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Message:: [QUOTE="BUncirculated, post: 1825697, member: 29581"]Anything the dealer wants. The other thing you have to look at when it comes to a dealer's buying is how long the item remains in their inventory, as that impacts the length of time the dealer's funds are tied up before the item sells. If you watch Pawn Stars, Rick says that quite a bit when certain specialty items are brought in, i.e. a certain painting, or odd collectible, etc.; and he's correct by saying the item will sit in his store for a long time before someone looking for that particular item comes in to buy it. You're going on the assumption that grey sheet is the bible on absolute pricing, but realistically it's only a guide, no different that completed sales on eBay, Heritage, or Teletrade. I defer on this as I don't collect notes and know nothing of them, nor do I track sales of them either. But what you're not understanding is the dealer has overhead, not specifically a payroll overhead either. It's their business. They have to cover all of their expenses when buying and selling. I refer you back to my post #24, and I'll expand on that for you. The cost of ground beef is $2.98/lb., which is  $.19/oz. Most places offer a 1/3 lb burger, or 5.4 oz. which comes to $1.03 for just the burger. Add $1.50 for everything else that goes on the plate: cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, the bun, and 6 - 8 oz. of fries. You're up to $2.53 for just the cost of the food on the plate. Now you need to cover your overhead of payroll, utilities; gas, electric, phone; then there are costs for sewage, water, garbage. Now, multiply that $2.53 by 3, and add $1 to it, and you're up to $8.59 for a retail price to charge for your cheeseburger and fries. That's enough to cover the cost of your overhead and your food cost, and have a profit afterwards. But in the same token as you feel dealers should have an ethics education, SELLERS should have a selling education. Let me ask you this: Is the seller forced to sell their collection for $5k if they know it's worth much more than that? Let me use another example: Used cars. You decide it's time to get a new car, whether it's used or brand new. You go to a car dealership. You've looked up the Kelly book value of your car, and let's say the private sale value is $3500. But the trade-in value is half that, or $1750. The dealer is not going to give you full trade-in value for your car. Generally, their offer is 50% of the that value, and sometimes less than half. The point is, you're not going to get full trade-in value for your car from a dealer. You're actually better off, in some cases, to sell your vehicle in a private sale. But are you forced to accept that offer for half the trade-in value?[/QUOTE]

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