I was out ofr state and needed some cash recently. Had a ML I figured to sell for enough to tide me over. I got a decent quote from a dealer and went over. I let him beat me up a little on the price, but figured he had to make a profit so agreed on a price. So I fill out the receipt, then they hand me a CHECK !!! Now, I haven't traded coins at stores in a while. Only at shows where the transactions are cash. OK, I take the check and they have stamped it on the back that it can only be deposited to my account !! I can't even cash it at their bank. Now, I am getting nervous. I find a branch of a bank I use at home and give them the check, but they cannot verify the funds. I am told that bank privacy laws won;t let them tell you if a check will clear or not. So now I have to wait 2 days to see if I have the money for the gold. With a possibility that the check will bounce. I got covered by getting money from a different source. Which I would have done, had I known gold wasn;t good for cash any more. It's a shame, but if that's the rules dealers must operate under, they have lost all my business, forever ! I will sell on eBay or shows where I have my money BEFORE I give up my coin. How do you guys expect to stay in business ? I mean, these conditions, if they actually are conditions and not just a store policy, have to kill the business. It sure doesn't make sense to me to deliver gold and wait 2-3 days to see if I actually got paid for it. I made this mistake one time and only one time and I have a feeling that others will follow suit ? gary
The problem with checks are banks nowadays, not the dealers. I have a serious problem with a bank not cashing a check. In MN they charge you to cash a check written on that bank. I mean, what is the PURPOSE of a check but a written promise by an account holder to pay you if you go to his bank with this negotiable instrument. By them charging you a fee, they effectively are dishonoring a check.
It is quite possible that the dealer HAD to write you a check. Some community laws dealing with secondhand merchants or buyers of gold and silver do require payments to be made by check. Once again it is a way of tracking stolen goods. If it turns out something purchased was stolen the check allows them to trace the payment to a specific bank account and probably a specific person (The reason why the check is marked for deposit only, so it can be traced to an account.)
No way I'd take a check for coins, or any other item I sold. If they can't pay in cash they can pay by certified check. If they can't pay by certified check it's probably because they don't have the funds in the first place. I've seen this happen with supposedly reputable dealers on more than a few occasions. Guy
it is a law in many places (pay by check) also show ID. at my LCS I don't go thru that but others that look shady do. BTW if you want to know if a check is good you call the other guys bank not yours. my partner and i do that all the time while the other distracts the customer at our business.
Locally, B&Ms issue a check for anything over $250. But none of them stamp anything on the check that you can't cash it at any bank and require you to deposit it. NFN, did you notice that on the check while you were still in the store? I would have questioned him on that right then and there.
Fyi My local B&M store requires ID and issues a check for items over $250. He then cashes the check for respectable customers on the spot.
No offense, but it sounds reasonable to me. If my coins were stolen, I would want every possibly way to track down who stole them. Also, maybe it's just me, but it seems like a lot of people who complain about cash tracking are mostly worried about potential tax liability. You were going to report that sale on your taxes, right?
Off topic but states' are starting to make cash illegal for second hand trades. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...it-illegal-to-use-cash-secondhand-sales.shtml
Theft of scrap metal has become a big issue throughout the US. I'm in the scrap yard business and every state I operate in has passed some sort of legislation over the last couple of years addressing the problem. Every state requires me to collect the following data on non-ferrous metal purchases From the individual selling the material Digital mugshot Digital fingerprint, Digital photocopy of ID Name Current address Tag number of their car Sex, Birthdate Signed sworn statement as being the authorized seller/owner of the material Additional information required to collect specific to the transaction Date of transaction Receipt number of transaction Description of material purchased Amount paid Digital photograph of material purchased Form of payment (cash/check/etc) At the end of the business day I am required to upload this information into an authorized state law enforcement database. Some states only allow payment for non-ferrous material by check and one even requires the check be mailed to the seller’s address of record. All the laws impose some type of segregation requirement and holding period along with many other cumbersome business inconveniences. The reason I am bringing this up is; although the purpose of these statutes is to target the scrap metal industry they are actually written in a more generic form which could make them enforceable on coin shops, jewelry stores, cash for gold outfits and etc.
I applaud the enactment of these laws as metal theft, generally is from the public and at public expense. 3 Thieves removed $12,000 worth of copper from a school being built and it cost close to a million to replace under code. They were turned in by the scrap dealers record. The "dummy" record here in my county is a total of 5 deaths ( 3 occasions) of thieves who tried to steal copper wiring from the electrical district while it was carrying high voltage. One family is trying to sue the electrical district because there weren't signs saying the possible result of cutting wires while powered.
I keep records of ALL my transactions !! And am frankly a bit insulted by what you are implying. As a Viet Nam veteran, I understand the importance of taxation to fund our military among other things. Cheating on one's taxes is not only dishonest, but simply un-American. If you don;t want to pay your taxes, I think you should move to some other country and deal with their government. As a Christian, paying taxes is commanded by Christ. How do you cheat knowing that ? The point of the thread was that I traded GOLD (a hard currency) for a promissary note issued by someone I don;t know. Now that is stupid. GOLD should be traded only for Currency ! Everyone, including myself know that. I made a mistake that novice traders make. You should NEVER trade money for a check. Your item of value is leaving your hands in return for possibly nothing more than a scrap of worthless paper. Every try and collect on a bad check ? Frankly, in my experience, most fraud is perpetrated by people who claim to be in business. Coin dealers who sell gold but offer to store it for people, then sell the same coins over and over, etc. If this business is honest, I don;t understand why they stamped "FOR DEPOSIT ONLY" on the back of the checks they issued. seems like they don;t have the money to pay for the item outright to me. I mean, they didn;t want me going to their bank. That spells "I ain't got the money" pretty clear, doesn't it ?
That is some botched legislation! What are people at flea markets and garage sales supposed to do? I wish them luck enforcing that and I also wish them luck with the Federal government when they come down on the law.
Yes, metal theft is out of hand and the criminals must be stopped. However, the LA law is just poorly written and almost impossible to enforce.
I agree. Simply requiring surveillance cameras and photo id's, as well as payment by check is more than enough to be able to catch these thieves. At what point is the public supposed to give up all rights in the nae of "law enforcement". If existing laws aren't stopping the thefts, how about making the punishment more severe? WHy take away rights of everyone because we don't have the guts to punish criminals strongly enough to stop them. Just another extension of the law requiring reporting of any cash transactions over $10,000. Why not just punish tax evaders and drug dealers more severely, why inconvenience everyone else?
Well supposedly pawn stores and non profit institutions are exempted but everyone else is has to abide by the rule. So it affects ebay sellers allowing cash transactions... "Anyone, other than a nonprofit entity, who buys, sells, trades in, or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a nonprofit entity, shall be deemed as being engaged in the business of a secondhand dealer."
