I was searching the internet for the best price on a set of PCGS MS66 Washington Dollars. I have only bought from a few web sites but the one I found was a very professional looking site and the dealer was an ANA and PNG life member among a long list of other credentials. The price on the website was $49.95 for the set from both mints. I know the price has been dropping but this seemed like a good deal. When I went to order, the shopping cart kept putting in $89.95 which is a little high. I emailed them and also left a phone message saying that I would buy at the original $49.95. No message has been returned either email or phone, but I checked the web site and the listing is now changed to $89.95. Not sure what I think about this. If it was a mistake should they still be obligated to sell at the original price? I remember Littleton made a mistake on their web site with the 2006 W ASE's and still sold them at the wrong listed price. At the very least a return message should have been sent.
I don't believe that they are obligated to sell at that price, but I wouldn't do business with a place like this. A simple email saying "the price was in error, thank you for pointing it out, and please understand that we are not able to honour that price", would go a long way towards making me feel like this is a trustworthy dealer. Just my $.02
My guess is that they are legally bound by their ad provided that you can prove it. I know they can get out if it is an obvious typo, but don't know if this qualifies. Regardless, the important question is "how are you going to collect?"
they could be legally bound to their offer if you can prove it but it well may take a court case to decide it, just not worth the trouble
Most coin dealers who post any sorts of pricing, whether online or in magazines, have some sort of small disclaimer stating that prices are subject to changes without notice, as the coin market can be a volatile market. That is usually how they handle the legality of changing prices in situations such as this.
I sure don't know how. At least in the 49 US States that operate under English Common Law principals no binding contract exists until one party makes an offer, and another party accepts that offer, with both parties having the identical understanding so that a "meeting of the minds" occurs. (I don't know about Louisiana, which has a legal system based on the Napoleonic Code, and has not adopted the Uniform Commercial Code article on sales.) Under common law principles, unless stated otherwise an advertisement is a solicitation for offers, and there is no sale under the ad until a customer places an order AND the seller accepts it.
Hmmmm, two current $1 coins for $49.95 a good deal? Sounds about $47.95 too high to me. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the dealer needs to recoup his cost of the nice pieces of plastic the coins are sitting in. If your really willing to throw $50 away on current circulating coins. Why not just get a roll each of "P" and "D" for $40 and still have $10 left over. Or better yet, spend $2 for your two $1 coins and save the $48 for something really worthwhile.
Trip20,you are right in detecting a scam here.Only an idiot would pay $48 above the face value for 2 ordinary circulating coins. Time to get out the 2,000,000 foot bargepole I must say.Give that vendor the widest berth possible. Aidan.
There was a good article about this sort of thing in the latest copy of the numismatist. The article was a hypotheticle situation about a cherry-picker and a dealer.
While I am not a business lawyer (nor do I play one on TV), I know that when I used to work in retail, we had to be VERY careful when we remarked stock with a higher price. If a customer found one with an old price sticker on it, we were obligated to sell it to them at that price by company policy, as they considered it an offer by us to sell it at a specific price and the buyer had accepted that price in good faith to complete the transaction. Was it an absolute "contract" under the law? Nope. But, it made good business sense not to torque off a customer and what we might lose in a $3-5 dollar sale, we would more than make up in good will and repeat business. Of course, our parent company took a dim view of us not completely remarking inventory when there was a price change, (no, duh), but in general, customer satisfaction (within reason) was more important. As with anything though, your mileage may vary when dealing with other retailers.
I would think that whatever price the shopping cart displayed would be the offer price in the legal sense. But that's just an opinion.
