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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;bmwcaligali, post: 57449, member: 3467&quot;]<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie4" alt=":mad:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; Hey out there everyone.&nbsp; I&#039;m somewhat of a newbie in coin collecting.&nbsp; I inherited my parents coin collection which they obtained from their backyard.&nbsp; (they literally dug them up).&nbsp; I have a huge assortment of coins (hundreds of them) ranging from indian head pennies, large cents, half cents, half dimes, varias nickels and 5 cent pieces, 3 cent pieces, morgan dollar, peace dollars, trade dollars, commemorative coins, varias mercury dimes, half dollars and quarters (seated liberty, standing liberty, walking liberty, barber, etc.) as well as one St Gaudens Gold Double Eagle.&nbsp; I&#039;ve been researching the history of these coins like mad, buying books on how to grade them, etc. and I&#039;ve searched the internet as well.&nbsp; I decided to take my coins to a place in California called Fremont Coin.&nbsp; A husband and wife runs the shop, and I had hoped to get their expertise on my coins, and I was be hoping they would be able to share some of their expert knowledge, give me tips on what to look for in grading, and basically share in my enthusiasm of the treasures my deceased parents left for me.&nbsp; My experience there was so awful that I don&#039;t even know how they could be considered a source as an &quot;authorized dealer&quot; for PCGS.&nbsp; The man, Vincent, was so rude, and clearly doesn&#039;t give a rats ass about true coin collecting, but merely to make a quick buck.&nbsp; I had a large rolling type suitcase of my coins (not all of them mind you) and when I first walked into the semi crowded small shop, I was greeted very warmly.&nbsp; The owner even asked another customer to move his collection off of a chair so that I could sit down and show him my coins.&nbsp; So I brought them out, mind you they were all in their own plastic coin bags and seperated by type of coin and I had written small notes on what I felt their grade to be as well as the current 2006 market value which I obtained from US Coin Digest (Edler and Harper, 2006).&nbsp; He looked at the first set, my plentitude of Peace Dollars (all of which I graded to be at least Very Fine or better) and he said they were common and he picked up a pail and showed me coins that he had allegedly obtained that were Peace dollars, to show me that he thinks that little of them that he just throws them in a bucket.&nbsp; He starts looking at them one by one very quickly and hitting the buttons on his adding machine.&nbsp; Every now and again he would make a comment on how one was damaged and he would put it in another pile.&nbsp; When he was all finished, he hastily tossed my coins back in the tupperware container I had them organized in and he KEPT THE DAMAGED ONES out and put them in a seperate plastic baggie and told me those were the ones he was MOST INTERESTED in, and then he tells me I&#039;ve got $1400 worth of coins right there. He then says, &quot;that&#039;s a lot of money&quot;.....now by this point, I am getting the idea that he is looking at me like I don&#039;t have a husband with a very lucrative business, and might I mention that I by no means consider $1400 to be a lot of money (that&#039;s how much money I have in my &#039;mad money&#039; account alone....)&nbsp; Anyways, so he tells me he would buy the coins from me for $1400, and I had to tell him right away that I wasn&#039;t ready to sell them, and I reiterated to him for the SECOND time why I was there.&nbsp; He told me he didn&#039;t want to waste too much time if I wasn&#039;t going to sell them, and so I asked him if I could pay him to appraise the coins for me.&nbsp; By this time the other customers were intently listening, and he tells me I have nothing of value to substantiate paying for an appraisal, and he tells me that he can tell just by seeing those Peace Dollars that I have what everyone else has, and that he&#039;s already seen it all.&nbsp; I said to him &quot;well how do you know just by looking at my tupperware containers what I&#039;ve got that you can make a statement like that?&quot;&nbsp; He said &quot;I&#039;m a dealer, I&#039;m an expert, and I know what I&#039;m talking about&quot;.&nbsp; I thought Okay, I&#039;ll go then...but wait.....oh no no no....he continued to look at my coins anyways when he could see that I was just fine putting them away and leaving.&nbsp; So I sat there and decided to ride the wave.....if you know what I mean.&nbsp; The long and short of it is that this man was so vile to deal with that I want to warn any newbie, old timer or in between to beware of such sharks infesting the waters out there.&nbsp; He tried to tell me that my trade dollars were counterfeit, (little did he know they were already tested for authenticity long before I ever even got them), he told me that my 1927 Saint Gaudens $20 Double Eagle Coin which is in mint, uncirculated condition was only worth its weight in gold.