Guess the Dealer's Asking Price

Here it is in his bio lead off sentence:"the premier internet place to get quality investment-grade authentic ancient Greek, Celtic, Biblical, Byzantine coins and artifacts. All coins come with a lifetime quarantee of authenticity and a certificate of authenticity."
It is not a "bad" investment for him obviously though. He is just showing off his bank vault so to speak.

 

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That kind of nailed down who it was ... along with the asking price.

 

That's how I found him easily, anyway !

Q

 

This coin's condition was graded "good VF." My personal grade is "good VF/VF" -- I grade the reverse a bit lower than the auction house did. The portrait is good but there are better Hadrian portraits, and the reverse is uncommon and interesting but not historically significant. But overall it's a good find and the buyer found a hidden gem that probably was worth more than the hammer price.

The asking price is: $19,750.

If I were a true dealer, I would have listed it for $13,570 and hoped to get a quick sale for $11,000 - $12,000.

But as a lot of collectors here have noted, the dealer fancies himself as selling investment grade coins and decided that asking $13,800 more than he paid for it would position the coin as an investment rather than just as a pedestrian collector's coin. That's a 232% markup. I wonder if he even gets any offers on it.

Thanks to everyone for voting and chiming in.

 

What a crock. Are there people with that much money in ancient coins that don't know about acsearch and numisbids where you can find the selling prices for most valuable coins? I could see this flagrant scam working pre Internet but now?

 

He is not the only one with a business plan of pricing coins according to his desire to sell them. Why not let him enjoy his toy for a while and even enjoy the real possibility that someone will pay the price. When he wants to sell it for a reasonable price, there will be buyers. Those in the hobby or the business for the money do things differently than those whose hobby is being a seller.

I have a retired friend who sells things from his hobby as a hobby and lived in a nice house with a great view which he thought was worth a million. A retired friend of his pestered him to sell it so he decided to shut him up by saying 'three million'. My friend had to move. Now he has a lot more money but no view. I don't put prices on my coins I love. I enjoy the view. When I no longer do will be soon enough. Will the man who paid $3 million for the house be able to sell it for a profit? He'll never know.