Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ikandiggit, post: 1068793, member: 16269&quot;]Through a series of events, I was offered the task of evaluating an estate of an acquaintance of mine who passed away earlier this year. </p><p><br /></p><p>I had owned a special events company about 20 years ago and I had met this fellow who had a huge collection of militaria, antiques and odds and ends. I purchased a number of items from him for some of the events I designed. Then a few years later when I was an antiques/collectibles dealer, I ran into him again and he would sell me items that he had no interest in. After I closed the business I lost touch with him.</p><p><br /></p><p>A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking to one of my customers at the restaurant that I work at and he was telling me about a client of his whose brother had passed away, leaving her with the task of handling his estate. There was a coin collection that she was having a difficult time with because she was getting offers from different dealers that she felt was way too low. He passed her name to me and I made contact. To my surprise, her brother was the same seller that I had dealt with in the past. I told her I would be glad to appraise the collection for her. </p><p><br /></p><p>I went on Thursday night with a female friend and I spent a couple of hours going through the boxes of coins that he had collected. </p><p><br /></p><p>It was mainly Canadian with a few U.S. silver dollars. Most of the coins were in 2X2&#039;s and had prices marked on them. I discovered the prices were all taken from a price guide and all were marked at BU or MS regardless of what the actual condition of the coins were. In fact there was only a few MS coins in the entire collection. The rest were fine or lower. </p><p><br /></p><p>At melt value, there was over $2,000 in silver. The rest of the collection I estimated at around $1,000 using a percentage of Trends prices. The minimum she should be able to get would be $3,000 by unloading them quickly. If she sold them individually, she could double or triple the prices but she didn&#039;t want to be bothered with it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now comes the kicker. The highest offer she received from local coin dealers was $800 for the entire collection (remember there is $2,000 in melt value for just the silver!). I told her that I would consider buying the collection and would pay her $3,000. She has to discuss the offer with the rest of the family before she can accept or reject it. </p><p><br /></p><p>It made me angry that not a single dealer that looked at the collection had the decency to make a fair offer.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in