"I Paid More Than That."

In today's market, I don't feel any price guide is up to date with pricing. These are strange times.
One other thing comes to mind. With really nice quality coins, the guide prices won't buy the coin. I find it hard to judge a dealer based on the prices he is asking but It's easy for me to walk away if the price does not work for me.

 

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Yesterday, I offered a seller $36.40 for a coin that he had listed at $40.00 with $3.60 shipping. I thought that deducting the shipping was a fair starting offer. He sold it to someone else for $32.50. Go figure!!

 

I was looking for 2 coins to complete my collection. I still need 1. That was 2 years ago. I was at a show and a dealer had both of the coins I needed. He wanted $900 for each coin and offered me a $50 discount if I bought both. I told him the greysheet was $650 for each coin. I heard the “I’m selling them at my cost” line so I just thanked him and walked away.

Last year I found one of those coins for $375, which I bought. PCGS graded MS-64. The grey sheet was still under $700. I’m still looking for the other coin and have been for years but I’ll find it one day. I might pay more than $900 but prices have changed.

 

+1

 

I internally treat "I paid more than that..." with contempt because it is utterly immaterial to the transaction as far as I am concerned, whether true or not. When that lame phrase is offered I usually just continue to gaze steadily until he either counteroffers or I walk away.

It matters not what a customer offers, the seller always has the opportunity to counter-offer including a counter-offer that states he won't dicker on the price. All fair.

 

A willing buyer and a willing seller set the agreed price.
Otherwise, there is no willing and no buying.
Price guides.... blue, red, grey, gray, white, sheets/books/articles don't negotiate.
A person asks what is your lowest price? The other person asks what is your highest price? Reasonable questions, but not always reasonable answers to one of the persons, and that is fine.
No harm and no foul. It is a meeting of the minds, or it is not.
Free Will.

 

As does the buyer..

 

My most recent seller response was . . . .

"This item is a consignment piece and we do not have any control over the price set by the consignor. Please let us know if you have any further questions."

 

That seems reasonable. I guess the consigner does not want to entertain offers. I wonder how the divorce went......

 

Dealers don't need to make money on every coin. They only need to make money overall. It is quite possible to sell a coin for less than you paid and have it be the best decision, if that money no longer being tied up lets you use it to make more money. Stale overpriced inventory is only a liability.

 

In general that is true and many people carrying inventory for too long are missing out on other opportunities. However, when the market is increasing and inventory is harder to acquire (like the last year or so), it could make sense to hold out. Why take the loss if you don't have much to reinvest in and/or the coin could sell for a profit in the near term?

 

A. I am buying very little U.S. right now. It is high right now.
B. Any U.S. stuff i have for sale ...the price of the coin is the price of the coin. Long gone are the days I did fire sales. Knocking on wood!

Also the guide is only a guide.

 

I bought them in the early 90s for less than $4 each. Wish I’d bought more now

 

Here is a new twist today to my dilemma with my original post to begin this thread, "This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing."
Does this generate more suspicion and chicanery by the seller? This coin has been on my watch list for weeks, and had been relisted by the seller. Now, suddenly, there was an error in the listing. Are you kidding me!!! This has a certain odor about it. Time to move on.

 

That doesn't raise any suspicion from me. He could have sold it elsewhere and is removing it from eBay. I've had coins listed on multiple venues and someone buys it elsewhere, so I had to take it down on eBay.

Another thing that sellers do is end listings and then relist them to make it appear as "newly listed" (otherwise they fall far back in the search order and might be missed by people who filter only by newest listings).

 

I don't think so, "newly listed" and "relisted" don't impact the search order. I've done this literally thousands of times.
Anyway, the seller re-listed the coin again today. Although it was de-listed due to "This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing," there were no changes in the new listing compared to the former listing.
This whole interaction with the seller leads me to question his integrity or business strategy. I guess it takes all kinds, so time to move on . . .

 

It does impact the search order for those that search by "newly listed" (does not matter for the "best match" or other types). When you list an item, it is within the first few results in the newly listed search. As time passes, every newer listing pushes back that listing. In order to get your listing back to the front, you have to end it and relist.



So far all I see is that the seller:
1) Did not take an offer (very common as buyers and sellers value items differently)
2) Said "I paid more than that" (likely irrelevant and potentially annoying to some buyers but nothing that goes against any standards or ethics)
3) Ended an item and relisted it (common practice to bring it in front of viewers who only search "newly listed" and might have missed it as the item slid down the search results)

I don't see anything wrong with what the seller did. A buyer can choose not to do business with a seller for any reason but calling into question the seller's integrity is quite the stretch based on the evidence presented in this thread.

 

"I paid more than that" In a lot of cases, yes, yes they did. They paid full retail to someone most likely or even worse to one of the shopping channels or mail order sites or whatever and over retail.

If the seller of the coin is asking $1600 or the books says $1500 or whatever offering $1200 might seem fine to you and hey, its fine, but unless they are desperate or its stolen they are gonna walk away. And they wouldn't be wrong.

In the end its your business, you are the buyer and if the price isn't right for you, you don't buy.

I'd disagree with your frustration over it though. You know the game and you could easily tell the seller "hey, I'm not buying unless I get it cheap enough, this is what I'm offering and if that don't work, we won't be able to make a deal."

The seller left just as frustrated as you did from the interaction I assure you.

I dunno. I find it vexing if the roles were reversed and the seller wanted to buy a coin marked $1600, looked it up somewhere and it was $1500 and only offered $1200 for it. But I guess it would matter what you paid for it if you immediately struck a deal or not for the $1200.

"I paid more than that" applies in both directions.

 

Correct, there is nothing "wrong" with what the seller did. I just prefer NOT to do business with people who follow those practices previously mentioned throughout this thread. Move on . . .

 

The whole thing sounds like a schnickelfritz, to me....

(insert smiley face here)

PS: I like that word. It "sings".