enforcement along those lines. If a dealer sells a bunch of raw coins at grades he assigns for $5000, and the real grades make their real market value worth a fraction of that, what recourse does the seller have? This is the real scourge in the business and hobby, problem material shilled at inflated prices and grades without stating the problems; it is about standing behind what you are doing in your business. Until numismatics addresses overpriced and problem material and their sale without total transparency, there is not much hope for this field.
Oh I think many of us can detect the Charletons. Our mission is to expose them, but that's fodder for another thread.......
