Inheritance story

So my great grandmother collected coins which have been passed down to my grandmother, and then last year to my mother and her 5 siblings. When my grandmother died they split the collection 6 ways. My uncle was the executor of the will and has zero knowledge of coins. So to split the collection they went round robin picking coins, my guess is on the order of 400 coins split between 6 people with zero knowledge of coins. Apparently they fought over who would get the best quality steel war pennies :headbang:
So this weekend, I went over to my mom’s to check out her share of the collection. The vast majority of the coins are 20 century silver coins worth their silver value with a couple odds and ends, some large cents, III cent, Indian head, flying eagle type stuff. In looking through the 4 Indian head pennies she selected in the inheritance lottery she got a 1877!!! I am amazed, and am dying to know what the rest of my aunts and uncles have, because none of them know anything about coins.
The kicker is, when my mom got the collection she took them to a local coin store to get appraised. The store basically said they were worth the silver value, which they low balled, but when it came to the non-silver coins the prices they offered were practically criminal. I think it was $3 for the 1857 flying eagle, and get this, $7 for the 1877 indian head!!! So I am totally freaked out about my aunts and uncles taking this collection to a dealer and getting ripped off. Thankfully my mom had no interest in selling the coins, she just wanted to get an idea of their value.

 

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Happens all the time--caveat emptor in reverse (seller beware)!

 

It seems like there are more and more dealers trying to take advantage of their customers. I wonder what their personal collections look like and how much they under-paid for it. For some, it's like receiving stolen merchandise, and they're the ones who stole.

 

At least they have you looking out for them!

 

Happens all the time, now you know who to avoid. $7 for a 1877, he should have CROOK branded on his forehead. Ask your mom if you could put some snapshots here at CT. We'd love to see them...

 

I'd like to see a snapshot of that dealer!

 

You know, IMO its crap like that, is the reason why coin collecting never takes off drastically as a hobby. New collectors are scared to death of getting ripped off. Sure they can pull stuff out of circulation and still have fun, but I'm sure they are apprehensive in buying and selling older decimal coins when stories like this circulate. They can buy the mint collector stuff that comes out every year, but theres much more to the hobby than that stuff.
There are collectors and dealers who have all the integrity in the world, and they do their best to squash any negativity and dishonestly surrounding the hobby, only to have pieces of crap like that dealer ruin it.
I know, I know, you need to learn and learn before diving into the deep end with this hobby, but when your always skeptical about dealers, you really have no-one you can trust and respect as a mentor. I know I find it hard to trust any dealer, because when push comes shove their primary intent is always to buy low, sell high. Sure they can be personable but is it all a P.R sham?

 

We have two dealers locally, The one with the best selection and has been in business over 40 years is a complete lowballer. The other guy is barley making it but offers fair prices and IMO is very hard on his own coins. If there is a tiny break in luster or maybe it was lightly cleaned at one time he throws a net grade on the coin. I try to buy from him as often as possible but his selection is so small.

 

It's the dealers that buy low, then they sell high. Coin collecting is a great hobby, but with dealers like that, and there are a lot of them, I'm surprised anybody collects coins at all.

 

Get a rope....

 

This would story would make for a good sitcom. I could visualize the above pretty easy. Fun story. Besure to tell the Aunts to "beware."

Welcome to Coin Talk.

 

The sentimental value is worth far more in my opinion!!

 

I've had the same lowball experience, I think it was $35 for a $900 coin. Unfortunately, many dealers are thieves. Lucky your mom made it home with the 1877!

Does anyone know if any laws regulate dealers? Weren't some passed after the great 1980's Morgan Dollar rip-offs?

 

Hopefully your relatives still have the coins and none have attempted to clean or otherwise "improve" them while in their possession. What I find amazing is why no one appeared to make any effort to understand the collection before dividing it. The internet is ubiquitous, but if some folks are averse to it there is always the chain bookstores and they have plenty of Red Books for about $15 that would have helped quite a bit. As for the dealer offer, it is the responsibility of the seller, too, to know something about what they have and too many sellers are lazy.

 

Another sad story of a dealer trying to take advantage of someone, and that is not just a little bit, like paying g price for a f coin, that is in your face, my conscience is in a coma taking advantage. The worst story I heard was on another forum where a person knew the coin they had was worth some money, the dealer talked them into submitting it to a tpg thru them, they did so but the dealer switched out the coin, and then denied, denied, denied.

I have heard some come on here and tell of being offered face value for full date buffalos, 3X face for high end silver, I like the person who suggested taking a snapshot of the dealer just so his picture gets around, with cell phone cameras it would be easy to do.

It might be a fun thing to suggest to one of those television shows to take a hidden camera to various coin dealers with a super rare high end coin, maybe one with the new pcgs plus tech and see what some dealers will do.

 

No regs for dealers. They can be con men all day long.

 

I guess its safe to say, its hard to have any empathy, sympathy, or respect right out of the gate for any dealer.
The problem with this hobby is, its the dealers that report and in essence drive the market value of coins, they just seem to have way too much control of the whole market. If thats not enough, some will try to take advantage of the unsuspecting because not only are they know they are in the drivers seat, but they can sence the vulernable seller.
With all that control its no wonder there is so many uneducated and fearful sellers. They can go ahead and buy the red book and do their due dilegence, only to have a dealer say..no no.,..we use the grey sheet.
For some reason, 'used car saleman' comes to mind.
This is the reason why I'm capped and with not be expanding my collection within other areas of decimal coin collecting. I need some sort of saftey net, that I think I presently have....(after being screwed over numerious times before mind you.).ive learned from my mistakes.

Man, i really think we have stirred up a bees nest with this thread

 

This is really no different than any other retail operation.... the margin may be different, but that's probably because the volumes are lower than in a commercial retail operation. I remember working as a delivery boy for a furniture store waaay back in the day,,, I was amazed when I came across the whole sale price list (a "highly" guarded secret), the store would get recliners for $65 and sell them for $400, or $200 on thier 50% discount sales days,, heck they even discounted them 75% and sold them for $100 and made money when they wanted to get rid of stock. Beds were the same,, heck, it was all the same. Furniture mark up is crazy.. 400-500% is the norm. Same thing for diamonds and precious stones,,, $500 dollar diamonds go for $3500 retail..... and should we even bring up cars,,, or USED CARS !
Anyone in the middleman game makes a living by screwing the customer, it's how they eat... Thier ethics simply define how well they eat in an inverse relationship.
It's one reason I really like the 'bay,, at least that's a venue that the mass collector population can find other collectors selling thier good with no middleman adding crazy margins into the transaction,, I'll take the 'bay fees associated with selling a coin all day long to avoid the lowballers.
... don't take this as a coin dealer slam,, it's not, it's just the way the retail game works. I buy from dealers and auctions sites all the time, they tend to offer hard to find items that are not readily available from the collector community sales on the 'bay... however, I still slobber when I see a collector selling on the 'bay,,, over time, you can tell the difference.

 

Most now are more interested in their "Cash for Gold" business. That's a whole new group of people these swindlers can rip off.

 

yea good point, this disgusting piece of work ------------------------------------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPGKE6jUL7E
does just that here in Toronto. As you can see his commercials are the cheesiest commercials you have ever seen, they are on the TV time and time again, and he's the greasiest SOB you will ever meet.
He was actually interviewed on a local TV show and he has conviced himself that he is the only person giving away money during this recession so hes a saviour.
I had the misfortune of sitting beside him on a 6 hr flight about 3 years ago to California, and I did my best to ignore him like the plague when he tried to spark up a conversation. I never let on that I recongized him.
Sorry just dont like his style.