Advice, please: Craigslist gold

The coins are probably stolen. Maybe I'm just skeptical.
But it's true, there could be a "faux mugging" racket, I dunno. Seems to be some issues. I'd meet the guy first, get a feel for him. If he doesn't come off as a collector, or bullion investor needing fast cash, I'd pass on it too.

 

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I think he said that one of the coins are certified, couldn't he look up the certification number to see if it's authentic and if it's stolen?

 

Here's a good description.

http://www.goldstocknews.com/articles/2009/0409-Coins.html

 

My advice and I've stuck wiTh it because I'm very conservative but do dangerously buy coins when I couldn't afford it is:
Buy from a reputable well known advertised dealer but look for what you really want and desire. Pay the premium , if it is not
outrageous. One of my buys was a roll of 20 gem uncirc. silver dollars for less that $400. I did it for investment purposes too.
It turned out to be one of my very best unnecessary, unaffordable, selfish, dumb luck purchases.

 

I don't always have $4K just laying around to spend on coins. I've already dropped $3K in the past 3 months on 2 coins. So I'll be out of the party for a while.

Let me add this, I wouldn't do it. You have no idea who this craigslist guy is. I'd go to a coin show if I were to spend that kind of money. Don't risk it on raw coins.

 

Well, I have to say, I expected at least a little bit of encouragement.

I'm going to give it a pass. Here's why:

1) I don't have the chops to identify counterfeit gold coins. The weight/dimension test makes it awfully hard to pass anything but gold off as gold -- but I'm not shopping strictly for bullion, and I'd like to have something that I can comfortably represent as a real coin, not just as bullion.

2) It's not that sweet of a deal. If he were offering these at spot, like the previous ones, it would've been a lot harder for me to resist.

3) It's an awful lot of money to put at risk, by my standards.

4) All the other fine advice I've received here.

I'm not bailing due to security concerns, although I'm aware of the security issues. Yeah, it could have been a setup for a crime -- but I honestly think the risk was small, and that I was taking reasonable steps to mitigate it.

When I came right down to it, I found that I was hesitating to back out because he'd said he'd hold them for me. I still feel bad about backing out -- but that's NOT enough reason to go through with the deal.

Thanks again, everybody. Looks like I won't be posting pictures of the new purchase after all...

 

No your not alone BM