I got a call a couple weeks ago from someone with Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels and some Rolexes, a lawyer. Got my contact information from the NGC site. He has already met with two NY area dealers who were not impressed with what he was selling. He claims that his coins are extremely high grade, though they did not sound like anything special. I spent a good half hour with him on the phone on the process of getting top dollar. I emailed him back with sites to join and share his gorgeous gems with other collectors to get proper dollar value. He left me another phone message, thankfully the recording feature is limited to around a minute; he wants to meet and have me examine his material for sale. How do other numismatic buyers handle persistent people like this who appear to be fishing for unreasonable $$$ offers?
Well back in the day a friend of mine who went by the name of scotty, was asked by a chicago lawyer to help him move some large boulders from the bluff of a lake to near his home, scotty told him he would do so for 500 dollars, the lawyer asked him just to tell him how to do it and he would handle it from there. Scotty told him if he (scotty) were to ask advice of the lawyer he would be expected to pay for it, so he did not see any reason to give the lawyer free advice. I think you should keep that in mind, if the lawyer is disposing of an estate he is certainly charging the estate for his time.
I asked him to email me a list, this is what he sent me: 50 State Quarters 2007 "Silver" Proof States: Montana Washington Idaho Wyoming Utah 2007 "Proof" States: Montana Washington Idaho Wyoming Utah US Mint Presidential $1 Coin Proof Sets (3) Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison That was it. I asked him to email me a specific list and he did not do so. Also: interesting anecdotal tale.
I am not a fan of pushy people. Tell him you are no longer interested and to "cease and desist" with the phone calls. TC
Absolutely! I would ask for at least $20 an hour. I don't charge for an estimate unless I have to put time aside for the meeting. If I have to schedule some time, then somebody has to pay, even if it's only free lunch, but it better be high end lunch.
You got that right. This could be a set-up, I'm not kidding how did that guy get your contact information. I would be very leery.
My good friend happens to be my coin dealer, so every day I am hanging at his shop. These very same types of people come in all the time. He is just very patient with them and tries to explain things to them in a way they understand. For instance, most people like this get their pricing info from the Red Book or some other sort of retail price guide. My buddy just explains to them that this pricing is usually retail pricing from one collector to another, but as a dealer, he has to make some money to pay his overhead costs so dealer prices are much less. Most customers understand this, but not all. Its just taking the time to look through what they have and explaining things to them. Here is another example. A customer brought in a roll of memorial cents. Can't remember the date. But in the Red Book, it said that in MS67 RD each one of these was worth $35 so he wanted $35x50. My dealer just had to explain to this guy how grading worked and that there may be one or two that would grade that high, but most would be less. The guy couldn't understand how a UNC roll would grade for anything less than MS67RD per cent.
I once had a guy text me at least 50 times throughout the night begging and pleading for me to drive across town to buy a junk Merc and a "gold commemorative 2007 Washington dollar" for a whopping $5. As with you, I had already spent time advising this guy on how to go about selling his (similarly junk) coins, and made it clear I wasn't interested, but this obviously wasn't enough. If I didn't want them during business hours, I sure as hell am not going to run him crack money in the middle of the night, but I digress. Just handle it in a gentlemanly yet firm manner. Tell him that you do not handle such material and that there is nothing more you can do for him. Thank him for contacting you (don't give him a reason to badmouth you) and wish him luck. If need be, ignore his calls and/or emails... sooner or later he will get the point.
