If dealers wants wholesale price, they should stick to the system, not talk to me on the phone, tell them what I got and what I want for it, then show up at my house to say, "hold on a sic, I got to make a call", cover the phone up, turn their head and say, well this is the price I'll pay. ?????? I'm I missing something here? did they not know what was said on the phone an hour before? come on! maybe its because I'm in the midwest, I took some some coins to "buyers show" in my home town to see what they would give, I took 1926, 27, 28, 29, buffalo nickels MS 61 to MS 62 to MS63, the guy said I'll give you 6 cents apiece! 1927 mercury dime FB MS 62 or 63, he said, 15 cents! a 1925-d 2 1/2 gold MS 63, he said $120! and a 1896-S morgan fine 25, he said 15 bucks! He didn't even have a jewelers lens! (I noticed they didn't buy many coins that day) I called him out on the morgan, He told me I could buy as many of that date and mint mark as I wanted from a coin store in the next town, 15 dollars each. I went home, called them up, and he said, "yeah I have on of those in my safe at home its not for sale." when I told him I heard that he could sell that coin all day long for 15, he thought it was a late Aprils fools joke. I had no trouble selling my older coins, 1853 3 cent silver fine, liberty nickel 1883 MS 64, standing liberty quarter 1925 AU, and a couple of silver jefferson nickels MS60 for $300.(not a coin shop, woohoo) its just the modern stuff I can't unload.
Well, there's your problem. Those people are not coin dealers. They buy coins from unknowledgeable sellers for typically about half of melt. Real coin dealers do not take out full-page ads full of hype and set up in a motel room.
Actually I found that at the most recent show I went to the dealers weren't paying bid unless it was something really nice that they really wanted. I had some decent average grade IHC sets and buffalo sets, I couldn't get a decent bid on, of course they see these by the dozens most of the time, but these are dealers that I have a good relationship with and they have usually paid bid on everything I offered them cause I trade with them alot, they said they weren't buying hardly anything at bid anymore. They also always let me buy at ask before, and they were selling to me for around bid, so it does seem like it has shifted down some. The problem I ran into is the high quality stuff, even common date but good quality stuff is almost non existant. You can find plenty of low grade or sliders, but try to find a nice XF semi key or mid 60s common date coins for your set and good luck!
If a dealer actually needs what you have, you can realize more than bid at times. Common stuff can be back of bid. The dealer has to make a profit moving common low $ items. It has been said before; you make money on coins when you buy, not when you sell.
Yep, pretty much what I said, but the market has definitely changed over the last year or two. The dealers I deal with would typically always give me pretty close to bid on just about anything I brought them, mainly because I do alot of business with them but this last time I had about $300 bid and the best offer I got was $100. And they all asked me if I had better stuff to sell because the mid grade collectible stuff is almost non existant, there is low priced junk and high priced high end, not alot in the middle. Ended up selling the stuff on the bay for close to $400. Im not criticizing the dealers, I have pretty much always been on their side just making an observation that the market is getting flooded with low grade common stuff and nothing mid grade mid priced.
i really should go to a show with you. something tells me it will be more fun then buying coins ever can be
So if I had sold buffalo nickels I paid $60 to $ 90 a piece for six cents a piece, a Mercury dime for I paid $ 70 for 15 cents. could you look me in the eye and say that is a reasonable profit? If I took him up on that, it would kinda look like I was running the charity, don't you think? and the reason I wrote this thread to began with, If I advertise to collectors, and 15 dealers show up at my door instead, and before they came over, I said, "I have 1973 S SIlver IKE proofs for $40 a piece and star notes $7.00 a piece", and they say "shure I'll buy those" show up an hour later, then its greysheet time, and $15 dollar IKEs and a dollar for dollar star notes, and stomp off mad because I wont sell. The question I have to ask, and it seems to be over and over again, is why not be upfront on the phone before they come down and save the trip? Is being upfront not part of the Code of Coin Dealing? My bad, I guess I come from a time when someone's word was someone's word, I now stand corrected, I'm in the wrong!
Ed the dealer you were dealing with was a shyster, point blank. He offered you dateless roll price for nice coins. C'mon, a traveling sideshow type coin buyer will do that. I would just develop a better network of coin buyers and ignore the shysters and the offers they would present. A bit of a different thing, but a similar thing here. So if I bought a Hummer H-2, Jeep, Blazer or Tahoe a cpl years ago and I went to trade it in, " Dont Kelly Bluebook me pal" what do you think the results would be food for thought.
So lets say your at home and want to sell your Hummer H-2,but not at the dealership, you put an add in the paper, and a guy calls, and you say,"its a nice SUV and not that old, I want 25 g's", and he says, "sounds like a deal, I'll be there in an hour". When he gets there, he calls the office at the dealership that he works for and quotes the bluebook, and now says, I 'm prepared to pay $ 16 g's. would you sell to him, or look for another buyer? Should he have quoted the price on the phone to begin with?
No Ed, you have described a bait and switch. Another shyster tactic. It is unfortunate you have seen some crooked snakeoil salesmen dealers. Please do not loose the faith or the hobby. Honest folks do exsist, so hang in there. If I were to ever be " beasted" or spotted an attempted hoodwink in progress, you would see a thread here of my origin. I'm with you on this one all the way.
Thank you Jack, maybe I should have thought of another name for this thread, and really its not even a big deal. Its just an experience I'm going thru right now, (but 15 coin shop dealers, I didn't think there were that many around here, where are they all coming from? lol) they are lesser coins being modern, and they are/or were my learning tools to start collecting with, I've heard it said you need about 10 years experience before you should buy higher price coins, and I've moved from raw to certified, and only keeping a handfull of the raw stuff. Now I know what I like and what I don't (from 1878 to present, anyway) but still will learn more as time goes on.
Another part of the problem you are having Ed is what you are trying to sell. You said it yourself - the older stuff sold well, but you are having a problem with the modern stuff. Well, there's a good reason for that too - few collectors want the modern stuff. Advertised prices for moderns are almost always inflated, often greatly inflated. And few dealers even want to mess with it because they can't sell it. Then of course you have the current coin market to consider - prices are dropping. Even in the recent Coin Values the headlines are - "Values for High Grade 20th Century Classics Dive" - and that from a publication and an author that is normally always upbeat and very bullish - even in bear markets ! And the classics they refer too are Walkers, Mercs, Buffs etc. Now if prices for coins like that "dive" - what do you think prices for moderns are doing ? You'll be lucky to give them away. Yeah you may be dealing with some low class dealers - but there other things to consider as well, like the coin market being in marked downturn.
For those people to quote you prices without seeing the stuff is definitely ridiculous... When people call and ask me what stuff is worth I tell them the range in which it can be worth... from the very ugly to the nice stuff.. and its usually a big range. But to put a price on something you haven't even seen is impossible, unless your this guy:
I don't know what you guys do, but I 've been Hedge betting a little bit. Two years ago I was buying gold, silver, platinum, now since gold is high, I switch to coins, and if coins upturn and gold drops, I'll switch back again.
Although I would argue that the 40% spread really varies by series and/or dealer, the above post is otherwise 100% correct and should be required reading for all aspiring collectors....Mike
It's called the Greysheet because it's printed on grey paper. Its more formal name is the Coin Dealer Newsletter.