&nbsp; He looked at my Morgans and tore them up (now these are at the very worst, VF condition and that&#039;s the very worst, I had some help grading these), not to mention I&#039;ve got like 50 of them in consecutive years even.....So this fool tells me after grazing over what make up only some of my entire collection and he tells me they&#039;re not worth sending to PCGS for certification (I think they&#039;d be pretty ****ed that one of their authorized dealers is blowing them off like that), and that the sum of all my coins (now remember the amount he was willing to pay for just the peace dollars, and those only made up an 1/8 of the quantity I had) the total value for all of my coins was anywhere from $1400 - $3000!!!!&nbsp; Meaning that my gold piece coin, my two huge tupperwares of XF condition Morgans and all the rest that I mentioned in the beginning of this posting, all of those together were only worth $1600 at the most?&nbsp; Since we&#039;d already established he wanted to buy my Peace dollars for $1400.&nbsp; He told me that $3000 was a lot of money and I quote &quot;so what if they were your dead parents, you should sell them and take that $3000 and open yourself up an IRA for your children&quot;.&nbsp; It was all I could do not laugh in his face and to tell this ******* that my children already have all of their college money put aside and that&#039;s enough savings for if they go to Harvard like their Dad did so no worries there pal!!&nbsp; And furthermore, $3000 is again, chump change....especially when you compare it to the sentimental value they have from my parents (god rest their souls, my dad would have choked me in heaven if I&#039;d have sold even a bad penny to this guy) Okay so the final insult.....I asked before I left (and mind you this is after he mentioned buying them from me about two more times) if he sold Loops.&nbsp; His wife pulls out a MAGNIFYING GLASS....and I said, well, do you have the kind he was using on my Trade dollars?&nbsp; And that stuck up ***** said &quot;you mean the $250 one?&quot;.&nbsp; Now, granted I was surprised at how much it was, but that&#039;s only because my parents literally had 3 of these suckers, in which I personally have one of my own, it&#039;s just stored away somewhere in my garage and I was too lazy to find it.&nbsp; I thought it&#039;d be easier just to buy another.&nbsp; So her husband then says, &quot;You don&#039;t need a loop of this degree to grade your coins&quot;, as he chuckled under his breath.&nbsp; I already have one of those two bit magnifying glasses that lights up at the end that they were trying to pawn off on me.&nbsp; Let me give you a tip on that one too....Borders Books for $9.99....as opposed to the $19.99 they wanted to charge me.&nbsp; I couldn&#039;t just leave without at least showing these idiots that I may look like I was going to buy their bull**** (they treated me like I was a tiny little spec) but don&#039;t let looks be deceiving...and so I said I wanted to buy this cheap little coin catalog book and the man rang me up and I reached into my bag, and pulled out the wad of cash I had stuffed in there hurriedly as I was leaving today, and I fumbled through the money which was mostly $100 bills and I said &quot;geez I know I have some ones somewhere in this pile&quot;.....and I paid with three crisp one dollar bills, smiled, thanked them for their time, and wheeled my &quot;worthless coins&quot; out the door.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; I am posting this because I&#039;m feeling rather petty today, and these fools ****ed me off.&nbsp; Where do they get off representing the coin collecting world with those attitudes?&nbsp; I wanted to make sure I let anyone and everyone know that Vince Lacareire of Fremont Coin Gallery along with his stuck up holyer than thou wife are NOT worth wasting your time talking to, much less selling to or buying from.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Lastly I just want to say (in case Vince or someone who knows him is reading) &quot;My coins may be &quot;worth nothing&quot; Vinney boy, but you were sure willing TO GIVE ME a minimum of $1400 for them CASH on the spot!! So what does that say about YOU! I think I&#039;ll hang onto my &quot;worthless treasures&quot;....thanks....... but no thanks!!.....oh and the gold Susan B Anthony, the minted error one that you said was spending money....I think I&#039;ll have that one appraised by a real expert.....I&#039;ve been told it&#039;s worth a minimum of $10,000.&nbsp; You feel free to go and spend your two bit shiny gold one that you compared it to.&nbsp; Mine is authentic loser!!!! </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Beginners Beware....and tell &#039;em Noelle said so!!!!&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie4" alt=":mad:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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