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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;clembo, post: 880504, member: 8033&quot;]As an employee in an established coin shop I really hate to see threads like this. Mainly because it DOES lead to so much dealer bashing.</p><p>Was $7 a ridiculous offer? Yes, unless that coin was like a Pr1 grade with problems to boot. It would make decent hole filler for someone.</p><p><br /></p><p>Every shop is different of course and some dealers tend to give dealers in general a bad name. My boss has been in business for over 40 years now and he didn&#039;t accomplish this by ripping off every customer that walked in the door.</p><p>He can be quite cranky at times and at those times it seems his prices go up. The buyer always has the option to say no.</p><p><br /></p><p>Our buying is generally more set. If it&#039;s something we have 100 of we will lowball you. I will tell you to your face that I&#039;m going to make an insulting offer. I frequently wish people would refuse my offers.</p><p>Perfect example was yesterday. A lady came in with some decent junk silver and some jewelry. We paid very fair on that. She also had some miscelanious stuff including a 1972 proof set with no box. Face value of 91 cents and I told her that then offered a dollar for it.</p><p>She sold it. She didn&#039;t want it and I was honest about it. I lowballed because we probably have 70-80 of that year alone.</p><p><br /></p><p>We also slab a lot of coins at our store. Especially coins that are often counterfeited. We also send coins in for customers. One of those folks actually posts here on CT on occasion. We charge a $2 fee for that but wouldn&#039;t dream of switching a coin.</p><p>Seriously, how would we benefit from that other than tarnishing our reputation? I can drive to 3 other shops within 30 minutes of where I work. Word gets around.</p><p>One of the coins the CT member had us slab was a 3 legged Buffalo. He also posted it on CT for opinions as to whether or not it was legit. MANY said they thought it was fake including a good friend of mine here.</p><p>I assured the friend it was real as I had seen it, my co worker, had seen it, my boss had seen it and another dealer in the area had seen it. </p><p>We ended up BUYING that coin and sold it at a modest profit because that&#039;s what we do. However, we did not rip him off. He knows coins and we want repeat business from KNOWLEDGABLE collectors.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now as others have stated waltzing into a shop with no knoledge or desire to have any makes you an easy target. Would you pay $10,000 for a rusted out Ford Maverick that doesn&#039;t run because the tires are round and you heard that was important?</p><p><br /></p><p>We get phone calls EVERY day inquiring about selling coins. We try to determine how many you have for starters and it is worth you even making a trip. Had a call today from a lady about wheat cents. She asked good questions but guess what? - I can&#039;t teach somone that has no knowledge much about wheat cents in five minutes over the phone.</p><p>I suggested she buy a book or magazine. I asked her where she was located and how many she had.</p><p>Turns out she had SEVEN and someone told her some were worth a lot of money. I advised her to stop in the shop WHEN she was in the area and I&#039;d be happy to look at them for nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Had she told me she had 10,000 and $1000 face in silver quarters for example I&#039;d really turn it up a notch. We want to buy the coins so we can make money. </p><p>However, if we just lowball we will most likely NOT get the coins. Been many occasion that I&#039;ve shown people where to look for mintmarks to help THEM do the work. My boss has also given out a blue book for free on occasion.</p><p><br /></p><p>POINT IS the customer does the work. You would be AMAZED at how many WON&#039;T do a little homework. Who&#039;s fault is that?</p><p><br /></p><p>Bottom line after my lengthy rant is I feel the dealer was wrong as it sounds like a small amount of coins to look at. I&#039;m glad &quot;mom&quot; didn&#039;t sell.</p><p>Conversely ANYONE that wants to sell coins should do some homework. I could easily lowball 50% of the people that come in because they profess a lack of any knowledge about coins. Course I have to think that perhaps they&#039;ve been to another dealer or two before us so I don&#039;t.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s VERY interesting on the &quot;other side of the counter&quot;.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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