Cynicism in today's collecting community

You are discussing markets.

People with knowledge have an advantage over the illiterate.

In addition people submit coins for sale, whether at a coin convention, estate sale, auction (including ebay), flea market, or a coin club for many different reasons, including lack of knowledge and financial distress. Within the process there is a level of risk. You have to take into your purchasing decision the percentage of fraud and misrepresentation and people who would rob you. You have to wade through the clutter of tumbled, worthless junk.

Most of us can spot the fraud. I personally bought a coin (on ebay) which had 1/5 of the coin cut away, probably with bolt cutters. Wouldn't have bought it if the buyer was legit. I had to suck it up.

On the other hand many of us can spot value, whether for our own collection, or to flip for a profit. I've been offered raw coins within my area of interest (U.S. 1/2 cents, large cents, and Peace dollars ) at below market, because dealers don't want to spend their time and their money submitting and/ or selling. And we all have been offered coins for extremely high prices because the seller didn't care if we had a sandwich to eat or not. So most of us have an understanding of monetary value.

Recognizing the coin market is dynamic, with many human motivations (including the OP's observation regarding luck), will help you purchase coins either for you collection, or for reselling. Cynism is just a result of the unknown.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I don't agree. Internet is fully loaded of cynicism. I believe it's because is easier to post under an annonymous nickname than talking face to face to the people.

I wrote once...

One is the internet world, where you can hug and kiss everyone. And the other real life, where you dare not.

 

I see both sides of the story.

On one hand, there's a place for it. There is tons of garbage on ebay, and the 'big' sellers are much of the time more dishonest (*cough* SGS *cough*).... You have to be cynical to make sure you don't get ripped off, and navigate what essentially are 'shark infested waters'. I've been minorly taken a few times, but because I started by trying not to be eager and buy everything, I avoided being majorly taken on the order of many hundreds or thousands of dollars. I suppose though, this is more like 'realism' rather than cynicism. Realism though...I think that's just 'legitimate cynicism', since cynicism has some element of reality but is shunned as 'negative' because its supposedly excessive or whatever.

Some people take it too far, and are rude to others, etc. I've gotten some monster deals on ebay by being patient and watching for the less obvious stuff, made a bit of money selling here and there, etc. I do one day want to start a business out of this for some side money, but even then, nothing matters as much as just treating people decently. Even when you get angry, the same applies. I get so frustrated when I'm treated poorly by sellers for little or no reason, and not only does it make business sense to be reasonable, but it is pointless to treat people in a rude or dishonest manner (even if I can see why people do sometimes, despite not approving of it). I mean, not to go on a bunch of rants, but I of all people have dealt with a lot of stuff for my age, yet I still try to be decent to people as much as possible since it's how I want to be treated.

There are extreme cynics who will assume that someone who is relatively new to coin collecting and makes mistakes is a scammer because they sound eager, or whatever. A year and a half ago, I posted some higher end coins here, and was eager to sell stuff and whatever....I've kept many of those coins in my type set instead because I LIKE them and thus that is where they belong; selling isn't everything as I learned when I grew more modest in my approach...

But anyhow, back then I wasn't quite aware of some things, since I was fairly new to 'serious' coin collecting and was really eager to try to do business and stuff. I remember posting a trade dollar, which I determined later to have been dipped (I've dealt with quite a few polished coins since then, and it did not have the same look). Some, in particular one person questioned its authenticity due to the bizarre look in the pictures, which I admit kind of brings that impression. Anyhow, this one guy went on to say that basically my grading was poor, the authenticity of ALL my coins was in question (when this wasn't true, the T$1 was the only one that had ever been questioned), and so on and so fourth. I tried to work it out over PM and basically just got a big "F U". I forgive this person completely, but this just seems to be an example of 'cynicism gone too far'. It did make me realize my 'selling' style wasn't really appropriate however, and subsequently I adopted a more modest approach with pretty good success. But really, this kind of cynicism probably turns off a lot of new collectors, in some cases probably almost as much as the scams themselves. It's important to be somewhere in the middle of blind optimism and extreme scathing cynicism.

I enjoy coins greatly, but yeah, there are a lot of 'sharks' out there just waiting for an opportunity to ruin some unsuspecting, optimistic collector's wallet. There was this one guy on ebay who was...get ready for this (though many of you will not be surprised) cracking problem heritage slabs and selling high end stuff as problem free. I ALMOST got taken by this guy, but about 10 minutes after I won the coin, I realized that it was the same damaged-cleaned AU or whatever that he was listing as Unc with weird angles based on features unique to the coin. There was even a massive thread on another forum about it, in which he came to, LOL! Anyhow, that's another lesson learned....always check teletrade/heritage for high end coins if you're buying one raw off ebay. I've seen other guys doing this a lot. And remember, if someone is harsh to you, as much as it's annoying and rude sometimes, it does make you learn quite fast...

Just my two cents!

 

sure there is cynicism, when large financial institutions which are built on trust turn out to have been houses of cards, when businessess that people have worked hard for years shut their doors and run offshore, when company officers have run businesses into the ground and then get rewarded with multi million dollar golden parachutes there is bound to be cynicism.

But then there are others, like the dealer I know who bought a bunch of proof sets and found some no s coins, and then contacted the seller and split the find with him, or the neighbor of my dads house who mowed the lawn and then tried to refuse being paid for it, tho he was laid off, or the clerck at the store who let me know that I gave them 2 50 dollar bills, you know how those new ones stick together.

Or on this site where collectors with tons of experience spend their time giving novices like me advice, which helps us to grow in our collecting savvy and makes the hobby that much more fun.

So there are ample reasons for cynicism, but dont let the stinkers make you miss the people who are real gems.

 

Oh well, somebody has to get lucky sometime..... I think we all have had our moments. Traci